Mass at St. Patrick's

[Jenny_Z]

I am so very jealous of the folks that got to be there

I listened to it on EWTN radio, just the sound of it all was moving… Vive il Papa!

 

[KatieD]

Absolutely beautiful. My husband, a Protestant seriously considering converting, stayed glued to the TV with me today watching this wonderful Mass from St. Patrick’s. And I agree with those who love the hymn “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” - when our choir directors can’t figure out why people don’t always sing, I’d like to tell them that it’s because we don’t often hear the beautiful hymns that most of us know from our childhood. This song brought tears to my eyes as I recalled singing it as a little girl.

 

[PatienceAndLove]

I am watching the recast of the Mass.
I noticed that as Papa was processing, the bodyguards were pushing people’s hands away. I hope they weren’t offended by that.
As for the welcome speech- Why wasn’t that before Mass started? And Papa looked a little comfortable with all the clapping. I know people are excited, but still!

 

[pnewton]

My mouse is acting up otherwise I would have quoted.

DiZent: the recessional was Holy God We Praise Thy Name. Forty years ago this was a hymm that every Catholic knew by heart. It brought tears to my eyes.

I missed the Mass, as I have been working all weekend. I use this hymn regularly during ordinary time. However, I would like to try something. What are some of the other songs used? If I could get enough that I know, maybe I could incorporate them into the next Mass I play at.

 

[MrS]

I had both EWTN and FOXNews on for coverage.

The Mass was wonderful. So much more so in peace and reverence that DC.

It was neat that the commentators at Fox were explaining what was happening so that non-Catholics would have a better understanding…like the meaning behind the use of incense with a scripture quote to support it. Very cool!!

I think that EWTN often assumes only Catholics are watching,so they already know all the rubrics, symbolism, etc. Unfortunately that is far from true.

 

[KatieD]

I also saw both Fox News and EWTN coverage. I cetainly knew that EWTN would have the extensive coverage of the Pope’s visit the way they did, but I also have to applaud Fox News. They have provided wonderful coverage of every aspect of his visit. And I agree with the comment that it was nice to have both Monsignor Lisante and Father Morris explaining things for those who may not understand everything going on during the Mass.

 

[Joannm]

I agree that FOXs coverage was very good and Msgr Lisante is very good at what he does. He has his own TV show you know.

We had our own diocesan TV station cover the events and their coverage and commentaries were EXCELLENT but the video and audio feed were not always good so I kept switching to FOX.

 

[Cobbfmly]

… As for the welcome speech- Why wasn’t that before Mass started?..

I think this was an issue of logistics and the Pope’s physical abilities.

I do not think it would have worked well for the Pope to come in, sit down and listen to the welcome mass and then go back and vest for the Mass. I don’t think what the Pope did before mass would have been as moving as the quiet procession in, the quiet praying before a statue of Mary (I am assuming the statue as I only saw him kneeling in prayer and not the statue), and lastly, proceeding quietly to the vestment room.

I also do not think the Pope had the stamina to stand at the back of the Cathedral for the welcome speech. I suspect that stamina was also the reason he did not stand when he gave his homily.

 

[salvereginadude]

I agree with all those who have posted already, it was simply wunderschon!

 

[brotherhrolf]

I am going to watch Fox this afternoon. Raymond Arroyo and Peggy Noonan just would not shut up this morning at Ground Zero.

 

[First_of_9]

I am going to watch Fox this afternoon. Raymond Arroyo and Peggy Noonan just would not shut up this morning at Ground Zero.

Same here. I turned them off when the commentary turned into a gripe session over security measures.

 

[benedictgal]

The music was incredible. I dare say that it was pretty up there with what the Austrians did when the Holy Father visited Vienna.

We have DirecTV. My father was watching the coverage from FoxNY and I was watching it on EWTN. He was watching it on high definition. My dad enjoyed the HD and the commentary. He was even calling his friends to have them watch the broadcast (although I had to remind my father that some folks don’t have DirecTV, let alone an HD set).

I guess the reason why EWTN wasn’t commenting too much on it (incidentally, some of the commentary actually came from the Vatican Radio staff–I think it was Chris Altieri) was because they wanted to not be a distraction during the Mass. Sometimes it can be a little frustrating when some of the Vatican Radio folks go a little bit on and on, especially during the music and you don’t get the full effect. However, I think that for the DC Mass, it would have been a lot better to hear the commentary than that horrid music.

Even though I wasn’t “there”, I experienced a sense of the divine from the live broadcast I managed to catch. Because we had a Pet Adoption drive (which is where I think I got my infamous Pink Eye), I only got to see most of it. From what I saw and heard, though, it was as though the veil between heaven and erth lifted and the divine majesty of God poured forth, filling the entire Cathedral. I also got the sense of that at the Yankees Stadium Mass.

 

[chicago]

Some of the musical selections for the cathedral Mass seemed overly operatic, big production performance pieces in nature which weren’t ideally suited for liturgical celebration.

 

[anamchara]

I had both EWTN and FOXNews on for coverage.

The Mass was wonderful. So much more so in peace and reverence that DC.

It was neat that the commentators at Fox were explaining what was happening so that non-Catholics would have a better understanding…like the meaning behind the use of incense with a scripture quote to support it. Very cool!!

I think that EWTN often assumes only Catholics are watching,so they already know all the rubrics, symbolism, etc. Unfortunately that is far from true.

CNN did a great job as well. They also had a priest, a Vatican analyst with commentary. I wouldn’t go near fox :nope:

 

[Spiller]

Gloria, Gloria in Excelsis Deo! I felt I was in Heaven! This Mass at St. Patrick’s was a profoundly reverent liturgy, I was in tears.
No words are needed to show the difference between the Heavenly Liturgy and the banale (DC)!

It’s very sad and inaccurate to refer to the Mass that the Pope celbrated in DC as “banal.”

 

[brotherhrolf]

It’s very sad and inaccurate to refer to the Mass that the Pope celbrated in DC as “banal.”

“I’m OK; you’re OK” is neither sad nor innacurate. Where was the Cajun “two step” mais cher? My French heritage was not celebrated nor my Irish, German, English or Scot. What we had was a blantant attempt by the publishers of OCP to promote their music. Ever heard any Mexican or Cuban baroque motets? They exist, by Our Lord they exist. So why do we have to listen to salsa or merengue when there are composers in both ethnic idioms who composed music to rival their contemporaries in Europe? Where was the “chank a chank”, Spiller? Ohhhhh!!! There was a Haitian there singing in French.

I’m supposed to be impressed? How many Haitians did we receive here in the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1793? And, mon Dieu, just how many Zulus that have immigrated and shouldn’t Swahili have been trumpeted?

No. What we had was a blatant attempt by a musical publishing house to advance their music. Where is the Cajun catalogue from OCP? Answer: there is none.

I am a Cajun. My ancestors came to Louisiana in the 1760s. We still speak French. But we never put our dance hall music into the music of HMC. We had composers who wrote music suitable for HMC in French and in Latin.

This “I’m OK; you’re OK” is cultural relativism. We are Catholics. Our ancestors sang in Latin. All of our ancestors. If I want to hear Cajun Dance Hall rhythms, I’ll go to the Grant St. Dance Hall in Lafayette. If I want to hear Jazz, I’ll go to any number of places in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

So here we sit, Spiller. I believe that I have a bona fide ethnic tradition which is not being exploited by OCP. Where’s the Cajun music my friend? Are we not to be introduced to the Holy Father? And, yes, mais cher, we wre not intruduced to JP II when he came to New Orleans in 87.

So, my friend, where do you draw the line? We’ve been here since the 1760s as well as our Mexican and Cuban brothers and sisters. We act like it is something new but it is not. There are French, Mexican and Cuban sacred polyphonic music. So why do we need to have sacro salsa, sacro merengue or sacro chank-a-chank?

 

[benedictgal]

It’s very sad and inaccurate to refer to the Mass that the Pope celbrated in DC as “banal.”

Spiller, I think that you are missing the point in the comments made by the poster. The Mass, itself is not banal; the music, however, was. In fact, the Holy Father, in Spirit of the Liturgy, uses the word banal to describe the kind of music that has infiltrated into our Church today:

***On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. ***“Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.

Those words are certainly applicable to the manner in which the music was performed. In fact, in the sample CD that OCP sent out with the Flor y Canto songbook (where Bienaventurados is found–one of the songs performed at the DC Mass), the musicians and singers perform this song with drums, keyboards and the like, rendering it the status of something you would hear at your local secular Latino radio station. The only piece that OCP placed in the CD sampler that was played with an organ and sung by a full choir was Amen, el Cuepo de Cristo. That was actually the only traditionl-sounded song in their whole aresenal of “new hits”. The manner in which the music is performed surely plays a big role. When Bienaventurados is sung with piano accompanyment, it is semi-decent, if not sub-par. However, when it is performed in the manner witnessed in the DC Mass, then, it becomes very problematic because it sounds like something that Mana, Gloria Estefan or Jon Secada would sing on a secular radio station.

 

[Jean_Anthony]

Please no discussion about the music done for the DC Mass. Stay on topic, everyone.

 

[mikeledes]

As a native New Yorker living in the Big Apple, I am very pleased with the job the Archdiocese of New York did in Saint Pat’s and Yankee Stadium. The music selection was excellent!

God Bless,
Michael