Views from the Choir Loft

Society for Catholic Liturgy Conference 2024

Fr. David Friel · July 20, 2024

OUSTON will be the setting for this year’s Society for Catholic Liturgy (SCL) conference. The event will take place September 26-27, 2024 on the beautiful campus of Saint Mary’s Seminary and will feature numerous interesting elements, including academic paper sessions, solemn liturgies, and plenty of fellowship among participants. The Society is especially pleased to welcome the participation of Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, alongside an impressive international slate of scholars on the liturgy and related fields.

One of the most exciting features of this year’s conference will be a concert by the renowned vocal ensemble Cappella Romana, under the direction of Dr. Alexander Lingas. The group describes its mission as an exploration of “the transcendent beauty of the sacred music of the Christian East and West, especially of Byzantium, cultivating this rich cultural heritage and sharing it worldwide.” Lingas will also serve as one of the keynote speakers for the conference, presenting on the topic of “Late Antique Cathedral Liturgy and the Rite of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia.”

The night before the conference officially begins, a special members-only welcome reception will feature an address by Joseph Pearce, a well-known scholar on Shakespeare, Tolkien, and Chesterton. The focus of his presentation will be “Liturgy and Literature.”

Attendance at the general conference is not limited to members of the SCL. Anyone with an interest in the sacred liturgy is welcome to register for the conference through the SCL website. The full conference schedule, lodging information, and additional details are also available at the website.

OUNDED in 1995, the Society for Catholic Liturgy is a unique organization that brings together faithful Catholic scholars and artists from around the world to study and promote the rich liturgical tradition of the Church. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, which deals with important theoretical and practical questions in the fields of liturgy and sacramental theology. Find out more about becoming a member on the Society’s website.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

“Music List” (4th Sunday of Advent, Year C)

This coming Sunday—22 December 2024—is the 4th Sunday of Advent (Year C). Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The English version of “Roráte Cæli” we’re singing for the ENTRANCE CHANT is magnificent.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • 4th Sunday of Advent

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the 4th Sunday of Advent (22 December 2024). Set in the first mode—just like the authentic version—this setting manages to capture the “essence” of the Gregorian setting in quite an admirable way. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, this morning I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion (4th Sunday of Advent)

The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (PDF) we’re singing for the 4th Sunday of Advent has a particularly gorgeous melody. The text (from the prophet Isaiah) is also quite beautiful and is cited toward the beginning of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It certainly seems like most of the Advent antiphons come from the book of Isaiah…

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Lessons and Carols”

Seen online! Dr. Samuel Backman conducted a “Lessons and Carols” service with his choir, and someone produced this lovely vignette.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

Epiphany Proclamation 2025

Each year, without fail, someone asks me to typeset the Epiphany Proclamation, an announcement of moveable feasts chanted each year on the feast of the Epiphany. As a result, you may now find an archive of 23 such proclamations in PDF ready to print HERE.

—Veronica Brandt

The Breviary in the Life of the Laity

Recently I have been enjoying looking through the inaugural (1927) edition of a 20th-century liturgical magazine called Orate Fratres. The July 1927 issue included an excellent article by a Chicago laywoman named Ellen Gates Starr entitled “The Delights of the Breviary: From the Point of View of a Lay Woman.” As we in the 21st century have recently undergone a (blessed!) re-translation of the missal into English, and as we await with joyful hope (please God, before Jesus comes back!) a similar re-translation of the breviary, the opening of her article reminded me of that old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Nearly a hundred years ago, she penned words that could just as easily have been written today: “It is indeed a privilege to be allowed any participation, however slight, in the liturgical movement in the Church – the movement to bring back the classics of devotion, the Missal and the Breviary, into general use by the laity. The wonder is that they should ever have fallen into disuse. Nothing can take the place of these great universal prayers of the Church, the prayers of the Mass and the divine Office. One has only to know them to find them indispensable. And alas, how few of the laity know them!” I know that I have been tremendously nourished by regular praying of the breviary as of late, and my wish is that you and I, dear reader, may continue to nourish our interior lives with the official prayer of the Church, which present to us (in the Mass) and extend (in the Office) the fullness of Christ’s greatest gift to us – the gift of Himself – in the Most Holy Eucharist.

—Daniel Tucker

“Dom Pothier does not belong to the dim past, as the silence which surrounds his name would lead one to believe. Only a few years separate us from the time when—growing old and heavily burdened by trials—Dom Pothier was concentrating his ever keen attention on the study of manuscripts in the Belgian place of retreat where his community had found refuge. For he was the abbot; and there can be no doubt that the cross he wore during those days was a cross of sorrow, though he bore it with a smile.”

— Dom Ermin Vitry, OSB (31-OCT-1936)