Views from the Choir Loft

Compline

Veronica Brandt · March 30, 2019

How to Install Compline in Your Home

A first step to planting the timeless prayer of the Universal Church in your home. Plus a four part setting of the prayer just because.

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Veronica Brandt · October 22, 2016

Compline Online with Chant Notation

A handy online copy of Compline according to the 1962 liturgical books dynamically adapting to the day of the week, feast or feria and looks great on small screen mobile devices.

Fr. David Friel · November 23, 2014

What Will ICEL Do Next?

Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth gives details on what ICEL is doing now that the Roman Missal project has been completed.

Veronica Brandt · April 12, 2014

Working on a Compline booklet

A booklet for Compline, 95% finished, ready for Holy Week.

Veronica Brandt · January 4, 2014

Interleaving Latin and English on the page

Most books place Latin and English in parallel columns or on facing pages. Let’s look at the less common approach of interverse translations.

Veronica Brandt · November 2, 2013

Tonight, pray Compline for the Holy Souls

After many years, I finally type up the psalms for Compline of All Souls’ Day in Latin and English.

Veronica Brandt · September 14, 2013

Singing the Divine Office before and after Mass

Singing Terce before and Sext after Sunday Mass and Compline after weeknight Masses. A new book with everything you need according to the Monastic Office with English translations.

Veronica Brandt · July 6, 2013

At home it doesn’t have to be perfect

Singing from the Liturgy of the Hours at home is beautiful treasure to share with your family.

Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!

A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“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

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