Above: Silverstream Priory from the website. This past fall I’ve enjoyed reading two little books published by the good monks of Silverstream Priory. The first, Letters to a Soul, consists of fifty-five short letters of spiritual direction written by Dom …
Category: Culture
On Singing Gregorian Chant Artfully (Part 1)
This week and next, I will share practical and speculative points on singing Gregorian chant well that I have learned by leading scholas, by participating in them, and by listening to masters discuss what they do and why. My points …
Forgotten Customs of the Octave of Christian Unity
Above: the young Rev. Lewis Thomas Wattson. That all may be one: as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. (John 17:21) Known as the “Octave of Christian Unity” as …
The French Catholic Poet of our Times
Above: French street sign in Maisons-Alfort. One hundred and fifty years ago today, on January 7, 1873, “a unique man of letters, and unclassifiable writer” was born in Orléans, north-central France: Charles Péguy. This is how Bernard Guyon († 1975) …
A Spoonful of Honey
Four hundred years ago tomorrow, on December 28, 1622 a great teacher of the spirituality, and the patron Saint of journalists and of the Catholic press, died in Lyon, east-central France: St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the …
The Maestro of St. Pius X
Tomorrow marks one hundred and fifty years since the birth, which took place in Tortona, a town in northwestern Italy, on December 21, 1872, “of the great, unforgettable Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi, who was music director of Our Sistine Chapel. […]”, …
New Album of Rare Sacred Music from TLM Choir
Above: the Victoria Consort at Winchelsea Church. Photo by Kt Bruce. Following on my recent theme of good news and the positive effects of entrepreneurial Catholicism so often seen in traditional circles, I bring you The Victoria Consort. Conducted by …
The Catholic Standard of Music in the Age of Revolution
Above: the tomb of César Franck in Paris. Today is the bicentenary of the birth, which took place in Liège, in eastern Belgium, on December 10, 1822, of a composer and organist who, having lived almost always in Paris, was …
Forgotten Customs of the Immaculate Conception
Above: the traditional Baile de los Seises in Spain for the Immaculate Conception. The feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception is the most solemn of all those which the Church celebrates during the holy time of Advent; and …
The “Magna Carta” of The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music Celebrates 100 Years
One hundred years ago, on November 22, 1922, the new Pope Pius XI († 1939) issued the motu proprio Ad musicæ sacræ restitutionem, with which he set up what is now the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Although …