We were blessed with the biggest crowd yet at our third annual Convivium Marianum, a unique evening of prayer, lessons, and sacred music honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary!

The combined choir of 30 adults and children performed Mozart's Ave Maria canon from the four corners of the church as a prelude to the celebration.

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One of the most famous quotes attributed to St. Augustine is, “He who sings well, prays twice.” By ‘well’ the Doctor of the Church meant with our whole being. He knew that when singing is done as a full-hearted offering to God it becomes prayer. This is why music is an essential part of Catholic worship.

"A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

​"Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves." 

On Tuesday, June 13, St. Gregory's Hall hosted a special choral Mass for the Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, 13th century Franciscan and Doctor of the Church.

St. Gregory's Hall has been awarded a Worshiping Communities Grant by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The grant will support a year-long project of developing the Sacred Music Program at St. Gregory's Hall.

With the help of composer-in-residence Kevin Allen, St. Gregory's Hall will use the grant to continue the work of promoting the Church's traditions of sacred music. Employed in the proper liturgical context, these traditions serve a valuable tool for prayer, worship, and living engagement with our Catholic faith.

​In addition to special choral liturgies offered for parishioners and the wider community throughout the year, the project will include a series of presentations on sacred music by Kevin Allen and guest speakers, and a weekend-long gregorian chant workshop for church musicians and parishioners tentatively planned for summer 2024.

Since it began in the year 2000, the Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants Program has awarded more than a thousand grants to churches, schools, organizations, and teacher-scholars across the United States and Canada for projects that generate thoughtfulness and energy for public worship and faith formation at the local grass-roots level. 

We are grateful to the Calvin Institute for Worship for their support of this project and look forward to continuing to expand our impact as a Catholic center for culture.​

"Bring your hand and feel the place of the nails, and do not be unbelieving but believing, alleluia." Communion Antiphon for Divine Mercy Sunday

On Sunday, April 16 we held a Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday with Bishop Joseph N. Perry (Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago) presiding and music by St. Gregory's Schola and the Vox Fidelis Children's Choir directed by Kevin Allen (composer-in-residence). The Mass was held at 3:00 p.m., which is the customary time for the praying of the Divine Mercy chaplet.

Music for the Mass included a setting composed by Kevin Allen, "Missa de Sancte Nicolai," and works by Guy de Lioncourt (1885-1961) and Leone Lioni (c1560-1627). On display was a reproduction of a Divine Mercy painting by artist-in-residence Sarah Crow, the original of which was commissioned for the Divine Mercy Shrine at St. John Cantius in Chicago.

The second Sunday of Easter, also known as Low Sunday or Quasi Modo Sunday, was declared the Sunday of Divine Mercy by St. Pope John Paul II in 2000 when he beatified Sr. Faustina Kowalska. St. Faustina was an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

To honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Gregory's Hall hosted a special lessons and carols service that reflected on episodes from her life. 

Readings and prayers covered the Immaculate Conception, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Coronation, complemented by beautiful Marian carols in Latin and English.

The service was an opportunity to dwell more deeply on our veneration of Mary in the feasts of the Immaculate Conception (December 8) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). It also opened new avenues of spiritual preparation for the coming of our Lord on Christmas.

On All Hallows' Eve, St. Gregory's Hall presented a special mass for the Solemnity of All Saints with His Excellency Joseph Perry presiding.

Kevin Allen directed St. Gregory's Schola in a repertoire that included original compositions by Allen and settings from Renaissance composer Josquin dez Prez's Missa Pange Lingua. 

Thank you to all who were able to join for this beautiful mass celebrating the communion of the blessed in heaven! Click "Read More" to view more photos.

You can listen to the recording of the music from the Mass on our Soundcloud page.