Views from the Choir Loft

Mass in Honor of Pope Saint John Paul II on “Sounds from the Spires” and the Youth-Based Chant Movement

Richard J. Clark · May 23, 2014

ASS IN HONOR of Pope Saint John Paul II” was recently featured on “Sounds from the Spires” on SIRIUS XM 129 Radio, The Catholic Channel.

I had the opportunity to speak with the program’s host, Dr. Jennifer Pascual, Director of Music for Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. In addition, special guest, Ryan Lynch, Director of Music and Organist at St. Raphael’s Parish in Medford, MA joined the program to discuss the youth-propelled chant movement, the new economic model of publishing, and how it is reshaping the liturgical landscape.

• PODCAST • You can listen here to the program broadcast on 5.18.2014:

DOWNLOAD Complete Score (2.3 MG):
PDF • Mass in Honor of Pope Saint John Paul II (for Schola, Organ, SATB)
• Published with the approval for liturgical use by the Committee on Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

DOWNLOAD Unison/Organist Edition:
PDF • Mass in Honor of Pope Saint John Paul II (for Schola, Organ)

• Music from this broadcast:
“Mass in Honor of Pope St. John Paul II” | St. Cecilia Choir, Boston, MA

      YouTube:  Penitential Act C | Kyrie
      YouTube:  Gloria
      YouTube:  Sanctus
      YouTube:  Memorial Acclamation A
      YouTube:  Memorial Acclamation B
      YouTube:  Memorial Acclamation C
      YouTube:  Doxology, Amen
      YouTube:  Agnus Dei

YouTube: Christe qui lux es et dies | The Seraphim Singers, Jennifer Lester, Director
YouTube: St. Cecilia Day Variations | St. Cecilia Schola, Richard J. Clark, organ

E BRIEFLY DISCUSSED NEW PUBLICATIONS from two of the leading publishers in the chant/propers revival:

• Corpus Christi Watershed’s St. Edmund Campion Missal and Hymnal for the Traditional Latin Mass and the brand new St. Isaac Jorgues Missal and Hymnal for the Ordinary Form. (15:25 & 24:05)

• Adam Bartlett’s Lumen Christi Series from Illuminare Publications has recently released its Lumen Christi Simple Gradual which I have used for several Boston Archdiocesan and USCCB events. (25:50)

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

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

“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

“Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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