Organa vocis 1.2

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  NEWSLETTER OF THE CAPPELLA GREGORIANA S. CAECILIAE OLIM XICATUNENSIS volume 1 · issue 2

Il canto proprio della liturgia è davvero liturgia propria in canto

feb · jul 2016

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Great rejoicing in a joyful melody possesses the choir as it completes its seventh year and enters its eighth: a pioneer member of the choir reflects on her seven years (and going!) singing for the Sacred Liturgy.

After almost 79 years, our beloved Philippines once again hosts the International Eucharistic Congress!

Dr. Mahrt reflects on the concept of solemnity, its various expressions, and the indispensable role of sacred music in it.

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Ἐνταῦθα οὐ χρεία κιθάρας, οὐδὲ νεύρων τεταμένων, οὔτε πλήκτρου καὶ τέχνης, οὐδὲ ὀργάνων τινῶν· ἀλλ' ἐὰν θέλῃς, σὺ σαυτὸν ἐργάσῃ κιθάραν, νεκρώσας τὰ μέλη τῆς σαρκὸς, καὶ πολλὴν τῷ σώματι πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν ποιήσας τὴν συμφωνίαν.

CAPPELLA GREGORIANA S. CAECILIAE OLIM XICATUNENSIS

© LÓPEZ

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he Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated regularly at the Parish of the Most Holy Redeemer in Brixton Hill in the Diocese of Cubao, by Reverend Father Michell Joe B. Zerrudo.

On Sundays, Masses are sung at . p.m.

Kindly contact the parish office to confirm the weekday schedule at () - / -.

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oin us in adoring and worshipping the Most Blessed Trinity through sacred music in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the words of Pope St Pius X, this holy, excellent, and universal patrimony is “for the glory of God, and the sanctification and edification of the faithful.”

It is said: The chant proper to the liturgy ought to be the liturgy itself in chant.

Those interested in joining the choir may approach one of the choristers before or after Mass.

Enquiries may be directed to organa.vocis@gmail.com, or to www.facebook.com/CGSCOX. Rehearsals are usually held on Saturday mornings, and after Mass on Sundays.

Qui bene cantat, bis orat.

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The heavenly banquet Emérito Ramos

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here is still a lingering prejudice in the minds of many people against the Catholic Church because they cannot think of her without thinking of the friars, of the revolution and of the fearful persecution our forefathers have undergone.

For this we cannot entirely blame them. The horrors of those days are still fresh in our memories. Yet if we review our country’s history with unsoiled eyes, we would understand that the Church rises far above those persecutions and even higher than the very priests who represented her. We would see the Church as the very essence of our civilisation, the central figure about which revolves our national life. We would behold her as a loving mother ever mindful of her wayward children. Surely, we would identify her with every nipa hut that glowed with the warmth of Christ’s love; we would feel her throbbing with every love-song sung beneath every love’s window; yes, we would discover her in every human heart whose doors are open for the living. In itself, that is a picture, resplendent with power and resonant with the glory of 300 years; in itself it is a poetic vision pregnant with dulcet memories and summer dreams.

With such a colourful background of Catholic civilisation, it is impossible to ignore the influence of the Church in the life of our people. For more than 300 years, the Filipinos have been a devoted EMÉRITO RAMOS, of the University of the Philippines, delivered this speech on 14 December 1929.

Catholic people. They have breathed the air of Catholic life; they have drawn it from the breasts of Catholic mothers; and they have trodden the path sanctified by the feet of their Catholic forefathers. This is the more reason why we should will» continued on p 5 feb · jul 2016

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FIRST NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

© UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARIES

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he first article in Anamnesis ., p. , presents to us two hymns to our Lord: first, Gloria a Jesús, in honour of the Body of Christ; second, No más amor que el tuyo, in honour of the Sacred Heart. Both these hymns, now part of the collective memory of Filipino Catholics, were first sung in the XXXIII International Eucharistic Congress, the first to be celebrated in the archipelago. Little is known, however, of the other Congresses in the Philippines, or of their hymns, for that matter. © UNIVERSITY OF The First National Eucharistic Congress of the Philippines SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARIES was held from  to  December  in Manila, on the occasion of the golden sacerdotal jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius XI. Its official hymn was Pueblo filipino.

The XXXIII International Eucharistic Congress was celebrated from  to  February  in Manila. In attendance during the celebrations was Cardinal Dennis James Dougherty, formerly bishop of Nueva Segovia and Jaro, legate to His Holiness, Pope Pius XI, who by then was already ailing.

The Second National Eucharistic Congress of the Philippines was held from  November to  December  in Manila, on the occasion of the centenary of the extension of the feast of the Sacred Heart to the Universal Church. Its official hymn was Pilipinas, makinang na perlas.

FEATURED HYMN Title: Pueblo filipino Music: DR. FRANCISCO SANTIAGO, d. 1947 Text: D. JOSÉ FERNÁNDEZ, C. M., d. 1945 Location: #44 HMX, p. 294 NOTE: The text of this hymn was written by the Vincentian poet D. JOSÉ FERNÁNDEZ, who was parish priest of San Marcelino in Manila, for the First National Eucharistic Congress of the Philippines in 1929. The Committee for Sacred Music of the said Congress convoked a national competition to select the music for the text. The judges selected the composition submitted by DR. FRANCISCO SANTIAGO of the University of the Philippines, for which he was awarded PHP 200 by the then mayor of Manila, the Hon. Thomas Earnshaw.

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© JANIOLA

© ALMADRONES

Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfacimus laudem ad Dominum : qui nos cibat ex adipe frumenti et de petra melle nos saturat : qui ipse est panis vivus, qui de cælo descendit ; et nos qui manducamus ex hoc pane, vivemus in æternum. Ita vivemus in æternum.

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ingly embrace the Catholic religion, because, we, as a people, consider ourselves Catholics no longer by parentage, we call ourselves Catholics no longer by tradition; merely because we are Catholics by nationality.

But it is a sad and lamentable tale to relate that a country, Catholic by nationality, and proud of being called the only Christian nation in the East is tolerating her children to grow up without the slightest knowledge of their fathers’ faith. It is a bitter irony to see the youth of the only Christian nation in the Orient turning away from their God and branding the sacred rituals of their Church as antiquated and effeminate.

But in the midst of this rising tide of irreligiousness, we must not despair. Surely the faith of the martyrs cannot die. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It is in our life’s blood. Are we going to give up in a moment’s frenzy what has been so dear and so close to our hearts? The time has come for us to inflame the faith that lies dormant in our breasts. The National Eucharistic

Congress of the Philippines takes on this aspect. It stands for a rebirth of Catholic virtues in the life of our people. It is, as it were, a call sounding from the blessed shores of Galilee. It is, as it were, a challenge hurled from the very heights of Calvary.

It is impossible to speak of the Catholic religion by ignoring the Holy Eucharist. This sacramental banquet is the very life, the very soul of Catholic teaching and it is inconceivable to say we are devoted Catholics without being devout to the Holy Eucharist. “Take ye and eat”—“Drink ye all of this, this is My Blood.” “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. Do this in commemoration of Me.” In these simple words Christ instituted the Sacrament of His love. In these simple words He left us a boon that we may live in love and die in love. In those simple words we all find refuge in this life of misery and tears. “He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in Me and I in him.” These sweet, consoling words sound like a trumpet calling the faithful to the heavenly banquet. What boundless generosity, » continued on p 9 feb · jul 2016

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Solemnity by

William Mahrt, Ph.D. originally from Sacred Music (Spring 2015) vol. 142 no. 1

© LÓPEZ

W

e often hear of a solemn Mass or hear the liturgy described as solemn.

What does it mean to say the liturgy is solemn? Is that not an outmoded notion made irrelevant by developments in the modern liturgy?

“Solemn” could well mean sombre, reserved, grave, penitential, but that would be only a popular caricature. Rather in relation to liturgy, it means the highest form of worship, sublime, aweinspiring, characterized by transcendent joy.

Before the council, the paradigm of the celebration of the Mass was the “Solemn High Mass,” an entirely sung Mass, in which priest, deacon, and subdeacon, together with an assistant priest and many acolytes, each served a distinctive role.

Their coordinated actions bore a certain complexity that reflected the depth of the mystery they were celebrating. Peter Kwasniewski describes such mystery: DR. WILLIAM MAHRT is the president of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA), and the publisher of the New Liturgical Movement (NLM).

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The human psyche needs a certain opacity, an unsoundable depth, a source of resistance and difficulty, a foreign grandeur that stands in sharp contrast to the familiar shallows of daily life [1].

If the meaning of the liturgy is all evident and clear, then the inevitable aspects of mystery and transcendence have been lost, and the liturgy cannot fulfil some of its highest goals. The liturgy requires a transcendence that takes us with it, we transcend everyday life when we join with Christ in offering his Sacrifice.

At the time of the Second Vatican Council, “solemn” had a very specific meaning, understood [1] Peter Kwasniewski, “Solemnity: The Crux of the Matter,” in Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church (Kettering, Ohio: Angelico Press, 2014), pp. 11–32, here p.

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by all who celebrated the liturgy. This is not, however, just a matter of an outmoded ceremony. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy stated as much in principle: Liturgical worship is given a more noble form when the divine offices are celebrated solemnly in song, with the assistance of sacred ministers and the active participation of the people [2].

This, in general, was enough to describe the Solemn High Mass in the minds of the fathers of the council, who understood clearly enough that “celebrated solemnly in song” was what they were quite used to, with the additional proviso of the active participation of the people. It was general enough, however, that others after the council would chip away at it, so that the notion of solemnity became much less specific, even compromised.

It was often replaced by concelebration, in which an unspecified number of priests celebrated together, the priority of the principal concelebrant being a matter of practicality and not of precedence. At the time of the council, concelebration was argued on the grounds that it had been a consistent practice in the Eastern Church; something that was overlooked, however was that in the Eastern Church it was required that there be an uneven number of deacons, perhaps for the sake of symmetry. Archdale King, in a book Concelebration, offered the speculation that concelebration in [2] Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, ¶113.

the Western Church had come to be the Solemn High Mass, where priest, deacon, and subdeacon had effectively been concelebrants, though not coconsecrators [3]; here, also, the element of symmetry was involved.

It was not until 1973, three years after the promulgation of the new rite, that the office of subdeacon was suspended by a motu proprio of Pope Paul VI [4]. This diminished the symmetry of the rite, though various efforts were made to sustain it: sometimes a “solemn” Mass would be celebrated with two deacons; in some places, according to the motu proprio, the lector could be called the subdeacon and might even carry out the role of subdeacon from the tradition.

In the new rite, however, “solemnity” still has an official meaning—the highly intricate classifica[3] There were exceptional instances of concelebration also; a newly ordained priest concelebrated the ordination Mass with the bishop, for example; see Archdale A. King, Concelebration (London: Mowbray, 1966) p. 50 and passim.

[4] Taking effect on 1 January 1973, Pope Paul VI in the Motu Proprio, Ministeria Quædam (15 August 1972) decreed: 4. Two ministries, adapted to present-day needs, are to be preserved in the whole Latin Church, namely, those of reader and acolyte. The functions heretofore assigned to the subdeacon are entrusted to the reader and the acolyte; consequently, the major order of subdiaconate no longer exists in the Latin Church. There is, however, no reason why the acolyte cannot be called a subdeacon in some places, at the discretion of the conference of bishops. http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/ P6MINORS.HTM

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tion of feasts in the tradition has been simplified to just three grades of feast: solemnity, feast, and memorial. I count sixteen solemnities on the current calendar [5]—the most major days of the year, the milestones in the progress of our salvation.

Why this notion of solemnity? Because of the importance of what the liturgy celebrates. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life” [6]. In it we are incorporated into the action of Christ, his sacrificial offering to the Father, which accomplishes our salvation. In the words of Cardinal Ranjith, “The liturgy … is greater than us and carries with it a totally transforming effect” [7]. Nothing could be more important. The importance and seriousness of it calls for a celebration that is commensurate; the most solemn liturgy is most appropriate.

I can offer two anecdotes concerning the importance of the liturgy: On several occasions, I have attended a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form. This includes an extensive ceremony of the vesting of the bishop. Deacon, subdeacon, and acolytes assist, bringing each item of vesture and assisting the bishop in putting it on. All of this is accompanied by prayers, each of which illuminates the significance of the particular vestment. It is conducted while the choir sings Terce, taking about twenty minutes. I must admit that at first, I thought to myself, this is really over the top, is it not excessive? But then I attended the ceremony and the Mass for which the bishop was being vested. I have never been so convinced of the importance of the celebration of the Mass as at that time; the vesting was a significant part of the way in which the importance of the liturgy was prepared.

Another anecdote concerns the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. I was scheduled for major surgery, and my pastor said that I should receive the sacrament. With all good will he said, “Just come around to the rectory some time, it’s no [5] In order through the year: Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Solemnity of Mary, Epiphany, St. Joseph, Annunciation, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter and Paul, Assumption, and All Saints.

[6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, ¶1324, citing Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, ¶11.

[7] Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, “The Sacred Liturgy: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church,” in Sacred Liturgy: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church, ed. Alcuin Reid (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014), pp. 19–39.

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big deal.” No big deal? The reason I should receive it was as a preparation, in case something went wrong with the surgery and I should die on the spot; it was a preparation for passage into eternity.

No big deal? I subsequently received the sacrament from my confessor, and I approached the surgery with a serenity I have scarcely ever felt. A big deal!

The importance of the liturgy raises a crucial question: the difference between an anthropocentric and a theocentric approach to the liturgy. In an anthropocentric approach, the focus is upon the congregation; the priest faces them and at times seems constrained to “work the crowd”; it might seem as if there were a closed circle consisting of priest and people, and God is left somewhere in the distance. In a theocentric approach to the liturgy, the focus is upon God, and the action addresses him directly. For a theocentric approach it is not necessary that the priest celebrate ad orientem (facing the same direction as the people), but perhaps that is the most effective way to emphasise the significance of addressing God. The anthropocentric approach may well have stemmed from a misconception about the liturgy—that its principal purpose is didactic. If the liturgy is primarily to instruct the people, then the interaction between priest and people is quite appropriate. But if the principal purpose is the worship of almighty God, the joining in Christ’s sacrifice to the Father, then the theocentric approach makes more sense. This does not mean that there are not didactic elements in the liturgy, particularly in the lessons and the sermon. But even then, the function of the reading—that is, the singing— of the lessons is much more than simple instruction. It is a celebration of the history of our salvation, the telling of the foundation narrative of our religion, articulated particularly by the gospel readings through the course of the liturgical year. I would even venture to say that the best instruction for the people is to lead them into an intense participation in the sacrifice of Christ.

By tradition, music is the medium of the liturgy, the bearer of its solemnity: in the extraordinary form, practically everything to be pronounced aloud is sung. The sung form elevates our attention and gives the proceeding an element of transcendence, especially if it is all sung. Gregorian chant is the ideal medium for this function, since its free rhythm intimates the transcending of the » continued on p 10

 sa Banal na Sacramento

O

Panginoon naming Jesucristo na nasa Sacramento ng Altar, kami po ay nagpapatirapa sa Inyong harapan, sumasamong nangangayupapa, pinipintuho ang Inyong mahiwagang kariktan, lingapin po Ninyo yaring Inyong abang bayan, sa Inyo pong dakilang awa. Ipakapag-adya po Ninyo kami mula sa mga tuksong lumiligid sa amin mula po sa lahat ng dako’t lupalop.

Humihibik po kami sa Inyo, kaming mga aliping makasalanan sa gitna ng mapapait na mga luhang ito, O walang-kaparang Kagalingan ng santinakpan, na nagkatawang-tao alangalang sa aming kaligtasan, tunghayan po Ninyo ang Inyo pong Iglesia na sumasamba po sa Inyo, at maringal pong nagtatanod sa Inyong kaluwalhatian.

Tighawin po Ninyo ang pagkauhaw ng aming kaluluwa sa pamamagitan ng Inyo pong Kabanal-banalang Katawan at maging man po ng Inyong Kamahal-mahalang Dugo: Kayo po na nabubuhay at naghahari hanggang sa kapanahunan ng mga kapanuhanan. Amén.

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what immense charity. They invite us to. approach; they offer us a renewed vitality, a life, everlasting because it is a life of the very angels.

Just as a Filipino cannot call himself a real Filipino unless he obeys the laws of his country, so also a man cannot be a red-blooded Catholic unless he partakes of that Sacrament that is the essence of the Catholic Faith. In love it was fashioned, in love it was conceived and in love we are invited to approach.

“Come to Me and I will refresh you.” How can we, most unworthy, who tread the wicked way, we, who are human; we who walk with feet of clay.

Yes, it was precisely because we all are common mortals that Christ gave us this saving food of the soul. We of ourselves are weak, we need the strength of Christ that we may conquer all, because that divine bread makes us strong with the grace of heaven and fragrant with the perfume of innocence. We err. We sin. We fall. Our weakness shall not be an excuse for our falling. And in our falling we must remember the God Who came for sinners because on earth there are no angels. We must remember the Bread that reinvigorates, the food that unites us again with Christ, the banquet after having washed our soul. We do not, we cannot admire the man who has never fallen, and the man who falls and remains fallen, because they are not men at all. But we do admire the man who when he falls rises again to fight the good fight because that is the man who is never beaten at all.

The greatest man in the public eye today is but a private citizen who is humble because he is honourable; who is simple because he is, great, who is ever young, ever a child, because he knows that unless we be as little children we shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I refer my friends to that

man who approached the altar rail of the Baguio Cathedral every morning last summer. I refer to this inspiring vision of that man with arms crossed upon his breast and with lips fervent with prayers partook of the daily banquet of the Angels. I refer to that sturdy molave of the Filipino race, Don Gregorio Araneta. What could be a better example of the influence of the Holy Eucharist in Filipino life today than in Don Gregorio, whose life is unimpeachable because his morality is unquestionable? Such are the men who constitute the strength of the nation.

Such is the influence of the Holy Eucharist in Don Gregorio. Such will be the influence in every individual. Such, the unmistakable influence in the home. Such will be the influence in the nation.

Tell me is there a better tribute, a higher devotion to country than a complete abandonment of ourselves in the tabernacle of love and life?

The time has come for the spiritual rejuvenation of Catholic Filipino Youth. We stand on the threshold of a day for a bolder assertion of the faith of our fathers. Are we ashamed to bend our knees for God? Are we ashamed to [approach] the Altar on a Sunday as a public profession of our devotion to Him Who gave His all that we may be saved? No we should never be ashamed of our religion, we should never shame it ourselves, because to be ashamed of our religion is to be ashamed of God Himself.

The drive is on for more communions, for frequent reception of our Lord in the Sacrament of His love. Now is our chance to join the faithful in their folly for Christ. On with the Eucharistic Congress. On with the honour, on with worship of the Holy Sacrament. And may the day dawn when all of us with flashing eyes can proudly say—“I am a Catholic and a practical Catholic at that.”

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incessant passage of time and approaches the notion of eternity. It is in the full Gregorian propers for a particular feast that the requisite solemnity of the liturgy is projected. Metric hymns do not do this as well, since their very metric structure is tied down to the passage of time. The simplified Gregorian propers can be a kind of improvement upon the hymns, since they set the prescribed proper texts and have a chant-like rhythm, but they may not have the musical depth of at least the best of the hymns; in any case, their brevity and simplicity do not convey the sense of solemnity that the full Gregorian propers do.

I recall the Masses celebrated by Pope Benedict on his visit to the United States. Characteristically, the entrance procession was sung to a hymn introduced by trumpet fanfares and continued with brass instruments. It conveyed a sense of an important public function, but I imagined what a Gregorian introit would have done for that Mass— it would have conveyed musically that what was about to happen is something sacred and transcendent. It would have suffused the entire Mass with a sense of the importance and sacredness of the liturgy that can properly be called “solemn.”

It has not often been recognized that the fully sung Mass is the ideal proposed by the council.

The document on the implementation of the council for music, Musicam Sacram gives a clear indication.

The distinction between solemn, sung, and read Mass, sanctioned by the Instruction of 1958 (n.

3), is retained, according to the traditional liturgical laws at present in force. However, for the sung Mass (Missa cantata), different degrees of participation are put forward here for reasons of pastoral usefulness, so that it may become easier to make the celebration of Mass more beautiful by singing, according to the capabilities of each congregation [8].

This is then followed by three stages of implementation of singing: 1) the celebrant’s chants with the people’s responses, including the Sanctus (as the continuation of the preface), the orations, and the Lord’s Prayer; 2) the rest of the Ordinary of the Mass and the intercessions; and 3) the Proper of the Mass. These are to be introduced in [8] Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction on Music in the Liturgy, Musicam Sacram (5 March 1967), ¶28.

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this order, the goal of which is to achieve a fully sung Mass.

If one reads this in the context of the tradition, which the document encourages (“the distinction between solemn, sung, and read Mass … is retained”), it describes a means of achieving a fully sung Mass. But it has been read as permitting a selective use of ordinary and proper, even without the context of the priest singing his parts.

This was then extended to a reinterpretation, in which the three stages are viewed as “progressive solemnity,” the incorporation of more music on higher feast days. This goes quite strongly against the tradition. Ideally, the sung Mass is best not compromised by the mixing of spoken and sung elements, regardless of the grade of the feast. The sung form was especially cultivated in the season of Lent, this being the only season for which the tradition of Gregorian chant provided a different set of propers for each day of Lent.

This is far from progressive solemnity, if anything, it is an inverse progressive solemnity.

The transcendent and ecstatic character of the liturgy as depicted in the Apocalypse is emphasized by Cardinal Ranjith: That Liturgy is indeed the supreme priestly act of Christ in the presence of God, is clearly explained in the book of the Apocalypse. In it Christ, called the Sacrificial Lamb, sits on the throne and is adored with hymns and canticles and is acclaimed by the crowd of the elect who are dressed in white robes. The presentation of the celestial scenario in the Apocalypse demonstrates a strong cultic view of the eschatological events prophesied by the visionary. The setting is of the heavenly Jerusalem where God Himself and the Lamb are called the temple “which is the new heavens and the new earth”; the altar is mentioned with the seven golden candles; the incense; and the sound of trumpets and songs; the ceremony of the enthronement and the worship of the Lamb is also mentioned. What is truly celebrated in the heavens is the realisation of that final victory of God over Satan and of good over evil. Jesus, the Lamb that is offered, has become the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega of the New Order [9].

This is the joyful, transcendent solemnity that should be the aim of our liturgies, so that God can “make all things new” [10].

■ [9] Ranjith, “Sacred Liturgy,” 19–20; copious citations to particular passages in the Apocalypse (Revelations) have been omitted in this quotation.

[10] Apoc. 21, 5.

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IUBILATUS IN IUBILO M A RI VI E V. B OM P AT

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always loved music ever since I was little! I think I got it from my parents.

Papa’s family loves music so much; in fact, Papa himself had a very good singing voice. As for Mama’s family, most of them know how to play an instrument or two. And with that kind of lineage, my two sisters and I basically spent our childhood days being part of many musicals at school. The three of us were also part of different clubs—be it bamboo flute club, or the drama and the chorale.

My (including also my two sisters’) love for music grew deeper when our family came across the Traditional Latin Mass. Well, it all started when my Tita from Bohol invited us to attend the TLM in Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy in Sikatuna. I was just an “observer” during my first TLM. And although everything seemed new to me, one thing that was all too familiar was the music. I fell in love with it! And, eventually, as weeks passed by, I knew that I was definitely in love with the TLM. I was contently happy by just attending the Mass until, one day, an announcement was made that a choir would be formed. At that time, there were only two people singing for the Mass! So, right after Mass, Chris (my sister) and I responded to the call. It was really an exciting first meeting for us and I remember getting introduced to Kuya Ron for the first time. Finally, the Sikatuna Cantata was formed and I remember that most of us were still studying or just fresh graduates at that time. Initially, it was a struggle because singing Latin surely is hard, especially when some of the words are not that familiar. However, we got the hang of it in the long run. Since its formation, the choir faced a lot of exciting and challenging events. Fast forward to 2013, my youngest sister finally joined the choir. Previously, she could not join us due to school constraints.

Being part of Sikatuna Cantata has been a blessing to me and my sisters. And now that we are already on our 7th year, my sisters and I are very grateful to God that we become part of His Passion with every TLM we attend thru what we love the most—Music! ■

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Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of liturgical entertainment.

LAUS DEO VIRGINIQUE MATRI Il canto proprio della liturgia è davvero liturgia propria in canto