Mass with Cardinal George

Mass with Cardinal George this morning at the Sacred Music Colloquium, Loyola University, was certainly one of the most ideal cases of the ordinary form in Latin that I've ever experienced. Men's and women's scholas sang all the propers, in addition to motets by Victoria and Palestrina, some amazing organ improvisations by Horst Buchholz, the ordinary Mass IV sung from the first to the last, and concluding with Ut Queant Laxis for the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Cardinal George's homily emphasized the interesting calendar position of this feast, and the very mid point of the year when the days begin to grow shorter and the nights longer -- just as St. John said that he must decrease and the Lord increase. In the same way, we must be humble toward the Catholic liturgy -- letting it increase and own personalities and egos decrease, a point which applies to priests and musicians and everyone. In particularly he said that sacred music has the character of deferring to the Mass in every way, never dominating or charting its own course apart from the sacred rites.