Views from the Choir Loft

Masses to Begin at FSSP Parish in Philadelphia

Fr. David Friel · September 4, 2018

ANY READERS are already aware that, in April 2018, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia established a new “quasi-parish” for the purpose of extending additional pastoral care to local Catholics who worship in the Extraordinary Form.

This weekend will mark the beginning of Masses offered at the parish.

This new community has taken over the beautiful St. Mary’s Church (pictured), which served as a Polish national parish until it merged with another parish in 2014. The church, which sits at West Elm and Oak Streets in Conshohocken, PA, will now be staffed by a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).

The Extraordinary Form will remain available in numerous other places in the area. The chief advantage of this new quasi-parish is that it will serve as a place for families who choose to worship in the EF to live a full parish life, complete with all the Sacraments and devotions.

Effective September 9, 2018, the Mass schedule will be:

Sunday: 11 AM

Monday to Thursday: 7:15 AM

Friday: 6:30 PM

The founding pastor is Fr. Carl Gismondi, FSSP. May the Lord make his ministry fruitful, and may He pour forth blessings upon this new parish!

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).

PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III

EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III (“Kyrie Deus sempiterne”). This year, I am traveling from Singapore to serve as a member of the faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. Instructions • This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. Feel free to download the score, generously made available (free of charge) to the world by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:

* PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)

Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366.

Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.

—Corrinne May

“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

“Yahweh” in church songs?

My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.

—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