The Adult Choir supports congregational singing and presents special anthems for meditation at Sunday Liturgy.  The Adult Choir performs regularly at the 10:30 am Sunday Liturgy. The Adult Choir also performs for the Sacrament of confirmation, as well as, liturgical celebrations during Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas and other feast days. On Good Friday of 2012, the Adult Choir performed Maurice Durufle’s Requiem as part of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion.

Resurrection Choir
The Resurrection Choir offers comfort and support to the congregation by performing for all Parish funerals. 

Gregorian Chant

Part of the richness of Catholic Christianity is the diversity of styles of worship available in Catholic parishes. And nowhere is that diversity more apparent than in our music. After all, music isn’t merely a nice addition to worship, it’s an essential element. And for all our diversity, nothing “sounds” more Catholic than Gregorian chant.

Gregorian chant is a style of unaccompanied vocal music that was the standard music in Catholic worship for centuries. Named for the first Pope Gregory (the patron of St. Gregory the Great Church), who is also a saint and Doctor of the Church, Gregorian chant was compiled and arranged in the sixth century. Although widespread use of Gregorian chant really took place 200 years after Gregory I’s pontificate, it was attached to his name to encourage its acceptance.

The roots of Gregorian chant go back even further—to ancient Jerusalem. Also called plainchant, it is monophonic, with all voices singing the same part. It’s notated with a unique manner, with mostly square notes on a four-line staff. Unlike most of later western music, chant has no specific rhythmic structure and instead takes its timing and flow from the text being sung.

Used for centuries in monasteries and cathedrals, it is rarely used in the ordinary worship in most Catholic parishes. When it is used at Masses in parishes, it’s often sung by the choir, rather than the congregation. Still, Gregorian chant was designed for prayer, and its gentle flowing sound tends to stir feelings of peace and contemplation.

In the 1990’s, an album of Gregorian chant recorded by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo
de Silos at their monastery in Burgos, Spain, became an international best seller. That recording reintroduced chant to secular audiences, and it remains popular with those seeking a tranquil refuge from the kind of music that fills so much of our days.

by Fr. Larry Rice, Vocations Director for the Paulist Fathers.