Mass Among the Poor
Does it seem strange that religious orders dedicated to serving the poor would also be rediscovering the traditional Latin Mass?
The Awesomeness of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
A Benedictine monk helps us appreciate the tremendous miracle of the Mass, which is the central point of all earthly reality.
Why the Mass is the Key to the New Evangelization
We hear a lot these days about the New Evangelization, but not so much about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And yet the Mass is at the very heart of our mission.
Important Resources for Liturgical Reform (7 of 7)
“Who could have anticipated such a Renaissance of music-making in the desert of postmodernity? Yet this was but the first wave, and now we are enjoying a second…”
St. Thomas on the “Asperges” (Sprinkling Rite)
St. Thomas did not comment specifically on the custom of sprinkling the people with holy water prior to the principal Sunday Mass; but he did explain exactly why it’s a good idea to do such a thing.
Away with the World—Let Heaven Enter
Music, for a Christian, should serve the same purpose as everything else in life: weaning us from excessive attachment to this world and lifting our souls heavenward.
“What Shall I Render to the Lord…”
It is impossible for us, by ourselves, to make a just return to the Lord for all He has given to us. But “with the Lord, nothing is impossible.”
Basic Steps To Improve Music At Your Parish — Part 2
I have been asked to recommend some ways in which any parish in the United States could improve the music used at Mass. Some parishes may already have taken the following two steps, in which case my advice will be nugatory for them, but if your parish has not yet done so, now’s the time to begin.
Pope Francis on Sound Doctrine, Memory, and Adoration
“One of the most common canards now broadcast is that Pope Francis cares but little for the sacred liturgy…”
Music Rules Over Us
Music is like a food that either makes us healthy or sick; indeed, it shapes our souls in its image.
On the Objectivity of the Beautiful
Can we really rank the works of fine art? Is one composer greater than another, one piece of sacred music more beautiful than another? Or is it all relative?
Archbishop Sample’s Letter On Sacred Music (4 of 8)
“Everything in God’s good creation is hierarchically ordered, and the virtue of each part is to belong to the whole in the right way…”
Art as Affirmation and Sacrifice
True art affirms the Catholic Faith—and represents a spiritual sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to the Lord.
What the Ordinary Form Could Be: The Vienna Oratory
Have you ever wondered what a Novus Ordo High Mass might look like? Read on…
The Danger of Being Arbitrary in the Liturgy
Traditional practices form a coherent whole, as they developed organically together. In many ways the liturgical reform was mechanistic and ideological.