Views from the Choir Loft

Papal Liturgies – Day 4 & 5 of the Papal Visit

Andrew Leung · September 26, 2015

The Holy Father celebrated two Masses on his fourth and fifth day of his apostolic visit. A few traditional hymnodies were sung at both Masses.

Holy Mass: 17:10

This Mass was celebrated at the Madison Square Garden in New York City yesterday. It’s still disappointing to see the dependence on the cantor. But we see the use of more Latin in this Mass. The Eucharistic Prayer was in Latin, so as some of the Ordinary. This is also the only Mass, so far, that a Gregorian tone Propers is sung. A schola chanted the Communion Antiphon and verses in Latin.

Reception of the Holy Father: 0:00
Holy Mass: 12:15

The second Mass was celebrated this morning at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. One thing I noticed is that all the concelebrants wore full vestments, including the chasuble. The Roman Canon was said in Latin. Our own Fr. David Friel was one of the Masters of Ceremonies, I guess he was the MC for the altar servers, at this Mass. Maybe he can tell us more about it!

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

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski