Possibly the best Mass I ever attended - today!

  • Thread starter Thread starter baltobetsy
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

baltobetsy

Guest
The Mass I attended today was possibly the most beautiful, meaningful ever in my (long) life. I was a member of the choir participating in the blessing and rededication of the recently rebuilt organs in the Cathedral.

We sang (as part of the Mass - with each movement in its proper place) the Solemn Mass in C#minor by Louis Vierne, which uses choir and two organs. We also sang *Cantate Domino *by Hans Leo Hassler and Harold Friedell’s Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether. As a recessional, we did a concertato on the hymn tune, “Thaxted,” arranged by Richard Proulx. That is the hymn, “O God Beyond All Praising.” It has a second verse in four parts that I have never heard before - I’ve only seen verses one and three in the hymnals. The second verse was gorgeous.

The Mass was celebrated by our newly-installed Archbishop, who is absolutely wonderful, and just what our archdiocese needs. He preached about the Gospel of the day, the story of the pharisee and the publican, about humility and awe before God in the temple, about music (quoting the Holy Father and Vatican II) and about the organ.

Everything about the Liturgy was perfectly executed as a result of the efforts of the very fine Master of Ceremonies, the associate pastor of the Cathedral parish (also my favorite and my confessor!). All the servers were teenage boys who are (I believe) part of a vocations awareness program in the parish.

I was participating as a guest, being a professional member of the choir of the Episcopal church up the street from the Cathedral. We have sung the Vierne Mass with the Cathedral choir a couple of times. I’ve been in that choir for nearly 20 years, so many of them are my good friends. I was proud to have them witness such a wonderful Liturgy today at “my place.”

So, are all you musician types drooling? What has been your best experience at Mass ever?

Betsy
 
Didn’t he celebrate ad orientem? What an abomination :rolleyes:

Just kidding, it sounds beautiful 🙂
 
That sounded beautiful and I’m very happy to hear that other dioceses are doing this kind of music. 😃

I’m not familiar with the Harold Fridell piece, but I’m well-acquainted with the rest. The Hassler is beautiful and the choir at the Cathedral where I attend and cantor for mass does that often during the year. The Proulx arrangement of the Holst piece is also done often for the larger Archdiocesan masses. You’re right, the second verse is gorgeous. We actually had that hymn used for our wedding (not the Proulx arrangement). It has a special place in my heart.

I never heard the Vierne live, so that must have been inspirational. Would loved to have been there to experience that.

You asked what has been our best experiences at mass. It’s hard to say. I guess one that stands out in my mind is a mass at the Brompton Oratory in London, England. My mother, grandmother and I were traveling in England and stayed in a hotel near the Brompton Oratory. Everything about it was so perfect and brought tears to my eyes. Music is a major part of my prayer and they did a Mozart mass with a choir that was sublime. What moved me as well was that in a place as huge as that, it was standing room only.

Another was a TLM for the Feast of the Assumption here in the States. Again, it was standing room only. Extremely reverent. There was a spiritual energy I don’t always experience. There was also a number of people I knew from other NO parishes, attending this. We were happily surprised to see each other there. The homily was one of the best I heard and the music and musicianship brought you to new spiritual levels.

But lastly, since having a new group of priests at our cathedral parish, I feel that almost every mass I attend there has been so filled with true reverence and love. Although the high masses are usually very good musically-speaking and the low masses just have simple hymns, it’s the reverence and humility that the priests exert when saying the mass which help make it a wonderful and holy experience. It’s such a breath of fresh air to have such pious men heading our Cathedral now. Having been cantoring there for about 6 years and being “behind the scenes”, getting to know the past resident priests and the current ones, I’d say these new appointments have brought a renewed positive, spiritual energy back there.
 
baltobetsy said:
So, are all you musician types drooling?
Click to expand...
http://bestsmileys.com/drooling/3.gif Yep, I’m drooling.

I can’t recall any truly outstanding Masses, but once, years ago, I was hired to sing for Easter at an Episcopal church. We did the Schütz “Jauchzet Dem Herren” in German as written, a cappella, with two antiphonal choirs. This church had a fine pipe organ, and they had hired a trumpet player to do hymn descants, etc. What a far cry from my parish church which has only a piano, and a choir which can’t sing a cappella anything more difficult than “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” sigh
 
baltobetsy said:
The Mass I attended today was possibly the most beautiful, meaningful ever in my (long) life. I was a member of the choir participating in the blessing and rededication of the recently rebuilt organs in the Cathedral.

We sang (as part of the Mass - with each movement in its proper place) the Solemn Mass in C#minor by Louis Vierne, which uses choir and two organs. We also sang *Cantate Domino *by Hans Leo Hassler and Harold Friedell’s Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether. As a recessional, we did a concertato on the hymn tune, “Thaxted,” arranged by Richard Proulx. That is the hymn, “O God Beyond All Praising.” It has a second verse in four parts that I have never heard before - I’ve only seen verses one and three in the hymnals. The second verse was gorgeous.

The Mass was celebrated by our newly-installed Archbishop, who is absolutely wonderful, and just what our archdiocese needs. He preached about the Gospel of the day, the story of the pharisee and the publican, about humility and awe before God in the temple, about music (quoting the Holy Father and Vatican II) and about the organ.

Everything about the Liturgy was perfectly executed as a result of the efforts of the very fine Master of Ceremonies, the associate pastor of the Cathedral parish (also my favorite and my confessor!). All the servers were teenage boys who are (I believe) part of a vocations awareness program in the parish.

I was participating as a guest, being a professional member of the choir of the Episcopal church up the street from the Cathedral. We have sung the Vierne Mass with the Cathedral choir a couple of times. I’ve been in that choir for nearly 20 years, so many of them are my good friends. I was proud to have them witness such a wonderful Liturgy today at “my place.”

So, are all you musician types drooling? What has been your best experience at Mass ever?

Betsy
Click to expand...
Baltimore?
 
I would have to agree with you… yesterday’s Mass was probably the best Mass I’ve ever experienced… only my second ever Mass of the extraordinary form and it was a Solemn High Mass in the celebration of Christ the King 🙂 🙂 🙂 … It was such a blessing… the choir was absolutely wonderful, the homily solid and inspiring (an unabashed attack on the evils of modernism and the necesity of good solid Catholic teachings in today’s world).

It was positively beautiful.
 
baltobetsy said:
The Mass I attended today was possibly the most beautiful, meaningful ever in my (long) life. I was a member of the choir participating in the blessing and rededication of the recently rebuilt organs in the Cathedral.

We sang (as part of the Mass - with each movement in its proper place) the Solemn Mass in C#minor by Louis Vierne, which uses choir and two organs. We also sang *Cantate Domino *by Hans Leo Hassler and Harold Friedell’s Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether. As a recessional, we did a concertato on the hymn tune, “Thaxted,” arranged by Richard Proulx. That is the hymn, “O God Beyond All Praising.” It has a second verse in four parts that I have never heard before - I’ve only seen verses one and three in the hymnals. The second verse was gorgeous.

The Mass was celebrated by our newly-installed Archbishop, who is absolutely wonderful, and just what our archdiocese needs. He preached about the Gospel of the day, the story of the pharisee and the publican, about humility and awe before God in the temple, about music (quoting the Holy Father and Vatican II) and about the organ.

Everything about the Liturgy was perfectly executed as a result of the efforts of the very fine Master of Ceremonies, the associate pastor of the Cathedral parish (also my favorite and my confessor!). All the servers were teenage boys who are (I believe) part of a vocations awareness program in the parish.

I was participating as a guest, being a professional member of the choir of the Episcopal church up the street from the Cathedral. We have sung the Vierne Mass with the Cathedral choir a couple of times. I’ve been in that choir for nearly 20 years, so many of them are my good friends. I was proud to have them witness such a wonderful Liturgy today at “my place.”

So, are all you musician types drooling? What has been your best experience at Mass ever?

Betsy
Click to expand...
Betsy, it sounds absolutely beautiful! I always loved the Cathedral, although I rarely get to visit anymore (living in South Florida, the commute is murder! :p).

New Archbishop?? What happened to Cardinal Keeler?
 
You mean you did not go to Charm City Cakes and have Duff create an organ out of cake that shoots sparklers?:confused:

You know I’m kidding, Bets- bravissima!!! STANDING O FOR YOU AND YOURS AND WHOLE ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE! May your good archbishop soon become cardinal archbishop. He is really a lovely person.
 
Mercygate - yes, Baltimore!

Judy - Cardinal Keeler reached age 75 in March of 2006 and submitted his resignation as required. He was injured in a car accident while he was in Rome a year or so ago and has had residual health problems ever since. The Holy Father accepted his resignation and sent us this most wonderful Archbishop. Praise God!

CarrieH - Our choir has done “Jauchzet Dem Herren” several times. It’s great fun. I think you can also do it with brass replacing the second choir.

Betsy
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top