Views from the Choir Loft

Saint Edmund Campion Missal • “Third Edition”

ULTON J. SHEEN said famously: “Evil has its hour; God has His day.” Since the 1960s, Catholics have witnessed catastrophic apostasy. Yet in the year 2022, things are taking place nobody could have imagined. Five days ago, Cardinal Zuppi, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, led “Extraordinary Form” Vespers in the heart of Rome. Four days ago, the 1962 Missal was used in Saint Peter’s Basilica (!) by Monsignor Marco Agostini, MASTER OF CEREMONIES for Pope Francis. Three days ago, the USCCB Vice President and Archbishop of Detroit—who served on the Bishop’s Liturgy Committee alongside bishops like Cupich and Trautman—confirmed using the traditional PONTIFICALE ROMANUM. These are but a few examples.

Today, the next milestone has arrived:

* Third Edition • SAINT EDMUND CAMPION MISSAL
—Help your congregation follow the Traditional Latin Mass!
—Click here to purchase from Sophia Institute Press.

*  SAMPLE PAGES (A) • “Book Size Comparison”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (B) • “Cover Design”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (C) • “Color Pages” Ordo Missae
*  SAMPLE PAGES (D) • “Ancient Manuscripts”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (E) • “Holy Week” (1962 Version)
*  SAMPLE PAGES (F) • “Holy Week” (1950 Version)
*  SAMPLE PAGES (G) • “The Passion of our Savior”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (H) • “Gregorian Chant”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (I) • “Extremely High Print Quality”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (J) • “Additional Features”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (K) • “Explanations & Commentary”
*  SAMPLE PAGES (L) • “Artistic Woodcuts” Enhanced Digitally
*  SAMPLE PAGES (M) • “Special Alphabet for the 3rd Edition”

* PDF Summary • FIVE FANTASTIC FEATURES
—This brief list attempts to summarize the most salient aspects of this 832-page book.

Feedback: Someone who saw the draft manuscript wrote: “As a musicologist, liturgical enthusiast, and teacher I really enjoy all of the extra notes throughout (indicating propers that appear on other feasts, melodic details, antiphon verses, the prefaces on communion and offertory antiphons, references to manuscripts, papal and patristic notes and commentaries, etc.), and all of those B&W plates are just wonderful. Thank you for this book!”

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.

—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