Views from the Choir Loft

Flos Carmeli for a Carmelite Novena

Veronica Brandt · July 7, 2018

OVENAS give a bit of variety to our family prayers. Today we are starting a Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel for a new monastery.

The prayers are beautiful, but I recognised the closing prayer as the Carmelite sequence Flos Carmeli – the name always reminds me of dessert, but maybe that’s just me.

Trawling the internet I found the words, the music, but nothing arranged for pleasant printing. A few hours later, and a little wiser about LaTeX and Gregorio, I can present you with this:

* * Flos Carmeli

For those who like the technical side, I used the package marginnote to put the translation in the right column. There were a few variations in the Latin words on different sources – it would be good to know the history of these. I went with the version on Gregobase, but changed consonantal “I“s to “J“s and split the ae ligatures to make it easier to notate the accents.

Our Lady of Mt Carmel, pray for us!

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

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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).

11 October 2021 • “Sing All Verses?”

Some claim Catholics deserve condemnation because (unlike Protestants) Catholics often omit verses when singing hymns at Mass. Is that true? The wonderful Sophia Institute Press—as part of a series on authentic sacred music—has provided an answer (PDF) to this question.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Where do Catholics find hymns?

The wonderful Sophia Institute Press has begun a “Q+A” section which tackles common liturgical questions, and here’s a sample: “At a conference I recently attended, the speaker said hymns don’t belong at Mass; was he telling the truth?” And you can read the answer. To access the complete set (which is a work in progress), scroll towards the bottom of this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

28 September 2021 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I have read the pages explaining the Blessed Sacrament in the Brébeuf hymnal and plan on continuing to contemplate them. Moreover, the Christ the King Hymn is beautifully sung on the recording you posted (to the Watershed blog), and I wish my church would sing these hymns instead of modern ones from Choral Praise. We receive a wonderful explication of the Eucharist through this hymn. I am always impressed at the simple yet beautiful melodies in the Brebeuf hymnal.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Our Christian people regard with great joy everything that contributes to the splendor of the ceremonies. Jesus—who was poor in His private life—received ointment on His feet. See Thomas Aquinas (Prima Secundae, q. 102, art. 5, ad 10) and the holy Curé of Ars. The Church has always loved beautiful churches, and so forth. We must preserve our sacred patrimony and make sure sacred objects do not become secular possessions.”

— Abbot & Council Father denouncing “noble simplicity” during Vatican II