Mass settings & large works
Mass of the Americas
SATB chorus, soloists, and orchestra; parish edition for chorus and organ, 2018
Commissioned by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone as a twinned tribute to Our Lady under her titles the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Misa de las Américas does for sacred music what the Franciscan missionaries did for church architecture, drawing local tradition into the Church's high sacred tradition. It extends the line of the Missa solemnis: a setting of the Traditional Latin Mass for choir and orchestra that weaves Gregorian chant, folk melodies from eighteenth-century Mexico, and an Ave Maria in Nahuatl, the language in which Our Lady spoke to St. Juan Diego in 1531. William P. Mahrt, editor of the journal Sacred Music, closes his essay on the work by calling its movements "destined to be classics." A parish edition condenses the orchestral writing for organ while keeping every choral part.
Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Mass was first celebrated on December 8, 2018 at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco at the close of the Cruzada Guadalupana pilgrimage, then in 2019 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. On October 7, 2025, Archbishop Cordileone celebrated it at the Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico City, the site of the apparitions to St. Juan Diego. The Benedict XVI Institute's Project Guadalupe 2031 is building toward the 500th anniversary of the apparitions around new celebrations of the Mass.
Editions. The premiere version for choir and orchestra exists in three forms: the Extraordinary Form according to the 1962 Missal, in Latin, which also serves a Latin Novus Ordo; the Ordinary Form in Spanish, Latin, English, and Nahuatl; and a hybrid Ordinary Form with Greek Kyrie and Latin Agnus Dei. Each includes the processional hymn, Kyrie, Gloria, the Ave Maria offertory motet, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei, the optional Aue Maria in Nahuatl, and the four seasonal Marian antiphons, Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Cælorum, Regina Cæli, and Salve Regina. A parish edition for chorus and organ condenses the orchestra while keeping every choral part, and has become a favorite of newly ordained priests for their first Masses. Scores are licensed per printed copy and delivered electronically; see For directors.
Patrons. The Mass was made possible by Frank and Sally Hanna, in thanksgiving to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
