Mass at Mission San Rafael* on St. Raphael the Archangel's feast day on Sat. Oct. 24th. It was a Missa Cantata. Our schola and some students from St. Thomas More school sang the California Mission Mass setting for the ordinary, the propers from the feast of San Rafael, some motets and two hymns to the Angel Rafael.

The California Mission Mass was written for the converted Indians to sing. This may have been the same Mass Robert Louis Stevenson heard when he witnessed a Mass at Mission San Carlos Borromeo (Carmel Mission). Stevenson wrote of the event in 1879:

"...the padre drives over the hill from Monterey; the little sacristy, which is the only covered portion of the church, is filled with seats and decorated for the service; the Indians troop together, their bright dresses contrasting with their dark and melancholy faces; and there, among a crowd of somewhat unsympathetic holiday makers, you may hear God served with perhaps more touching circumstances than in any other temple under heaven. An Indian, stone blind and about eighty years of age, conducts the singing; other indians compose their choir; yet they have the Gregorian music at their finger ends and pronounce the Latin so correctly that I could follow the meaning as they sang....I have never seen faces more vividly lit up with joy than the faces of these Indian singers."

* Its original name was La Mision de Gloriosisimo Principe San Rafael Archangel.

The California Mission Mass was led by John Vogel, the choir director at St. Thomas More school, and a number of his students from the school sang with us. Michael Hey led the schola in singing the Propers, the motets, and the hymns. Note, many of the schola members who sing every week at Five Wounds in San Jose and at these special Masses are very young students who enjoy singing the Latin chant and polyphony.