MBITTERED. Faithful Catholics must never become embittered. I don’t need to describe what embittered Catholics are like: Zillions of them live on the internet. They criticize, they nitpick, they attack—but they never lift a finger in real life to provide solutions. Rather than curse the darkness, the faculty of Symposium 2022 has decided to light a candle. They will be in Orange County this June to work with a bunch of awesome Catholics coming here to pray, meet peers, have great conversations, and—most importantly of all—learn about Sacred music! According to the Second Vatican Council:
“It is fitting that the office, both in choir and in common, be sung. Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually” (SC §100).
Here’s our Divine Office booklet for this year:
* PDF Download • SOLEMN VESPERS BOOKLET (99 pages)
—Each night at the Sacred Music Symposium, Vespers is sung.
Double Dipping? If you download that booklet, you might notice we sing an English translation of the Vespers hymn as a PROCESSIONAL HYMN, then we sing it again in Latin during Vespers itself. My parish often does this, and the Brébeuf hymnal makes it easy! For example, below is Ad Regias Agni Dapes translated into English. [Notice that some verses are sung SATB.]
Help Us! If you notice errors in the booklet, please email: Dom.Mocquereau@gmail.com