I am disappointed to see the liberties taken with the celebration of Evening Prayer for Tuesday, April 21. One would think a more proper hymn could have been sung (especially with Fr. Weber's Hymnal for the Hours.) The antiphon for psalm 130 has been changed from the ICEL translation in the Liturgy of the Hours, the singing of the Philippians canticle is unusual, and the Magnificat antiphon is also odd. Finally, my biggest disappointment is the use of a metrical Magnificat that is copyright by the Lutheran Church in America instead of the ICET text found in the ICEL translation. With all of the resources out there for the proper singing of the Liturgy of the Hours in English, why were so many liberties taken?

Why sing For all the saints at a funeral vigil ?

[Edited by admin.]

My dad works in Chicago, and I told him to go to last night’s Solemn High Requiem Mass at SJC instead of the official liturgies...

The funeral booklet is now posted.

The funeral Mass music is quite good, IMO. If indeed Cardinal George selected a good portion of the music, he certainly had good tastes! The other related events: hit-and-miss (and the music therefore probably NOT selected by His Eminence).

Glad to see the Faure and Durufle requiems used as integral liturgical music for a major funeral, especially with strings! It's interesting to me that the Faure offertory had to be supplemented - it runs about 8 minutes. My own preference would be to just use the choral requiem, but at liturgies of this size there is just so much time to fill that even these major works aren't long enough.

The only thing that struck me as odd was the troped Kyrie - is it allowed for the cantor to take these tropes rather than the priest?

It is a pity that GIA is not living up to its name. Why Land of Rest when there were other, better settings? Why not make use of the talents of Adam Bartlett? Why female servers when they've got a seminary? Clearly, Archbishop Cupich had a hand in that last one. Cardinal George deserved better than what he got.

EWTN broadcasts a number of pontifical liturgies, particularly upon the installation of a bishop. I have watched some, and this was perhaps the best I have seen. Are we moving in a good direction, or is this exceptional?

Still, one could have expected more: 1) the archbishop clearly could sing, but didn't, except for two short spots required for participation. I remember Cardinal George singing a Latin Mass for the CMAA and singing it beautifully; I am sure he did as well in English. At least the archbishop could have sung the preface. 2) The use of the Fauré and Duruflé contributed some substantial music proper to a funeral, and a few short chant pieces added a bit; but, for the rest, the music didn't really distinguish the liturgy from any other kind of Mass.

If this direction could be expanded for future cathedral liturgies, one should take seriously the place of Gregorian chant, "principal place," according to the Constitution on the Liturgy. If the Ordinary movements of the Fauré or Duruflé are not to be used, then a minimum ought to be a chant ordinary. The lynchpin of a truly musical liturgy, though, is that the celebrant sings his parts: when this takes place, all the music falls into a beautiful whole. Without it, the music tends to be a heterogeneous collection of pieces sung in different styles by differing groups of musicians, set alongside various spoken elements.

We can pray (and work) for improvements along these lines.