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Views from the Choir Loft

I. Was. Dead. Wrong.

Jeff Ostrowski · September 2, 2019

OWARD THE BEGINNING of an article I published about the “extra” Confiteor before Holy Communion, I made an erroneous statement. I said the Missal “says nothing” about how the priest distributes Holy Communion. While that’s true from a certain point of view, I stupidly failed to mention how the Ritus Servandus absolutely does spell this out—in a section on “When the Faithful Receive Communion during Mass”—and the wording has remained the same for centuries. I have nothing to say in my own defense, and I won’t delete the original article so everyone can always remember I’m an idiot. 1

For example, here’s an 1842 edition:

82841 Ritus Servandus


Another example would be page 116 of this book from the 1700s. You can find this same wording in billions of other places. I had an obligation to mention this, and I failed.

For the record, Session 22 of the Council of Trent specifically said Catholics ought to receive Holy Communion each Mass, long before Pope Saint Pius X:

The sacred and holy Synod would fain indeed that, at each Mass, the faithful who are present should communicate, not only in spiritual desire, but also by the sacramental participation of the Eucharist, that thereby a more abundant fruit might be derived to them from this most holy sacrifice…

H/T to Anthony Hawkins.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Without making excuses for myself, even many “traditional” priests were unaware of this—such as a seminary professor who wrote to me regarding this topic.

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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Jeff Ostrowski

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

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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

Goupil deserves the name of martyr not only because he has been murdered by the enemies of God and His Church while laboring in ardent charity for his neighbor, but most of all because he was killed for being at prayer and notably for making the Sign of the Cross.

— St. Isaac Jogues (after the martyrdom of Saint René Goupil)

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