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Views from the Choir Loft

An Overview of the Music Program at Our Lady of the Atonement Church & Academy (Part 1)

Guest Author · May 19, 2014

HAT I SAW AND HEARD at Our Lady of the Atonement during my all-too-brief visit went far beyond what I had gleaned about the place from other sources. Fr Christopher Phillips has helped to build a tremendous team who have created an atmosphere where the very air you breathe is Catholic! The care for the sacred liturgy and discipleship formation, the school, the music: I recommend to every priest, school principal and church musician that they make a long visit and learn from what they have accomplished there in such a short time. May their tribe increase: floreat atque vivat!
— Rev. Fr. Christopher Smith


502 Atonement ANY READERS will be familiar with Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas. As the founding parish for the Anglican Use Liturgy within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, it was established as a Personal Parish under the terms of the Pastoral Provision promulgated by St. John Paul II (1980). It was canonically erected on August 15, 1983, the same date on which the founding pastor, Rev. Christopher G. Phillips, a former Episcopalian priest, was ordained to the Presbyterate. The title “Our Lady of the Atonement” originated in the Episcopal Church in the 19th century, and was brought into the Catholic Church by the Graymoor Friars and Sisters of the Atonement in 1909. It is the only parish in the United States under the patronage of this particular title of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

501 Atonement From its very modest beginnings — eighteen members in all including Fr. Phillips, his wife and their five children — the parish has grown to over six hundred households. Throughout its history, the parish has never lost sight of one of its most important founding principles: the preservation, nurture, and sharing of the Anglican patrimony. One of the most tangible elements of this patrimony is the reverence of the liturgies, as celebrated according to the Book of Divine Worship, as well as its extraordinary sacred music program. Since 2004, the music program of the church and school has been under the leadership of Edmund and Chalon Murray, a husband and wife team who left thriving music programs in Boston — Edmund at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, and Chalon at a large parish metrowest of Boston — to make a leap of faith and move their family to San Antonio. Together, with the support of the pastor, they have built a program of exceptional breadth and quality.

      * *  Young Ladies of Atonement — Live Excerpt from School Mass (Audio Recording)


The Atonement Academy

500 Atonem A significant element in the growth of the parish has been the development of the parish school. In 1993, just after the tenth anniversary of the canonical erection of the parish, permission was sought to establish a parish school. When permission was granted by the archbishop, the members of the parish were able to accumulate sufficient funds in just six weeks which would allow the building project to proceed. On August 15, 1994, The Atonement Academy opened its doors with an enrollment of sixty-six (66) students in grades Kindergarten through Third. Additional grades were added each year. The upper school opened in 2004 and today the Academy has over five hundred fifty (550) students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth. The Academy’s mission statement compels students “to strive for excellence in the physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual virtues through a challenging course of classical and Catholic education.”


499 Comm Music Curriculum

Since the very beginning, music has been an integral part of the curriculum. Part of Fr. Phillips’ vision in founding the school was to make the study of music available to every student and to become, in essence, though not in name, a choir school. However, unlike most choir school the students are not auditioned. Each student who attends The Atonement Academy receives choral music instruction four or five days per week for a total of approximately three hours per week. The curriculum includes age appropriate training in music theory, ear training, sight-singing and repertoire development. Elements from various music education methods are employed including Ward, Kodaly and Royal School of Church Music. The repertoire is founded on the English choral tradition, and draws from the best Catholic and Anglican sources. The Murrays are assisted by three additional faculty members: Miss Laura Johnson, Mr. Gary Marks and Mrs. Amy Zuberbueler, Director of the Ward Center of San Antonio.


Daily Mass

498 Communion Holy One of the most unique aspects to the education of students at The Atonement Academy is attendance at daily Mass. Each day the entire student body participates in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. On Monday through Thursday, the Mass is celebrated according to the Book of Divine Worship. On Fridays the Mass is celebrated in Latin according to the Ordinary Form. Each day, the music is provided by one of the school choirs which leads the singing of the hymn and the Ordinary of the Mass, and also sings an anthem or motet appropriate to the day or season. In addition, a schola of high school men sings a Communion antiphon taken from the Graduale Romanum, Graduale Simplex or one of the many collections of English propers. On feast days and solemnities the schola sings the complete Propers.


We hope you enjoyed this guest series by Mæstro Edmund Murray.


Atonement (Part 1)   •   Atonement (Part 2)

493 Gallery 489 Gallery 490 Gallery 491 Gallery 492 Gallery 494 Gallery 495 Atonement 496 Atonement 497 Atone
Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Graduale Romanum Roman Gradual Propers, Our Lady Of The Atonement Academy Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

If the homily goes on too long, it will affect two characteristic elements of the liturgical celebration: its balance and its rhythm. The words of the preacher must be measured, so that the Lord, more than his minister, will be the center of attention.

— Pope Francis (11/24/2013)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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