O Come, O Come Emmanuel . . .

. . . as performed by the Dominican Schola from the Dominican House of Studies under the direction of Fr. James Moore, O.P.



This will probably be my last post until after Christmas, maybe even until January -- unless I find something particularly interesting and timely to post.

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!

Gregorian Chant for Advent from Benedictine Nuns

I think that the nuns in this video are the same ones mentioned in this article from LifeSiteNews.com. Here is a quote from the article:

The angelic voices of a new order of young nuns has taken the world by storm, surpassing Rod Stewart, Taylor Swift, and One Direction in sales last week at major retail outlets such as Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

If I am not mistaken, I believe I have received a couple of other chant CDs from these nuns for free in the mail, but it appears that they are reaching a wider audience with this new Advent CD. This appears to be the link to the CD on Amazon.com. The CD is currently ranked #63 on Amazon's bestsellers in the "Music" category. Very impressive!

The Importance of Sacred Music in Evangelization

Here is another video from Catholic News Service:



This video reminds me of a great blog post from a few years back, called What's a Hymn For?, by Fr. Dwight Longenecker. Click through and read it if you get a chance. It is one of the best articles I have read about the problems with some of the music used in Catholic parishes in the United States.

Also check out The Reinvention of Parish Music at Crisis Magazine, for information on some very promising and talented young composers and publishers who are taking it upon themselves to provide better music for Catholic worship.

Vatican II Hymnal

This sounds like a very nice missal/hymnal:



(Found on Mark Shea's blog.)