Good Seminar

My intrepid friend the Maestro will be offering a sacred music seminar here in the Diocese of Metuchen. In the hope that any of you interested in great church music might be inclined to attend I have posted the flier for the event.

May the appropriate authorities be inspired to ban guitars, tambourines and the dreaded farfisa organ from all Roman Catholic liturgies.

Crooning tunes

From the web site of the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, NJ.

September 25, 2009

Military Order of the Collar of St. Agatha

On Friday evening September 25, the members of the Military Order of the Collar of Saint Agatha will hold an investiture of two new members at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament. The investiture will take place at 5:00, pm during Vespers with Benediction. All are welcome to attend this event. Please Note: There will be no evening mass on this day due to the investiture.

The only site in the Diocese of Metuchen that offers the traditional Latin Mass on a daily schedule has been a nice gift bestowed upon us by Bishop Bootkoski.

At the invitation of the Shrine Rector Father Guy Selvester our Schola will be providing the plain chant for Vespers and Benediction. For those of you who pine for traditional Latin liturgy this event is for you.

Going Old School

After a good amount of preparation our Schola and the Chamber Choir from Saint Mary's will be singing a Missa Cantata at Saint Ambrose Church in Old Bridge.

For the better part of us Latin has been a really new experience since most of us were at best toddlers when the change to the Novus Ordo took place. However, trepidations aside we will be doing our best to make this liturgy the special event it should be.

Grateful thanks to Father Bob for inviting us.

Grown up Schola

Time for the rubber to meet the road so to speak. After almost a year of providing sporadic Gregorian Chant at our host Parish we are officially taking it on the road. The Maestro called this afternoon and informed me that we will be providing our services on June 29th at 7:30 pm. Father Robert G. Gorman, pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, Old Bridge, NJ will celebrate a Missa Cantata for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
Now, was that neumes or gnomes. I can never keep that straight. (Please ignore the oblique chant pun. I know it was inexcusable)

Chant on the road

So there we were. The Maestro, the entire Saint Mary's Choir and of course the capable and expanding Schola Cantorum. As this was the first trip I had ever made to our Diocesan Cathedral it was kind of neat. A Pre Council Church that hasn't been completely liturgically vandalized. Rocking pipe organ and a really great Divine Mercy Sunday Mass. The Chaplet was sung and in addition to the choir it seemed that everyone in the pews was singing along. It was packed.
Father Jack Grimes from my home Parish was the celebrant and homilist. It is always a pleasure to hear him preach. All of that and Latin Chant in the Cathedral. All in all a fairly nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Liturgical Counteroffensive

Just when things are rolling along nicely someone has to chuck an obstacle in your path.

When last I updated you about our Guerrilla Schola we were well into the Advent season and our efforts were met with appreciation at the Parish where we sang for Mass. We have since begun to gear up for Lent and look forward to adding to an already thriving and talented pastoral music program. In addition we are looking forward to making a regular appearance at a nearby Parish where the Pastor offers Mass in the Extraordinary Form on Saturdays. That is of course once we manage to learn the propers. Our long suffering Maestro is learning the difficulties of imparting new knowledge on less than fertile middle aged minds. Undeterred he marches joyfully on.

That is of course until last week. I will be vague on details in order to protect his identity. Gently and over the course of a year or so The Maestro has been incrementally adding more traditional elements to the music at Mass. Not all in Latin but certainly the musical selections introduced have been in lock step with the Magesterium and without a doubt appropriate for season and feast. While there has been a great deal of encouragement from the folks in the pews Father has seen fit to, shall we say, put a screeching halt to any further forward movement in this regard. To add insult to injury he has indicated his preference to musical selections more akin to the St. Louis Jesuits. For those of you unfamiliar with liturgical music this is the equivalent of hosting Barney the Dinosaur at Avery Fischer Hall or holding the Super Bowl in Mozambique.

Chafing under the unforgiving bridle of obedience what choice does he have. However, the building will continue brick by brick. But it is apparent at least in the short term that we will be operating the kiln in a more clandestine fashion.

In the meantime we will continue to work on the propers in the hope that things will really catch on at our alternative location. More to follow as things develop.

We chanted.....We Rocked!

I purposely waited a few days before posting on the first public performance of our schola. Its really easy to be overly enthusiastic on an early assesment. At about 9:30 we met in the church basement with the main choir for a bit of warm up. I think we were all a bit nervous, even the well experienced Maestro. Undaunted we cruised up to the choir loft and before you knew it, Introit! Wow. I will admit that our timing might have been a bit tighter but all things being equal, it sounded great. The church is an acousticly graceful space and by the time we reached Deus, Meus the sound had round its way back up to the loft and it was just AWESOME!

Per the Maestro we fully hit our stride for the Communio. It made for a most peaceful, prayerful atmosphere. The twenty or so regular choir members (very experienced group) just kind of sat back and gave that "way to go rookie!" nod of the head. Can't wait for Sunday.

Lead, follow or get out of the way

This evening several of us travelled to the Diocesan Center to participate in a Q and A about the Latin Mass. Despite the fact that it has been a year since His Holiness cleared up any lingering questions about the ability of Priests to celebrate in the Extraordinary Form there really hasn't been that much brewing in the Metuchen Diocese. To his credit, our Bishop has arranged for daily and Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The unfortunate element is that in a Diocese of over one half million with 108 Parishes, one chapel in the middle of a diocese that spans four counties doesn't lend itself to the easy or even practical possibility of attending daily or even Sunday Mass.

The session was presented by Msgr. Michael J. Alleigro who is the Rector of our Cathedral. We were provided with three documents. The first was a chronology of "liturgical reforms" spanning 1962 to 2007. This was followed by a release from the Vatican Press Office and bore the title Observations on the use of the Roman Liturgy prior to the 1970 reform. Finally there was a list of several common questions regarding Summorum Pontificum. Pretty rudimentary stuff.

To summarize a very long and brutal story;

1) the Pope says any competent Priest can say Mass according to the Extraordinary Form.
2) We won't stand in any one's way but don't expect any help.
3) Good luck with all of that.

Certainly the presentation was longer and sugar coated a bit more but we got the drift. There were about seventy people there. Only about four Priests, a smattering of Directors of Music and then the laity.

There were a few really pointed questions from the group. Deflected ably. No great progress but no sign of stimulus from the Chancery. The party line seemed to be "there has been no great swelling of requests for the Extraordinary Form". The question remains...what will happen when there is?