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Views from the Choir Loft

What We See Under the Big Top

Veronica Moreno · November 18, 2023

Editor’s Note: In this article, Veronica Moreno reflects on her parish, run by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. For several years, due to the large number of Catholics who attend Mass at this parish, all celebrations have been held in a parking lot under a tent. Veronica calls this the “Holy Tent.”

HEN WE WERE YOUNG, my husband and I visited Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia. The story of its long construction, spanning decades and generations, is well known (“La Sagrada Familia nears completion after 141 years”). The persistence of Antonio Gaudí is legendary. And the construction site, now a Church, hosts weekly Masses like a parish.

Beautiful things take time to build.

The Sagrada Familia amazes us because things aren’t build like that any more. The beauty of our modern cathedrals isn’t easy to see sometimes. You have to squint and tilt your head, and often times, read the laminated descriptions to understand what the artists meant.

Beautiful things can also be destroyed in an instant. I’m glad to be part of a community that’s working to build beautiful things. While our parish is currently in a “Canvas Church Tent”, being exposed to the weather during Mass isn’t anything new. Here are some reflections on what we see and hear under the big top.

What We See Looking Forward • Looking up, you see the stitching of the canvas, where the roof section meets the back “wall”—a kind of APSE, if you will. Webbed straps hold the two pieces together from one side of the wall to the other, like a zipper. Throughout, the steel frame stretches the canvas. You can count the straps that tie the roof canvas to the steel beams. In this way we’re like Gaudí intended for his church, the weight and the wind means that there’s almost no straight lines. There’s a dip here and a parabola there, as these steel cables strain to be taut.

Looking around, there are construction lights that hang from the beams. The same ones we buy for our backyard pachangas (parties) when we have a baby shower or to light the mariachi’s performance for our tías 65th birthday celebration. I think my husband can tell which hardware store the neon yellow extension cord is from. The cable snakes around the steel pole, a strange vine with stranger produce hanging in the form of LED construction lights.

Then there’s the steel wire that stretches across the beams. Somehow, it strains taut, offering the canvas a place to rest so it doesn’t sag, so the water from the rain doesn’t pool and can drip down on our heads all winter. It worked. We survived the wettest winter in recent memory here.

<em>Wikipedia: open to the sky</em>

What We See Looking at the Sides • All along the sides, are our neighbors: industrial shops and warehouses on the other side of the iron bars atop the cement block wall. In our time there, we’ve painted the wall and someone kindly added cloth along the length of both sides of the “aisles.” Before those cloths, whatever workers were working overtime on Sunday mornings could peer directly at us as we knelt. Well, actually, even after the cloths were put up they can still look directly at us today, but at least they have to strain their eyes to look past the cloth-veil or find the cracks between sections of it.

Oh, and we do have one thing that the Sagrada Familia does not have: flying buttresses! Someone purchased and installed sun shade canvases that hang in the space between the steel structure and the property wall. This “aisle” upgrade instantly gave us hundreds of covered square footage, a truly heroic mercy provided for those of us who had to sit there (with children!) during these scorching southern California summers.

We love this Tent.
We love this parish.
We love these people.
We love this archdiocese.
We love this faith.

Wikipedia: humble beginnings open to the sky (1906)Without any reservation, I compare this tent in a commercial zone of San Fernando to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Why? Because at every Mass something extraordinary happens. Because the bells ring. Because my children are starting to behave. Because there are old ladies and men who use walkers. Because the locals seem to outnumber those who commute.1

Extraordinary Masses • The web site of the Sagrada Familia lists two big Sunday Masses: the “International Masses” and the “International evening Masses.” There’s also three Masses in Catalan and two in Spanish. But at the bottom of the page, there’s another category, curiously named. It says, “Throughout the year the Sagrada Familia hosts extraordinary Masses . . . see the calendar of masses for the upcoming extraordinary events.”

With a cheeky grin I say, “We have those too! Four extraordinary Masses every Sunday. And extraordinary during the week.”

We’re a modern Church. We have our own web app and stream Masses! But you don’t have to squint and tilt your head and research the bulletin to locate and witness beauty. All you have to do is open your heart, close your eyes, and sit under a Holy Tent.

1 Our parish started with a congregation of “commuters” who would drive in from all over southern California. An influx of “commuters” during the pandemic lockdown swelled our numbers. But in the most recent months, our Spanish-speaking local community appears to outnumber the “commuters.” The parish is experiencing organic, local growth.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: November 18, 2023

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About Veronica Moreno

Veronica Moreno is married to a teacher and homeschools five children. She has been cantor at her local Catholic parish for over a decade.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “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

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

“One must pray to God not only with theologically precise formulas, but also in a beautiful and dignified way. The Christian community must make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and song will return increasingly to the liturgy.”

— Pope Saint John Paul II (26 February 2003)

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