Clik here to view.
Dear Denys: Why won’t men join the parish choir?
Dear Denys: I am a choir director in a thriving suburban parish. Our choir is large and it always sounds great. You should hear our full-on, organ-plus-orchestra rendering of “Mass of Creation”–it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Take it outside…
A reader sends in the following from a recent parish bulletin: There will be an outdoor 9:15 am “overflow” Easter Mass this year. This Mass will have a full contemporary music group outside for those...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Playing Peek-a-Boo with the Cantor
I am blessed with 6 beautiful children, each of whom has on occasion held more attention from the folks in the pews behind them than the celebrant. When the eldest of these kids was scarcely two we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“My Lord and My God” – Timeless Words of Humility Before the Eucharist
When I was a little girl, my mother carefully taught me to bow my head immediately after gazing upon the True Body and Blood of Christ, elevated at the moment of Consecration. As I bowed, she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dear Denys: International Edition
Dear Denys, My husband and I are only recently arrived in Phoenix from a large central European country, one in which homeschooling is criminalized but prostitution and hashish are not. We have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Holding Hands During the Our Father, and Other Liturgical (or Not So...
WARNING: This is likely to annoy and/or offend anyone and/or everyone at some point. Just thought I’d get that out of the way. As a sacristan at my local parish, I enjoy a unique view of things....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nihil Sub Sole Novum … Unless, of Course, It’s New to Me
Earlier this week Magnificat sent me an e-mail advertising their new “Magnificat Pew Cards,” which contain all the responses for the new translation of the Mass. They appear to be well done, and I plan...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In the Liturgy We Must Learn to “Waste Time for the Sake of God”
“The liturgy has no purpose, or, at least, it cannot be considered from the standpoint of purpose. It is not a means which is adapted to attain a certain end—it is an end in itself. This fact is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The ‘Simple English Propers’—a Sacred Music Revolution?
A parish music director in Phoenix has recently completed a major project in the renewal of sacred music, one that could have a revolutionary impact upon the celebration of the Ordinary form of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Did not our hearts burn within us?” Memorable Strangeness and the New...
It has become axiomatic to the study of modern literature that the work of James Joyce, a bitter apostate from the Catholic faith, who infamously refused his dying mother’s wish that he would kneel and...
View Article