Greetings, CMAA community! Laudetur Jesus Christus!

This is my first post in the forums, although I have long benefitted from reading others' thoughts in the discussions here. I am a seminarian at St. Patrick's Seminary in California, where we are blessed with the presence of Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB on our faculty. Previously, I was in formation with the Discalced Carmelite friars, who pray these "Carmelite Family Prayers" every night after Vespers. Since discerning the Lord's call to diocesan priesthood, I have continued that practice on my own as a way of remaining in spiritual communion with the Carmelite Order. Since I often like to pray sung Vespers, however, I began ad libbing chant versions of these four prayers to follow the chanted office more naturally.

The chants I came up with are based on the Gregorian psalm tones (for example, you will see the chanted prayer to St. Teresa borrows the incipit from tone seven), but have become more complex than simply singing the text to a psalm tone, which would bore one to tears over many repetitions!

After about a year of singing these chants in various permutations, I have finally sat down and attempted to write them out. In doing so, I edited and refined them a bit, but they may still be a little rough around the edges (especially the one to St. Teresa— after much work it still strikes me as a bit awkward to read and sing). I would greatly appreciate any improvements you all might suggest. This is my first composition project.