Choir Chapel
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A Legacy Gift opportunity for Your Family
to provide a choir stall for daily communal prayer in our beautiful parish church with a perpetual intention for intercessory prayer
An Invitation from Fr. Brian Schieber
We who are united to Jesus in baptism share a duty and a mission to offer the sacrifice of praise every day, and to intercede in prayer for the life of the world. The main way that we do this is in the “Liturgy of the Hours,” the daily prayer of the Church that together with the Eucharist and the other Sacraments makes up the “source and the summit” of our Christian life.I would like to invite 48 individuals or families to join me in finishing our choir loft with beautiful white-oak “choir stalls” to create a “choir chapel,” a well-ordered, prayerful environment for children, youth, and adults to experience and share in this joyful work of the Church, and for ministers of music serving at the Eucharist and sacramental celebrations. -
Artisans of Saint John's Abbey WoodworkingHOW WE WILL DO ITWe will commission the Benedictine monks and artisans of Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota to build high-quality, sturdy and durable white oak “choir stalls” to match our new organ being built there by Abbey Organ Builders.
The choir stalls will be funded by 48 gifts of $5,000, given as thank offerings and intentions for intercessory prayer. The desk at each stall will be engraved with your custom prayer intention, bidding worshippers for generations to come to remember you or your loved ones in prayer:
Pray for the Robert and Cara Smith FamilyPray for Eleanor Jean SmithPray for Archbishop Ignatius J. Strecker -
THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS
Traditional "antiphonal" configurationThe liturgical prayer known as the “Liturgy of the Hours” (a.k.a. The Divine Office, Daily Prayer, the Opus Dei) consists of prayers offered at various times of the day. Clergy and religious are bound by Church law to pray these prayers, but they belong to all the baptized (even to Christians who are not Catholic). Psalms and canticles (songs from the Bible) form the core of the prayer, and those gathered to pray are traditionally arranged in two groups ("choirs") facing one another. These choirs alternate verse by verse in singing or reciting the psalms and canticles.
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Every knee shall bendCHOIR STALLSChoir stalls are individual seats that allow one to feel simultaneously part of the community and alone before God. There is a desk upon which prayer books can rest. Storage shelves at each place will be of special benefit to the children, youth, and adults who sing in our choirs, who now fumble with several folios and books during each Mass. With no dedicated choir rehearsal room, the choir stalls will provide discrete storage for these materials that are used daily, while leaving the choir chapel always formal and ready for communal prayer. Kneelers will also allow choristers to assume the same posture as the rest of the assembly during the Eucharistic Prayer and Communion.
Book storage and psalter traysA special feature borrowed from the famous Marcel Breuer choir stalls at Saint John’s Abbey are trays that pull out under the top music desk. These trays allow one to balance the Psalter for reading while seated during the recitation or chanting of the psalms, or during private prayer and meditation.
When not used for choir rehearsal or organ practice, the choir chapel will be open and available for prayer at all times for both groups and individuals. -
OUR VISION, OUR HOPE
The Choir Chapel of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican CityAs we come to know Christ, adore him, and receive him in Holy Communion, we become more and more aware of our mission in him to “make Eucharist,” offering daily the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and interceding in prayer—and our self-emptying—for the life of the world.
The choir chapel will be a place of formation in this liturgical spirituality, and an expression of the liturgical prayer that extends into our domestic churches and out into the world.
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