• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

A Gentleman (Whom I Don’t Know) Approached Me After Mass Yesterday And Said…

Jeff Ostrowski · May 19, 2025

ESTERDAY AFTER MASS, a gentleman whom I don’t know approached me in the church parking lot. In an excited tone of voice, he exclaimed: “I read your article in the bulletin this week; it was superb. You’re an excellent writer, and I enjoyed every word. For that matter, your article last week also hit the ball out of the park.” I can’t deny: I was thrilled to receive such a compliment. A few months ago, my pastor asked me to contribute a short column to our weekly bulletin. In my heart, I had doubts as to whether anyone would read my articles. I do remember Father Valentine Young being astonished when someone told him they never read the bulletin. His response was: “What do you do during the homily?”

Feedback And Praise • The daily offering by Raphael Cardinal Merry Del Val says: “I am ready to accept indifferently from Thy hands, and in the way most pleasing to Thee: health or sickness; riches or poverty; a long life or a short one; friendship or hatred…” That means we must always do what’s right: Period. Saint John Bosco reminded his boys they must never commit sin in pursuit of “human respect.” Nevertheless, it’s really nice to get positive feedback. The gentleman—whose wife was seated in his vehicle—struck me as quite sincere.1

Bulletin Articles • If anyone would like to read the bulletin articles I’ve written so far, I have posted them (below). I tried to keep them pithy, and powerful. You can judge for yourself whether I was successful:

Reset
  • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
    • 2025 04 13th • “Introduction to the Series”
    • 2025 04 20th • “As in Delirium a Man Talks”
    • 2025 04 27th • “Wouldn’t That Be Bizarre?”
    • 2025 05 04th • “Neither Tennis Court Nor Supermarket”
    • 2025 05 11th • “The Entire Hall Burst Into Uproarious Laughter”
    • 2025 05 18th • “Doesn’t the Church Want Us to Understand?”
    • 2025 05 25th • “Why Do We Sing in Both?”
    • 2025 06 01st • “The Church’s Oldest Latin Eucharistic Hymn”
    • 2025 06 08th • “Intriguing Invitation”
    • 2025 06 15th • “Hit the sack” doesn’t mean pound a bag.

(1 of 3) Jeff Is Ignorant • Truly brilliant minds such as Newman, Fortescue, Knox, or Skeris would laugh if they knew that I was putting myself forth as an author. And I certainly don’t pretend to know much! One thing that’s always confused me is the existence of contradictions in church law.

(2 of 3) Jeff Is Ignorant • For example, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal clearly states that “Songs or hymns may not be used in place of the responsorial Psalm” (§61). Yet we know that sometimes hymns are prescribed by the liturgical books themselves to replace the Responsorial Psalm. Moreover, the GIRM explicitly says one may replace the Responsorial Psalm “with a metrical psalm.” As a matter of fact, a “metrical psalm” is nothing more than a hymn; e.g. look up THE PSALTER OF JOHN DAYE in the famous edition by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins. How can such a contradiction be explained?

(3 of 3) Jeff Is Ignorant • Sometimes, a contradiction is the result of faulty translation. The document on the liturgy promulgated by Vatican II—“SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM”—contains some faulty English translations. Consider the following sentence:

Quæ totius populi plena & actuosa
participatio, in instauranda
et fovenda sacra Liturgia,
summopere est attendenda…

Here’s the usual translation:

In the restoration & promotion of
the sacred liturgy the full & active
participation by all the people is the
aim to be considered above all else…

But that’s a flawed translation. The actual meaning is:

In restoring and nurturing the sacred
Liturgy this full and active
participation of all the people
is very much to be considered…

But sometimes it’s not a matter of a faulty translation. For example, here’s a section from SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM which I struggle to understand:

34. The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, and unencumbered by useless repetitions; they should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation.

It’s nonsense to say the rites should be “short.” Indeed, the post-conciliar reforms made the MASS OF THE CATECHUMENS much more lengthy than it was before! I’d be interested to know how readers interpret that sentence. If only the word “short” could be changed to “not excessively lengthy,” I believe I could live with that.

1 As church musicians, we almost never get compliments. I’m not sure why that is. As a result, those occasions when we do receive complimentary words feel especially meaningful and fulfilling.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Daily Offering Cardinal Merry Del Val, Raphael Cardinal Merry Del Val Last Updated: June 2, 2025

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
    I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Proof Which All Can Immediately See!
    “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” as the famous maxim goes. Over the years, I’ve observed malicious attacks on the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal. Rather than scoring a ‘hit’ on the Brébeuf Hymnal, its attackers often reveal profound ignorance. I’ve been advised never to reply … but I break that rule today. Certain voices online assert that the Brébeuf Hymnal is “untraditional” because it includes both the Urbanite and pre-Urbanite versions of the hymns. But if only they would glance at a copy of the 1913 VESPERALE (printed by order of Pope Saint Pius X) they would see how mistaken such statements are.
    —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

Goupil deserves the name of martyr not only because he has been murdered by the enemies of God and His Church while laboring in ardent charity for his neighbor, but most of all because he was killed for being at prayer and notably for making the Sign of the Cross.

— St. Isaac Jogues (after the martyrdom of Saint René Goupil)

Recent Posts

  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension
  • “Breathtaking Photographs” • First Mass of Father Michael Caughey, FSSP (Muskegon, MI)
  • “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
  • “Re: Vigil Masses” • Reader Feedback (3 June 2025)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up