Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

Last Saturday, for the 9th anniversary of the founding of Bruté, we had our annual parents and pastors day where, as you might suspect, we invite the guys' parents and pastors to come and visit the seminary.  Bishop Tobin graciously allowed us to move the feast of the Birth of Mary to Saturday, so we could fittingly celebrate the patron of the seminary, Our Mother Mary.  I had a wonderful time with my parents (we went to this new Catholic goods store in Indy, where I saw this awesome tie with St. Michael on it - I totally should have gotten it - we also got some ice cream, which was fantastic.)

Anyway, back to the topic of this post, the schola sang "Ave Maria" (sorry, I don't remember which version), for the offertory hymn, and based on people's comments afterwords we sounded pretty good.  Sorry for the goofy angle on the video, I was trying to make the camera less conspicuous.  Also, I was playing with the audio a bit (mixing two sources together) to make it more balanced, so let me know what you think.  Enjoy!

Yesterday was my "easy" day in classes (though the classes themselves are getting tough), but more interestingly (I hope) is a recounting of the musical events of the day.

First, Mass.  Yesterday was the all-school Mass over at Marian.  Usually, on Thursdays, we have Mass over at Marian, and while that was the case yesterday, it was a bit different than normal in that it was an all-school Mass. They have these Masses a few times a semester for big occasions, and this time the Mass was celebrating the opening of the new semester. All-school Masses are always interesting because first, they have a ton more people than any other Masses and second, the Marian Choir is the leader of the songs at Mass.  The first point tends (for me anyway) to make concentration and especially prayer more difficult.  I don't really know, at the March for Life it was so awesome to be surrounded by tons and tons of people - it was a very powerful, and even prayerful, moment - but for some reason the large numbers at Marian don't inspire me the same way.  Anyway, moving onto the positives, the music at Marian was pretty good.  I always go into all-school Masses not knowing what to expect (remembering the bongo's that appeared several months ago), but at yesterday's Mass the percussion instruments went un-played and the guitar was mercifully quiet.  Yes, I could complain about the choice of hymns, but they weren't heretical, and Ubi Caritas, despite their playing it every. single. time., is actually a beautiful hymn.  Overall, I found that going in with a (slightly) open mind, and less of a negative attitude, worked wonders for making the all-school Mass a better experience.  I know, I know, most of this post was listing off my complaints, but the Mass is seriously getting better every time, and I am seeing it in a more charitable light.

Second, Schola Practice.  Yesterday we had our second schola practice and we really got down to working on the hymn for parents and pastors (a Saturday 2 weeks from now during which all the guys' parents and pastors are invited to Bruté).  Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I have been slotted (to my chagrin) into the base part along with another guy.  Thank goodness, in at least this particular piece of music, a certain version of Ave Maria, the base section stays in a perfectly singable range of notes, and though it has a few tricky spots, I can easily hit the entire range.  The other positions have much, much harder sections than I do.  The soprano and tenor section both have to hit incredibly high (well into my falsetto) notes, and they, along with the alto section, have a much more complicated melody to remember.  I am certain that once we pull it together it will sound splendid, absolutely fantastic.  I don't know if I will be able to record it for your listening pleasure, we'll see.  

Third, Compline.  Last night we chanted night prayer as a community directly after schola practice.  As it so happened, yesterday was my day to be the cantor, so that meant that I was in charge of intoning the hymn at the beginning, leading the "cantor-side" of the psalm and canticle, and then the hymn (praising Mary) at the end.  I was pretty confident a few days back because I thought I could pick up right where I left off last semester.  Of course, things couldn't go that smoothly.  First, the few times I practiced I had a few minor slips on the chants during the psalm and/or canticle.  We are using a somewhat simplified version of the Meinrad chant tones, and while I'm pretty good at being able to lead them (especially because we have an organist playing the melody along with), there are a few spots where I stumbled transferring from one line to the next and I my pacing just didn't seem quite right.  Anyway, it also so happened that we changed the hymns up for the day.  Because it was the  celebration Queenship of Mary the hymn at the end changed from Salve Regina to Ave Regina Caelorum - I knew both of them no-problem, but the change meant one more thing to remember...  Also, I thought that I would use Holy God as the opening hymn - it's easy, everybody knows it, and it's one of my favorite hymns - but, it was not to be, Tony, the prayer leader for the night wanted O Christ You are the Light and Day.  Again, I thought I had it no problem...  Once I walked back to the organ (where the cantor leads from for compline) I hummed the first few bars of the opening hymn to check what note I wanted to start on.  To my horror, I couldn't take the hymn as it was in my head and get the notes right.  The jumps between the notes just weren't coming out right and I kept hitting the "light and day" on the wrong note.  Aaron (the organist) was phenomenal in singing the tune quietly for me.  Anyway, to quickly destroy any climax that I was just creating, everything ended up coming out correctly.  But wow, I was a bit worried there at the beginning.

OK, if that wall of text was too much, here's the super-short-summary:  Marian's music was better than it has ever been, Schola practice was challenging, but the song will be spectacular when we pull it off, and Compline, even with tired vocal cords and a uncooperative memory, went well.  What can I say, it was another great day!

Also, thanks to everybody who is reading my blog - the numbers have jumped up the past few days - that's very encouraging.  I'll keep posting stuff on here whenever I get the chance.  (Any ideas?  Let me know in the comment section that you should see below.)  Thanks!

I wanted to do something for mother's day, and who better to write about than our spiritual mother, Mary.  I guess this is a few days late, but better late than never right?  These won't be anything too world changing, but just some thoughts that I've had...

 

My first post will revolve around the wedding feast of Cana:

 

(John 2:1-7)  "On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.  When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."  And Jesus said to here,  "woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."  Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.   Jesus said to the servants. "Fill the jars with water."  And they filled them up to the brim."

Often the question is asked why we would pray to Mary when we could just pray to Jesus.  Jesus is God, Mary is not, and if you can pray straight to God, why pray to anybody else?  The wedding feast at Cana gives us some answers:

Here we have Mary interceding on behalf of the newlyweds and their guests.  Note that the people in charge of the party didn't go to Jesus for help.  For one, Mary, more so than everybody else there, knew who Jesus was, and secondly, she had the "clout" (apologies for my lack of theological terminology) to convince Jesus to perform His first miracle.  Here's the connection to our lives: Mary's personal relationship with Christ is a ton better than mine (or anybody else's on this planet).  1. She is a saint - which means she is perfectly united to God in heaven.  2. She is Jesus' mother - which is a much closer personal relationship than I am ever going to have.  and 3. She has been given to us, by Christ, to be our mother (that will get its own post later).

Another big point: Mary is not going to lose our prayers or make them less "convincing" somehow.  Mary takes our prayers directly to Jesus more fervently and beautifully than we ever could.  From the same passage we have Mary's words: "Do whatever he tells you."  Point: there is nothing to fear in going to Mary.  She will always direct us, aid us, and help us on the path towards God.  Mary was chosen by God as the way he would enter the world and thereby save mankind.  Certainly, if God chose her, we should too.  Her entire life revolved around saying "yes" to God, and now we see her telling (and helping) us to do the same.

I hope to do posts on the Annunciation and the moment when Jesus gives us His mother (while on the cross).  Maybe other ones will get in there too...  Mary is such a beautiful model for humanity.  She is the example of giving one's self completely to God - no matter the consequences or the uncertainties.  She is such an amazing help in getting to Heaven - God's original method of bringing Himself (incarnate) into the world was Mary, and He has continued to pour grace upon us through her. 

Let me know in the comments if this post is a good length - I don't want to ramble on too long, and I also don't want to keep it too simple...  While you formulate your exquisite comment, listen to the video below.  Enjoy!