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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Lenten Reflection: Can We Enjoy What Lies Ahead?

Keven Smith · February 21, 2023

ONIGHT WAS TACO TUESDAY IN THE SMITH HOUSE. Because it’s Fat Tuesday. And tomorrow, the meat goes away. The scene around our kitchen island this evening was intense. My two older children and I circled that square of quartz in rapt concentration. I wish I could say our silence came from a deep and holy appreciation of the solemn season that’s about to begin. But I think it came more from a determination to get this meal right. A good plate of Mexican food must combine all the available elements in perfect balance.

And tomorrow, the meat goes away.

As I experienced the tastes and textures of this meal, I thought back to previous Fat Tuesdays. There have been years when I somehow fit in all my favorite treats the evening before Lent and enjoyed them deeply. This year, dinner wasn’t extraordinary (I make tacos regularly and didn’t even have any avocados handy tonight), and I ate it with more satisfaction than delight.

“What does it mean to enjoy something?” I wondered to myself. “Must I savor each bite and appreciate every flavor in the moment? Or does the real enjoyment come when I’ve finished the meal and am taking the time to digest it?

As the busy season of Lent descends upon us, I have the same questions about liturgical music.

A Common Dilemma for Church Musicians

Lenten liturgies place massive demands on choir directors and their singers. The organ falls silent, leaving the choir exposed. We see short Alleluia chants replaced by long, intricate Tracts. Every word of the Mass seems to weigh twice as much. And then the liturgies of the Triduum are almost too big to process.

I suspect that church musicians fall into two camps at this time of year. There are those who simply want to get through everything in one piece. It’s not that they don’t love liturgy; it’s that they fear the downside of having it go poorly. But after it’s all over, they wish they could have enjoyed it more—especially when they realize it exceeded their expectations (dedicated church choirs do tend to rise to the occasion when it matters most).

There are also those church musicians who enjoy Lent and Triduum liturgies so much, and anticipate them so eagerly, that it’s painful to have them fly by as they seem to do. Imagine looking forward to the Alleluia on Easter Sunday for months, humming it to yourself frequently, and then realizing as you’re in the middle of that spectacular melisma on “immolatus” that it’s all about to be over.

This used to be me. I love the Easter Cycle more than the rest of the liturgical year combined. But every year it seemed to go by more quickly, and before I knew it, I would be experiencing the withdrawal of Easter Monday.

How St. Augustine Can Help

I finally asked a good priest for advice on the matter. “Father,” I asked, “is liturgy meant to be cruel? Is it meant to get your hopes up, but then come and go in an instant and leave you hungry for more?”

Being a wise and well-read priest, he referred me to St. Augustine. And in Confessions, I found the perspective I needed in a passage where St. Augustine describes the grief he experienced at the death of a dear friend:

“Things rise and set: in their emerging they begin as it were to be, and grow to perfection; having reached perfection, they grow old and die. Not everything grows old, but everything dies. So when things rise and emerge into existence, the faster they grow to be, the quicker they rush towards non-being. That is the law limiting their being. So much have you given them, namely to be parts of things which do not all have their being at the same moment, but by passing away and by successiveness, they all form the whole of which they are parts. That is the way our speech is constructed by sounds which are significant. What we say would not be complete if one word did not cease to exist when it has sounded its constituent parts, so that it can be succeeded by another.

“Let these transient things be the ground on which my soul praises you (Ps. 145:2), ‘God creator of all.’ But let it not become stuck in them and glued to them with love through the physical senses. For these things pass along the path of things that move towards non-existence. They rend the soul with pestilential desires; for the soul loves to be in them and take its repose among the objects of its love. But in these things there is no point of rest: they lack permanence. They flee away and cannot be followed with the bodily senses. No one can fully grasp them even while they are present….

“Why then are you perversely following the leading of your flesh? If you turn away from it, it has to follow you. All that you experience through it is only partial; you are ignorant of the whole to which the parts belong. Yet they delight you. But if your physical perception were capable of comprehending the whole and had not, for your punishment, been justly restrained to a part of the universe, you would wish everything at present in being to pass away, so that the totality of things could provide you with greater pleasure. The word we speak you hear by the same physical perception, and you have no wish that the speaker stop at each syllable. You want him to hurry on so that other syllables may come, and you may hear the whole. That is always how it is with the sum of the elements out of which a unity is constituted, and the elements out of which it is constituted never exist all at the same moment. There would be more delight in all the elements than in individual pieces if only one had the capacity to perceive all of them. But far superior to these things is he who made all things, and he is our God. he does not pass away; nothing succeeds him.”[1]

From this magnificent passage, I take away that we church musicians shouldn’t be uneasy about finding ourselves in either of the camps I described above. If you’re simply hoping to survive this busy season, perhaps your sense of detachment from the individual moments will enable you to better enjoy the totality of your experiences in hindsight. And if you’re dismayed at how quickly this season goes by, know that there’s no sense in trying to enjoy each moment any more deeply because what you really want is to experience the whole—and He who made it. May our musical efforts this Lent and Easter give us all a taste of the heavenly liturgy we hope to sing in eternity.

Footnote:

  1. Saint Augustine: Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. 61-63 pp.
Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: February 22, 2023

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    2-Voice Arr. • “Creator of the Starry Height”
    Do you direct a choir consisting of women or children only? (Some call this a “treble” choir.) Download a two-voice arrangement of Creator of the Starry Height set to the tune of IOANNES by clicking here and then scrolling to the bottom. In our times, this hymn is normally used during ADVENT, and the Latin title is: Cónditor alme síderum. It’s important to say “cónditor”—placing the accent on the antepenult—because ‘condítor’ in Latin means “one who embalms the dead.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Equal Voices” Choir Pieces
    My colleague, CORRINNE MAY, has posted some delightful compositions for equal voices: that is, choirs consisting of all men or all women. Included there are settings of the “Ave Maria” and “Tantum Ergo.” They strike me as relatively simple and not excessively lengthy. (In other words, within reach of volunteer singers.) Even better, all the scores have been made available as instant PDF downloads, completely free of charge. Bravo!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Typo in the “Missale Romanum” (1962)
    The 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM was a transitional missal. It was on its way to becoming the 1970 version, but wasn’t there yet. It eliminated certain duplications, downplayed the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, expanded the role of laymen, minimized the Last Gospel, made many items optional, and so forth. Father Valentine Young spotted many typos in the 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM, especially incorrect accents. The Offertory Antiphon for this coming Sunday (OF kalendar) contains an error, citing the wrong verse from Psalm 118. It should be 118:107b, not 118:154. If you read verse 154, you’ll understand how that error crept in. [In this particular case, the error pre-dates the 1962 Missal, since the 1940s hand-missal by Father Lasance also gets it wrong.]
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Our Father” • Musical Setting?
    Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The revision of the liturgical books must carefully attend to the provision of rubrics also for the people’s parts.”

— The Second Vatican Council (SC §31)

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