The Little Rock Nine
How would you like to have the United States army escort you to school each day?
“If we do not love those whom we see, how can we love God, Whom we do not see?” Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).
How would you like to have the United States army escort you to school each day?
“Where it can be done away with without too much difficulty on the part of the faithful, it should be abrogated.” — Pope Pius XI on “orchestral Masses” (private letter)
The second half of an article about the most important book you’ve never seen.
Who should start the “Glory to God” at Mass? Who should intone the Gloria? Ordinary Form.
Photograph of “Father Schmitt” of Boys Town taken during the 1950s.
Gone forever? “A portable Latin missal which contains everything said or read at Mass.”
“The altar versus populum is not a new idea brought in by the reforms of Paul VI. The Mass could always be celebrated with the priest facing the people, as indeed it was in Rome and in many other places for centuries. True, it was not the usual way, but it did exist.” — Monsignor Richard J. Schuler
Do you recall trying to memorize the “Confiteor” and the dreaded “Suscipiat” to serve at Mass?
Ruth Slenczynska wasn’t right about everything … but she was right about this.
“In the encyclical Mediator Dei, Pius XII regarded as ‘archeologists those who presumed to speak of the altar as a simple table.” — Newsletter of the Vatican Congregation of Divine Worship.
Imagine my astonishment to see the date assigned to us by the State of Texas back in 2006!
One thing I’ve wanted to do for years is write about the Jesuit Martyrs of North America and share their stories with the world. I have failed.
“Members of this American liturgical/musical establishment continually boast about their flexibility and sensitivity, but they are in fact the most rigid and insensitive of the Church’s members, especially if one has the temerity to challenge them, their policies, their processes, or their programs.” — Paul Le Voir (1993)
More than 100,000 persons saw and heard Church history in the making as Auxiliary Bishop Fulton J. Sheen of New York celebrated the first Pontifical Mass ever said in English.
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