Views from the Choir Loft

Gwyneth Holston

Gwyneth Holston is a sacred artist who works to provide and promote good quality Catholic art. Her website is gwynethholston.com. Read more.

Gwyneth Holston · June 23, 2014

Archbishop Sample’s Letter On Sacred Music (8 of 8)

Eagerly awaiting a Pastoral Letter on Sacred Art in Divine Worship.

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Gwyneth Holston · May 30, 2014

Artist Lecture Series at Thomas More College

If you are in New England July 25 – August 1, you don’t want to miss this!

Gwyneth Holston · May 5, 2014

Pathetic Beauty

Can A Pure Intention Create Objective Beauty?

Gwyneth Holston · April 14, 2014

Mass for Artists on May 4th in NYC

It will be in the extraordinary form with a modern setting by Arvo Part

Gwyneth Holston · April 8, 2014

Summer Programs at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

Great opportunities for formation in drawing, painting, writing, reading, and leading

Gwyneth Holston · April 7, 2014

“Crucifixion” by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon

A striking image that should be more well-known.

Gwyneth Holston · March 31, 2014

What is Catholic Art?

Help me define the indefinable.

Gwyneth Holston · March 24, 2014

Jubilee Museum Sacred Art Biennial 2014

Call for entries for visual artists!

Gwyneth Holston · March 17, 2014

Finally! A Manly Saint Joseph

I’m not sure why, but there are an unusually high number of saccharine depictions St. Joseph. This is not one of them.

Gwyneth Holston · March 11, 2014

Painting of St. Catherine of Siena Part II

See the “reveal” of the finished painting.

Gwyneth Holston · March 3, 2014

Painting St. Catherine of Siena Part I

See what goes into designing a painting.

Gwyneth Holston · February 27, 2014

A Visual Chronical of Parish Life: Day 4

“A Sad Inheritance” by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Gwyneth Holston · February 26, 2014

A Visual Chronicle of Parish Life: Day 3

“The Daughters of Charity” by Henriette Browne

Gwyneth Holston · February 25, 2014

A Visual Chronicle of Parish Life: Day 2

“Choirboys” by Jose Gallegos y Arnosa

Gwyneth Holston · February 24, 2014

A Visual Chronicle of Parish Life: Day 1

A week of inspiring images to brighten your day.
Day 1: “The Baptism” by Joaquin Sorolla

“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

“Yahweh” in church songs?

My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“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

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