Father John Paul Lewis • “Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Oklahoma City”

Corpus Christi Watershed · April 7, 2025

OD DOES NOT FAIL to provide priests for his Church. Even in our times, when things seem very dark, encouraging examples can be found. Consider Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Oklahoma City. Their priest is Father John Paul Lewis. Their music director is Dr. Alvez Barkoskie. We haven’t had the pleasure of meeting either of them—but perhaps our readers have? Based on their musical program (see below), they are doing what Vatican II mandated: viz. “preserving and fostering with great care” the THESAURUS MUSICAE SACRAE.

Holy Week • We were sent their musical program for Holy Week (Hebdomada Major) and the musical selections look wonderful:

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

“Reader Feedback” • 7 April 2025

A reader in Poland writes: “I don’t know where our music would be without these psalms. We’ve been using them in an English Mass in Poland for probably 15 years. As a non-musician with little training (high school choir, some basic piano), these made singing the psalm a cappella in Mass possible for about a year and a half before we got an organist who has relied on them since 2011. The site is a huge help for me singing all the chants of the TRIDUUM (apart from the priest’s or deacon’s chant) a cappella with no musical support, because I learned so much from doing the psalms at Sunday Mass a capella for many months. Your site is completely invaluable for us! I can’t calculate how helpful it’s been … and still is to us in Poland, where English print resources don’t exist and are very expensive to import.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Lent

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Lent (6 April 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I love the INTROIT (Júdica Me Deus) from the well-known PSALM 42. Since Lent reduces pipe organ usage, I marked with an “X” all the selections being sung a cappella. This Sunday is traditionally called “Passion Sunday.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Best-Kept “Secret” of Church Music?

Some have called this feasts website “the best kept secret” of church music. My personal belief is that once we get through an entire year, more will begin to discover it. Already, it contains more than 400 scores and videos. The OFFERTORY CHANT for this coming Sunday uses a truly gorgeous melody as well as PSALM 118, one of my favorite psalms!

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

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).

—Corpus Christi Watershed

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