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Fr. John-Mark Missio is Director of St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, Canada. A published composer, Fr. John-Mark will bring together the experience and knowledge of an ordained priest, busy administrator, trained musician and liturgical theologian for truly insightful retreat talks.

 

 
More about Father Missio:

A graduate of Saint Augustine Seminary (Toronto), Fr. Missio has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, in addition to his many studies in music at the Royal Conservatory (Toronto), Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo), and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music (Rome). He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto in 1996, and after serving in two parishes he was called to be Associate Director of the Saint Michael Choir School in 2003. He had previously undertaken studies at the Liturgical Institute (Mundelein). In 2004, Fr. Missio was appointed Director of the choir school.

Saint Michael's Choir School was founded in 1937 by Fr. John Edward Ronan to facilitate the training of a boys' choir for Saint Michael's Cathedral. The official name of the school at the time was Cathedral Schola Cantorum. On May 17, 1955, St. Michael's Choir School was accorded an affiliation with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome -- only six other choirs and choir schools in the world share this privilege.

His setting of the canticle of the Lamb was recently published by Cantica Nova, and is described as follows:

"This is a liturgical setting of the New Testament canticle from Evening Prayer II (Second Vespers) for Sundays. This canticle is sung every Sunday outside of Lent.

The mystical text is from the Book of Revelation, with Alleluia acclamations inserted. Rev. John-Mark Missio, director of the Saint Michael Choir School in Toronto, used a short chant Alleluia from the Psalterium monasticum as the musical theme for this refrain. Father Missio writes:
It was wonderful to stumble across this melody used in Sunday Vespers at the Duomo in Florence in 2001. That was one of the seminal moments in my appreciation of the universality of chant: here was something familiar leaping out of a totally unfamiliar environment, establishing a most unexpected and marvelous link between an historic basilica in Europe and a modern seminary chapel half a world away where I had been singing the same chant a few years before. Immediately I was able to participate in Vespers in a way I certainly had not expected.
The five verses of the canticle are set polyphonically (a la William Byrd) for three a cappella voices: alto, tenor, bass.

While obviously a perfect choice for Solemn Vespers, the Canticle of the Lamb can also make a fine entrance or communion processional, especially during Eastertide (C) when the Second Reading is from Revelation, or on the Solemnity of Christ the King."