Views from the Choir Loft

Saints Stories from 3 Priests in Australia

Veronica Brandt · May 2, 2020

My children are pretty adept at finding mindless entertainment on the internet. It takes a bit more effort to find more edifying material. Fortunately some of our local priests have been offering videos for children.

FSSP Parramatta has created videos to serve for their regular Thursday afternoon Catechism Classes. This video is especially poignant, describing different saints who were deprived of the Sacraments for different reasons. Fr Wallace is fantastic.

Check the rest of their channel for a meditation on the Crucifixion through a beautiful painting and the life of St Louis de Montfort plus daily Mass and more.

Bishop Columba from the Wilcannia Forbes Diocese has made a few short videos especially for children. Here is one I particularly like about St Isidore of Seville, patron saint of the Internet.

Visit the rest of his channel for a similar video about St Rita and more.

Lastly, Fr Brendan Murphy of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, St Marys, held a storytime for an older audience about Fr John Therry: Father of the Church in Australia.

As I prepared this article I found that of course these are not the only priests to take this initiative. Please join in the discussion on Facebook to add in your recommendations.

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).

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

31 December 2020 • “COMITES CHRISTI”

The feasts for Saint Stephen Proto-Martyr (26 December), Saint John the Evangelist The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (27 December), and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December) seem untouched by any liturgical reforms. These are very powerful feasts—I believe they once possessed octaves—and I believe they could sometimes “overpower” a Sunday feast. The rules for octaves in the olden days are extremely complex. These feasts are sometimes referred to as a single entity as: Comites Christi (“Companions of Christ”). This is just a guess, but there seems to be a triple significance: STEPHEN martyred after Christ lived, JOHN was a martyr who knew Christ personally, and the HOLY INNOCENTS were martyred before Christ’s birth.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“We must say it plainly: the Roman rite as we knew it exists no more. It has gone. Some walls of the structure have fallen, others have been altered—we can look at it as a ruin or as the partial foundation of a new building. Think back, if you remember it, to the Latin sung High Mass with Gregorian chant. Compare it with the modern post-Vatican II Mass. It is not only the words, but also the tunes and even certain actions that are different. In fact it is a different liturgy of the Mass.”

— Fr. Joseph Gelineau (1978)