The Recovering Choir Director

Last Sunday Fr. John J. McCartney, pastor of St. Matthew’s Church in Dix Hills, informed us that the 9 AM Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated as a Missa Cantata every week starting next Sunday, September 7. Previously the arrangement was to celebrate the Missa Cantata on the first and third Sundays of the month, with the remaining Sundays being Low Masses with chanted hymns.

Although the Mass will still be celebrated in the parish chapel, it will be treated as the principal Sunday Mass, which means that the sprinkling rite will take place before this Mass.

This is a very big step from just one year ago, when the Extraordinary Form of the Mass was celebrated in its low form from September 16 until Laetare Sunday this past Lent, after which the first and third Sundays were celebrated as sung Masses. This also means that the schola will be singing the propers on a weekly basis for the first time since moving from the Ordinary Form Mass to the Extraordinary Form.