Tridentine Community News - Fall talks at the OCLMA; St. Bonventure Monastery Chapel Reconstruction; Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit; Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (September 2, 2018):

September 2, 2018 – Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Fall Talks at the OCLMA

The Oakland County Latin Mass Association will be resuming its series of talks at receptions following the 9:45 AM Sunday High Mass at the Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Bloomfield Hills. Two talks have been scheduled thus far: Sunday, October 14: Dr. Phil Blosser, Professor of Philosophy at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary, will speak about Conscience. Dr. Blosser’s translation of an important text by German philosopher Hendrik G. Stoker, Conscience: Phenomena and Theories, was published earlier this year by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Sunday, December 16: Dr. Elizabeth Salas, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary and a member of the OCLMA, will present Theological Virtues of St. John of the Cross. The personal interests of Dr. Salas are personalism, the philosophical thought of St. John Paul II, mysticism, and ethics. Dr. Salas’s publications include Person and Gift According to Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II, and with her husband, Victor Salas, Hervaeus Natalis and Dietrich von Hildebrand: the Roots of Realist Phenomenology in Scholasticism.

St. Bonaventure Monastery Chapel Reconstruction

The August 5, 2018 edition of this column reported that the St. Bonaventure Monastery Chapel at the Solanus Center had been reordered to a more traditional arrangement of High Altar, freestanding altar, nave, and organ in the choir loft. Little did we know that this was only the first stage of a planned restoration.

On August 22, the Solanus Center announced that their chapel will be closed until approximately December 1, 2018 for major reconstruction. “The renovations of the chapel will be historically inspired from the time Bl. Solanus was the porter of the monastery.” Encouraging words.

It’s worth reminding our readers that other branches of the Capuchins are rediscovering tradition. For example, the Capuchin-run National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco has become a regular site for Holy Masses in the Extraordinary Form, including one from our own Prayer Pilgrimages Bus Tour in 2017.

Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit

A promising new initiative has been announced that is a first for metro Detroit: A new diocesan children’s choir to be based at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, to be called the Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit. It will be led by Susan Lindquist, formerly the children’s choir director at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, Michigan. From the Archdiocese’s announcement:

“The mission of Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit is to provide an experience in which choristers encounter Christ through sacred music, grow in faith aspiring to musical excellence, and give witness to the Word Incarnate.

In residence at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, The Cathedral Choir Academy serves both urban and suburban youth of all faiths, grades 3 – 9. Committed to the belief that all children can learn to sing well, the program welcomes everyone.

With the primary goal of leading the sung worship at Mass, the program will foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of sacred music and its function in Catholic worship. Repertoire is inclusive of all styles and periods. With the implementation of a Kodaly curriculum, choristers will develop their vocal potential and learn to read and write music fluently. Striving for musical excellence and artistry in performance, the choirs also sing in concert throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Invited into affiliation with the Sistine Chapel Choir, the Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit is a comprehensive after school choral music program offering two levels of instruction; the Cathedral Descant Choir and the Cathedral Children’s Choir. The Cathedral Descant Choir (CDC) is a training choir through which choristers learn the basic skills of choir membership and choral ensemble singing. No audition is required for the CDC.

The Cathedral Children’s Choir (CCC) is a treble ensemble striving for the highest level of artistry in performance and musicianship. While continuing to develop their vocal potential, choristers will learn more advanced music reading skills and sing two and three part treble music.”

It is unclear how traditional the repertoire of this choir is intended to be. Globally, the trend is for children’s choirs to learn Gregorian Chant and the more popular Latin pieces. More information is available at: http://cathedral.aod.org/music/choirs/cathedral-choir-academy-of-detroit/

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Tue. 09/04 7:00 PM: High Requiem Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (Daily Mass for the Dead)
• Fri. 09/07 7:00 PM: High Mass at Old St. Mary’s (Votive Mass for the Unity of the Church) – Celebrant: Fr. Joe Tuskiewicz. The St. Benedict Choir will sing Missa Brevis by Palestrina. Reception after Mass.
• Sat. 09/08 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
• Sat. 09/08 9:00 AM: High Mass at Orchard Lake Seminary Shrine Chapel (Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) – Celebrant: Fr. Louis Madey – Note different Mass time vs. earlier announcement
• Sun. 09/09: No Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for September 2, 2018. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]