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Views from the Choir Loft

Those Selfless Ordinary Form Priests

Jeff Ostrowski · November 6, 2014

705 Bishop Germany RDINARY FORM priests often work tirelessly and receive very little support. Consider, first of all, the excessive size of today’s Novus Ordo parishes. A single priest often serves 2,000, 4,000, or even 11,000 families. Other OF priests offer Mass in several locations each weekend. This is quite a contrast to the “good old days” of Roman Catholicism, where Pastor and Curates could live peacefully, seldom leaving the Church, Rectory, School, and Garden. In our times, the priest is besieged by emails, phone calls, meetings, sick calls, and even text messages, asking him difficult moral questions that require an immediate (and correct) answer.

Moreover, many Ordinary Form priests possess little experience with authentic liturgy. When I say “authentic,” I mean stable. After all, the whole point of liturgy is stability and constancy. Pope Benedict XVI reminded us:

The greatness of the liturgy depends—we shall have to repeat this frequently—on its unspontaneity [Unbeliebigkeit].

The postconciliar reforms allow for an unbelievable amount of OPTIONS, referred to as “the tyranny of options” by critics. Many Ordinary Form priests were formed in liturgies changing radically from one day to the next. On top of that, some Traditionalists berate them constantly, convincing them they don’t know anything about liturgy. With so many duties, some Ordinary Form priests are tempted to say, “Forget about liturgy. It’s so confusing, and it changes so much. When I retire, I’ll have time to become an expert, but not now. Besides, very few of my parishioners seem to care about liturgy.” My brother (a seminarian) and his friends have assured me this is rather common.

AT THE SAME TIME, many Ordinary Form priests sense something horrifically wrong with their liturgies—especially the secular, emotional, uninspired, goofy, and sometimes heretical music that accompanies Mass. What can be done? Some might say “education,” but liturgy is an extremely complex subject (that’s why “Gradual” can mean four different things!) and for most is a less-than-stimulating thing to study.

701 Readings But there’s a fantastic solution! No words. Don’t explain anything. Just get them a copy of the St. Isaac Jogues Illuminated Missal, Lectionary, & Gradual. Opening up the book, they’ll see the readings, formatted in a gorgeous way. They’ll see the Propers, whose typesetting is unmatched. They’ll see the Ordinary of the Mass, containing luscious color images. They’ll see incredible woodcuts, explaining the meaning of our Faith.

This pew book presents a road map to authentic liturgical reform, which could be summarized thusly:

Sing the music of the Church—don’t replace it—and always allow your congregation to follow the Mass.

Finally, a reminder: the Jogues Missal is for the Ordinary Form, and was approved in 2014 for the United States of America by the USCCB.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ICEL New Translation of the Roman Missal, Roman Missal Third Edition Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

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

“You should try to eat their food in the way they prepare it, although it may be dirty, half-cooked, and very tasteless. As to the other numerous things which may be unpleasant, they must be endured for the love of God, without saying anything or appearing to notice them.”

— Fr. Paul Le Jeune (1637)

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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