Not To Us, But To You Be The Glory

I heard a talking head on network news this evening say that what all America was talking about this weekend was the shooting in Colorado.  That is not, in fact, true.  This entire weekend, I was thinking of, working for, teaching about, & worshiping God from sun up to sun down & even in my sleep.

Our parish hosted a sacred music workshop for our middle- & high-schoolers taught by the Knoxville Latin Mass Schola.  On Friday, I gave a presentation on the historical development of sacred music, especially chant, & the proper role of sacred music in the liturgy according to the Church itself as largely articulated in Dei Verbum & Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship.  After this, we watched the clip from the Sound of Music where Maria teaches the kids to sing using Do-Re-Mi, because a) it's really entertaining, b) that really is the basic method of chant.  Then we actually began to sing starting with childhood songs & nursery rhymes that I had set to chant notation.

Saturday was the big day & I dreamed anxiously about the workshop all night long.  There was a mad flurry of activity in the morning, from picking up the snacks at the store, making the coffee, greeting the kids & parents, to stuffing the music folders.  Once things got underway, they really got underway!  The whole day seemed a blur.  It was exhausting for students & teachers alike, but it was one of the happier entanglements I've been a part of lately.  We handed on a heretofore unknown aspect of the faith to a new generation!

At 4:00pm, we gathered in the church for solemn sung Vespers.  I intoned "O God, come to my assistance.." & the Spirit took over from there.  It all went beautifully.  The prelude, interlude, & postlude organ pieces were exquisite.  The whole atmosphere was solemn, prayerful, & beautiful.  I could not have anticipated how well it all came together.  And I dreamed about the beauty of the liturgy all night long.

I was able to make a recording of Vespers, which I hope to post on the St. Thomas web site soon.  

The last intercessory prayer at Evening Prayer is always for the repose of the souls of the dead in God's mercy.  I offered this for the victims of the Colorado shooting.  Other than this, it was not really discussed.  We did not give glory to murderers by dwelling on them; we gave glory to God this weekend by trusting in his love & rejoicing in his presence.

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Sacred Music Workshop this weekend

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"Sacred chant is intimately bound up with this celebration [of the liturgy], clothing it as with a garment…”  Dom Saulnier, OSB, Gregorian Chant, p.20

This Friday, I will be giving a presentation on sacred music in the Roman Catholic liturgy.  This talk (from 6:30 to 8:00pm, everyone invited) with its accompanying short practice will be the opening event of a Sacred Music Workshop for the parish youth this Saturday (beginning at 9:00am).  

"Of all the sounds of which human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, are capable, voice is the most privileged and fundamental." Sing to the Lord 86

"The Church recognizes Gregorian chant as being specially suited to the Roman Liturgy.  Therefore... it should be given pride of place [principem locum: first place] in liturgical services." Vatican II - Sacrosanctum Concilium 116

The Youth will learn how to read & sing Gregorian chant notation & a simple piece of polyphony through instruction by the Knoxville Latin Mass Schola.  They will understand the genuine role of music in the liturgy as spelled out by the Church herself.  They will learn to worship more fully, & they will be transformed by the experience.

"All who take part in the divine office are not only performing a duty of the church, they are also sharing in what is the greatest honor for Christ's bride; for by offering these praises to God they are standing before God's throne in the name of the church, their mother." Vatican II - Sacrosanctum Concilium 85

What they learn will be put into practice at a 4:00pm Vespers service (again, all invited).  I believe this will be quite memorable for all in attendance.

"Faith grows when it is well expressed in celebration. Good celebrations can foster and nourish faith. Poor celebrations may weaken it." Sing to the Lord 5

A very influential someone in the parish greatly upset me with the comment, "they really don't take it very seriously here," meaning the liturgy & that my efforts to make sacred music better known & appreciated were a waste of time.  Perhaps we could clothe our Holy Mother in a more solemn, beautiful, & prayerful garment.  Perhaps it will take a new Spirit-filled generation to make it so.

The full bulletin notice can be found at the St. Thomas the Apostle homepage.

Rosary Project - Success!

I have my 6th graders make their own Rosaries every year.  They love it because they get to make them their own - they select the colors & string them together.  I make sure there aren't any 9- or 11-bead decades & then crimp them together.  We open every class with the appropriate Scripture reading, then pray a decade of the Rosary (in Latin!), then I give a lesson about the reading & the Mystery of that day.  I'm sure I could teach the entire class for the whole year exclusively by this method, because the Blessed Mother is the best teacher of all. 

This year I decided to expand the program a bit.  After making their own Rosaries, the kids always want to make more for their family & friends.  I decided we would try to make a bunch extra & have a Rosary sale after Mass for a few weekends during Lent to raise money for charity.  We made about 25, but I wasn't too sure how well this would be recieved.  We sold out the first weekend, & I had to dedicate a whole next class to just working on Rosaries!  I made a few myself to throw in the pile, & we had about 20 for the next weekend.  We sold all of those, too. 

When the dust had cleared, we raised $718!!!  We donated $200 to the local Good Samaritan Center.  I dropped by to give the donation & they were astounded at the kids' generosity.  The director told me about what they do there, & showed me the food pantries.  One of the managers there told me they had just come across a few cases of peanut butter for 15 cents a pound (a big jar of Jif Crunchy retails for nearly $7!), so our $200 could buy over 1,300 lb. of food.  I shared this with the kids, but I'm not sure they completely understood how great this was.

We donated $100 to Love INC (in the name of Christ), with whom some of our parishoners are deeply involved.  We gave $100 to the NPH (Nuestros Piquenos Hermanos - "our little brothers & sisters") orphanage in El Salvador that our parish supports. We also plan to give $200 to local pregnancy help centers.  Since this was the kids' project, I asked what other causes they would like to donate to, & one of the kids asked about helping animals, so I will check into that - perhaps the local shelter or perhaps something like Horse Haven.  We will split the remainder between the diocesan seminarians & the Nashville Domincan Sisters.  As you can see, our biggest problem is deciding what to do with the funds, Deo gratias! 

Since we have worked our way through the Creed this year & are now studying the Church, this was a great time to explain how God works through us to accomplish his purpose of bringing about the Kingdom of God.  It is his work, not ours.  Non nobis, Domine...
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P.S.: There are still a few Rosaries left - ones the kids started, but didn't get finished in time for the sale (plus I ran out of crimps!).  If you are interested, please contact Lupe in the St. Thomas church office at (865) 986-9885.  Thanks!
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4th Person of the Quadrinity?

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I found this a while back & wanted to share it...

We all know the legend about St. Patick using the Shamrock to explain the nature of the Holy Trinity.  I just wonder what the inspiration was for this?

Wasn't America sold on "Change" last election?  Any reason why that still isn't a good idea?
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Losing the Way

While reflecting on particularly disturbing news about troubled news about the cruelty of young people, it occurs to me that we, the adults, that is, have utterly failed them by creating the moral morass intp which they have been born & raised.  An opposite world where selfishness & lewdness is the norm & where the only forbidden act is to say that there actually are acts that should be forbidden.  And the Modern Enlightened Man seems to be working all the more to cast off any vestiges of the days when most people in most places in America still intuitively understood something called "decency."

From G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong With The World...

"This is the attitude which I attack.  It is the huge heresy of Precendent.  It is the view that because we have got into a mess we must grow messier to suit it; that because we have taken a wrong turn some time ago we must go forward and not backwards; that because we have lost our way we must lose our map also; and because we have missed our ideal, we must forget it."
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The Way to Holiness

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I asked the Lord Jesus, "Why are my sins so unshakable?  Why can I not be rid of the evils that plague me?"

He answered, "Because you are not willing to suffer."
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We belong to Christ alone

After a meeting at the church the other Sunday, the conversation turned toward the HSS mandate. Someone who was not up on the matter asked what the issue was, & I said it was a three-pronged issue: 1) government dictating to a religion what it is & what it may do, 2) the Church’s teaching that contraception & its logical consequence of abortion are grave personal & societal evils, & 3) the widespread disobedience of Catholics regarding the Pope Paul VI’s teaching on these matters in Humanae Vitae – a fact, in this case, which the administration seems to be using to divide the faithful against their bishops.

At that point, someone chimed in that they were tired of people attacking Obama’s health care plan when the Republicans don’t offer anything better. It was so incongruous to my thought stream that I actually didn’t respond - the argument premises had been swapped too fast. I had not said anything about political party affiliations or agendas.

The truth is that Catholics do not “belong” to any political party, though the magisterial or prudential teachings of the Church may find better alignment with one party or another at any particular time. Many Catholics automatically identify themselves as Democrat, because of the work the Church did in the last century on behalf of the poor & the working man in the days of strife between capital & labor, & also in struggle for the civil rights of minorities. Perhaps the party infiltration of “progressive” & subversive elements that embrace many intrinsic evils went unnoticed by many Catholics.

These days both parties are in various ways woefully deficient in upholding Christian moral & social principles. However, not all social or moral issues are of equal weight. Some things, like war or capital punishment, for example, are incredibly serious & require the utmost consideration & care. But those that directly affect the begetting or taking of innocent human life trump all others. The Church does not outright forbid either war or capital punishment, but rather makes necessary distinctions about the conditions which must be present to make these evils permissible. The direct, intentional taking of innocent human life is never permissible or tolerable under any circumstances whatever. Nor is the redefinition of marriage. Nor is coercion by the state into the defining what a religion is, what it may believe, & how it may practice those beliefs.

So, if a certain political party offers safe haven to those who actively promote abortion, new definitions of marriage, the trampling of individual dignity & rights by the state, & a host of other perversions, then that party has ipso facto disqualified itself from electability by Catholics of informed conscience. No other issue can offset the gravity of these.

I hope more Catholics look clear-eyed at the moral state of our country & vote for the candidates that offer a vision most closely identifiable with our most deeply-held Catholic Christian principles than to vote the way they always vote because that’s how they’ve always voted & that’s how their parents & their parents’ parents always voted.

To read Humanae Vitae, click HERE.

To read the USCCB's statement Faithful Citizenship or to get the latest on the HHS mandate, click HERE.
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