Te Deum, Laudamus!

Even as things a little closer to home threatened to become more disappointing, liturgically and aesthetically, my week of wonders continued.

Actually, I shouldn't complain, the choir has been golden on the psalms, on the (too infrequent) English language propers.... and they were singing with the angels on the Monteverdi last week.
Part of it is helpful (for a change!) end of season attendance attrition, as some occasionally problematic singers are too busy elsewhere. (Deo gratias!)

But back to the point -- Wednesday I had Himself drop me off at St John Cantius, (honest, God, and any F'Cap Deputies reading, this is rare!) , to be, frankly, a spectator and auditor at an Extraordinary Form Requiem -- I had found out at the last minute, and knew I wouldn't be there for the entire Liturgy, (there are advantages and disadvantages to being a one-car family,) but the music was exquisite, and very moving.

I need to find out what the Ordinary was.

Then we both, as originally intended, assisted at the anticipated EF Corpus Christi Mass.

What can I say....? except what I always say: As if something IMPORTANT were going on.

And one of the most powerful celebrations of the Sacrament of Reconciliation I have ever been privileged to receive, (well, the rottener you are, the better the absolution of your sins is gonna be, huh? And I told the confessor, a new personal record -- "...four DAYS since my last confession...")

But I digress.

And on Friday, after a little more juggling of schedules pick-up/drop-off I went to Benediction at the Institute of Christ the King.
Some highlights -- the brilliantly (almost comically, ) serious, tiny torch-bearers; chatting with Cardinal George afterwards, (he is a surprisingly regular guy, of all the bishops I've ever met, easily the most down to earth); the stirring Bruckner Ecce Sacerdos; the remarkable reception afterward, (where did trads get the reputation for dourness?); the self-abnegation and diffidence of all the ministers and musicians; the roof-raising closing hymn; and surprisingly perhaps, the SILENCES.

Long, warm, pregnant silences.

I've never encountered anything quite like them.
(For someone who grew up without it, I am becoming hugely attached to Benediction.)

And above all, (this was really the point of the post, took me long enough, huh?)

Kevin Allen's Te Deum.

Wow.
Just, wow.

Especially the Tu Ad Liberandum section.

But no, the entire composition.

Wow, again.

I am in danger of become an aesthete, maybe I need to make myself attend a Lifeteen liturgy, and remind myself it is not about the Beauty.