Views from the Choir Loft

Propers for St. Joseph the Worker

Jeff Ostrowski · April 27, 2016

This coming Sunday in the EF is replaced by “Saint Joseph the Worker” (1 May).

Here’s the Introit:

By the way, the Rossini Propers, published in 1933, contain the feast of St. Joseph the Workman on 1 May. I’d like to know how this was possible, since this feast wasn’t around in 1933, right? The NOH—published during the 1940s and 1950s—does not contain this feast.

UPDATE :

Audio recordings, scores, and videos for this feast have been added to the Goupil website.

English translations are in the Campion Hymnal:

* * PDF Download • ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Here’s how it looks in the official 1962 Missale Romanum:

* * PDF Download • S. Ioseph Opificis

Here’s how it appears in the Fulton J. Sheen Missal (which is available online as a PDF):

* * PDF Download • Saint Joseph the Worker

I’m told this feast was added by Pope Pius XII to subtly contradict communism.

Latin title: “S. Joseph Opificis”

It is not in “Mass and Vespers” (Solesmes Abbey, 1957):

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

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).

Father Adrian Fortescue on the “Agnus Dei”

Speaking about the AGNUS DEI, Father Fortescue wrote: “Agnus as a vocative is curious, evidently in order to reproduce the original text (John 1:29) exactly.” [Altera die vidit Joannes Jesum venientem ad se, et ait: Ecce agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccatum mundi.] Father Fortescue, as usual, is correct; but in some medieval manuscripts you can find “Agne Dei.” Here’s an an example of that.

—Jeff Ostrowski

List • Responses by each bishop!

This incredible website gives each bishop’s response to the recent MOTU PROPRIO Traditionis Custodes, a decree by Pope Francis which seeks to reduce the number of celebrations of the “Extraordinary Form” (Traditional Latin Mass): traditioniscustodes.info

—Jeff Ostrowski

Tomorrow is Sunday…

When you were in school, you would have gotten in trouble if you wrote the Roman Numeral “9” as viiii. You were supposed to write: IX. But look how an ancient manuscript writes “9” as a Roman Numeral. That’s the Introit Ecce Deus for tomorrow’s feast in the Extraordinary Form: The 9th Sunday after Pentecost.

—Jeff Ostrowski