“Cannot” vs. “Will Not” in Sacred Music
Maybe I should have used the annoying little saying I learned as a kid: “I would if I could, but I can’t, so I won’t.”
Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”
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).
Maybe I should have used the annoying little saying I learned as a kid: “I would if I could, but I can’t, so I won’t.”
Freely PDF download of Fr. Jungmann’s masterpiece, “The Mass of the Roman Rite: its origins and development.”
“Have mercy on your church,” Cardinal Ratzinger prayed in 2005. “When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered.”
The greatest choirmaster of Solesmes and chef d’atelier of the Paléographic Musicale.
In some respects, the Second Vatican Council did not go as far as Pius XII went in 1958 regarding active participation of the faithful.
“We know of Vatican accompaniments, not so expert as these, that have been junked because they were Vatican. Apparently no one has junked these and no one is likely to.” — Msgr. Schmitt
The intention is to get people thinking about why we substitute our own choices for the texts assigned by the Church at Entrance, Offertory, & Communion.
“… we would be faced with the necessity of providing different sets of missals for different strata of intelligence.” — Msgr. Francis P. Schmitt (1963)
I was given Crestor to lower cholesterol. I took a pill each night for 2.5 weeks.
I never thought I’d say this … but I agree with Paul Inwood.
Practically speaking, how might a Catholic be edified by artwork?
What? You never heard of the “horse barn” mentality?
In 2000, there was an effort made at restoring the Sequence to its proper place.
Are we “the most highly educated laity in the history of the church” capable of making our moral decisions without substantive Church guidance … or are we idiots who can’t figure out what “dew” is?
They failed to realize that one cannot simply “sit down over tea and crumpets” and VOTE INTO BEING the Church calendar. It’s supposed to develop organically.
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