Exaudi Domine, V Sunday after Pentecost

A great prayer exercise for those involved in sacred music is to meditate on the texts of the propers (the changing prayers of the Mass) using the chant.

The western chant repertoire of the Church is an amalgamation of chants belonging to the different western rites, the final corpus being delineated by Pope Gregory the Great in the late 9th Century- giving it the nickname ‘Gregorian Chant.’ It would be a mistake to think that this is the beginning of the chant repertoire- the same mistake as thinking that the Tridentine Mass originates from the Council of Trent which simply codified and standardised the Latin Rite which can be traced back to the Apostles. Continue reading “Exaudi Domine, V Sunday after Pentecost”

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

You will no doubt have sung this hymn already this year- we are half way through Advent already. This classic Advent hymn consists of the Magnificat Antiphons for the coming week leading up to Christmas. I’ll be posting about each of them individually so, in the meantime, enjoy this beautiful arrangement in Latin sung by the Gesualdo Six and the familiar English below.

The Church Fathers on The Good Samaritan

In a climate of increasing secularism and religious pluralism, the necessity of Catholicism is unclear to many. The parable of the Good Samaritan is commonly used to illustrate the Golden rule which is held as common to most religions: that we should treat others as we want to be treated ourselves. While this ethical interpretation is valid and laudable, the Saints and Fathers of the Church remind us that to care only for the temporal needs of others is to expect them to ‘live by bread alone’ and that physical wellbeing is only part of the way to spiritual restoration. I will attempt to demonstrate that this redemption is only possible through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ and this extended to all people in all ages by His Catholic Church.

Continue reading “The Church Fathers on The Good Samaritan”