Views from the Choir Loft

Father Friel • Article Archive

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

Fr. David Friel · July 3, 2014

Colloquium Update I

All the things I love about the Colloquium experience are here in force: an extraordinary faculty, magnificent liturgies, good fellowship, etc.

Fr. David Friel · June 29, 2014

Strong with God’s Strength

Saints Peter & Paul

Fr. David Friel · June 22, 2014

Archbishop Sample’s Letter On Sacred Music (7 of 8)

May the Archbishop’s reflections & exhortations bear fruit in practical renewal!

Fr. David Friel · June 15, 2014

Gregory the Great Academy

An Interview with Matt Williams

Fr. David Friel · June 8, 2014

Pentecost: Babel, Tongues, & Latin

Do churchgoers of my generation—who, largely, have no experience of Latin in the liturgy at all—even recognize the gift that has been lost?

Fr. David Friel · June 1, 2014

Liturgy & Clericalism

Love of liturgy—and, specifically, employment of its traditional forms—is not clericalism.

Fr. David Friel · May 29, 2014

Living for Heaven

The Ascension as Our Model

Fr. David Friel · May 25, 2014

150 Years of Sacred Music

A Philadelphia History

Fr. David Friel · May 18, 2014

Collected Works of Joseph Ratzinger

Beginning with Liturgy

Fr. David Friel · May 11, 2014

Does a Liberal Arts Education Have Any Value?

Without the visual arts, music, theater, architecture, and the like, future generations will have no sense of culture.

Fr. David Friel · May 4, 2014

Parish May Crownings

A strong devotional life in the parish church will naturally support and strengthen its liturgical vitality.

Fr. David Friel · April 27, 2014

The Mercy of God Makes Saints

Unmasking the Media’s Mythical Divide Between Popes

Fr. David Friel · April 20, 2014

Book Review: Killing Jesus

Was It Worth the Read?

Fr. David Friel · April 17, 2014

A Priest’s Litany of Thanksgiving

A Preparation for the Celebration of Holy Thursday

Fr. David Friel · April 13, 2014

Who Should Proclaim the Passion?

The “Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts”

“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