After several days of truly glorious warm weather, it has turned cold, and a leaden sky hangs overhead as a chill wind howls through the yet leaf-barren trees.

In the Gregorian modes, mode II is haunting, austere and cold, reflecting the weather and reminding us that despite the fact that we've "turned the corner" on the season of Lent (with the passing of "Laetare Sunday"), we're now entering into the last weeks of the Passion of Our Lord.

Thanks to the generosity of a parishioner who paid the registration fee on my behalf, I was able to attend the Chant Workshop led by Wassim Sarweh, Music Director of St. Josaphat Catholic Church, Detroit. Mr. Sarweh is the "go-to guy" for the execution of chant in the Detroit/Windsor area, and rightly so. I'd not met him before today, but knew of him by reputation, and he lived up to every word I'd heard said about him. He is talented and knowledgeable, and at the same time humble and approachable. He very clearly loves the Church and her music tradition, and is eager to pass his knowledge and passion for it on to those who wish to join him in the work of advancing the music of the liturgy. Mr. Sarweh focused on the modes and how to avoid hearing them with 20th century ears. For instance, I'd always heard "Conditor alme siderum" in a major "key". But by applying an "ison" underneath the chant, one hears the haunting and almost mournful quality of the chant as would be more appropriate in Advent as the qualities of the mode were highlighted by the ison drone. I shall never again sing this Office hymn the same way.

The nearly all-day workshop included the celebration of the Extraordinary Form at the Church of St. Joseph in Detroit, one of the most amazing churches I've seen anywhere. Built in the Gothic style (with a distinctly German accent!), the church has been painstakingly preserved throughout the years, retaining the beauty of every aspect; the high altar and side altars, statuary, pulpit, organ, stations of the cross, every element beautifully preserved.

(Photos of the church can be viewed at my blog: "aviewfromtheloft(dot)blogspot(dot)com.")

Music, liturgy, art and architecture all came together exactly the way the Church envisioned, even throughout the "reforms" of the Second Vatican Council. This church, coupled with the Extraordinary Form and its music, prayed and executed with reverence and devotion, clearly demonstrate what the Holy Father has been calling for: a hermeneutic of continuity; a re-connecting with the unbroken tradition of 2000 years of development. And, oddly enough, even though the Mass was celebrated with "only" a priest, two altar "boys" (both adults), a full choir and cantor and only a small handful of people in the pews, this was no empty intellectual exercise. There was plenty of "full, active and conscious participation" on the part of all parties involved.