For scholas, it is a great pleasure when the celebrant sings as much of the Mass as possible. This ennobles the liturgy, inspires congregations to sing, and offers a vote of confidence to the place of music in the liturgy. The Mass can be sung in English or Latin or some combination. In fact, the rubrics have long specified that the sung Mass is the normative form: the rule rather than the exception. For priests hoping to learn Latin, singing provides a special and advantageous pedagogical benefit. New languages are generally easier to sing than say.

For this reason, the Schola strongly recommends this conference: Missa in Cantu: A Seminar in the Sung Mass for Celebrants, October 17-19, 2007, Chicago, Illinois. Every priest who aspires to sung the Roman Rite, new and old forms, should attend.

We’ve been captivated by this beautiful hymn for sometime, as a model of a postcommunion motet. A schola member has typeset both the original version by Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517) (download here) and the redone version by J.S. Bach. Which version do we like better? Depends on the week!

O Food of travellers, angels’ Bread,
Manna wherewith the blest are fed,
Come nigh, and with Thy sweetness fill
The hungry hearts that seek Thee still.

O fount of love, O well unpriced,
Outpouring from the heart of Christ,
Give us to drink of very Thee,
And all we pray shall answered be.

And bring us to that time and place
When this Thy dear and veiled face
Blissful and glorious shall be seen -
Ah Jesus, with no veil between.

For those celebrants who want to sing the Sign of Peace, here is the music and a sound file.

For priests who want to learn to sing the entire Mass in Latin, old form or new form, consider this marvelous seminar at St. John Cantius parish, Chicago Illinois: Missa in Cantu, October 17-19, 2007. The faculty is outstanding. It is two days toward a more wonderful liturgy.

In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.

• Summorum Pontificum (Latin)
• Explanatory Letter (English)
• Documents and Explanation from the USCCB

Here is a project that the St. Cecilia Schola was involved with from the very beginning: The communion antiphons with Psalms. We do them every week at our parish.