Tu es Petrus
et super hanc petram aedificábo ecclésiam meam
et portae ínferi non praevalébunt advérsus eam.
Et tibi dabo claves regni caelórum.

Quodcúmque ligáveris super terram erit ligátum et in coelis,
et quodcúmque sólveris super terram erit solútum et in coelis.

Et tibi dabo…

Thou art Peter
and upon this rock I shall build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I shall give to thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven:
and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.

And I shall give to thee…

• Choir: Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Chorus)
• Conductor: Mariss Jansons
• Rehearsals: Michael Gläser
• Scripture: Matthew 16:18-19

Other Related Posts:

• Choral music list for Pontifical High Mass, Sacred Heart, NYC
• Update on music for the Installation Mass of Archbishop Vincent Nichols (with links to selected scores)
• My observations on the music of the Installation Mass of Archbishop Dolan
• Ordo musicae in Dominica Resurrectionis
• SMTV Vol. II, No. 1.4 - Alma Redemptoris Mater (Palestrina)

Rev. Michael J. Mahler (1946–2009)

Ithaca: Passed away peacefully Monday, June 29 of cancer, age 63.

Predeceased by parents, John and Marie and early mentor and lifelong friend Reverend James E. Kircher.

Survived by sister, Mary Therese (Gregory) Storey & brother James (Jocelyne) Mahler, nephew Jeffrey Storey, aunt Allison Piehler, cousins in Rochester, South Carolina, Arizona & Germany, devoted friends and caregivers Dawn & Michael Redlin, longtime friends Sylvia Mancuso & family, and many close colleagues and friends in the Catholic community.

Fr. Mahler was born in Rochester and attended St. James School; prepatory studies at St. Andrews Seminary and St. John Fisher College; theological studies at St. Bernard’s Seminary; received his tonsure Dec 4, 1969; minor orders Oct 22, 1970; exorcist & acolyte Feb 4, 1971; sub-deaconship Mar 27, 1971; deaconship May 8, 1971; ordained Roman Catholic priest at St. Margaret Mary Church, Mar 30, 1973; first appointment Holy Apostles, Jun 27, 1973; SUNY Geneseo chaplain, Jun 23, 1976; appointed co-chaplain Cornell University, Jun 30, 1983 and later as Chaplain; appointed pastor St. Catherine of Siena, Ithaca, NY, Jun 24 2003; chaplain of Ithaca College, Jun 28, 2005 while retaining his pastorate at St. Catherine’s. Father Mahler was also Cornell University Police Chaplain, Cornell University Football Chaplain, and Chaplain Emeritus of Cornell University.

Fr. Mahler will lie in state from 3 PM to 7 PM on Wednesday, July 1 at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 302 St. Catherine Circle, Ithaca, NY with Evening Prayer at 7:30 PM. Father will lie in state on Thursday, July 2, from 10 AM to 11 AM with his funeral liturgy at 11 AM with Bishop Matthew H. Clark, presiding. Burial will take place at Immaculate Conception Calvary Cemetery, Ithaca. Memorial donations can be made to: St. Catherine of Siena Parish, 302 St. Catherine Circle, Ithaca, NY 14850.

Tu es sacérdos in aetérnum, secúndum órdinem Melchísedech. Requiéscat in pace. Amen.

Other Related Posts:

• A multimedia news piece on Gregorian chant
• “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
• Seasonal programming of Latin and connotations of penitence
• Ss. Peter and Paul
• Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Hymns at Church
by David Beresford

The revolutionary elements in our epoch do not mark the beginning, but the end, of an epoch of revolution.
–G.K. Chesterton, “The End of the Moderns”

Church music is something that I know nothing about, other than I know what I like and do not like. I am a child of the 1960s, so my experience is perhaps a little biased. When I was very young, I can just recall singing hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Faith of Our Fathers,” and “Immaculate Mary.” Then came the big change, and much against the wishes of the Council Fathers who wrote that we (the laity) had the right to sing our hymns in Latin, we became part of the large-scale experiments testing how long it would take to empty the parishes.

First came the tambourines, wielded by earnest young ladies who were trying to get everyone to sing “Cum-Bye-Yaw.” Then, once this gateway music was no longer achieving the requisite high, our parish advanced to folk Masses complete with lead and bass guitars, electric piano, and drums in front of the altar. The following songs were sung during Mass on a regular basis: “One Tin Soldier,” “Share the Land,” “Imagine”—yes, by John Lennon—”The Rose,” “You Light Up My Life,” “Let It Be,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” I do not know why these were chosen out of all that was available on the radio at the time.  I can see no reason why we did not sing “Convoy,” or better yet, “A Boy Named Sue.” In fact, a good argument can be made for singing “A Boy Named Sue” at any church that would allow us to sing “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “Imagine.” “A Boy Named Sue” has all the elements that the modern innovators like: a non-traditional family, ambivalence about gender, and the implicit message that girls (and by extension, men with girl’s names) are subject to societal oppression.

By the end of the 1980s and early 90s, the worst of these excesses had begun to subside and the preposterous was replaced by the banal. Instead of singing old Beatles songs at Mass, we were given insipid, gender-neutral translations of the psalms set to saccharine melodies. Now I am not against such modern hymns as “Peace is Flowing Like a River” per se, these are perfectly fine around a youth-group campfire or during a sensitivity-training session. But not at Mass.

My main concern is that these hymns are now private property, and I cannot escape the suspicion that the Mass is not supposed to be carved up by copyrights into private enclosures in which we are only allowed to sing or pray “with permission of the publishers.” I am of an older, more robust school, that believes prayers and hymns can be used by anyone who wants to pray or sing. I secretly suspect that this privatization of prayers and hymns is a modern phenomenon. Consider the “Salve Regina,” which was written by a monk named Herman the Cripple in 1054. The “Salve Regina” was one of the battle cries of the knights who crusaded in the Holy Land. I am not convinced that they were advised in their Crusaders Hymn Book © that the “Salve Regina” was printed with permission of Brother Contractus, all rights reserved.

I have assessed this trend in the Canadian hymnals, the Catholic Book of Worship (CBW) put out by the CCCB (Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops). There have been three such hymnals, CBW I (1972), CBW II (1980), and CBW III (1994), each with 192, 296, and 402 hymns respectively. I counted the ones with copyrights, those “with permission,” and those in the religious public domain (see Figure 1). The proportion of hymns with copyrights has increased steadily with each edition, eroding those held in common. What is interesting is that many of the hymns that now carry copyrights originally did not do so. For example, “Immaculate Mary” has a copyright because verses two to five were replaced.

Figure 1.

In light of this, I have decided that while at Mass I will no longer sing hymns with copyrights attached to them. And if we are assigned a hymn that has been translated into inclusive language, I sing the old words out loud (very loud), complete with thees, thous, and thys. It is plausible that I will miss out on one or two modern songs that are actually good, but I will take this risk. The real payoff is that I do not have to decide if a hymn is good or not; my system settles that problem for me. And, in so doing, I am simply following the teachings of my Catholic religion—that we all have been given the gift of a working brain and are supposed to use it.

I have some issues with this article, mainly with deportment (as found in the final paragraph). Others may find more with which to object.

Other Related Posts:

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• Style wars, the competent musician, and truly market-driven worship
• Singing the Mass versus singing at Mass - the last word?
• Gray-area physical reproduction of copyrighted ritual texts and attendant royalty issues
• On needless repetition in the Ordinary Form Mass

• Introit^[1]
  
• Introductory Rite; Penitential Rite; Opening Prayer^[2]
  
• Liturgy of the Word
  
• Offertory^[3]
  
• Motet, Interlude
  
• Orate fratres; Preface; Eucharistic Prayer I; Great Amen^[4]
  
• Lord’s Prayer; Agnus Dei; Domine, non sum dignus^[5]
  
• Communion Antiphon; three organ pieces^[6]
  
• Postcommunion Motet: “O How Amiable” (Vaughan Williams)
  
• Postcommunion; Dismissal; Organ Postlude
  

A Colloquium participant commenting on this Mass writes,

Tuesday morning after Mass I thought, “If we participated in Masses like this every week, it would change our lives.” It is impossible to be indifferent to such a Mass. Such a Mass is so profoundly otherworldly, so oriented to the transcendent, so powerfully prayerful that it is impossible to be lukewarm. One must choose whom one will serve. [Full post]

Other Related Posts:

• Full recordings of Tuesday’s CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium liturgies
• Worship, unplugged: three items for consideration
• Preview Video of Colloquium XIX
• Liveblogging Professor William Mahrt’s and Jeffrey Tucker’s lectures
• Liveblogging the CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium XIX

(Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed, who is filming and editing on location.)

Other Related Posts:

• Liveblogging the CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium XIX
• Selected audio from the CMAA Colloquium Ordinary-form Mass, June 23, 2009
• Liveblogging Professor William Mahrt’s and Jeffrey Tucker’s lectures
• Full recordings of Tuesday’s CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium liturgies
• Blogging from CMAA Colloquium XVIII