Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
J.S. Bach composed Cantatas for many Sundays and feasts (over 200!)- in the Lutheran liturgical calendar, to be sure, but one which remained close to its Catholic origins. Here is the one for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Premiered on December 22, 1715, it is a fitting way to prepare for the birth of our[…]
God: The Science, the Evidence, by Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies, is an intriguing book, not quite what I expected when asked to review the new bestseller. I suppose it would fall into the genre of natural theology, and the burgeoning field of intelligent design. When one first picks it up, it seems like a[…]
On this Second Sunday of Advent, when we read of Saint John the Baptist’s preparing the way, it is fitting to immerse oneself in at least the first part of Handel’s Messiah. First performed on April 13th, 1742 (in Dublin of all places), the oratorio was composed by a German, who had become a naturalised[…]
There is no such things a ‘perfect’ Catechism, a catechism to end all catechisms, such as it were. That’s why there’s no end to them. And the truth, thought ‘definable’ – we are replete in our Church with defined doctrine – it is also ‘indefinite’, in the sense that there’s no end to its pursuit.[…]
Say what you like about the early Methodists, but they could write some melodious hymns, and one of the greatest and most prolific is Charles Wesley (+1788), credited with some 6500 hymns to his name (!!). Yes, I know some of texts may be rather Protestant for our Catholic tastes – and we should re-appropriate[…]
For this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – and a blessed one may it be – here is the opening section to a motet to the glorious Virgin Mother of God by the great English Thomas Tallis (the full motet runs to 18 minutes or so). The manuscript dates from either late in the reign[…]
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem between 1887 and 1890, with an initial premiere at a funeral in 1888. Some say that he was inspired by the death of both his parents in the previous years, but the composer himself denied this, saying “my Requiem wasn’t written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it[…]
As we celebrate the the dedication of the basilica of Saint John Lateran, the primary church of Christendom, at this end of the Octave of All Saints’, it is fitting to revisit the great motet of Anton Bruckner (+1896) Locus iste. Bruckner, a devout Catholic, composed the transcendent piece in 1869, for the consecration of[…]
The Te Deum is an ancient song of praise to God and all His saints, that may go back as far as Saint Ambrose (+397), to whose composition it has been attributed, even if current history disputes that, claiming rather Saint Hilary of Poitier (+367) or Nicetas of Remesiana (+414), or even earlier sources. Whatever[…]
A blessed Sunday to one and all! German composer Hans Leo Hassler was born on this October 26th in 1564, bringing much of the genius and style of Italian renaissance polyphony into his compositions. Although a Protestant (an early one, given his era), much of what he wrote was Catholic, in theme, sympathy and text,[…]
