Corpus Christi at St. Thomas

Today, once again, I was struck by how fortunate I am to be part of St. Thomas Aquinas parish and the exquisite "Gregorian" Masses celebrated there every Sunday. The St. Ann Choir sang the Missa Pange Lingua by Josquin des Prez and the motet Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd. The congregation joined in with gusto for the responses of the Ordinary (no lack of "full and active participation" here!). The Mass finished with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament that took us through St. Thomas' memorial garden, out onto Homer Avenue (singing the plainchant Pange Lingua), and back in the Waverley Street entrance of the church.

You can always get them back

How perennial sin is! The more history I read, the more it seems that there's hardly any evil in our modern world that the Church hasn't had to tackle many times already, in its past.

One of the most telling moments in C. S. Lewis' Narnia books comes in Prince Caspian, when a ghostly old woman hears the Narnians refer to the White Witch, who appeared to have been killed at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She scoffs: "[W]ho ever heard of a witch that really died? You can always get them back."

And we do.

So glad to be back at St. Thomas!

I was in Sacramento for a couple of weekends recently, and so had to find a Mass on those Sundays. I wasn't too worried, because it had seemed to me that Sacramento was a lot saner, liturgically, than here near San Jose.

Boy, was I wrong.

Or maybe I ended up at those places so I could better appreciate the incredible gift we're enjoying at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Today at St. Thomas

Sung by the St. Ann Choir at St. Thomas Aquinas today:

Lassus, Domine, labia mea aperies
Palestrina, Domine, quando veneris

In contrast to all the other my other earlier posts listing the Choir's selections, I'm now reporting from behind the scenes: I joined the Choir this week! It's a challenge, I have to say, since it's been many years since I've sung Renaissance music and I'm not as familiar with its harmonic patterns as I once was; and I can tell that reading Gregorian Chant is going to take plenty of getting used to. But this first outing was mighty nice, nonetheless.