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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Nature’s Solitary Boast

Fr. David Friel · December 9, 2013

HEN GOD CREATED Adam & Eve, He gave them a beautiful place to live and abundant food to eat. But things went wrong. Adam & Eve, tempted by the notion that they could become like God, ate the forbidden fruit.

Adam & Eve were later blessed with the gift of children. But things went wrong. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain killed his brother, Abel.

When Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, the Lord made a covenant with His people and gave them the Ten Commandments to guide their way. But things went wrong. As soon as Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he found the people drinking & carousing & worshipping golden calves they had fashioned as idols.

When the Israelites demanded a king, the Lord gave them David, the great warrior who had conquered Goliath & all the Philistines and received the promise of God’s abiding help. But things went wrong. In an effort to cover up his sin of adultery, David had Uriah, the wife of Bathsheba, murdered, and eventually the Kingdom of Israel was divided.

Centuries thereafter, a man named Jeremiah was called to be a prophet and to bring the chosen people back to the practice of their faith. But things went wrong. The people rejected, arrested, imprisoned, and disgraced Jeremiah, and their apostasy led to the fall of Jerusalem and their captivity at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.

On went the centuries, and things never seemed to get into gear. Just when it seemed like God was making headway with His people, something always went wrong to pull the carpet out from under Him. Time after time, people rebelled against God’s will.

It was beginning to seem as though God were incapable of creating anything good. It seemed like He couldn’t create a person who would simply love Him with all their heart. It seemed like God’s whole experiment with creation might have been a mistake—even a failure.

And then He made Mary.

Whereas all the descendants of Adam & Eve had been held captive to the guilt of original sin, Mary was a different case. By an extraordinary act of God’s mercy, Mary was preserved from the very moment of her conception from any stain of that original sin. The Lord created her as the Immaculate Conception—utterly pure, totally clean, absolutely untainted.

With the creation of Mary and her perfectly pure spirit, there was all of a sudden a new glimmer of hope for humanity. My parish patron, Saint Anselm, wrote many beautiful things about the Mother of God. In today’s Office of Readings, one encounters this insight from one of his sermons:

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night—everything that is subject to the power or use of man—rejoice that, through you, they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. . . . God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the Mother of the re-created world.

Regardless of all the failings of those who had gone before her (and all those who have gone after her), Mary’s humble surrender to the will of God has brought about a new dawn of hope for all mankind. All of the previous rejections of God and His Word and His prophets were redeemed by the gracious obedience of Mary, who said “Yes” to God and, by her very existence, proved that God could create creatures to love Him.

Because of Mary, God’s work of creation can never be accused of being a failure. Not only is God capable of creating us well, He has fashioned all of us to be “capable of Him.” In philosophy, we say that men and women are capax Dei—“capable of God.” When we look at the history of the Old Testament, the history of the Church, and the history of our own personal lives, we can easily become ashamed of the countless sins and rejections of God’s love that we see. But we are not defined by our sins; we are defined by the capacity we have for holiness.

Humanity first caught a glimpse of the tremendous capacity we have when God created Mary as the Immaculate Conception. O Mary, conceived without sin: pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • All Souls (2 November)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 2 November 2025, which is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (“All Souls”). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the top-notch feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    2-Voice Arr. • “Creator of the Starry Height”
    Do you direct a choir consisting of women or children only? (Some call this a “treble” choir.) Download a two-voice arrangement of Creator of the Starry Height set to the tune of IOANNES by clicking here and then scrolling to the bottom. In our times, this hymn is normally used during ADVENT, and the Latin title is: Cónditor alme síderum. It’s important to say “cónditor”—placing the accent on the antepenult—because ‘condítor’ in Latin means “one who embalms the dead.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Equal Voices” Choir Pieces
    My colleague, CORRINNE MAY, has posted some delightful compositions for equal voices: that is, choirs consisting of all men or all women. Included there are settings of the “Ave Maria” and “Tantum Ergo.” They strike me as relatively simple and not excessively lengthy. (In other words, within reach of volunteer singers.) Even better, all the scores have been made available as instant PDF downloads, completely free of charge. Bravo!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Our Father” • Musical Setting?
    Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Yet, with all its advantages, the new Missal was published as if it were a work put together by professors, not a phase in a continual growth process. Such a thing never happened before. It is absolutely contrary to the laws of liturgical growth, and it has resulted in the nonsensical notion that Trent and Pius V had “produced” a Missal four hundred years ago.

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (1986)

Recent Posts

  • “Music List” • All Souls (2 November)
  • 2-Voice Arr. • “Creator of the Starry Height”
  • PDF Download • Christmas Piece (SATB) — “Angels We Have Heard on High” with Text in Latin
  • “Equal Voices” Choir Pieces
  • A Practical Method of Projecting Solfege for Chant

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