Views from the Choir Loft

“Society of Saint Bede” • Free Liturgical Resources

Jeff Ostrowski · June 18, 2020

ELOW is a website I recently discovered. It is called Society of Saint Bede and offers free liturgical resources. I have not been able to locate any information about who creates the website, but it seems to have been created in the United Kingdom. I prefer when websites provide information about who is “behind the curtain”—such as what Corpus Christi Watershed provides at the ABOUT US website. Maybe someday, the Saint Bede people will reveal more about themselves, but until such time I don’t wish to speculate. ¹

* PDF Download • “Society of St Bede” • Free Liturgical Resources

From what I can tell, the website has been around since 2012. They seem to provide some very useful “out of the ordinary” things, such as a Booklet for First Vespers of the Immaculate Conception. They also re-typeset rare examples of plainsong which I have never heard of, such as this hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, including an English translation. In a certain sense, the people at the Saint Bede website seem to be in “spiritual union” with the Brébeuf hymnal, inasmuch as they seem to spend a lot of time writing out each verse of hymns, such as they did for the beautiful hymn called Præclara Custos Virginum. For myself, I am not a fan of the artwork they have on their page, but Father Valentine used to say: de gustibus non est disputandum (“About taste let there be no dispute”).

They include a copy of Jesu Nostra Redemptio, a beautiful hymn featured prominently in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal. If you notice, they claim to have access to a “1909 Liber Usualis.” If that is true, I would love to see that book—because I don’t believe the Antiphonale Romanum had been released in 1909.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 I’ve seen other major websites where certain people consider themselves “detectives”—and they attempt to use Google (and other sources) to ascertain who’s behind certain projects. They make all sorts of mistakes, and they have absolutely no right to proceed in such a manner; it’s contemptible.

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

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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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.

—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

“The introduction of the vernacular will certainly be a great sacrifice for those who know the beauty, the power and the expressive sacrality of Latin. We are parting with the speech of the Christian centuries; we are becoming like profane intruders in the literary preserve of sacred utterance. We will lose a great part of that stupendous and incomparable artistic and spiritual thing, the Gregorian chant. We have reason indeed for regret […] We are giving up something of priceless worth.”

— Pope Paul VI