Views from the Choir Loft

Why We Sing the Liturgy

Fr. David Friel · June 9, 2020

AST week, we announced a special three-part series of Thursday afternoon webinars designed to address the liturgical, theological, and pastoral implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. This series is being hosted by the Society for Catholic Liturgy (SCL; website here).

This Thursday’s presentation is entitled The Love of Christ Compels Us: Why We Sing the Liturgy and will feature three excellent panelists.

Thursday, June 11, 2020
3:00 – 4:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)

Dr. Mary Catherine Levri — Music Director, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology (Cincinnati)
Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka — Associate Professor & Director of Sacred Music, St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie (Yonkers)
Ms. Alexis Kazimira Kutarna — Music Teacher, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School; Adjunct Faculty Member, University of St. Thomas (Houston)

Participation in this Zoom webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

A recording of last week’s webinar (on the topic, “Adjustments to Given Liturgical Norms: What is the Starting Point?”) is available here.

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

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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