N RECENT YEARS, the Church in the United States—and in North America in general—has seen a deepening awareness of the December 12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of all the Americas. This is in no small part due to the work of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, and the 2018 commission from San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of composer Frank La Rocca’s Mass of the Americas (MOTA), a twinned tribute to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I Invite You • On December 12, at the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas, I will be honored to lead the Dallas-based Schola Benedictus XVI Choir and Orchestra in this year’s feast day Mass, featuring the original 2018 version of the MOTA. Beginning at 7:00pm CST, the liturgy will be celebrated by The Most Reverend Edward J. Burns, Bishop of Dallas. EWTN will broadcast the Mass later on that same evening. If you wish to view the Mass in real time, you may register here to receive a link to the broadcast.
Brief Description • A few, brief words about the MOTA and its several versions. On this particular occasion you will experience the original MOTA composed for the Novus Ordo. This was the version premiered in San Francisco in 2018, and combines English, Spanish, and Latin. In 2019, the Vetus Ordo setting premiered in Washington, D.C. This is the version recorded by Cappella Records and which appears on the YouTube video which to date has amassed over 20,000 views. Certainly this is the version which has propelled the MOTA and La Rocca into the Catholic public consciousness. A third version of the MOTA exists, combining the 2019 Latin ordinary sections with the Alleluia, Memorial Acclamation, and Amen from the 2018 version.
Concluding Thoughts • A final word. The masterpieces of the choral literature are called iconic when the sounding of their opening pages evoke an immediate, unmistakeable recognition. From the first notes of the Requiems of Fauré or Duruflé, or the opening E minor of Handel’s Messiah; from the first pulsating low F of Brahms’ Requiem to the achingly painful beginning of James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words; or from the first awesome Kyrie of Bach’s Mass in b Minor, to Poulenc’s haunting O Magnum Mysterium, or the beginning of Byrd’s Ave verum Corpus, we just know these works with the sounding of just a few notes. I feel strongly that the opening of La Rocca’s MOTA, beginning as it does with the inspired Cantico del Alba, has taken its place among the iconic openings of the standard choral literature. When one hears the tolling bell calling all to attention, followed immediately by the treble voices invoking the Blessed Mother, we know what we are hearing. Nothing starts like this. It is becoming ingrained in our collective Catholic DNA. As it should.
Please join me and these wonderful musicians at our beautiful National Shrine Cathedral on December 12th.
