Latin Children's Choir

Check out this adorable video of children explaining why we should use Latin! I would love to start a children's Latin choir in Las Vegas, but I am not really sure I am too good at teaching music, much less teaching it to children. And besides, where would they sing? At what Mass in Las Vegas would kids ever be allowed to chant? Adults are barely allowed, and only rarely. Still, it just plain warms my heart to see such faithful little children.

Gregorian Chant

At church I lead a Schola Cantorum, which is in other words a school of chant. We do gregorian chant as well as sacred polyphony. We sing monthly at Vespers, and yesterday was our November Vespers. One of our singers' sister recorded this. It is O Sacrum Convivium by Remondi. Unfortunately our bass got stuck in traffic and missed singing this one, otherwise we would have been a little more complete.  All in all, I am decently pleased at the way it turned out, all things considered. It is a wonderful way to praise the Lord, and we are so blessed to have an opportunity to sing.

Here are the lyrics of the song, from Wikipedia.

Original Latin (punctuation from Liber Usualis):

O sacrum convivium!
in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis ejus:
mens impletur gratia:
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.

Translation of original Latin:

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.

Masters of Chant or Masters of Sacrilege?

I just stumbled upon this musical group Gregorian - Masters of Chant. It was an unpleasant surprise.



What a perversion of Catholic chant. The sad thing is that although this musical group has gained popularity, chant in the liturgy has not (in my Diocese and many others). You almost don't hear it at all in Catholic churches here in Las Vegas. I myself lead a small chant group, which is confined to Vespers once a month and the odd special Mass. But we have yet to be asked to chant by an actual priest. The priests would shut us out of the liturgy entirely, it seems.

This is an absolute shame, when you consider that chant has existed to uplift and inspire us for many centuries before Vatican II. Our Holy Father has said in his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis that chant should be employed as the norm in the liturgy. The Holy Father goes unheeded.

Chant is prayer. Chant is worship. So what is this group worshiping? Could it be money, fame, and pride?

I once heard a visiting Opus Dei priest say that we are made to worship. We want to worship. It is a part of us as human beings. And when you remove God from our lives, we end up worshiping something anyway.

What do you worship?