The sound file for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time is a motet with text taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, set by the Rev. Cantor Michael D. Costello, of Grace Lutheran Church and School in River Forest, IL. It was recorded on the as yet unreleased cd, "Music for Church Year A" by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle.
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TEXT---
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Let us look to Jesus,
who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him,
endured the cross, 
disregarding its shame,
and has taken His seat
at the right hand of the throne of God.

13 Let Us Look To Jesus (1)

Happy Christmas, Day 4! On the western calendars, Dec. 28 is the feast of the Holy Innocents (on the eastern calendars, that feast will be kept on Dec. 29).
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Today's sound file is "On This Day, Let's Sing All Together", a Ukrainian carol which speaks of the Holy Innocents.  The Schola Csntorum of St. Peter's in the Loop recorded this on the cd, "Music for the Twelve Days of Christmas," which was published by the Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN
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On this day, let 's sing all together:
Christ the new-born King, praise for ever!
Let us sing! Praises ring!
Glory to God in the highest!
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Herod sought to murder the Christ Child,
Slaughtered children in his rage so wild.
Sent his men out again
Seeking the Savior wrapped in swaddling.
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Brothers, sister, praise God the Father
Who in wisdom saved Christ from rancor!
Christ the Lord ! God adored!
Born this day of the Virgin Mary!

Music For The Twelve Days Of Christmas

On This Day, Let'S Sing All Together

On the western calendar, Dec. 28 is kept as the feast of the Holy Innocents, babies martyred by the soldiers of King Herod in order to attempt to destroy the Christ child.
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Today's sound file is "Innocentes pro Christo," the Magnificat antiphon for Dec. 28. It was recorded by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop on the cd, "Music for the Twelve Days of Christmas, published by The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN. The precentrix is Evelyn F. Wagner.
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TRANSLATION OF TEXT---
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Then were innocent children slain
instead of Christ by a wicked ruler;
even the nursing babies were put to death.
Spotless, they follow the Lamb Himself,
and they say forever: Glory be to You, O Lord!

Innocentes Pro Christo

June 1 is, in both east and west, the feat of st. Justin Martyr, philosopher who witnessed to the truth of the Christian faith to the shedding of his blood. This is the Apostles' Creed, in "question-and-answer form" from the book "By Flowing Waters" edited by Dr. Paul F. Ford and published by The Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN.

By Flowing Waters: Chant For The Liturgy

Apostles' Creed In Question Form

The text "Priestly race, God's Delight" was written for the 150th anniversary of St. Peter's Church in the Loop, Chicago, IL.  The setting recorded here was written later by Jennifer Kerr Bredelove  and was recorded by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle on the (as-yet-unreleased) cd, "Music for Church Year C.  The organist if Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm, BSG.
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TEXT---
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In this year [alternate On this day]  
of glad thanksgiving
Bless we God, who calls us here,
Making of our many members
Christ's one Body, free from fear.
Priestly race, God's delight,
Praise our God who gives us light!
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We, the Church of God, now gather,
Sheep who hear the Shepherd's voice,
Join around the Word here spoken
And in Sacrament rejoice!
Priestly race, God's delight,
Praise our God who gives us light!
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Called by Christ to be His people
Through the Spirit's strength'ning pow'r,
We proclaim the Father's glory
And His love for us this hour.
Priestly race, God's delight,
Praise our God who gives us light!
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Giving thanks for years of service,
Let us focus on Christ's call;
Fed and nourished, let us go forth
Sharing Jesus' love with all:
Priestly race, God's delight,
Praise our God who gives us light!
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Praise our God, our strong salvation,
Father, Son, and Spirit blest;
We, a portion of Christ's Body,
Robed in His own righteousness.
Priestly race, God's delight,
Praise our God who gives us light!

Priestly race09

On Great and Holy Wednesday, THIS SELECTION OF STICHERA IS SUNG at Great Vespers.  The hymn at the end of this sequence is called the doxastikon (because it follows the singing of the Doxology, "Glory to the Father..."  It is the work of St. Kassiani the Nun, a monastic of the era of the Fathers.

(in Tone 1)
O Lord, I have cried to You, hear me.
Hear me, O Lord!
O Lord, Ihave cried to You, hear me!
Receive the voice of my prayer when I call upon You.
Hear me, O Lord!

Let my prayer ascend to You like incense
and the lifting up of my hands
like an evening sacrifice.
Hear me, O Lord!

(chanted verses)

Cantor: Let the watchman count on daybreak
              and Israel on the Lord.
Choir: The harlot recognized You, the Virgin's Son, as God.
She wept for her lamentable deeds and begged You:
Loose my debt as I unloose my hair.
Love me as I love You, though I deserve Your hatred;
and together with publicans I will acclaim You,
Benefactor and Lover of us all.

Cantor: Because with the Lord there is mercy & fullness of redemption,
             Israel indeed He will redeem from all its iniquities.
Choir:  The harlot mingled tears with the costly myrrh,
             poured it on Your immaculate feet and kissed them.
             At once You justified her,
so also grant pardon to us and save us.
O Savior, who suffered for our sake.

Cantor:  Praise the Lord, all you nations!
              Acclaim Him, all you peoples!
Choir:    While the sinful woman was bringing myrrh,
               the disciple was conspiring with the lawless.
               She rejoiced to expend the costly myrrh,
               while he hastened to sell the Priceless One.
               She recognized the Master,
               the Master from whom he drew away;
               she was freed, but Judas became the enemy's slave;
               how awful his callousness, how great her repentance.
               Grant us such repentance, and save us,
               O Savior who suffered for our sake.

Cantor:   Strong is the love of the Lord for us;
               He is faithful for ever.
Choir:      O the misery of Judas!
                He saw the harlot kiss Your feet,
                and he harbored plans to betray You with a kiss.
                She unbound her hair but he was bound with anger,
                 and bore, instead of myrrh, the stench of evil;
                 for envy does not choose its own advantage.
                 O the mystery of Judas!
                  Deliver our souls, O God, from the same.

Cantor, in Tone 8:
                  Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
                  Now and ever and forever. Amen.
Choir, the Hymn of St. Kassianu the Nun, in tone 8
                  The woman who had fallen  into many sins,
                  sensing Your divinity, O Lord,
                   assumed the myrrh-bearer's role and mourned,
                   preparing You with myrrh before Your burial.
                   She said: Woe is me, for gloomy moonlsess night
                   incites my unbridled desires and lust for sin.
                   You who draw down water from the clouds
                   accept the fountain of my tears.
                   Incline to the groaning of my heart
                   as You bowed the heavens when You emptied Yourself.
                   I will kiss Your immaculate feet
                   and wipe them with the hair of my head,
                   those feet whose steps Eve heard at dusk in Paradise
                   and hid herself in fear.
                   Who will search the multitude of my sins
                   or plumb the depths of Your judgments?
                   Do not despise me, Your servant, O Savior of my soul,
                   for Your mercy knows no measure.

Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Lamp-lighting Psalms and Stichera for Great & Holy Wednesday

Today's sound file is from a category I'm very proud of: an Eastern text set by a western composer. This text, "The One Who Clothes Himself With Light," is from the group of stichera (hymns) sung at the Litija (rogation procession) at Great Compline on the feast of the Theophany. The setting was written in 1992 by Chicago composer Brent Weiland for the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop, which recorded it on "Christmas Through Candlemas: Music for the Feasts of Light II". This cd was published by The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN (www.litpress org) in 1998. Paul Nicholson conducted this track. The setting is published just recently by GIA Publications, Bedford Park IL.

TEXT:
The One who clothes himself with light as with a robe
deigned for our sakes to become as we are.
Today he is clothed in the streams of the Jordan,
even though he has no need to be purified.
He refashions us through the cleansing that he receives.
What a marvelous wonder!
He creates anew, without fire,
and refashions without tearing apart.
He grants salvation to those enlightened by him:
Christ our God, the Savior of our souls.

18 The One Who Clothes Himself With

Sound track- The Passion Of The Christ

the passion of the christ(I am here)

Schola Cantorum of Saint Vincent Ferrer – New York City
James D. Wetzel, Director of Music and Organist

O salutaris hostia
James D. Wetzel (b. 1987)

O salutaris hostia, 
quae caeli pandis ostium: 
bella premunt hostilia, 
da robur, fer auxilium.

Uni trinoque Domino 
sit sempiterna gloria, 
qui vitam sine termino 
nobis donet in patria.  Amen.

O saving Victim, 
who opens the gate of heaven, 
hostile wars press on us:
your strength bestow, your aid supply.

To the Lord One in Three, 
may there be sempiternal glory; 
for life without end 
he gives to us in our homeland.  Amen.
~Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Recorded live during the Solemn Mass of Lent I at Saint Vincent Ferrer, 2021

Lent I, 2021

Wetzel: O salutaris hostia

Today's sound file is taken from the "Five Mystical Songs," poems by the Anglican priest-poet George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) set by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) This was recorded live in a concert entitled "Entertaining Angels Unaware" performed at St. Peter's in the Loop in Chicago in 1998 by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop and a chamber orchestra.  The conductor of the Five Mystical Songs in that concert was the assistant conductor of the Schola, Bart Bradfield, and the baritone soloist was Dr.  Bruce Cain.
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This is selected as today's sound file because the Gospel reading on Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter is John 14: 1-6, where Jesus says of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
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TEXT---
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The Call.
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
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Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
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Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.

18 The One Who Clothes Himself With

chanterMT

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