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Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Watershed Turns Nine Today!

Jeff Ostrowski · October 19, 2015

ORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED was established nine years ago. I discovered CCW shortly after its founding and began doing contract labor. 1 We started creating projects dedicated to the Jesuit Martyrs, whom I had admired for years. 2 Years later, someone claimed that CCW was founded on the Jesuit Martyrs’ feast. I was familiar with their Extraordinary Form date—26 September—but not their Ordinary Form date. About four years ago, I discovered this piece of paper:

181 CCW Birthday


Remember: that date was chosen by the State of Texas. Coincidence? You decide!

MY PRAYER GOING FORWARD is for God to give us the grace to avoid the negative and focus on the positive. That can be quite difficult sometimes.

Nothing is easier than writing provocative, sensationalist headlines for blog articles. We try to avoid that.

Nothing is easier than finding falsehoods on the internet and “exposing” them in a blog article. The problem is, doing that usually elevates the falsehoods.

Nothing is easier than spreading gossip online. We try to avoid it.

Nothing is easier than writing snarky, slanted articles which reveal a lack of charity on the part of the author and (ultimately) insult the intelligence of the readers. We try to avoid that.

THE CHALLENGE IS, using the above techniques almost guarantees “attention” and web traffic. Talking about perennial truths seldom garners as many “clicks” as provocative headlines or character assassination. I think this is because of HUMAN NATURE—something our pastor often mentioned during his sermons years ago. Most people would rather click on an article about a famous priest who got caught sinning than a tutorial on how to sing Gregorian chant.

But we will continue trying to focus on the positive, because we believe it’s what God wants us to do. An example of something positive: we made available this remarkable book about the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. I cannot recommend that book highly enough. 3



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Watershed still had paid employees in 2007. We no longer have paid employees—we’re a 100% volunteer organization. Someday, if we can find find the funding, we’d like to again have paid employees.

2   I dedicated my first CD to these martyrs in 2001.

3   We hope to do more projects honoring those martyrs. God-willing, we’re just getting started!

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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Jeff Ostrowski

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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

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

Random Quote

“The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat.”

— ‘Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, noted lawyer from Lisbon and chairman of the Bar Association (1917)’

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