Catholic Fire

Lent is a season of spiritual renewal, a time of quiet contemplation on the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, a period of 40 days in which we enter into the desert to give our lives to the Lord to be transformed, just as He gave His own for us. Lent at Ephesus , the latest album by the monastic Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, certainly does inspire me to open up my heart to receive all the graces of this holy season. The heavenly voices of the Sisters and the words of their poignant chants and inspiring hymns of glory and redemption lift up the soul, promoting contemplation, as well as the peace and joy that accompany it. The 23-tract CD contains both English and Latin chants and hymns. My favorites include: “Jesus, My Love,” composed by Richard Rolle, a 14th century hermit; “God of Mercy and Compassion,” composed by Fr. Edmund Vaughn, a 19th century Redemptorist missionary, “Divine Physician,” a hymn written in 2012 by the Benedictines of Mary, and “Mother of Sor...

When I heard the beautiful voices on Songs for the Eucharist Ancient and New  for the first time, I immediately fell in love with them.  Their music is so refined that I thought that I must be listening to the chanting of cloistered nuns who have sung together daily for years, rather than a choir of young Catholic lay women who had been singing together for less than one year. The Schola Cantorum of Holy Family is just that impressive. Background  In December of 2012, Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, announced that there would be a weekly celebration of the Eucharist in the Extraordinary Form at Holy Family Parish in the city of Latrobe, with Father Daniel C. Mahoney, V.F., Pastor of Holy Family Church as his representative, and Father Ronald L. Cyktor, Jr. his assistant. Under their leadership, the Schola Cantorum of Holy Family was formed and began singing at the weekly Solemn High Mass on the First Sunday of Le...

O vos omnes -- Tenebrae Responsories -- (Tomás Luis de Victoria) Latin: O vos omnes qui transitis per viam: attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus. Attendite, universi populi, et videte dolorem meum.Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus. English Translation: O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see: If there be any sorrow like to my sorrow. V. Attend, all ye people, and see my sorrow: If there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.

Andre Rieu and company playing the Blue Danube. Watch it to the end, as it just might make you laugh.