Thursday, August 02, 2018

Photos from the Recent BC Sacred Music Symposium

Our thanks to Mr Ryan Bjorgaard for sharing with us these photos and description of the liturgies celebrated during the Sacred Music Symposium recently held in British Columbia.

From July 20-22, Ss Joachim and Ann Parish in Aldergrove, British Columbia hosted the 1st BC Sacred Music Symposium; 106 participants gathered for a weekend of fellowship, practical workshops, lectures, presentations on different aspects of sacred liturgy, liturgical celebrations in both forms of the Roman Rite, all employing music from the great treasury of the Church’s sacred repertoire. The keynote speaker this year was Bishop Joseph Perry, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Being the first year we put this event on, the organizing team had no idea what kind of reception to expect, but we were amazed by the interest and enthusiasm of the participants, speakers, and volunteers.

Anyone who is interested can visit the website (bcsacredmusicsymposium.com) for more information, to see the full photo set, and for eventually for updates on the 2019 Symposium.

Friday Evening, July 20 - Opening Liturgy, Sung Vespers (EF) for the feast of St. Jerome Emiliani. 

The music was prepared by the Ss Joachim & Ann Parish Schola, under the direction of Mr Alex McCune, who also taught the beginner’s chant workshop. The repertoire included Giovanni Asola’s four part setting of the Iste Confessor, and Ravenello’s three part setting of the Magnificat.


Saturday July 21 - Vigil Mass of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (OF).

The Mass was celebrated ad orientem, as are all the Masses at Ss Joachim & Ann, with His Grace Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver as the principle celebrant. The schola chanted the full propers of the Mass from the Graduale Romanum, the readings were chanted in English by one of the seminarians of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, and the Ordinary of the Mass was William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices sung by by the local choral group Belle Voci, under the direction of Ms Paula DeWit.




Sunday July 22 - Closing Mass, Solemn Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool

The mass was celebrated by Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago; the music was sung by the symposium participants, who sang the full Gregorian propers and ordinary, and several polyphonic pieces, including Victoria’s Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Tallis’ O Salutaris, and Jeff Ostrowski’s setting of the Agnus Dei based on Allegri’s Miserere.








More recent articles:


On the Sanctification of Time
In “Processing through the Courts of the Great King,” I spoke of how the many courtyards and chambers of the King’s palace prior to his throne room, or the many precincts and rooms of the Temple leading up to the Holy of Holies, could be a metaphor of a healthy Catholic spiritual life that culminates in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but surrounds...

“Now About the Midst of the Feast” - Christ the Teacher in the Liturgy of Lent
Today’s Gospel in the Roman Rite, John 7, 14-31, begins with the words “Now about the midst of the feast”, referring to the feast of Tabernacles, which St John had previously mentioned in verse 2 of the same chapter. And indeed, the whole of this chapter is set within the context of this feast.The Expulsion of the Money-Changers from the Temple, th...

The Apple of Her Eye
“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. From the soil, the Lord God caused to grow every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen. 2, 8-9) This 17th century painting...

The Exposition of the Holy Lance at St Peter’s Basilica
The YouTube channel of EWTN recently published a video about the exposition of the Holy Lance at St Peter’s basilica on the first Saturday of Lent. This was formerly done on the Ember Friday, which was long kept as the feast of the Holy Lance and Nails, but since this feast is no longer observed, the exposition of the relic has been transferred to ...

The Feast and Sunday of St John Climacus
In the Byzantine liturgy, each of the Sundays of Lent has a special commemoration attached to it. The first Sunday is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy, because it commemorates the defeat of iconoclasm and the restoration of the orthodox belief in the use of icons; many churches have a procession in which the clergy and faithful carry the icons, as...

The Story of Susanna in the Liturgy of Lent
In the Roman Rite, the story of Susanna is read as the epistle of Saturday of the third week of Lent, the longest epistle of the entire year. This episode is not in the Hebrew text of Daniel, but in the manuscripts of the Septuagint, it appears as the beginning of the book, probably because in verse 45 Daniel is called a “younger man”, whic...

A New Edition of the Monastic Breviary Available Soon
The printing house of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in Brignole, France, Éditions Pax inter Spinas, is pleased to announce the re-publication of the two volumes of the last edition (1963) of the traditional Latin Monastic Breviary.The Breviary contains all that is necessary to pray the complete Monastic Divine Office of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, S...

A Mid-Western Saint from Rome: Guest Article by Mr Sean Pilcher
Thanks once again to our friend Mr Sean Pilcher, this time for sharing with us this account of the relics of a Saint from the Roman catacombs, which were brought to the cathedral of Dubuque, Iowa, in the 19th century. Mr Pilcher is the director of Sacra: Relics of the Saints (sacrarelics.org), an apostolate that promotes education about relics, and...

Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit - July 1–4, Menlo Park, California
You are cordially invited to the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit, which will be held from July 1-4, in Menlo Park, California!Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit gathers together Catholics who love Christ, the Church, and the Church’s sacred liturgical tradition for: - the solemn celebration of the Mass and Vespers; - insightful talks on...

A Lenten Station Mass in the Roman Forum
Today’s Mass is one of the series instituted by Pope St Gregory II (715-31) when he abolished the older custom of the Roman Rite, by which the Thursdays of Lent were “aliturgical” days on which no Mass was celebrated. The station appointed for the day is at the basilica of Ss Cosmas and Damian, which was constructed by Pope St Felix IV (526-30) in ...

For more articles, see the NLM archives: