Views from the Choir Loft

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Readings & Propers from the SAINT ISAAC JOGUES PEW MISSAL.

Entrance Chant • (Years ABC)
Protéctor noster, áspice, Deus, et réspice in fáciem Christi tui: quia mélior est dies una in átriis tuis super mília. Vs. Quam dilécta tabernácula tua, Dómine virtútum! concupíscit, et déficit ánima mea in átria Dómini. (Ps 83: 10-11, 2-3)
(Score in English) • (Organ Accompaniment) • (Rehearsal Video) • (Carmen Gregorianum)

Responsorial Psalm
Gustáte et vidéte quóniam suávis est Dóminus.
(Responsorial Psalm in English) • (Rehearsal Video) • (Official Latin)
(Responsorial Psalm in Spanish) • (Rehearsal Video) • (USCCB Spanish)
Lectionary claims this is identical to: 4th Sunday in Lent (Year C)

Gospel Acclamation
Qui mandúcat meam carnem et bibit meum sánguinem, in me manet, et ego in illo, dicit Dóminus.
(Gospel Acclamation in English) • (Gospel Acclamation in Spanish) • (Official Latin)

Offertory Antiphon • (Years ABC)
Immíttet ángelus Dómini in circúitu timéntium eum, et erípiet eos: gustáte et vidéte, quóniam suávis est Dóminus.
(Score in English) • (Organ Accompaniment) • (Rehearsal Video) • (Carmen Gregorianum)
(Offertory Antiphon in Spanish)

Communion Antiphon • (Year B)
Qui mandúcat meam carnem, et bibit meum sánguinem, in me manet, et ego in eo, dicit Dóminus.
(Score in English) • (Organ Accompaniment) • (Rehearsal Video) • (Carmen Gregorianum)
(Communion Antiphon in Spanish)

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

“Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)

I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Proof Which All Can Immediately See!

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” as the famous maxim goes. Over the years, I’ve observed malicious attacks on the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal. Rather than scoring a ‘hit’ on the Brébeuf Hymnal, its attackers often reveal profound ignorance. I’ve been advised never to reply … but I break that rule today. Certain voices online assert that the Brébeuf Hymnal is “untraditional” because it includes both the Urbanite and pre-Urbanite versions of the hymns. But if only they would glance at a copy of the 1913 VESPERALE (printed by order of Pope Saint Pius X) they would see how mistaken such statements are.

—Jeff Ostrowski

New Bulletin Article • “8 June 2025”

My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for the parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article includes a few anecdotes about Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Abraham Lincoln.

—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