The View Returns, Pt. 2

It has been many years since I posted here, and the story is a long one.

Back in 2016, I resigned from St. Mary's church in Marshall, MI. There were many disappointments over my short tenure there that led to the decision to part company, but there were valuable lessons learned as well. It was unfortunate that despite the Pastor's background in organ, we were unable to form a truly collegial working relationship. There were many successes at St. Mary's, and it is my hope that I left the position having laid the foundation upon which a solid music program could continue being built. There were a number of very dedicated adults and younger voices in the program, and there were many moments where truly beautiful music was made, all in service to the liturgy and the raising of the hearts and minds of the Faithful to higher things.

This was to be, at least I thought, my last full-time position as a sacred musician, and I had determined at that point that I no longer had the energy or the appetite to continue in the sometimes stressful work as an advocate for the "reform of the reform" and the restoration and preservation of chant and polyphony to the liturgy of the Church. I continued to serve in part-time positions as organist only, and returned to the secular working world in the legal field as a records and file room manager, applying the skills I'd learned as a paralegal.

But, as my grandfather (Allen Saunders), was quoted as saying, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." (This is, by the way, incorrectly attributed to John Lennon, because he used it in his song Beautiful Boy. My grandfather's quote first appeared in Reader's Digest in 1957. The misattribution has been corrected several times over the course of the years.)

This brings me to the new picture for the header here. I was working full-time at a law firm, and playing for services at St. Michael's in the Hills Episcopal church, in Ottawa Hills (outside of Toledo, OH). My relationship with St. Michael's was an interesting one, and I'll share that experience in a separate post. I was also assisting with the music at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Temperance, MI where the Mass is celebrated in both forms (Ordinary and Extraordinary), and the music is under the direction of a good friend and colleague. This brought me into contact with a number of like-minded musicians, and when the need for a serious-minded sacred musician presented itself at Immaculate Conception Church in Bellevue, OH, I decided to apply. I was offered the position, and on March 1, 2023 became Director of Sacred Music and Liturgy. I resigned from my position at the law firm, and stepped down from my work for St. Michael's, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The header photo is of the altar, set in the "Benedictine" arrangement. It is a free-standing altar, but Mass can be offered either versus populum or ad orientem. The current Pastor and I share a similar understanding of sacred music and liturgy, and the importance of reclaiming the unique identity of the Catholic Church that has been in steep decline and at risk of being entirely lost. It is because of his commitment to Sacred Tradition and the salvation of souls that I determined that the time was right to return to my first passion.

I will be posting more over the coming weeks, so please visit this blog frequently!

The View Returns!

The pic in the header isn't taken from the vantage point of the loft, but it's a start.

I was appointed Director of Sacred Music and Liturgy at Immaculate Conception Church in Bellevue, OH effective March 1, 2023.

More details to follow.

Stay tuned!

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Reposted from 2013)

Beginning today and  proceeding up to Christmas Eve, the “O” antiphons for the Magnificat are sung during vespers.  (The texts of these antiphons are the basis for the popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  For those of you who really want to be “inside baseball” on this topic, Jeffrey Tucker wrote a brilliant article on the history of the tune over at the New Liturgical Movement, here.)

Several years ago in a discussion thread at the Musica Sacra forum, a member pointed out that the text of the “O” antiphons is actually a very clever word game.  The seven invocations in the original Latin are: Sapientia, Adonai, Radix Jesse, Clavis David, Oriens, Rex gentium and Emmanuel.  The first letter of each spell S-A-R-C-O-R-E, which when reversed spells “Ero cras”, which in turn translated from Latin means “tomorrow I shall be.”  An appropriate expression for Christmas Eve, the day after the "O Antiphons" end.

As the member said, “Very clever, those medievals.”

(For more information about the icon shown in this post, click here.)

Rejoice in the Lord, Always!

I am in the rare position of being in the employ of a Catholic church with a Pastor who is himself a trained and experienced organist. It was one of the main reasons why I applied for the position here at St. Mary's in the first place, and remains an important aspect of my work. Working with a Pastor who has "been there" and "done that" makes it far easier to set and accomplish goals, and while we may not agree on certain musical matters (minutiae), we at least have a basic mutual language with which to speak.

Fr. Lusk informed me some weeks ago that one of our parishioners, Jim Oliver, who runs a recording studio and is also our resident sound system tech had taken a collection of casette tapes recorded by Father while a student at Santa Clara University, and had remastered them to put on a CD. The end product is Rejoice in the Lord, Always! It is a collection of Advent and Christmas music recorded by Fr. Lusk on the Casavant organ in the concert hall at Santa Clara.  Alas, the organ no longer exists, so these recordings are doubly important.

It is a fine collection of hymns and shorter works by Bach, Bruhns, Manz and others, and represents Father Craig's skills as an organist. The pieces are rendered with great elegance and care, and his musicality is evident, as is his joy of playing the organ.

The CD is aptly named, Rejoice In The Lord, Always! being released on this Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday (for the first word of the Introit for the day, "Rejoice".)

It can be purchased at the parish, or you can sample tracks and download them here.

Keeping Advent 2015

We've turned the corner into the Year of Grace 2016 with the First Sunday of Advent.

With this comes the usual rants among my serious-minded colleagues who bemoan and decry the over-commercialization and secularization of the season, raising the spectre of the push for a "happy holidays" agenda and the supposed PC sanitization of the use of terms like "Christmas", questionable colors and symbols on coffee cups, or a protest over the appearance of Nativity scenes in the public square.

I'd like to offer a slightly different approach. Advent is a penitential and preparatory season in anticipation of Christmas. But I also think we as hard-identity Catholics need to infuse the season with the joy that our hope in and expectation of the Parousia brings. In other words, I put forth the notion of "keeping Advent."

Here are some ideas on how to "keep" Advent.

Have an Advent wreath with candles (three purple, one rose) in your home. St. Mary's had a wreath-making event after Masses several weeks ago. I can’t use real greens, as alas I’m an apartment dweller and am not permitted them due to risk of fire.

My tree goes up with white lights, but instead of Christmas ornaments, the tree is decorated with purple ornaments and some rose-colored ones.  Sometimes there are gold ones hidden throughout as a symbol of the anticipation. The tree is topped with a large purple bow. I also have a swag of greens with white lanterns and a big purple bow hanging over the chest where the Nativity set goes.

I abstain from listening to Christmas music at home, limiting myself to the few recordings of Advent music I own (a recording of the Advent Procession from St. James’ Episcopal Cathedral, Toronto, and J. Michael Thompson and his Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle singing Advent Lessons and Carols, called, ”Redeemer of the Nations, Come”).

On Gaudete Sunday I’ll make my Christmas cookies and write and post my Christmas cards.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, the purple and rose ornaments will come down and the Christmas decorations will go up on the tree and elsewhere in the apartment.

There are some who have a tradition of putting up the various elements of the Nativity in stages: the stable goes up on Advent I; the animals go in on Advent II; the shepherds on Advent III; the Angel on Advent IV; Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve morning, and the bambino on Christmas Eve. I put the Infant King in the manger when I get home from Midnight Mass.

I'm sure there are plenty of other wonderful ways of "keeping" Advent. Please share them here!

The New View and Disclaimer

On October 21, 2015, I became the new Director of Sacred Music and Organist at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in historic Marshall, Michigan. The new blog title picture is of the sanctuary taken from the choir loft. It's my intention to update this picture regularly to reflect the liturgical season.

So far, my experience in this new position has been nothing but positive. The parishioners are welcoming and kind, the staff is well-organized and hard-working, and the Pastor is one of the best priests I've had the pleasure of working with. This is no surprise since he's: 1) a convert, 2) holds a bachelor's degree in organ performance, 3) held a job as a Catholic church musician, and 4) worked in the private sector for a number of years before entering the seminary and becoming a priest. Not since my tenure at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wyandotte have I enjoyed such a good collegial relationship with a priest, and it has restored my confidence in my vocation and the future of the Church.

The choir here is a mighty and determined bunch. I have 28 registered singers, and regularly have 21 at rehearsal and in the loft on Sundays. So far, they have risen to the challenge of learning the Elgar Ave Verum, the John Romeri arrangement of Goss's Psalm 23 (Anglican chant), and continue to show eagerness to learn Gregorian chant and the riches of sacred polyphony that is such an important part of our Catholic cultural identity.

Upon my arrival, the choir shared space with the religious education program in one of the classrooms in the former K-8 school that had been repurposed for the school of religion. At my request the director re-arranged the use of space so that the classroom could be dedicated exclusively to the use of the sacred music program. I set to the task of cleaning out the 12-plus years of accumulated "treasures" found throughout the cabinets, closets and shelves of the room, rearranging the furniture to create a proper rehearsal area and establish an office area in one corner while also creating a work space for a librarian to assist with the sorting and organizing of the choral library. The maintenance supervisor worked closely with another volunteer to see to the task of running ethernet cable below the floor of the building (through a series of small tunnels that house the plumbing for the forced steam heating system) into the music room so that I could have internet access at work. The room had never been used this consistently as an office and rehearsal space, and so the change was welcomed by the choir, who appreciated having a clean and orderly area in which to work.

I have been busy creating email "blast" lists for both the St. Mary (adult/mixed) Choir and the Young Voices of St. Mary (the boy's and girl's choir), using these "blasts" as a way of communicating with members on a regular basis. I've also begun making use of the Facebook page that had been set up as a contact point for parishioners, by posting the lists of music for upcoming Masses, funerals and other events.

I'm looking forward to the ongoing work of developing and advancing a solid sacred music program here. The people seem genuinely interested and eager to undertake the work and while they do occasionally get discouraged, they "screw their courage to the sticking place" and work hard to master the various challenges I put before them.

I'm also looking forward to reestablishing this blog as a place to communicate information about my efforts both at St. Mary's and in the greater sacred music community as well as take the occasional opportunity to make observations or post "rants" about important issues impacting our Catholic identity.

To that end, I'm publishing, as I've done previously, the following disclaimer:

The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author, and in no way reflect those of the Pastor, staff or parishioners of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church. Comments on the blog are moderated, and as there have been problems with certain individuals in the past, I reserve the right to block people who use veiled or open threats, profanity or engage in "troll" behaviors.

Please visit regularly, as I will be posting new things several times a week.

The View is Obscure

You may have noticed that 1) I've not been posting much, and 2) the photo at the top of the blog is gone.

Several weeks ago, quite unexpectedly, I was presented with a request to resign from my duties at Sacred Heart of Jesus.  I had no warning.  I wasn't prepared.  In fact, I was very hurt.

But, as my friend Wendi is fond of saying, "God's plan is perfect,  even if we don't understand it."

And I think she's right.   In fact, I reworked that little bit of wisdom, and this his how I put it to my Facebook friends:

God's plan for us, from the economy of salvation to our life in this world, is always perfect, even if we are unable to always apprehend it.

We never know what twists and turns in the road may appear. The quality of a man's character is not proved in how he behaves when he's in control, but rather when he's not in control. It is never a bad choice to take the highest moral and professional position in troubled situations, and to do so will speak louder than any words.

I have had a setback in my professional life, but I must believe that it has its purpose, be it to teach me something about myself and others, or to provide an opportunity to teach others by example.

We are often given these opportunities to reflect on things from our past, be it distant or recent, and put them in perspective.  I determined that God's love is proven by the fact that often the bullets we dodge are in reality mortar rounds.  When God whispers, "Duck", it's never a bad option to listen and do as He says.

So, I'm moving on.

I spent a wonderful week with fellow travelers on the journey toward Beauty, Truth and Goodness in sacred music in Indianapolis.  I sang countertenor under the estimable Horst Buckholtz, which is an experience I'm not likely to forget.  I shared adult beverages and collegial conversations with one of each and some you never thought of from the world of sacred musicians.

I have every confidence that I'll land on my feet.  After all, God's plan is perfect.  That's what Wendi tells me.

And she'd never lie.

As Red Green likes to say, "Remember, we're all in this together."

True Beauty

I had a rough day today at church.  But I've been at this for many years, and I've learned to receive the repeated blows upon the bruise with a dull sickening and move on.

However, it is when I see others who are dispirited by a turn of events that I become circumspect.

I watch in almost transfixed dismay, not unlike how one might react to witnessing a fatal car crash, when I see people taking for granted what is at stake for those of us who are committed, unreservedly, to the work of restoring, reclaiming and advancing sacred music to our Catholic identity.

It comes down to this:

True beauty, beauty that has the power to redeem, the sublime beauty of music, takes hard work. Years, not hours, go into perfecting the craft of bringing to life music that is truly beautiful and transformative. One can accomplish a pale shadow of true beauty through imitation, but when put to the test this kind of sham aesthetic, put up for show and vainglory, fails utterly to transform either the performer or the listener. It is transitory, a false display of beauty whose underlying motivation is pride. Redeeming Beauty in music, a quality which is brought to life through a deep passion for that which is truly good, truly beautiful and possessing of the power to draw one's soul into a closer beatific vision, comes at a price. That price is a death to self, a sacrifice that one offers in union with the suffering of Christ who is the True Music of the Universe.

Polish By Adoption

I'll admit it.  I miss my "Polish family."

In years past on this day, I'd have taken my basket of traditional Polish foods over to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to be blessed, along with a children's basket (filled with candy, puzzles, games and a stuffed animal) to be donated to a family in need and a box of non-parishables for the local food bank.

Blessing of Food Baskets at OLMC had to be done in 4 "seatings" from 1 to 3 PM in order to accommodate all of the families.  The sanctuary was a riot of brightly-colored baskets for the children on one side, and a mountain of boxes and bags of food for the poor on the other.  To one side, a long table was set up with all of the foods that had been prepared for the Ptak Family meal. (Fr. Walter Ptak was the pastor and my boss.  He grew up in the parish and had a huge family that still lives in Wyandotte.)  Fr. Ptak also displayed his sizable collection of lambs made of sugar, porcelain, pottery, wood and other materials, and some of his pisanki, which are brightly and elaborately decorated eggs, also made of wood, pottery or real blown eggshells.

I recently wrote to one of Fr. Ptak's sisters who each year generously gave me a loaf of płacek, a yeast-raised sweet bread with blanched raisins and a crumb topping, to put in my blessed food basket.  I told her how much I missed these traditions and the difficulty I was having locating some of the more important foods for a traditional food basket.  She said, "I think you must really be Polish and kidnapped at birth!"  I doubt it, but I will tell you that when the Poles take you into their own, you are Polish by adoption, and to have been steeped in that tradition (the village tradition as lived out by Polonia in Wyandotte), it really does get into your bones.

Just for memory's sake, here is a picture of the last basket I put together, along with an explanation of what is in it and how the blessing is performed.

From the top, you see a bundle with pussy willows, myrtle and a palmki bound with a red ribbon.  Each are a part of the tradition, pussy willows and myrtle both representing new life; next is the neck of a bottle of a Polish sweet table wine (the name of which I cannot remember, but it was purchased at Srodek's in Hamtramck); tucked underneath you can see part of the small round loaf of "blessing bread" and then the butter lamb, next is a ring of smoked kiełbasa; in the middle are small dishes of horseradish prepared with beets (called chrzon) and salt.  The eggs are died with onion skins, which produce a beautiful cordovan color and are 100% natural.  Then comes a small picnic ham, the sugar lamb I bought that year and finally a small portion of płacek.  The white cloth you see rolled up is a traditional linen basket cover with beautiful eyelet work in it.

For the blessing, tradition has it that a basket, filled with various symbolic foods that are eaten after attendance at the first resurrection Mass of the day, is brought to the church on Holy Saturday and blessed. The blessing begins with a traditional liturgical greeting, "Niech będze pochwalony Jezus Chrystus ; Na wieki wieków. Amen." There is then a brief explanation of the traditions, then three blessings: one for the eggs, one for the bread and one for the meat. The priest then processes through the church sprinkling the people and the baskets with holy water. He concludes the service by exhorting the people to continue in their prayers in preparation for the Great Vigil, and to continue abstaining from meat until after the first resurrection Mass on Sunday. The full tradition is that one fasts and abstains from meat on Good Friday, and continues to abstain from meat through Holy Saturday until after attending the resurrection Mass on Easter Sunday. The first food to be shared is the blessed egg, the symbol of new and eternal life. This is typically eaten with horseradish to remind us of the bitterness of Christ’s Passion. Then all other foods are fair game, including various meats and sweets. 

Next, I'll post pictures of my modest pisanki and sugar lamb collection.

The Francis Effect (tm)

Over the last year, I've been watching the unfolding of the Franciscan papacy with mixed thoughts and reactions.

Today I ran across a link to this article, and couldn't resist but to comment on it.

Here's a pull-quote:

"It’s odd enough that there are two living popes. It’s odder still that they live in such proximity. But what’s most odd is that the two popes are these two popes, and that the one who spent a third of a century erecting a Catholic edifice of firm doctrine and strict prohibition now must look on at close range as the other cheerfully dismantles it in the service of a more open, flexible Church."

Francis is not "dismantling" an edifice built by Benedict. And, that edifice of firm doctrine was not built by Benedict in a third of a century. It was established nearly 2000 years ago by Christ and remains a bulwark against the gates of Hell.

This writer, like so many in the liberal, secular press, believes that Francis is the Pope that will finally liberate the Church from it's perceived oppressive doctrine and become the "Newchurch" that so many desire; an edifice of Faith built to conform to their will, rather than an edifice that will conform their will to the Faith of the Ages.

There is nothing to read here. The press spent the Benedictine years feverishly "uncovering" every scandal they could, attempting to paint Benedict's papacy as one of oppressive doctrine and opulent liturgical excess. Now they want to paint him as a bitter old man who regrets abdicating and who is now trapped in a prison of contemplation while bearing witness to the destruction of the Church. Neither characterization is true.

Meanwhile, they continually post photos, "Kodak moments" of Papa Bergoglio kissing babies and embracing those among the Faithful who have been horribly disfigured by disease. I'm a bit tired of the never-ending, breathless media coverage of Pope Francis.  You'd think he was the only pope to kiss babies or smile.

But the honeymoon may be over, or at least for some poor journalists who are confused by some of what Francis is doing, things that they perceive as being inconsistent with what this pope is supposed to be bringing to the world.

There is an article here with the telling headline "Why does progressive Pope Francis allow anti-gay bishops to preach hate?"In Benedict's first year, the press went on a breathless mission to track down every photo of young Ratzinger wearing his Hitler Youth uniform they could lay their hands on in an effort to convince people that he ate babies rather than hugged them. They're still on a campaign to characterize him as a gay-hating bigot.

If you do a quick "Google" search of Benedict, you'll find every hate-filled news article and photo ever produced regarding him. Photo-shopped pics of him made to look like the Emperor from the Star Wars saga, photos of someone standing right behind him make a stabbing gesture toward his back. Captioned photos of him in the famous red, fur-lined zucchetto called him the "Santa of Hate".


The MSM want everyone to believe that Francis is a progressive; that he's the "fluffiest pope evvvvurhh" (to quote Fr. Z). But in reality, Francis will not (indeed he CAN NOT) change 2000 years of Church Teaching. The sooner they realize that, the better. The more quickly we as serious-minded Catholics quit buying into the image the MSM is trying to project of him as a progressive, fluffy, baby-kisser the better off the Church will be, and the quicker those who think he's "all that" will realize that he's still the pope, and that he and Papa Ratzinger share a common lineage - the Vicar of Christ.

Meanwhile, this article captures the reality of the matter. Now people in the press are beginning to realize that when the rubber meets the road, Francis, like his predecessor, will stand squarely behind Church Teaching. But read carefully. They're confused. They don't understand how the "fluffiest pope ever, the one who kisses babies, the first pope to smile" could not come to Obama's aid, giving his popularity a boost by being seen with this great, progressive pope. Meanwhile, they can't resist to continue painting Papa Emeritus Ratzinger as a rigid old man obsessed with antiquated and oppressive doctrine.


When will the progressives both within and without the Church finally get it? 

Holy Week, Confession, Divine Mercy and Hard-identity Catholicism

I've not posted for a long time.  Too long, actually.  I'm sure that there are many who have visited the site disappointed that I'd not posted anything since back in December.

Much of my attention has been focused on getting through my first year at Sacred Heart.  I wish that I'd spent more time chronicling my adventures over the last months, but somehow as I'm getting older I'm finding that kind of public display of catharsis rather tiresome.

That said, I've had many personal spiritual struggles over the last year, and have finally managed, by the grace of God, to turn a corner and begin the long journey back out of the desert I've been wandering in all these months.

The first step on this journey is a return to the confessional.  Not an easy task, as it seemed that each time I tried to stiffen my resolve to go, my heart would become all the more flinty.  The sins, along with the sense of weighty guilt and shame, became too much to bear and so, after helpful prayer and encouragement from friends, I returned to the confessional.  What a relief.  A millstone was cast from my neck.  My penance was not an involved one, but a very helpful one - one in which I am still engaged as the priest insisted that I perform this particular penance every day for two weeks.  I immediately received Holy Communion - something I'd not done in nearly a year.

I've returned to daily prayer, which is also an important exercise, and am joining in with others on praying the Divine Mercy Novena.

My turning back toward God got some attention.  Attention of a demonic sort.

Make no mistake. We Catholics pray daily that God will send St. Michael to defend us in battle because the Devil and his minions prowl the earth seeking the ruin of souls. He does not discriminate in this matter. Indeed, what benefit is it to Satan to make use of pawns who are already separated from God? Rather, he finds those who are vulnerable within the Church, right in the local parish community, to vex and confound us, drawing our attention away from Christ on the Cross.

These are troubling times, and these Three Days are when the Church is most vulnerable - altars are stripped, bells and organs are silent, and after the Liturgy for Good Friday, all the tabernacles of the world will be empty.

I have experienced profound graces and mercy in the last several days, and Satan cannot abide it. He has already tried (and nearly succeeded) in thwarting my attempt to journey back to a state of grace, and between now and Holy Saturday Night (the Great Vigil of Easter) it will likely get worse.

Be sober and vigilant, good friends.

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" - The Word Game

Icon of Our Lady of the New Advent: Gate of Heaven

Beginning tomorrow, and proceeding up to Christmas Eve, the “O” antiphons for the Magnificat are sung during vespers.  (The texts of these antiphons are the basis for the popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  For those of you who really want to be “inside baseball” on this topic, Jeffrey Tucker wrote a brilliant article on the history of the tune over at the New Liturgical Movement, here.)

Several years ago in a discussion thread at the Musica Sacra forum, a member pointed out that the text of the “O” antiphons is actually a very clever word game.  The seven invocations in the original Latin are: Sapientia, Adonai, Radix Jesse, Clavis David, Oriens, Rex gentium and Emmanuel.  The first letter of each spell S-A-R-C-O-R-E, which when reversed spells “Ero cras”, which in turn translated from Latin means “tomorrow I shall be.”  An appropriate expression for Christmas Eve, the day after the "O Antiphons" end.

As the member said, “Very clever, those medievals.”

(The Icon of "Our Lady of the New Advent: Gate of Heaven" is (c) by William H. McNichols, from St Andrei Rublev Icons. My thanks to them for kindly granting permission to use it here. Please visit the site for other beautiful art.)

A Sacred Musician Reports From the Trenches

A colleague of mine took a job in Arizona last summer.  He's a talented and ambitious young sacred musician, fully committed to the restoration of orthodoxy to the culture of the Catholic Church in the 21st century.

I've been disturbed by reports he's been posting to Facebook, complete with photos of "hate mail" he and his Pastor have received in reaction to the work he's doing.

Here are some examples:

It's truly amazing that people would write such hateful, ignorant, manipulative stuff.

What is more amazing is that since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were implemented, the Catholic Church has tragically lost so much of what made its cultural identity unique.  The "leadership" of the Church incredulously wrings its hands and wonders out loud why there's a crisis of faith and a crisis of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the face of growing numbers of young people joining religious orders and pursuing priestly vocations associated with Magisterial fidelity and orthodox liturgical practice.  But that's for another time.

What is important, and what impressed me, was my friend's response in the Facebook discussion thread regarding the typewritten note.  They were words I needed, and not because I'm facing obstruction or resistance anything close to this kind of vitriol.  They were needed because those of us who are committed to this cause are easily dispirited in the work we've undertaken when faced with such selfishness.

He said,

These letters really don't bother me. We're called to be faithful, not successful, so I shall try to stay faithful in carrying out my mission.

The rule of thirds is applicable at my parish, I believe. ⅓ of the people will like you, ⅓ won't, and ⅓ won't care.

We simply have to do the right thing and trust in God. The sacred liturgy is Christ's work, not ours. The liturgy is not something we do, it's something that God is doing in our presence. It is not for cardinals, popes, bishops, or any of us, to do things with the liturgy. Rather, it is our privilege and duty to join in the liturgy as it has been handed on to us and to allow it, to allow Christ working in and through it, to do things with us!

Well said.

If your music director is working to reclaim our unique Catholic identity as expressed in orthodox musical practice, thank him or her for their commitment and let your Pastor know that you appreciate the work the music director is doing as well!

Pastors often only get  rambling emails, viturperous voice mail messages or noisome green-ink letters like the ones shown above.  And some, out of a sense of desperation or frustration, err on the side of compromise in the one area that they feel they can, without violating Church Teaching, in the name of pastoral sensitivity.  They need to know that the efforts to restore chant and polyphony to the Mass are worthwhile, and that people (who take their faith seriously) do want reverent, prayerful, and truly Catholic music in their liturgical celebrations.  They also need to know that sacred musicians are not just temperamental egoists who do what they do for personal adulation or who make their choices based on effete and eccentric tastes.  Truly educated sacred musicians understand that the Mass and its music are part and parcel of an unbroken tradition.  Priests need to understand that the cultural battles of our time go well beyond the cries for same-sex marriage, ordination of women and the evils of abortion and contraception.

Support your sacred musician, and let your Pastor know that you appreciate what he or she is doing!

Keeping Advent

In 2008, prompted by a thread over at WDTPRS to "keep" Advent as a penitential and preparatory season in anticipation of Christmas, I began establishing my own traditions that would do just that.

Here's how it works.

I have finally created a nice Advent wreath (artificial greens, as alas I’m an apartment dweller and don’t wish to risk the fire hazard) with the traditional candles (three purple, one rose).

A tree (again, artificial) goes up with white lights, but instead of Christmas ornaments, the tree is decorated with purple ornaments and a few rose-colored ones.  Some of them have gold decoration on them. The tree is topped with a large purple bow. I also have a swag of greens with white lanterns, pinecone lights and a big purple bow hanging over the chest with the Nativity set arranged on it (in stages, which is explained below).

I abstain from listening to Christmas music at home, limiting myself to the few recordings of Advent music I own (a recording of the Advent Procession from St. James' Episcopal Cathedral, Toronto, and J. Michael Thompson and the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle singing Advent Lessons and Carols, called, "Redeemer of the Nations, Come").

On Gaudete Sunday I'll make my Christmas cookies and write and post my Christmas cards.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, the purple and rose ornaments will come down and the Christmas decorations will go up on the tree, over the door and elsewhere in the apartment.

There are some who have a tradition of putting up the various elements of the Nativity in stages: the stable goes up on Advent I; the animals go in on Advent II; the shepherds on Advent III; the Angel on Advent IV; Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve morning, and the bambino on Christmas Eve when I get home from Midnight Mass.

Of course all of this would be for naught if prayer didn't figure into the picture.  I'll be the first to admit that I have for some time been in a bit of a spiritual "dry place", but I have resolved to regain my spiritual bearings during this month of preparation.

Here are some pictures of the tree and the Nativity arrangement. (The picture of the wreath was taken last year.)

The View Is Different Now

Back on September 1, I became the new Music Director and Organist at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church,Grand Rapids.

After a brief conversation about my desire to reopen the blog, my boss (Fr. Robert Sirico) gave his blessing, and so I will begin blogging about various events and important issues.

As you can well imagine, life in my new parish is hectic as I've hit the ground running to get a sacred music program in place for both the parish and the academy.

Come back in several weeks and catch up as I will be posting photos, commentary and lots of new material.