Here are the songs that the schola sang on Sunday for the solemnity of Divine Mercy Sunday (otherwise known as the 2nd Sunday of Easter). If you are only going to watch one, definitely listen to For the Beauty of the Earth (preparation of the gifts) - it is stunningly beautiful (but I think they all are...) Enjoy! Happy Easter!
Opening - Oh God Beyond All Praising
Gloria
Gospel - Sequence and Alleluia
Preparation of the Gifts - For the Beauty of the Earth
Holy, Holy, Holy, Mystery of Faith, Great Amen, and Lamb of God
Here are the 3 songs that the schola sang for the 4th Sunday of Lent (yesterday). As always, we had been working on them for about a month (since the last time we sang). There were a few spots that could have used some polishing (personally anyway), but I managed to not completely destroy any of the hymns. :-) Enjoy! Parce Domine (Processional)
Ah Holy Jesus (Offertory) - If you really listen to the lyrics of this one, it is a beautiful (and poignant) meditation on what it means for Christ to die for us. Definitely watch this one!
Well, I am back home for a brief Thanksgiving break, and since I don't really feel like working on a philosophy paper, I figured I might as well work on some blogging that I am behind on. After typing up the first day of NCYC, I decided to split the event into a few posts (because, as always, I'm being long-winded and one post with everything would be daunting to read).
So, as I previously have briefly mentioned, NCYC (the National Catholic Youth Conference) was here in Indianapolis on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I was looking forward to this event ever since I heard it would be happening this semester. Usually, to be quite honest, I'm more of an introvert. However, upon entering seminary I have found the courage (let's be honest, it's grace) to be a bit more open, outgoing, and willing to talk with people. Anyway, I was greatly looking forward to the opportunity to hang out with 25,000 (!) young Catholics. I remember how great of a time I had just a few years back when I got to hang out with other young Catholics (though not nearly as many) and seminarians - it was awesome! Thus, though I am now on the other "side" of the exchange, I figured it would be pretty cool.
Thursday was the first day of the conference, and the kids started showing up at the conference center mid-afternoon. The Springfield and Knoxville seminarians, because groups from our dioceses hadn't shown up yet, were assigned to serve Mass for the Jefferson City, MO diocesan group at 2PM. We showed up at the convention center (which, by the way is enormous - like probably 1/2 a mile long) somewhere around noon, got registered with the volunteer people, and picked up our name-tags (enormous and kind of gaudy, but everybody wore one so it wasn't weird I guess) and t-shirts (which had "SEMINARIAN" printed on the back, so we were very obvious). We got to the room that this particular Mass was happening in (other dioceses had their own Masses going on throughout the afternoon), and waited, and waited... The group apparently was delayed because while their priests showed up on time the rest of the folks didn't trickle in until after 3. We, meanwhile, had walked a few blocks over to the mall to get something to eat. It was starting to get busy over there as everybody was starting to show up and I felt really conspicuous in my SEMINARIAN garb, but it was pretty cool to see everybody (and chat with a few people). I didn't get anything for lunch because I wasn't very hungry (and I'm cheap), so we eventually wondered back and waited a bit more.
I guess Mass was my first disappointment - not that Mass itself is bad - but we were squashed into the front row, the altar was just a table on a stage, the music was too "enthusiastic" for my tastes, we didn't [get to] kneel for the Consecration (which ended up absolutely destroying whatever remnant of concentration I had left) - I don't know, it just wasn't a fantastic experience... There were some bits that were really good: I had a moment after receiving Communion of deep prayer (love it when that happens) and the priests concelebrating Mass were reverent. Mass itself was great, but the craziness of the environment didn't lend itself to concentration, so I didn't pray as well as I was hoping.
After Mass we wondered back around to the volunteer station. I believe we then wondered through the thematic park, which wasn't open yet (we snuck through a door that someone left open) but was basically a huge open room with tons of booths from different places (religions orders, schools, companies, musicians, etc.). After checking things out we headed over to the mall again to get some dinner (by now I was hungry, those snacks in the volunteer zone were wearing off). However, by now the mall was absolutely full of people. I mean, every food-producing-vendor was absolutely swamped. So, we gave up on getting something substantial and slammed down a few more peanut butter crackers and granola bars.
lots of people!
At this point we were told to report over to Lucas Oil Stadium for assignments, and upon wondering over there I found that I was (along with most of the other guys) assigned to manning the sidewalks and getting people to their buses after the event. I managed to evade being called on to carry around a phone and be in charge of things (remember, I'm an introvert) and was told to report to my yellow zone by 9:15. The event had already semi-started at 6 or 7 with different bands and stuff (it was now almost 8 PM), but the program seemed to indicate that the real start would be around 8 with some sort of key-note speech thing. I was pretty enthusiastic about getting in there and seeing all the excitement and what-not, so I found a spot near the entrance (so I could make an exit later) along with a bunch of other sem.'s and settled in for the event. Basically, I was disappointed to find that there wasn't ever much of a talk. Don't get me wrong, the loud, upbeat music was great, but I got tired pretty quickly of jumping out and hollering out the next refrain to whatever motion was supposed to happen for this song. It was fun to begin with, but after an hour or so I was tired and really just wanted to sit there and listen to a enthusiastic, passion-filled speech. Music is fine and dandy, but I wanted some meat to chew on and get excited about. The faith is so much more than music! Anyway, I was disappointed. Apparently, this evening was primarily all about getting people hyped up and excited for the next few days. Anyway, it wasn't working for me (though most everybody else seemed to be having a blast.
crazy lights!
Shortly after 9 I headed down to my spot near the buses and caught up with Jeff who was in charge of that zone. He had figured out which buses went where - Youngstown, New York, Lexington, Louisville, etc... - so I tried to remember the order while waiting for the even to finish up and everybody start poring out. A bit after 10 the first people started leaving and over the next 20 minutes or so people began to flow pretty constantly out and head for their buses. Unfortunately (for us), they all seemed to know where they were going, so our job of directing traffic turned out pretty pointless. Anyway, our zone ended pretty quickly (most people must have headed out of other doors), so we walked down to another zone to see if they were done. Unfortunately, they weren't. So we hung out with the group that was stranded (their bus was late), trying (unsuccessfully) to stay warm amid the slow drizzle of 35 degree rain... I actually enjoyed this part a bit because I got to talk with a few of the young people. I had spent the entire day surrounded by crowds of people, but I hadn't really had a chance to interact. All the kids that I talked with were really cool - they had really strong faith, were discerning where God wanted them to be, and were a lot of fun to spend 10 minutes or so chatting with. It was great!
Lucas Oil Stadium - Tons of Young Catholics!
Well, the rain wasn't so great, but eventually the bus did show up. After that group was on there way pretty much everything was done - we hiked back over to the car, drove back to Brute, I ate some eggs/sausage shortly before midnight, and then crashed. It was a long day, lots of fun, very crazy, incredibly exhausting - in other words pretty good I suppose...
Below is a video of some clips that I took at the event Thursday evening - it was pretty amazing to be there!
Some exciting news for you all. The Brute Schola will be producing a Christmas/Advent CD this year! It will include organ, a cappella, and a mixture of the two on twelve Advent and Christmas hymns, which are as follows*:
1. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
2. Alma Redemptoris Mater
3. Carol of the Bells
4. Of the Father's Love Begotten
5. O Holy Night
6. Lo How a Rose E're Blooming
7. Stille Nacht (Silent Night)
8. What Child is This
9. Veni, Veni Emmanuel
10. Once in Royal David's City
11. Ave Maria 12. O Come All Ye Faithful
*as it currently stands...
The CD will come in a case featuring photographs of the seminary as well as traditional Catholic artwork. These CDs are not intended for profit and will cost $5 dollars (along with shipping). Want one? - Email Corey (our communications guy) at corey.bruns@live.com .
We will begin recording it this week! Recording has begun!
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.
Well, I wanted to post something before Pentecost actually happens, and I haven't come up with anything especially profound yet... So, here is the video of "Veni Creator Spiritus". Enjoy!
Corey gave me some of the inspiration for this... He posted the rendition of this song as sung at the (relatively) recent Papal conclave. Check it out at his blog!
I hope these recap things aren't getting boring. I'm trying to give you guys a picture of what happens in seminary, and this is the easiest way to do that. The blogs on spiritual-type stuff take longer to put together because they generally require at least a little bit of research. I have some good ideas for this type of article, but haven't finished any yet. Anyway, this weekend has been quite fun!
Around 9:00 AM we got to the parking lot where the beggars for the poor program happens. By the time we got there, there were already some people set-up and already a good number of homeless people waiting. Last time we did this (last semester), I was on the food line and handed out buns for the chili dogs. This time I wondered the crowd, talking a little bit with the people and giving away small food things. I first gave away bags of different kinds of nuts (salted/honey-roasted peanuts, and cashews) - those were easy to get rid of. Then I tried my luck at the orange-cracker-peanut-butter-thingies, which fewer people wanted, but I eventually gave away all of them. Then I gave away these bracelets that we had (the rubbery kind) that said "Mother Mary Pray for Us". I thought it would be all but impossible to give them away, but that was not the case. I don't know if the people just liked bracelets, liked the phrase on them, or whatever, but they went like hot-cakes (actually, that's a pretty bad analogy because the cornbread muffin things - basically hot-cakes - were impossible to get rid of). One guys actually took about 10 of the bracelets and said that he would give them out to his friends! Anyway, around 10:30 or so we finished giving out the food/clothes and the crowd was beginning to disperse. We chatted with a few of the people left, heard their stories, and then headed back to the St. Vincent De Paul Center.
For the next hour maybe we helped out in the back of the center sorting, folding, and hanging clothes that they would give out over the week. All the people were really joyful and enthusiastic about what they were doing. They were also very happy to see the 9 of us helping out (they usually have 2, so we sped up the process a lot). After we finished everything they had for us to do, we went over to Hardees and got some lunch. I got the $5 bag lunch, which came with 2 burgers, fries, a cookie, and a drink - I usually wouldn't have ordered that much, but all the other meals were $5+ and only came with one burger, and I couldn't pass up the good deal. (It was pretty good, and I think I burned it off as you will soon see...)
After lunch we headed back to the St. Vincent De Paul. It is located in this pretty cool old building, and we now headed back to where the loading docks were. There were several big rooms attached to this area with different assorted stuff in each - one had fridges, one stoves, one couches, one tables, etc. There was a mix of different stuff we did here; some involved unloading trucks of stuff and organizing it among the different rooms, and the other major work we did was taking stuff from the different areas and loading it up in people's cars (who need it). We had a blast doing it all, like the Beggars for the Poor program, it really felt like we were helping these people. Plus, whenever there weren't trucks to be unloaded, or vans/cars to be loaded, we enjoyed checking out the many different pieces of furniture We found folding rocking chairs (cool), a massive couch (literally, a foot bigger on every side than a normal couch!), a super-comfy recliner (I almost fell asleep in it), and a rocking lazy-boy (yeah, pretty awesome). Let's just say that we had a great time! (we finished around 2:45 PM)
Saturday afternoon, after returning from the sophomore service stuff, I worked on the Shakespeare paper of doom. OK, so it's not that bad, but I spent hours watching plays on YouTube while reading/making notes in the book. I finally took a break and said Evening Prayer, it was so peaceful in the chapel, and while praying about it I finally got an idea for a thesis of my paper (prayer works folks!, I had been wrestling with that for days...). Anyway, I got a few paragraphs assembled and then was pretty tired of Shakespeare, so I went out with a few guys to get some food. We went to a place called Nick's Chili, which had a great selection of different chili-related food (chili, cool hot-dogs, burgers, fries...). I ended up going with the 5-way chili (I guess it's called "5-way" because it has chili, beans, noodles, cheese, and onions). It was fantastic! Totally recommended! I don't remember anything all that awesome happening Saturday evening, I guess I just hanged out with the guys, but I got to bed at a reasonable time (10 PM-ish).
This morning, we didn't run because one of the guys wasn't available, so I got to sleep in until 8:30 (It was wonderful). Mass was great, I was concentrating relatively well, and the songs that Daniel chose were awesome (it included my all time favorite "Jesus Christ is Risen Today!"). After Mass the Frisbee game that was supposed to be played today (at Marian) was rained out, so I just hung out until lunch. Today it was done by the Bruns family (Corey is one of the bloggers I mentioned before); they made shrimp and chicken Alfredo (fantastic), Caesar salad (my favorite), fruit salad (wonderful), and two kinds of desserts: fruit and chocolate trifles (you know the kind where there is pudding/whipped cream/fruit/whatever else all in a bowl - yeah these were spectacular). Better yet, there is a ton of leftovers, so tomorrow's dinner will be just as good.
OK, well I guess I'll wrap this up (I've just about ran out of adjectives). After dinner I took a short nap and then went to the Holy Hour. We said the rosary as a community, I said Evening Prayer by myself, and then read some of Pope Emeritus Benedict's book, Jesus of Nazareth - Part 1. Let's just say that it was superb. I'll end with an excerpt: (page 129, chapter 5) -
The other false form of prayer the Lord warns us against is the chatter, the verbiage, that smothers the spirit. We are all familiar with the danger of reciting habitual formulas while our mind is somewhere else entirely. We are at our most attentive when we are driven by inmost need to ask God for something or are prompted by a joyful heart to thank him for good things that happened to us. Most importantly, though, our relationship to God should not be confined to such momentary situations but should be present as the bedrock of our soul. In order for that to happen, this relation has to be constantly related back to it. The more the depths of our souls are directed toward God, the better we will be able to pray. The more prayer is the foundation that upholds our entire existence, the more we will become men of peace. ... This orientation pervasively shaping our whole consciousness, this silent presence of God at the heart of our thinking, our meditation, and our being, is what we mean by "prayer without ceasing." This is ultimately what we mean by love of God, which is at the same time the condition and the driving force behind love of neighbor.
Well, here is another weekly recap for you (actually, it will focus mostly on today since that is what I remember best). This week has been pretty good; below is a quick rundown of what went on in my life (I hope it's not incredibly boring).:
School: I finished several of the essays due next week done (or at least in a state where I could turn them in if I needed to). I have a few bits of homework left, two different class presentations left, neither of which should be terribly hard, and the Shakespeare paper (yes, I keep pushing it off). All that will definitively be done by next Friday (whether I want it to or not), so that is the point when I will start studying for most of my finals. I have 2 on Monday (Theology and Shakespeare), 1 on Tuesday (Sociology), 1 on Wednesday (Asian Philosophies), and two take-homes (Ethics and Music in Catholic worship). Most are comprehensive, so they will be long and worth quite a bit. Ah, well, it won't be that bad...
St. Mark
Music: This week I just about forgot that I was cantor on Tuesday (and I'm the guy in charge of the schedule...). About 5 till Mass, when I typically make sure that whoever is scheduled is there and getting prepared, it hit me that it was my day. Thankfully, there are plenty of easy Easter hymns, so I just picked one out quickly and went with it. Actually, most daily Masses are pretty easy unless there is a feast or something, just an entrance hymn and the psalm before the Gospel. Since this Thursday was St. Mark's feast day, the schola sang for Mass (which was over at Marian because it was Thursday). It turned out wonderful, no big mistakes and some great songs (and here is my post with videos of them).
Athletics: This week I played soccer twice (Tuesday and today), for the first times this year; both times were a blast! Soccer is so much fun primarily because I am pretty good at it. I don't mean to brag, but while I am pretty fast, my height isn't anything to write home about. This means that it's harder to play basketball period and it's harder to get open or block in football or frisbee. In soccer, on the other hand, height doesn't matter as much. Most of the time the ball is on the ground, and speed is (for me at least) the biggest part of the game - outrunning or maneuvering other people. Tuesday was rainy and in the 50s, so it wasn't ideal, but we still had fun. Today, though, was glorious. It was at least 60 and sunny, and I was playing great - several long shots that actually went in, several good moves, it was a blast! Running is petering off for the run coming up next Saturday. This means the runs are shorter, but unfortunately, this means that we go at a faster pace (so they take less time, but aren't necessarily easier). I ran 3 miles in a bit under 21 minutes right before playing soccer. It was a pretty fast pace, and I still had something left for soccer - great, fun afternoon!
altar close-up
Mass at Holy Rosary: This afternoon, after running, playing soccer, and doing Evening Prayer + Benediction, I went to Holy Rosary Parish (In Indy) to attend their Extraordinary Form Mass. Unfortunately, I have been rather bad at getting over there - there always seems to be something going on (or I just forget). Anyway, today I went over there for Mass with two other guys (1 of whom goes almost every week, and the other, who had never been to the Extraordinary Form). Mass was great (as expected), and I think that Adam will be trying it again (I told him that it takes a few times before you pick up on how everything goes). Every time I go to this church I am struck by how beautiful it is. Just gorgeous! The coolest part of Holy Rosary is the sliding altar. You may notice that there is no free-standing altar, as would typically be used for an Ordinary-Form Mass in which the priest faces the people. The Extraordinary-Form is always done with the priest facing the same direction as the congregation (ad orientem), but almost all Ordinary-Form Masses are done with the priest facing the people (ad populorum ? - that's a guess). Anyway, at Holy Rosary the altar against the wall (in the pictures) slides out, away from the wall, for the Ordinary Form Masses. Unfortunately, it wasn't transformed while we were there, so I can't show it, but when I saw it last time, it was such a "wow" moment. Ingenuity at its best!
Ever since I entered seminary, I have found that I have been "stretching myself" in the (good) sense of growing and pushing my comfort zone. Well, this morning I had yet another chance to do this.
One of the guys couldn't be here today, and since it was his day to lead the divine office, he asked me to fill in for him. Of course, I said sure, and then remembered that I hadn't ever done it before. (I think I did morning prayer one time in the context of Mass where it is a bit simpler). Anyway, so this morning, since it is Sunday, we do morning prayer before Mass, so I had to get up in front of everybody (gulp), and lead the angelus (I'm glad I had a card) the opening hymn (thankfully I knew it), the psalms (easy), the canticle (chanted), the Our Father (not hard), and whatever parts I forgot to mention (all in all pretty nervous 10 minutes). I pulled it off, didn't wreck the chanting, didn't miss anything, and feel much better about doing it in the future.
Of course, that wasn't the end of my morning. This was also the first time I have cantored on Sunday. I guess it's kind of ironic that the guy in charge of the cantors hasn't done Sunday Mass yet, but I just wasn't scheduled to do it last semester. On a typical weekday all you have to do as a cantor is start the opening hymn and sing the Alleluia (Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ Kind of endless glory in lent) with the gospel acclimation - in other words, typically not hard. However, this Sunday I had to do the opening hymn (thankfully, with the organ because I didn't really know the song), and then the dreaded Responsorial Psalm. This is what I was really worried about; you all know the drill, the cantor chants/sings the responsorial and the congregation follows and then the cantor moves on by chanting/singing the verses, for lack of a better word, of the psalm. It is totally a-capella, ie: no organ, so I had to learn (and remember!) how to do the chanting. Of course, looking back it was pretty simple, but at the time I was pretty nervous. Well, Mass wasn't over yet, but it was all reasonably easy from there on. The schola did the song at the offertory and the hymn during Communion, so that was easy. I did have to do the sanctus, mysterium fidei, and agnus dei, but other than these being in Latin they were pretty simple (I again had the organ, so that helped). Then it was just the closing hymn and I was done.
Dreading would be too strong of a word to describe how I was feeling about this morning, but I definitely was nervous. Thankfully, each time I do a new thing (and thank goodness don't mess it up) gives me more experience and greater confidence in the future. Great times!
Due to the departure of our previous music director for a semester in Rome, myself and another member of the schola have taken up the task of directing music here. I am in charge of the cantoring side of things and Aaron is in charge of the schola side. Basically, that means I am in charge of scheduling people to cantor and figuring out how the different seasons change what we do. For instance, in Lent we switch from an Alleluia before the gospel to "Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ..."; I am in charge of figuring out how to do that. Aaron, in my opinion, has the harder job - trying to turn the group into a schola. Last semester we sang O Sanctissima and For All Your Saints Still Striving both of which turned out great, so this semester we have embarked on a bolder scheme of singing once every month or so. Our first test was Monday during the blessing of the renovated chapel, with the singing of the Sprinkling Rite and then Praise the Lord Ye Heavens Adore Him, both of which turned out fantastic. (One of the guys videoed it, so whenever the video is up I will post it)
So, yesterday we began to practice for our next songs, Adoro te Devote and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent (both which will be in, the more difficult, 4 part harmony). In Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent I am in the alto position (rather than the tenor position I was in for Praise the Lord Ye Heavens Adore Him), which means I will have to do less stretching to hit notes, but I won't be singing the melody, so it may be harder to pick up the tune. Either way, we figured out about 1/4 of that song yesterday and the rest of it will probably really come together at our next practice (on Tuesday). We didn't do too much work on Adoro te Devote, so that will be interesting.
.png)
.jpg)
.JPG)
