Fr. Scott Haynes Meditation for the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas “When a profound stillness compassed everything, and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful Word, O Lord, bounded from heaven’s royal throne.” (Introit, Sunday within the Octave of Christmas) Holy Church places these words upon our lips during the sacred hush of the Christmas octave, inviting us to contemplate not noise, but silence; not haste, but divine initiative; not human e

“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.

Fr. Scott Haynes A Carol with an Unlikely Beginning The hymn we know as O Holy Night was originally written in French as Cantique de Noël  in 1847. Its lyricist, Placide Cappeau, was a wine merchant and poet, not a cleric. Though baptized Catholic, Cappeau was politically radical and religiously unconventional. When his parish priest in Roquemaure asked him to write a poem for the newly renovated church organ, Cappeau accepted the task more as an artistic commission than an a

One of Healey Willan's most treasured carol arrangements.

Fr. Scott Haynes When the first clear notes of harp and treble voices rise in Ceremony of Carols , something ancient awakens. This is not Christmas music meant merely to charm or decorate a season. It is music that processes , prays , ponders , and finally kneels . Britten’s work feels less like a concert piece and more like a liturgical act offered in sound. Its Remarkable Birth Ceremony of Carols  was composed in 1942, during one of the darkest moments of the twentieth cent

Among the "O" Antiphons, one of the most beautiful is "O Root of Jesse". Healey Willan's setting is evocative and mysterious.

The 4th Sunday of Advent begins with the Introit from the book of the Prophet Isaiah: Rorate Caeli. Learn here the meaning and history.

Enjoy this recording by Harpa Dei of the O Antiphons of Advent.

Robert White (c. 1538 – 1574) was an English composer whose liturgical music is considered on par with Taverner and Byrd.

Alessandro Scarlatti's Messa di Santa Cecilia was written in 1720 and dedicated to cardinal Francesco Acquaviva of Aragona.

St. John Henry Newman teaches that the worst pain of purgatory is the working-out of its psychological conflicts.

The Concert Choir of the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire - sings Delgado's "Prayer of St. Francis."

On September 29 we celebrate the feast of St Michael the Archangel and at the Offertory at Mass, we sing this most beautiful of chants,...

Enjoy the fabulous sound of the Organ of Strasbourg.

Music video by VOCES8 performing Purcell: Hear My Prayer, O Lord. (C) 2018 VOCES8 Records

Voces8 performs the beautiful "Os justi" of Bruckner.

On this feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, we hear the contribution of the young Handel.

VOCES8 sings "The Deer's Cry" by Arvo Pärt.

O Gloriosa Domina (O Glorious Lady) is the famous Marian hymn sung at Lauds on Feasts of Our Lady in the Roman Breviary. It forms the...

The beauteous Light of Eternity hath flooded with blissful fires this golden day which crowns the Princes of the Apostles, and opens unto the guilty a free way to heaven.