On Cecilia's Day, A Sneak Peek....

On the brighter side of this November 22nd, today marks the feast of St Cecilia -- the 2nd century martyr long celebrated as the patron of church music and musicians.

Accordingly, for all the web-inches that've been taken up with one of last week's bigger stories, there's something in the diocese of Orange's $57.5 million arrangement to buy Crystal Cathedral that even the most traditional(ist) among us can celebrate: provided the deal proceeds, the world's sixth-largest pipe organ comes with the package.

After all, the Council documents having called for the organ "to be held in high esteem," in this case you'd be hard-pressed to find another Catholic house of worship that even comes close.

Armed with some 16,000 pipes, the five-manual, 270 rank instrument is a combination of the organ from the departing community's prior sanctuary with a 100-rank 1962 piece originally built for New York's Lincoln Center. While the result is already advertised as the world's "most widely heard organ" thanks to its presence on Rev. Robert Schuller's "Hour of Power" telecasts, it'll now become, by far, the largest organ in a Stateside Catholic worship-space -- surpassing the 154-ranker at Newark's Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart -- and the second-biggest of the Popish fleet after that of Germany's St Stephen's Cathedral in Passau.

Ergo, with an eye to the future -- at least, pending Rome's sign-off -- here, an advance taste of the sound of things to come:


And lastly on this Ceciliamas, we'd be remiss to not single out all our hard-working, often long-suffering, song-leaders and piece-players out there.

Friends, a world of thanks for everything you do... but especially keeping us safe from anything that sounds like this:


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