Blog Posts – Church Life Journal

Carolyn Pirtle

As Program Director of the Center for Liturgy, Carolyn oversees the planning and facilitation of the Center’s signature events, particularly the annual symposium, Liturgy Week, as well as the McGrath Institute’s annual International Crèche Exhibit and Pilgrimage, and the Marian Procession and May Crowning. Additionally, Carolyn assists with liturgical planning for the entire McGrath Institute, collaborates in the liturgical and musical formation of MICL program participants, and is a contributing member of the editorial board for Church Life Journal, where she writes on liturgical music, aesthetics, devotional practice, and popular culture.

The Mass for Millennials: Recessional Hymn

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

The Mass is ended. Go in peace. Thanks be to God.

The Mass for Millennials: Doxology and Amen

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

Every Eucharistic Prayer concludes with the Doxology and the Great Amen. In this solemn, powerful moment, the presider holds aloft Jesus himself, truly present in the Eucharistic species, and proclaims:

The Mass for Millennials: Glory to God

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Lk 2: 13–14)

In the celebration of the liturgy, the Glory to God occupies a unique place. On the one hand, it is a response: we have just participated in the Penitential Act by recalling and confessing our sinfulness ...

Music of Holy Week: Easter Sunday

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

Having witnessed to the light of the risen Christ at the Easter Vigil with the singing of the Exsultet, the Church proclaims on Easter Sunday that the tomb is empty in the singing of the Easter Sequence, Victimae Paschali Laudes.

Music of Holy Week: The Easter Vigil

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

The Exsultet

Music of Holy Week: Holy Saturday

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

Recessit Pastor Noster (1585) by Tomás Luis de la Victoria (1548–1611)

Music of Holy Week: Good Friday

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

On this Good Friday, as we recall the Passion and Death of Jesus, we gaze upon the Cross. On the one hand, we recoil from the Cross in horror as the instrument of torture and execution, the gibbet on which the Savior of the world hung in agony and breathed his last. On the other hand, we rejoice in the Cross as the means by which Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation and the salvation of the who...

Music of Holy Week: Holy Thursday

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

Today we enter the most solemn days of the liturgical year: the Sacred Paschal Triduum. From St. Peter’s in Rome to the humblest of parishes, the Church will watch and pray and sing together, recalling the wondrous mysteries of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

We Do Not Bear Our Crosses Alone: Full of Grace

Published by Carolyn Pirtle

I stood in the Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker in O’Neill Hall—my home for the four years I spent as a Notre Dame undergrad—and stared at the small wooden statues depicting the Stations of the Cross that hung on the wall. Usually when someone mentions Stations of the Cross, my mind immediately returns to Lenten Friday afternoons at St. Joseph Elementary School where the cycle of standing, genuflec...