These are samples of manuscripts of chant we learned to read this summer. I found a facsimile of the Laon 239 manuscript on sale on the Solemnes website so I ordered it. My Graduale is now filled with pencil markings where the later Solemnes notation differs from the 10th century manuscript

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As much as I mistrust CWN normally I really appreciated reading Michael Obash's description of the state of Catholic Church Music. (Thanks, RC, for the link). I heard a fuller description this yesterday on the ride down to Lafayette for the recording. Michael and I were both cantors on the recording, and he stands next to me, on my left, in the picture of the schola.

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The CD project is finished. What a day! What fun! We are tired but thrilled.

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....say a little prayer for me tomorrow. I am asked to cantor one of the more intricate, difficult and most beautiful passages in the entire Gradual. The Messine Paleography is quite beautiful, but quite a turn of the vocal chords. The Improperia from Good Friday is probably one of the oldest pieces of chant we have, since some of it is still in Greek. I am a bit amazed that Fr. Heiman has put this kind of trust in me.

No blogging until I get back to Chicago late Wednesday.

Thursday is the Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood in our community Ordo

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Practice, practice, practice.

Tomorrow we record a new CD of Lenten and Triduum Chants.

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Click on the Picture of the new Fr. Jeff Kirch giving me the sign of peace at his recent ordination. That should take you to the rest of the pictures of his ordination weekend.

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It is not everyday you get to celebrate liturgies like this, but here we are five days into this chant workshop and the liturgies have been pretty special. This music is definitely made for prayer. I had never sung Mass IX before and it is exceptionally beautiful.

Fr. Lawrence Heiman, C.PP.S.

Fr. Larry Heiman, CPPS is a treasure. He is 86, and getting a bit frail, but when he conducts the chant he has the energy of a youth. He embodies the prayer and is a wonder to observe.

Today he chanted the entire liturgy. It was my privilege to assist him, and to preach.

Here is the music for today, for the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. Most of the music came from the feast day as it is found in the Proper oif Saints in the Graduale Romanum.

Introit: De Ventre, Graduale Romanum(GR) 570
Sign of the Cross, Chanted, Sacramentary
Kyrie: Mass IX, GR
Gloria: Mass IX, GR
Collect and Orations for the Feast, chanted
Psalm: Lectionary Text chanted in 7th Mode
Alleluia: Alleluia, Tu Puer, GR 571
Credo III
Sanctus: Mass IX
Eucharistic Prayer II, chanted, Sacramentary
Mortem Tuam, GR
Amen: Chant, Sacramentary
The Lords’s Prayer, chant
Agnus Dei, Mass IX
Communion, Tu Puer, GR 572
Ite Missa Est, Chanted, Mass IX

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This Saturday, June 26th, at 10:30 in the morning (CST), Rev. Mr. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop William Higi in the chapel of St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, Indiana.

Please join me in praying for Jeff as he furthers his baptismal commitment to following Jesus as a priest and member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. If you would like to drop a note of support and congratulations to Jeff you can do so in the comment box.

For his first assignment the new Fr. Jeffrey Kirch has been appointed to serve in Campus Ministry at St. Joseph’s College and as part-time faculty member.

We pray that through his ministry as a priest Jeff may always follow the example of servant leadership which has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ and the outpouring of His Precious Blood.

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The Mission Cross

Fr. Ron Wiecek, CPPS, Provincial Director, presents the Mission Cross to Steve

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This is an article once published in Precious Blood Family. It is posted for the Feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More celebrated tomorrow.

Echoes Through the Centuries

Devotion to the blood of Christ is the fount from which all other devotions spring. No devotion is more fundamental. And we find this truth echoing through the Centuries.

There are some remarkable echoes we see in the life of St. Gaspar when reading the story of St. John Fisher. John Fisher was a martyr in 1535, a contemporary of St. Thomas More. Their feast is celebrated together on June 22.

Refusing the Oath

On June 13, 1810 St. Gaspar was brought before the magistrate to profess an oath of allegiance to Napoleon. "I would rather die or suffer evil than to take such an oath. I cannot. I must not. I will not," was the now famous reply, echoing the strength of confessors of the Faith from Jesus before Pilate to the present day. St. Gaspar spent the next four years in a variety of prisons.

John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester, a friend and teacher of Henry VIII. When Henry decided to separate the church in England from the Church of Rome, many of the other bishops signed an oath in support of Henry’s action. John Fisher refused and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

John Fisher was born in 1469 in Yorkshire. John's father Robert Fisher was a mercer, a merchant of fine cloth. In 1482 or 1483, when he was 13 or 14, John Fisher's mother sent him off to the University of Cambridge. The School where John Fisher studied had a strong theological orientation. John completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1488 and his Master of Arts degree in 1491. After ordination he began the long course of studies for a doctorate in theology, which we was awarded in 1501 commencing an impressive academic career. He was so respected by other scholars that they named him chancellor for life, a rare honor. In 1504, King Henry VII nominated John Fisher to be the bishop of Rochester, a post he held for 30 years.

Despite his duties at Cambridge and in London, Fisher was tireless in the service of his diocese. It is noteworthy that Fisher was content to remain bishop of Rochester, when he could have easily secured appointment to a richer and more prestigious diocese. John Fisher's steadfast service and his personal prayer were noted by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo of Milan, now also a saint, when he sought to describe how a bishop should live. Like Gaspar, Fisher was concerned with the theological education and formation in preaching available to diocesan priests.

In the first three months of 1534, in a short space of ten weeks, Parliament passed a number of acts that asserted the king's power over the bishops and set in motion the Reformation in England. All the King's subjects of full age were required to take an oath to the whole arrangement. On April 13, 1534, Fisher was summoned to appear in London to take the required oath. He refused the oath and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Sir Thomas More and a number of other priests were summoned and imprisoned on the same dates.

Throughout their imprisonment, Fisher and More were quite specific in their resistance to the oath. Pope Paul III, created John Fisher a cardinal on May 20, 1535. Henry flew into a rage when he received the news and demanded that Fisher and More's jailers quit stalling. John Fisher was brought to trial on June 17th. There was no doubt that Fisher was guilty as charged. On June 22, 1535, John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill, outside the city gates. His head was stuck on a pike on London Bridge, reminiscent of the actions Gaspar complained about when the papal armies worked against the bandits of Sonnino in his own time.

Devotion to the Blood

The focus of Fisher's preaching, reinforced by a rich collection of scriptural quotations, is the mercy and love of God. Fisher presents a number of grounds for the sinner's confidence in the mercy of God, but the preeminent one is clearly the blood of Christ. "By the effusion of his holy blood, [he] has given so great efficacy and strength to the holy sacraments of his church, that when we receive any one of them, we shall be sprinkled and made clean by the virtue of his precious blood." The selection for the Office of Readings for Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent is from this series of sermons.

In a sermon preached on Good Friday (the year cannot be determined) Fisher presents an extended metaphor of the crucifix as a book, a summary of "the very philosophy of Christian people. He draws on the scriptures from the Good Friday Liturgy of his day, on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, and on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The crucifix is a universal book, which Christian women and men in all states of life and circumstances can read.

Generations later we find an echo in the life of St. Gaspar as he writes to his brother missionaries in his eighth circular letter:

“Jesus the Savior ardently desires to remind us to be recollected during the retreat and to read the great book of the Cross that we may acquire heavenly wisdom for the sanctification of ourselves and others. But, my dearly beloved, what do we read in the wounds of Jesus Crucified if not this, that Christ is the mystic rock struck with the staff of the Cross: “When he struck the rock, waters gushed, torrents streamed out.”

Gaspar's Second Circular Letter also recommends the crucifix as the book for the missionaries to read.

Also in his preaching, Fisher was devoted to the seven blood sheddings of Jesus, drawing on the same font of spirituality that would touch the life of Francesco Albertini and St. Gaspar centuries later.

Every age, every generation, is called to know the riches of God’s mercy found in the Precious Blood of Jesus. Now in our Family of Saints we have a friend from England who is witness for us of this devotion. May we be as fearless as this noted scholar and preacher in defending the faith in our own day.

Sources

“Companion to the Calendar” Mary Ellen Hynes, Liturgy Training Publications, 1993

“Saint John Fisher”, E. E. Reynolds. The University of Glasgow Press, revised edition, 1972.

“The Works and Days of John Fisher,” Edward Sturz, S.J. Harvard University Press, 1967.

“Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of Bishop John Fisher,” edited by Brendon Hanshaw and Eamon Duffy, Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Precious Blood Companion Maureen Lahiff served as research assistant on this article

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from Indiana. It is summertime here, and getting Internet access was quite an adventure especially as I had all these files I needed to forward to people in Rome and California.

Chant workshop is going well. I will sing the liturgy this evening. More later.

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unpack, do laundry, repack. Greetings from Chicago. Today is the drive to Rensselaer, Indiana where I will stay until June 30.

It is time for Jeff Kirch's Ordination, and for the Chant Institute.

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It is wrap up time. There is a council meeting this morning, finish some laundry and packing, and a flight to Chicago.

Tomorrow is the drive to Indiana. It is time to go to school again.

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Steve makes his Definitive Incorporation this evening. Other religious communities refer to this as final vows. In the mIssionaries of the Precious Blood we celebrate his life long commitment to and incorporation into the community.

Father in heaven,
source of all holiness,
creator of the human race,
your love for us was so great
that you gave us a share in your own divine life.
Neither the sin of Adam
nor even the sins of the whole world
could alter your loving purpose.

In the dawn of history
you gave us Abel as an example of holiness.
Later, from your beloved Hebrew people
you raised up men and women
graced with every virtue.

Foremost among them all stands Mary,
the ever-virgin daughter of Zion.
From her pure womb was born Jesus Christ,
your eternal Word, the Savior of the world'.

You sent him, Father, as our pattern of holiness.
He became poor to make us rich,
a slave to set us free.
With love no words can tell
he redeemed the world by his paschal mystery
and won from you the gifts of the Spirit
to sanctify his Church.

The voice of the Spirit has drawn
countless numbers of your children
to follow in the footsteps of your Son.
They leave all things
to be one with you in the bonds of love
and give themselves wholly to your service
and the service of all your people.

Look with favor, then,
on the one who has heard your call.
Send him the Spirit of holiness;
help him to fulfill in faith
what you have enabled him to promise in joy.
Keep always before his eyes Christ, the divine teacher.

May he build up the Church
by the holiness of his life,
advance the salvation of the world,
and stand as a sign of the blessings that are to come.
Lord, protect and guide this servant of yours.

At the judgment seat of your Son
be yourself his great reward.
Give him the joy of vows fulfilled.
Made perfect in your love,
may he rejoice in the communion of your saints
and praise you forever in their company.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

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Congratulations to the Precious Blood Companions who have renewed their Covenant with the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. They are pictured here after the ceremony in St. Barnabas Church last night with their director, Fr. James Sloan, CPPS.

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The annual Business and Electoral Assembly of the Pacific Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood begins tomorrow in Alameda, CA. As Provincial Secretary I will be typing furiously over the next few days keeping the minutes of the assembly. The last few days have been spent preparing the final details of the liturgies. I am also the community liturgist, among other jobs I have.

Tuesday is for reports. Wednesday is a day of enrichment for the community and our lay companions. On Wednesday night the Campanions renew their covenant with us. Thurday is for more business and for the Definitive Incorporation (Life-long commitment) of Steve Dos Santos.

Please keep us in your prayers.

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I decided for youth, inexperience, and evident talent. I also hired a team.

Allen del Rosario is the new Director of Music Ministry for St. Eward Parish.
Alexander Katsman will remain as assistant director and will conduct the choir.

Alex is an accomplished Vocal Coach working in local Musical Theater, San Francisco and San Jose. He has been assistant director and principal accompanist here at St. Edward for fourteen years. He was the choir's choice because they know and love him. He has limited experience with liturgical repertoire but he is willing to learn.

Allen is an organ student and a third years student at San Jose State University in Choral Conducting. He is a part time music minister at another parish at the moment. In the interview, when I asked him about his experience with Gregorian Chant, he said it was not permitted at his current position. Allen was strongly recommended by the current pastor.

In the choice between experience or potential, I decided for potential. Music ministers at the parish who have spoken with me are delighted with the choices as both of these men are well known to them.

The new music ministry team begins with me on August 1st.

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The Holy Father has announced a Year of the Eucharist.

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Today is the 50th anniversary of the Canonization of St. Gaspar del Bufalo.

There will be a triple celebration tomorrow at St. Edward Parish, Newark, CA celebrating the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, The 50th anniversary of St. Gaspar's Canonization, and the 25th anniversary of the presence of the Precious Blood Missionaries at St. Edward. I will also be introduced as thir new pastor.

Bishop John Cummins, retired Bishop of Oakland will preside. The Homilist will be the Very Rev. Ronald Wiecek, C.PP.S., Provincial Director.

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My prayer journal this morning has the following question:

Experience or potential?

I have whittled the the list down to five, and I hope to appoint a music director by Monday.

People with great experience and talent seem to come with a lot of baggage, an agenda they wish to impose, and a negative experience from a former employment. I have some compassion for this perspective simply because I have some negative experiences from past employments, and of course, I have a vision and some hope for the future of music ministry here. The problem is that I do not detect in these people a desire to become a part of the community and get to know the people before making huge changes.

On the other hand there are two applicants who have no experience, some evident talent, and indication of great potential. They are both in their early 20s.

I discovered a new blog today He has not sent his resume, but seems to be tempted by the prospect. It is getting late and if the interview and audition does not happen before Monday, there is no chance to become part of the process.

Prayers appreciated.

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Meetings with the current pastor of St. Edward, with the Executive Team of the Pastoral Council, interviewing candidates for the musician's job, all in all, very busy days.

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Packing up the computer, heading to California. Please pray for the safe journey of all traveling to Fresno Retrouvaille.

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Suddenly, you know just where to find that passaage. Oh, all the books are in boxes, 41 boxes.

Ever heard of a needle in a haystack?

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Fr. Larry Heiman has announced the list of the chants for the summer recording of the Schola Speciale. All the selections are from the Graduale Triplex

Invocabit me
Scapulis suis
Tibi dixit
Visionem
Oculi mei
Qui biberit
Laetare
Ioportet
Iudica me
Nemo te condemnavit
Hosanna
Procedamus
In nomine
Pueril
Gloria, laus
Ingrediente
Christus factus est
Paterl
Nos autem l
Ubi caritas l
Pange lingua
Ecce lignum
Venite
Popule meus
MASS XVIIC

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All the major packing is done. I still have stacks of work sitting here, but the road is calling.

June 2, Cubs and Astros, Going Away Dinner
June 3, Graduation
June 4-7 Fresno, CA
June 7-18 San Leandro, CA
June 19-30, Rennselaer, IN
July 1 Return to Chicago
July 1-7 My favorite, paying bills, balancing books, making reports
July 6, Movers Come
July 7- VACATION
July 7-10 Destination undecided
July 11-18 Houston, TX
July 19-23 Phoenix, AZ
July 24, Cinncinati, OH (Work intrudes)
July 25, Chicago, begin drive to California
August 1, New Pastorate begins

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Steve has been a great help. We packed over 33 boxes of books the other day and to day is the art and incidentals.

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