Performed by soloists of the Cathedral Choir of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Oklahoma City

 

2019 marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, where I had the pleasure to serve as a cantor and choir member. To mark this anniversary, the Cathedral underwent a substantial renovation and was reopened to the public at the Rededication Mass on November 16, 2019.  I am honored to have written music for this venerable occasion. 

 

The text, “locus iste” (this place),  comes from the Latin gradual for the anniversary of the dedication of a church (Missa in anniversario dedicationis ecclesiae) and has been used by many composers - most famously in the setting by Anton Bruckner for the dedication of a votive chapel in the New Cathedral of Linz in 1869. 

 

Locus iste a Deo factus est,

This place was made by God,

 

inaestimabile sacramentum,

a priceless sacrament,

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irreprehensibilis est.

it is without reproach.