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Views from the Choir Loft

(Installment #8) “Catholic Hymnals” • Cynthia Ostrowski

Cynthia Ostrowski · September 15, 2020

Editor’s Note: Each contributor is reflecting upon Comparison of 15 Traditional Catholic Hymnals. Rather than rehashing Mr. Craig’s article, they were given freedom to “expand upon” this vast subject. Click here to read all the installments that have appeared so far.

UNG ON OUR kitchen wall is the morning prayer we say, written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val and translated by Father Robert Skeris. It talks about how the Jesus Christ—the Son of God, Whose power is infinite and Who will be our Judge at the end of the world—lived a life of meekness, poverty, and humiliation. This paradox calls to mind what is believed about Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome. Shortly before dying, he supposedly exclaimed: “Pale Galilean, Thou hast conquered.” The emperor didn’t want to believe that someone Who had died the death of a criminal was also the Son of God.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was sensitive to paradox. He wrote that our Holy Catholic Faith began, surprisingly, with total catastrophe:

“Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.”

I am not sure what I can add to Daniel Craig’s article comparing 15 hymnals, so I will share a recording I sang Soprano for. This melody was written by composer Kevin Allen, and it’s #869 in the Brébeuf hymnal:

Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #869.

True Christianity is not related to the “prosperity Gospel” preached by Protestants. They claim that if you believe in Jesus, you will be rewarded in this life: a big house, fine clothing, the best food to eat, the nicest cars, etc. The Catholic Church rejects such a notion; and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once speculated that people would become Christians for the wrong reasons if the prosperity Gospel were true. The reality is that some of the holiest saints of the Church, such as the Jesuit Martyrs of North America, lived lives of unspeakable hardship and severe poverty.

Earlier, I spoke of paradox. Number 869 in the Brébeuf hymnal (Solemn Hymn to the Son of God, an original hymn text by Father Dominic Popplewell) makes use of paradox. Most of the paradoxes should be fairly easy to understand, especially since the Scripture references were listed at the bottom of the page. For instance, this hymn speaks of Jesus Christ being the True Shepherd, but also the Paschal Lamb. The hymn is under copyright by the Brébeuf hymnal, so I can only provide a few verses:

2. Ever God, in time a man,
Limited, whom none may span,
Knowing all, whose wisdom grew, (Lk 2.52)
Paschal Lamb and Shepherd true:
(Jn 1.29, 36; I Cor 5.7; I Pt 1.19; Jn 10.11, 14; I Pt 2.25)

Who by yielding won the strife,
Who by dying garnered life,
Who departed, but to bide (Mt 28.20)
With the Church, your chosen Bride. (Eph 5.25-27; Ap 21.2, 9)

I would like to speak of the line that says: “Who departed, but to bide | With the Church, your chosen Bride.” Jesus said (John 16:7) that He must go: “And yet I can say truly that it is better for you I should go away; he who is to befriend you will not come to you unless I do go, but if only I make my way there, I will send him to you.” But Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 that He would stay: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” Is our Lord Jesus Christ here? Or not? We know that our Savior is present in the Holy Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The bishop of Mopsuestia (Theodore) writing in the 5th Century, said:

When Christ gave the bread,
He did not say,
“This is the symbol of my body,”
but, “This is my body.”
In the same way,
when He gave the cup of His blood
He did not say,
“This is the symbol of my blood,”
but, “This is my blood.”

We can also see Jesus in other ways. We see Jesus in the eyes of the poor. We see Jesus in the eyes of those who are persecuted. We see God in the wonders of Creation, such as mountains, clouds, oceans, and the snowflake. And Matthew 18:20 says: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” Theologians could probably explain more ways Jesus is here with us.

Father Popplewell’s hymn (#869) continues with more verses, making much use of paradox.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Traditional Catholic Hymnals Last Updated: September 15, 2020

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About Cynthia Ostrowski

Cynthia Ostrowski holds a bachelor's degree (2005) in Geographic Information Science and a minor in Computer Science from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    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, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium 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. (See below.) 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. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—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

Quick Thoughts

    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

Random Quote

“Partly on account of these alterations, and partly because I have been unable to ascertain the authorship of many compositions—which have come to me either in manuscript or through other collections—I have thought it right to publish the volume without appending the names of writers to their works. This, however, I confess to be a defect…”

— Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1863)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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