My fellow reviewer from Connecticut, you are so lucky... I can attend the Old Latin Mass only once a month. When I get out of college, I want to move somewhere where I can go every day and live a NORMAL Catholic life! Man, I must be the weirdest teenager in the Valley... ::sighs:: Eek! It's hard not to start using this thing as a message board...

Anyway, keep the Music alive in your hearts with this CD until we can bring it back to the sanctuaries! The day will come... ::smiles tearfully::

Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam.


Burn the "Glory and Praise" hymnal!   July 21, 2003
 59 out of 62 found this review helpful

For those who have had enough of folk masses, youth masses, and "On Eagle's Wings" - as I have, since about 1988 - this is the antidote. I resent the 1960's generation who felt the need to throw out 1500 years of beautiful sacred music and replace it with the Paul Simon-like strains of "Here I Am Lord." When I hear this music in Latin, all I can say is "DEO GRATIAS!"


Do you love the Latin Mass?   April 4, 2001
 27 out of 27 found this review helpful

If you prefer the Tridentine rite (the Old Latin Mass) then this recording is for you. It's such a contrast from the banal claptrap we get nowadays (Dan Schutte, St. Louis Jesuits, et al., with their On Eagles Wings, Be Not Afraid, Glory to God, etc.) It's also not the least bit saccharine or overdone as is often the case with recordings of popular Catholic hymns and songs. The recording is tasteful and devotional, almost Anglo-Catholic in its execution, if you know what I mean. Nothing smacking of electric votive candles or overly sentimental renditions of To Jesus' Heart All Burning (not that that doesn't have its place!).

For the most part the arrangements are straightforward. My one regret is that the second verse of Tantum Ergo is a bit over arranged to the point where the melody is lost. I would have preferred if they had recorded Tantum Ergo with the first verse a capella (as they did) with an organ coming in for the second verse all the while swelling towards a resounding crescendo. That's the way it's done at the Benediction service I go to and that's the way I prefer it.

But don't let that stop you from buying it. The Regina Caeli Laetare is especially well done as is the Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, the latter bringing to mind images of the next papal Coronation (and yes, let's pray that it is a Coronation this time: triple tiara, crozier, etc.)


Ne Plus Ultra   June 14, 2003
 22 out of 22 found this review helpful

I would rate this CD as ne plus ultra for the amount of divinity that is latent within each of those great, precious, Latin hymns, which should have been my "birth-right," as the other reviewer had wonderfully put it. To give you an idea, I am an immigrant from Tamilnadu, India, with no cultural ties to the Western world or Latin. It is truly "greek and latin" to me. However, I thank God Almighty for bringing me to the US, at least that I now have better exposure to some Latin worship.

This CD is given 5 stars by me, because, not only the music is mellifluous, but the richness of Latin is apodictic, once you hear the euphonious rendition of the hymns by the singers. John Eskola's Panis Angelicus is so good, that I couldn't stop playing it again and again. This wonderful hymn, written by St. Thomas Aquinas would move any "lukewarm" soul to get nearer to the Eucharist. And to speak the truth, every time I listen to Ave Maria version of Franz Schubert, wonderfully rendered in the form of a soprano by Lorelei McDermott, tears start rolling down my eyes, out of joy and out of divine grace. Folks, this CD will move you to an extent, that you will experience multiple levels of "divine ecstasy."

I have heard and fell in love with the hymns of O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo Sacramentum, but after listening to these great benediction songs in this CD, I even more fell madly love with these songs during the benediction of the blessed sacrament. Almost all the songs in this CD are great and Jubilae Deo of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was just splendiferous.

I extremely feel helpless, that we Catholics have lost the opportunity to either attend masses of Novo Ordo or Traditional Tridentine Mass. In the name of new era, we are standing as mute witnesses to the systematic elimination of wonderful works of yesteryears.

If you are a lukewarm, orthodox, carefree, or merely a Sunday catholic: each of you do have some element of divine-touch in this CD. Again, this review comes to you from an alien who is in no way connected to the Western Culture, but instantaneously fell in love with it and Latin, the primordial reason of which can be attributed to the euphonic collections in this CD.

And, one last thing: After listening to these melodic hymns, I have listened to numerous other singers' versions of Panis Angelicus and Ave Maria, but none has surpassed my expectations as I have on this one. Kudos John Eskola and Lorelei McDermott. Kudos to all the Cathedral Singers and Richard Prolux, the Conductor, of this CD. God's blessings will surely be upon you. I may order a few copies for all my relatives in India, to enjoy the divine graces that I obtained through this CD. Great stuff.

Domine Jesu Christe, gratias!


at last   January 4, 2001
 13 out of 16 found this review helpful

Are you sick of the dysharmonic, unsingable, unmemorable tripe that masquerades as sacred music during Mass these days? If so, this collection of Latin hymns is your antidote. As one of my sisters said "you can see and smell the incense as 'Tantum Ergo' plays".