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Views from the Choir Loft

Of Estate Sales, Prayers, and Mass Attendance

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · July 4, 2018

88359 precis ENJOY going to estate sales. You can find some amazing things at estate sales, everything from lamps to lawnmowers and furniture to fine art. But what I’m most interested in are books. Specifically, I’m on the lookout for Classic literature and books on the Catholic faith.

A book I found recently has become one of my favorites. Perhaps some of you know it. It’s called Blessed Be God: A Complete Catholic Prayer Book, published in 1925. This book has been reprinted and is available on line. I was thrilled that I found an original edition, complete with the leather cover still pretty much intact.

I’ll admit, I’d never heard of this book, and many of the prayers, novenas, and devotions were unknown to me. As I’ve read through this book, it has struck me how many of these prayers talk about death. By that I mean, they bring into focus that we’re all going to die, it’s probably not going to be fun, and there’s no guarantee we’ve got an express ticket to heaven. Things like mercy, release from Purgatory, relief from death’s agony, and the assistance of the angels and saints are ideas scattered all throughout this prayer book. Even the rubrics remind us of mortality. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to Evening Prayers:

Each night may be our last one here below.
We should think of this when saying our evening prayers.

Well that gets right to the point, doesn’t it? To be fair, the book isn’t only about death. It’s actually a primer on how to live as a Catholic Christian, with beautiful prayers and devotions for every aspect of life, from morning to night, and all throughout the year.

I started to realize how precious little time we spend thinking about these things any longer, and I began to wonder if this isn’t one of the reasons we have decades of declining Mass attendance, fewer priestly vocations, and plenty of nominal or cultural Catholics. It makes sense to me, at least, that if you quit thinking you need the Church and her rich prayer life to get to heaven, then why bother going to Mass?

When I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s (which is probably why I never learned these prayers), we were told that people were leaving the Church because it focused too much on sin and death. So the Church became happy and clappy. Prayer books like these went into closets and bookshelves to gather dust and be forgotten. Maybe if we focused on what the Church really teaches about how to obtain eternal life, people would feel compelled to return to the Holy Mass. And I wonder how we can re-introduce our sisters and brothers to these rich and timeless verses. But I’m sure this book has a prayer for that.

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 Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

“I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant.”

— Statement by the Supreme Pontiff (Sacramentum Caritatis, 22-feb-2007)

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