Fr. Scott Haynes Ingrediente Domino by George Malcom is conducted by Martin Baker with the Westminster Cathedral Choir. This beautiful music follows the procession of the palms and is sung as the procession enters the church to begin the Mass. On Palm Sunday the Church sings Ingrediente Domino  as Christ, mystically present in the sacred rites, comes once more to His holy city. The chant places before us the scene of the Gospel with remarkable vividness: “As the Lord entered

The Stabat Mater is the hymn of Our Lady of Sorrows. It is frequently sung in the Stations of the Cross.

Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" is a moving hymn for the Stations of the Cross.

Gereon Krahforst improvises on the introit "Laetare Jerusalem" at the Kilgen Organ in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis in 2013.

Rejoice with Jerusalem; be glad for her, all you that love this city! Rejoice with her now, all you that have mourned for her.

The eyes of all wait upon thee, [O Lord]; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, under the baton of Peter Dijkstra, present a stunning recording of a Lenten motet of Poulenc.

Hasse's setting of the penitential psalm of David is moving.

Ave Regina by Stopford is a moving motet for Lent.

The Crucifixus comes from the Credo of the Mass. Bach's setting dates to 1714.

Composed in 1598 upon the death of Philip II, Versa est in luctum is a suitably majestic motet for six voices - the music conjuring the heavenly harps, organs and voices referred to in the text. Filmed at St Bartholomew the Great, London. My harp is turned to grieving and my flute to the voice of those who weep. Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing.

Bogoroditse Devo is the most well-known movement of Rachmaninov's exquisite Vespers, and for very good reason. It opens with beautifully contemplative, hymn-like phrases, before developing and giving way to the electric climax at the repetition of 'Rejoice, virgin mother of God'.

Fr. Scott Haynes A Meditation on History, Theology, and Holy Poverty I. A Carol Born of Winter Silence In the Bleak Midwinter  did not begin as a carol sung by choirs beneath candlelight. It began as a poem. In 1872, Christina Rossetti, one of the great devotional poets of the Victorian era, published a quiet meditation titled A Christmas Carol  in the magazine Scribner’s Monthly . Rossetti was not writing for liturgy or performance. She was writing for the soul. Her verse wa

Gesù Bambino is a beloved Christmas carol.

In dulci jubilo is not merely a Christmas carol. It is a song born on the threshold between heaven and earth, where language falters and joy overflows. From its first notes, it sounds less like a composed hymn and more like praise breaking free from the heart of the Church.

Fr. Scott A. Haynes A Carol Meditation Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella bursts into the night with motion. This is no hushed lullaby sung at a distance. It is a summons. Bring a torch.  Run. Hurry. The Child is here, and the darkness must give way. The carol comes to us from Provence, rooted in the old French Noëls  that were sung not in concert halls but in homes, marketplaces, and village streets. Its original refrain, “Guillô, pran ton flambeau,”  called real people by na

Learn the story of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Fr. Scott Haynes A Meditation on Light, Lament, and Christmas Blood The Coventry Candle burns in silence, but it stands beside one of the most sorrowful texts ever sung at Christmastime: Coventry Carol. To understand the candle fully, we must listen to the carol’s words, for they are not sung to  the Child, but for  the children who never lived to see Him grow. The carol speaks in the voice of mothers. “Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child…” It sounds at first like a lullaby

Fr. Scott Haynes   There is a moment in prayer when words fall away and only breath remains. Not silence exactly, but something simpler and more intimate: the steady rhythm of being alive before God. Fum, Fum, Fum  belongs to that moment. The refrain does not describe the Nativity. It does not interpret it. It breathes it. Each syllable is shaped by the mouth and released into the air, as breath is. This is fitting, for Christmas is the feast of divine breath made visible. T

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” The words burst forth like a trumpet blast. They do not whisper. They do not hesitate. They announce. This is not a private joy, tucked quietly into the corner of a single heart.