March 2016
Music of Holy Week: Easter Sunday
Having witnessed to the light of the risen Christ at the Easter Vigil with the singing of the Exsultet, the Church proclaims on Easter Sunday that the tomb is empty in the singing of the Easter Sequence, Victimae Paschali Laudes.
We proc...
Music of Holy Week: The Easter Vigil
The silent darkness of Holy Saturday is shattered by the radiant light of the Easter fire and the resounding echoes of the great Easter Proclamation, known as the Exsultet. In this stunning liturgical moment, the priest or deacon sings t...
Music of Holy Week: Holy Saturday
After the sorrow of the Cross, the Church enters into the silence of Holy Saturday. The Roman Missal states: “On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb in prayer and fasting, meditating on his Passion and Death and...
Music of Holy Week: Good Friday
On this Good Friday, as we recall the Passion and Death of Jesus, we gaze upon the Cross. On the one hand, we recoil from the Cross in horror as the instrument of torture and execution, the gibbet on which the Savior of the world hung in...
Music of Holy Week: Holy Thursday
Today we enter the most solemn days of the liturgical year: the Sacred Paschal Triduum. From St. Peter’s in Rome to the humblest of parishes, the Church will watch and pray and sing together, recalling the wondrous mysteries of our...
Music of Holy Week: Wednesday
The Introit for Wednesday of Holy Week is taken from the great Christological hymn found in the second chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on the ear...
Music of Holy Week: Tuesday
In the current Roman Missal, the Nos autem gloriari is the Introit (or Entrance Antiphon) for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday; however, prior to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, this was the...
Dealing with Distractions in Prayer
I don’t think that I’m wrong to say that we wish both to pray and to feel ourselves to be in prayer but that we blame “distractions” for not allowing us to achieve one or both of these aims. I do believe, however,...
Music of Holy Week: Monday
The liturgy of Palm Sunday began with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but the joyful cries of “Hosanna to the Son of David” soon gave way to the hate-filled shouts of “Crucify him!” Our focus has thus...
Music of Holy Week: Palm Sunday
Throughout Holy Week, we will sing hymns and psalms once again that are often only used at this time of the liturgical year, and yet their impressions upon our hearts and souls will continue to deepen as they etch themselves in...
There Aren't Silent Saints: St. Joseph, St. André Bessette, and Holy Meekness
Justin McClain discusses how "silent Saints" teach us to preach the Gospel.
