The Recovering Choir Director

Terribilis est locus iste: hic domus Dei est, et porta caeli: et vocabitur aula Dei.

Ps. Quam dilecta tabernacula tua, Domine virtutum! concupiscit, et deficit anima mea in atria Domini.

How terrible is this place? this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven; and it shall be called the house of God. (Genesis 28:17,22)

How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. (Ps. 83(84):2, 3)

- Introit, Common for the Dedication of a Church (common to both 1962 and 1969 missals)

Sursum Corda points us to an interview with Protestant theologian Stanley Hauerwas. Like Mr. Nixon, I enjoyed the passage on liturgy he excerpted, where Hauerwas makes incisive points about the purpose of liturgy, sacred art, architecture and liturgical language in the span of two paragraphs.

In the spirit of the interview’s excerpt, here is:

• Anton Bruckner’s setting of Locus iste—the gradual for the dedication of a church [ pdf | ram ]
• The introit to the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time/Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.

[ gif | mp3 ]