Welcome! to the website for St. Valentine & St. Mary Parishes of Peru, IL.

Recently the motet, Sicut Cervus, (see koot chair voos) was sung by the Sistine Choir at the Consistory in Rome.  Not to take anything away from the Sistine Choir, but this above version of Sicut Cervus sung by a Polish boys/mens choir (Poznanskie Slowiki) directed by Prof. Stefan Stuligrosz is truly music from heaven!  (Some people may not realize that a boy's voice has such unique quality for only as long as he is a boy.  It changes at puberty.)

The motet (Sicut Cervus) was composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-94), a master of sacred polyphonic music.  The words are as follows in Latin and English:

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,

ita desiderat anima mea ad te Deus.

As a deer longs for springs of water, 

so longs my soul after you, O God. 

(Psalm 41[42].1) 

May our Lenten penance increase our longing and desire for the salvation of Christ, our God!