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Views from the Choir Loft

Benedictines in Tasmania a Year Already

Veronica Brandt · May 19, 2018

Fr Pius and confreres FIRST MET FR PIUS MARY NOONAN when my mother talked me into a retreat at Hartzer Park. It was in a rare year when I didn’t have a baby needing me around the clock and it had been years since I had last made a retreat. I’m glad I did.

The two priests had come from France to Australia conducting retreats about every two years. At first they just gave week long men’s retreats, but they bowed to pressure and introduced shorter retreats for ladies. These were silent retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, with a Benedictine flavor. They were very popular and often booked out early.

Fr Pius has a surprising American accent and hails from Kentucky, though it’s hard to imagine him as anything but a Benedictine monk. He has a fire for God – indeed he publishes a monthly spiritual newsletter entitled “Afire” which begins with:


†
JESUS MARIA JOSEPH
I am come to cast fire on the earth,
and what will I, but that it be kindled?
Lk 12:49

And the fire is spreading! The demand for retreats developed into demand for pursuing religious vocations and Archbishop Porteous invited the order to Tasmania where they have received new postulants and continued to grow despite living in fairly temporary accommodation.

Their webpage has much more information including past newsletters. Recently they have found a fantastic property which seems like the answer to their prayers and need to raise $3.2 million quickly. More information Notre Dame Priory, Tasmania.

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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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).

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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

Tournemire could be charming or he could bite your head off. One day I could not replace him at St. Clotilde because I had a wedding to play at another church. Tournemire played on Sunday, period—that was all. He did not play weddings and so forth. (He put all that on my back.) So I went to Tournemire’s house to tell him, “Master, I am sorry but, for once, I cannot replace you. I have another obligation to fulfill.” He said, “Get out of here!” I left for good.

— Testimony of Maurice Duruflé

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