Views from the Choir Loft

New Monthly Companion for the Extraordinary Form

Fr. David Friel · February 14, 2021

OR MANY years, the monthly Magnificat magazine has served as a popular “hand-missal” for Mass-goers in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. At once high-quality and disposable, this publication has a wide readership and has been instrumental in the spiritual growth of many people. Their work is a blessing to the Church (and has been highlighted on Views from the Choir Loft here and here).

Beginning in August 2021, something similar will be available for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Entitled Benedictus, this will be an undertaking of Sophia Institute Press, produced in consultation with various English-speaking priests and theologians.

Readers may recall that there was a previous attempt at this type of monthly publication for the Extraordinary Form, entitled Laudamus Te, which seems to have failed due to an insufficient number of subscribers. Hopefully Sophia Institute Press will be able to make a more successful go of it.

The new Benedictus booklet promises to include much more than the daily Mass texts. It will also feature:

Morning and Evening Devotions (excerpts from Lauds & Vespers of the 1960 Breviarium Romanum)

Daily Meditations (writings from saints, scholars, and spiritual masters)

Commentary (short essays on feasts & saints)

Classic Prayers (devotional prayers in Latin & English)

Artwork (a high-quality print and separable holy card in each issue)

Catholic Culture (poetry, prose, music)

A sample issue of Benedictus is available for viewing here.

Surely there will be naysayers who question the value of such a publication when a plethora of single-volume, traditional hand-missals already exists. There is much to be said in favor of quality hand-missals that can be used year after year, but there is also something to be said for this sort of monthly magazine. Benedictus has the potential to serve as an accessible introduction for newcomers to the Extraordinary Form, a source for timely resources designed to support the domestic Church, and even a tool for evangelization.

The cost for Benedictus is just $5/month. Subscriptions are 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 is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday, which is the 2nd Sunday of Lent (1 March 2026). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. This feast has magnificent propers. Its somber INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with its fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Like! Like! Like!

You won’t believe who recently gave us a “like” on the Corpus Christi Watershed FACEBOOK PAGE. Click here (PDF) to see who it was. We were not only sincerely honored, we were utterly flabbergasted. This was truly a resounding endorsement and unmistakable stamp of approval.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski