Views from the Choir Loft

Fota XI Liturgy Conference

Fr. David Friel · May 13, 2018

UMMER 2018 is shaping up to be another off-season filled with numerous opportunities to learn more about the liturgy and sacred music. Last week, we highlighted the third annual chant workshop being hosted by the Wethersfield Institute in New York State. Registration continues, meanwhile, for the Sacred Music Symposium in Los Angeles. Yet another opportunity will be on offer in southern Ireland.

It was announced late last month that the annual Fota Liturgy Conference will be held July 7–9, 2018. This conference will again be hosted by the St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Cork.

The theme for Fota XI is Psallite Sapienter: The Liturgy of the Hours. Speakers will include:

Dom Benedict Andersen, OSB (Silverstream Priory, Ireland)

Fr. Joseph Briody (Boston, MA)

Fr. Sven Conrad, FSSP (Germany)

Mr. Gregory DiPippo (NLM)

Mr. Matthew Hazell (Sheffield, UK)

Sr. Maria Kiely, OSB (Washington, DC)

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (Lander, WY)

Fr. Dennis McManus (Boston, MA)

Dr. William Mahrt (Stanford, CA)

Further details and registration form are available here.

In the summer of 2016, I was fortunate to attend the Fota IX Liturgy Conference. My recap of that year’s conference surveys some of the fascinating discussions this event promotes.

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

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will ever persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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