A lot going on in the homily today. The good shepherd, our bishop, the new pope, music at the inaugural papal Masses, and some thoughts for those leaving the parish and going off into the world.
I referenced quite a number of the musical pieces likely to show up at any big gathering with the Pope, so I'm going to attach links here. So, first was the Te Deum, the Church's ancient song of gratitude and praise to God. (I also mentioned the Non Nobis, and since I referenced its being in Henry V, here's the version from the movie, even if the music itself is a creation of modern cinema.) I spent some time waxing poetic about the Tu Es Petrus motet by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, though I did misspeak—his Sicut Cervus is the real crown of polyphony, IMHO. We briefly touched upon Long Live the Pope, yes, it's a little cheesy and triumphalistic and it's hard get a video with vocals, but still. And finally we got to what I said is one of my favorite chants of all time, the Laudes Regiae, or more simply referred to as the original, Carolingian era Christus Vincit. It's a bop. And to wrap things up, I quoted and annotated the final paragraph of Benedict XVI's inaugural homily, which you read or watch.