Sursum Corda: The Youth Classical Schola

Last Saturday before the historic Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine, I had the honor of directing the children's schola which chanted during Bishop Slattery's vesting. The schola combined my own Alexandria, VA, St. Louis Church's Youth Classical Schola and the Chorus from St. Ann's Academy in DC. In the weeks leading up to the Mass, I spent a good deal of time on the road, rehearsing with St. Ann's, to produce a unified sound.

The children sang Veni, Creator Spiritus, Adoro Te devote, and Regina caeli. I think they sang their best--which, many say, is beautifully--and under challenging circumstances.

The event was marked with controversy and strife. The originally planned celebrant did not say the Mass, for reasons that have been widely publicized. From my perspective, the Mass had certain less-than-optimal earmarks of any inaugural event. There were little glitches here and there, and some problems communicating. My guess is the communication issues had most of all to do with everyone's relative uncertainty. It is difficult to do something complex and new, because there is no established routine. Meanwhile, everyone's goodwill and effort was evident, and the pleasure of collaboration can make little glitches seem unimportant. The second time will be much easier, and, God willing, under much less public pressure and scrutiny.

From the time when the discussions of my schola's involvement first began, the organizer who was my principle contact spoke of his strong sense that children's voices would be essential at this Mass. While I agreed, I had no idea at the time that his sense would turn out to be quite so prophetic and urgent. Given the publicity, and given the scale of the atrocity of crimes that have been committed against children, the sweet sound of children's singing, which always lifts my heart, can be a balm for all of us. Their pact with the Church, after all, is unbroken. They are safe, they serve, they learn. Our experience in working together has been not only positive but joyous, a microcosm of the excellent ecclesiology of Catholicism as it is played out in so many ways around the world.

I hope that joy was evident in their sound.

Adoration, the Angelic Doctor, and Adoro Te Devote

Here is one terrific homily, preached by my friend Fr. John Corbett, OP, a Dominican priest in Washington, DC.

It is on the one hand a reflection on St. Thomas Aquinas, on the occasion of his Feast Day, January 28. St. Thomas was a Dominican friar too, and the seminary/ graduate school where this homily was preached teaches with a special emphasis on the works of St. Thomas.

However, this homily is as much about praise as it is about theology. I think it's worth a listen!

With all the powers my poor Heart hath

The Adoremus Hymnal contains an abbreviated version of Richard Crashaw's unusually free, unusually brilliant translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' hymn to the Eucharist, Adoro Te Devote.


With all the powers my poor Heart hath
Of humble love and loyal Faith,
Thus low (my hidden life!) I bow to Thee
Whom too much love hath bowed more low for me.
Down down, proud sense! Discourses die!
Keep close, my soul’s inquiring eye!
Nor touch nor taste must look for more
But each sit still in his own Door.

Your ports are all superfluous here,
Save that which lets in faith, the ear.
Faith is my skill. Faith can believe
As fast as love new laws can give.
Faith is my force. Faith strength affords
To keep pace with those powerful words.
And words more sure, more sweet, than they,
Love could not think, truth could not say.

O let Thy wretch find that relief
Thou didst afford the faithful thief.
Plead for me, love! Allege and show
That faith has farther, here, to go,
And less to lean on. Because then
Though hid as GOD, wounds writ Thee man.
Thomas might touch; none but might see
At least the suffering side of Thee;
And that too was Thy self which Thee did cover,
But here even that’s hid too which hides the other.

Sweet, consider then, that I
Though allowed nor hand nor eye
To reach at Thy loved face; nor can
Taste Thee GOD, or touch Thee MAN,
Both yet believe; and witness Thee
My LORD too and my GOD, as loud as He.
Help, Lord, my faith, my hope increase;
And fill my portion in Thy peace.
Give love for life; nor let my days
Grow, but in new powers to Thy name and praise.

O dear memorial of that death
Which lives still, and allows us breath!
Rich, royal food! Bountiful BREAD!
Whose use denies us to the dead;
Whose vital gust [taste] alone can give
The same leave both to eat and live;
Live ever Bread of loves, and be
My life, my soul, my surer self to me.

O soft self-wounding Pelican!
Whose breast weeps Balm for wounded man.
Ah this way bend Thy benign flood
To a bleeding Heart that gasps for blood:
That blood, whose least drops sovereign be
To wash my worlds of sins from me.

Come love! Come LORD! and that long day
For which I languish, come away;
When this dry soul those eyes shall see,
And drink the unsealed source of Thee,
When glory’s sun faith’s shades shall chase,
And for Thy veil give me Thy FACE. Amen.

Found among the excellent hymns here.

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

Sequence of the Mass: Lauda, Sion ("Sion, Lift Thy Voice And Sing")

Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem,
Lauda ducem et pastorem
In hymnis et canticis.
Quantum potes, tantum aude:
Quia major omni laude
Nec laudare sufficis.

Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King;
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Dare thy most to praise Him well;
For He doth all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.

More

And, as sung by the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey