Views from the Choir Loft

Online Advent Calendars 2017

Veronica Brandt · December 9, 2017

HAT WOULD ADVENT BE without Advent Calendars? Having a visual way to communicate how much time is left before Christmas can be useful in a house with children eager for parties and presents. It can also be mildly alarming for the adults as the days fly by.

This year I decided to cobble together an online Advent Calendar for my family. The plan was to have my kids put together material for each day. I underestimated the editorial support needed. You can see the results at advent.brandt.id.au.

For a more thoughtful source of inspiration this Advent, visit the xt3 Advent Calendar.

Xt3 began in the lead up to World Youth Day in Sydney 2008 and continues to be a Good Thing coming from Sydney, Australia. Each day reveals the Gospel reading of the day as well as a daily meditation from their collection of short recordings.

There are a few online services springing up for creating your own online Advent Calendar. Be sure to link to your favorite in the comments on our Facebook page.

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

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(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