Priest celebrating the traditional Latin Mass at the church of St Pancratius, Rome / Thoom/Shutterstock
Vatican City, Dec 18, 2021 / 04:36 am (CNA).
The Vatican issued Saturday further strict guidelines on the celebration of the Traditional Lat… […]
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Charleston, South Carolina / Bill Kennedy/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 22, 2021 / 16:12 pm (CNA).
Priests in the Diocese of Charleston, S.C. may no longer administer confirmation or the anointin… […]
Editor’s note: The following is a response to Cardinal Blase J. Cupich’s essay “Pope Francis’ Latin Mass reforms are necessary to secure Vatican II’s legacy”, published by America magazine on Nov. 10, 2021. Cardinal Cupich […]
Archbishop Arthur Roche at a Vatican press conference on Feb. 10, 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Vatican City, Nov 16, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s liturgy chief said this week that Pope Francis issued Traditionis custodes as the effort to… […]
Mass during the 10th annual Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, Oct. 29-31, 2021. / Edward Pentin.
Rome, Italy, Nov 10, 2021 / 04:20 am (CNA).
The vicar general for the Diocese of Rome has banned the celebration of the Traditional La… […]
Archbishop Arthur Roche at the Vatican press office on Feb. 10, 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Vatican City, Nov 8, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s liturgy chief has said that the Traditional Latin Mass was “abrogated by Pope Saint Paul VI.”Ar… […]
The Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage procession to St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Solemn High Mass at the Altar of the Chair in the Basilica, Oct. 30, 2021. / Edward Pentin.
Rome, Italy, Nov 3, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The 10th annual Populus Summoru… […]
Seminarians of the FSSP’s International Seminary of St. Peter. / Photo courtesy of Sophia Institute Press.
Denver Newsroom, Oct 8, 2021 / 17:01 pm (CNA).
On Sept. 28, a community of seminarians from the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter’s European seminary released an album of Christmas Matins, “Sancta Nox: Christmas Matins from Bavaria”. This week, the 17-song collection topped the Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart.
“We are very surprised and grateful that people have already found this recording, and humbled that they have decided to add this music to the Christmas experience and traditions,” said Manuel Vaz Guedes, one of the singers, who is from Lisbon.
Recorded in surround sound at St. Magnus Abbey, Bad Schussenried in Germany, the album features mostly Gregorian chant, sung by seminarians of Saint Peter Wigratzbad Seminary. The abbey was built in the 12th century, with acoustics “perfect” for recording Gregorian chant, said Vaz Guedes.
The seminarians go to the abbey from time-to-time to celebrate special feast days, said Vaz Guedes.
“It was a very inspirational setting for recording this music,” he said.
The album includes a multi-lingual arrangement of “Stille Nacht”, along with several songs arranged by the seminarians themselves.
“We set about bringing our very best to recording music that was representative of the beauty found in the truth,” said Vaz Guedes, who discovered he could sing through Gregorian chant. “I think music is one of the most perfect ways of exteriorizing the faith and one of the most profound ways to pray to God.”
Matins are part of the Divine Office, which priests and monks pray every single day. In the album, Vaz Guedes said, listeners will find the “life and prayer of a seminarian” during Christmas.
“Christmas Matins have a great importance because they precede, immediately, the Christmas night Mass and one of the most solemn and beautiful moments of the liturgical year,” Vaz Guedes said. “We wanted to share how we pray on Christmas night.”
The seminarians recorded the album under the direction of Christopher Alder, a Grammy Award-winning classical music producer and Christian Weigl, a Grammy Award-winning engineer.
“The uniqueness of this recording resides in the fact that we are very young singers singing very ancient and venerable music,” said Vaz Guedes. “The average age of our group is 25 and the average age of the music we are singing is probably 800. That’s a very gratifying collaboration to be part of.”
The music, Vaz Guedes said, can be enjoyed by a wide audience, including listeners who prefer traditional sacred music, as well as those who want to experience peace.
“We must be attentive to the words we are saying and to the beauty of the melody we are singing,” he said. “ We can meditate on the words because they are the formal part of the prayer—they are the prayer we address to God—But we have the opportunity to do it [while] enjoying the beauty of the melody or the harmony, because the beauty of music is a participation of the perfect beauty that is God.”
The FSSP’s North American seminary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, had in 2017 released an album featuring the chants of the Requiem Mass.
Pope Francis is interviewed by Carlos Herrera, a journalist at the Spanish radio station COPE. / COPE.
Vatican City, Sep 1, 2021 / 03:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis addressed the Vatican financial scandals in a sit-down radio interview that aired Wed… […]
The Pontifical North American College is a major seminary in Rome that educates seminarians from U.S. diocese and elsewhere. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Aug 31, 2021 / 21:51 pm (CNA).
In a memo sent to “the Community ” at the North Amer… […]
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