Missa XVII • Practice Tracks
Greetings parishioners and friends of St. Augustine Cathedral! Below are some reference recordings to help you learn and practice singing Missa XVII, which is prescribed for Lent & Advent. Below you will find audio files, as well as YouTube videos which show the score on screen.
If you would like to learn more about why we are singing these chants for Lent, please scroll past the videos to learn more. If you would like to print your own music to have at home, click here to download a PDF of the music.
Why bother singing such ancient chants? The reason is simple: because doing so is our tradition, and because Holy Mother Church has asked us to do so. The following letter went out in the bulletins for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (the last Sunday before Lent this year) which explains the reasoning in detail.
En bref: chanting has always been a part of authentic Catholic worship (indeed, these chants are well over 1000 years old!) and — admittedly a surprise to many — the Second Vatican Council actually mandated that Latin and Gregorian chant were to be retained in the new rite of Mass in its constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium:
36. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.
54. Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.
116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.
We will take this Lent as the first opportunity to delve more deeply into this mandatum by learning Missa XVII (which is easier than it looks!).
