Happy Feast of St. Andrew!

Today is the feast day of my patron, Andrew.

As I'm only into the third day of recovery after my sinus surgery, I'm not able to observe it to the fullest, so of your charity please offer a prayer and ask St. Andrew to intercede for me.

O Christ, our Lord, Who didst beautify the most blessed
Andrew with the grace of apostleship, and the crown of martyrdom, by granting to him this special gift, that by preaching the mystery of the cross,

he should merit death on the cross;

grant us to become most true lovers of Thy holy cross,
and denying ourselves, to take up our cross and follow Thee;that by sharing Thy sufferings in this life,we may deserve the happiness of obtaining life everlasting.

Amen.

The recovery is going well, but it's going to take a few weeks to be in tip-top shape. For the most part, the discomfort is not unlike a severe head cold, but there's also some pain in the front teeth and the tip of the nose. I can tell already, however, that breathing is going to be so much easier, and much of the coughing and gagging I was experiencing from the deviated septum and polyps has already been eliminated.

I am very thankful for the wonderful service and expert abilities of the surgeon, Dr. Thomas Wiemert, and the anesthesiologists and nurses. I'm also grateful for the many prayers offered for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

Asking for Prayers

Today I will be having outpatient surgery; a nasal polypectomy and septoplasty. The otolarygological surgeon is one of the best in the area, and came highly recommended, especially by my primary physician who himself together with his brother had the same procedure at that hands of the same surgeon.

Yesterday, Fr. Ptak heard my confession, anointed me and I received communion.

I have no doubt that the surgery will be quick and have no complications, but nevertheless I ask you, of your charity, to pray for me, the surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurses.

The Doctor is On the Move!

I've just settled on an apartment in the lovely Downriver community of Riverview to take up residence beginning the middle of December. I decided that the sooner I can be close to OLMC the better, especially since I've been driving all the way from Ohio to play Masses on the weekends.

While I was waiting for my application to be approved, I took a drive around the area, and was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this incredible example of Art Decco architecture just down the street from my soon-to-be-new home:



It's a transmitter station for WJR, Detroit's "Great Voice of the Great Lakes."

Being a lover of architecture, I thought this was a very exciting find, indeed. Click here for a nice article about the facility and the history of the station.

Happy New Liturgical Year!

I've been away from blogging for a while, and I'm sure many have lost interest, but I thought I'd make a new entry and see if I can't get myself back into the routine of making regular posts. Consider this a "New Liturgical Year's Resolution."

November is an interesting time in the Church year. The readings always center on the topic of "End Times" and the coming of the Kingdom. The month begins with two interesting feasts: All Saints and All Souls. This is when the Church remembers first the "Church Triumphant," a comemmoration of all those who have been recognized formally as saints by virtue of their exemplary lives and by miracles attributed them after death. This is followed by All Souls, when the "Church Militant" (that's us) prays for the "Church Expectant", all the holy souls who are not yet enjoying the full beatific vision, but rather are going through a purification of their souls in preparation for entrance into heaven. Purgatory is perhaps one of the most misunderstood teachings of the Church, and the one that receives the greatest ridicule from Protestants together with disident Catholics. It is part of the fullness of Catholic teaching on the subject of the Communion of Saints, and one that if understood provides serious-minded Catholics with great hope and deep devotion.

All Souls at Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated in a traditional Polish way, with a Requiem Mass and a catafalque set up in the crossing of the church. The catafalque is a decorated bier, complete with candles and flowers, with or without a casket. Many European Catholic churches, especially Cathedral churches, still use a catafalque for state funerals and Requiem Masses for Bishops and Cardinals. Here is a photo of a traditional catafalque I found posted at the New Liturgical Movement blog:

In addition to the catafalque, OLMC sets up four stations at the four corners of the church with a candle and vase of flowers. At the conclusion of the Mass, the sacred ministers are led in procession from station to station by crucifer, thurifer and acolytes, and prayers for all the faithful departed are recited at each. Part of the prayers feature incensing the station and the four cardinal points around it. The prayers alternate between Polish and English language at every other station. The other important ritual of this Mass is the reading of the names of all who died out of the parish in the previous year. This is done before the Mass begins. Then immediately following the homily, representatives of each family come forward and light a large vigil light on the Marian side altar. These candles remain burning throughout the entire month of November, reminding us to pray for their eternal rest.

The last Sunday of the liturgical year is the feast of Christ the King. This feast reminds us that it is not an earthly king to whom we owe our allegiance, but to the Heavenly King who is, was, and is to come. The very next Sunday the new liturgical year begins with the First Sunday of Advent, and we start over again, entering the cycle of Christ's birth, passion, death and resurrection. Just as with the New Year of the secular world, this liturgical new year gives us yet another opportunity to begin again anew, to reconnect with our deepest and most basic beliefs.

The "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia" (sorry about the pun) describes the purpose of Advent in this way: for the faithful to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate Go of love, thus to make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.

Last year, I tried to "keep" Advent by refraining from listening to Christmas music before Dec. 24, by using simple decorations with greenery, purple bows and ornaments, and by setting up my Nativity figures in a systematic way, adding figures each Sunday while also lighting the next candle on the Advent wreath. As I'm not living on my own, I won't be able to be this focused, but I'll do what I can to observe what the Church teaches about Advent.

How will you "keep" Advent this year?

Sacred Music "Day of Reflection" Report

Well, it's been a busy couple of days. I presented the workshop on Saturday morning, and then had to prepare to play the voluntaries for Sunday Masses at St. Louis King of France in St. Paul where my good friend and colleague serves as organiste titulaire de l'orgue Cassavant . Tuesday I played for the noonday recital at St. Louis as well.

The "day of reflection" on Saturday was an intimate gathering, made up of the music directors of the two parishes under the care of the priest I was working with, and also included volunteers from the music ministries, about 16 in all. There was also a Theology III seminarian from St. Paul Seminary and a local "supply" priest in the gathering. Only the directors acknowledged the ability to read music, and indeed none of them (save one of the music directors, the seminarian and the two priests) had read the documents of the Church regarding music and liturgy.

I began with my own background, what I had come to understand as the purpose of sacred music, and why I considered myself a "sacred musician committed to the reform of the reform." I shared with them what I meant by those terms and how I had moved from a more typical "spirit of Vatican II" understanding of them to deeper understanding of the intimate link between music, liturgy, the formation of souls, and the teaching and "mind of the Church".

After a break I presented a list of the documents, (including web addresses where they could be found on the Internet for free), divided into categories: official documents governing music and liturgy from the Holy See, guidelines from the USCCB (and the importance of recognitio in determining whether a document is binding), writings of the Holy Fathers, articles and commentaries and finally, informative links (including to MusicaSacra.com and its forum board). Part of this segment included a lively discussion about the importance of using the texts appointed for use in the liturgy rather than freely-written texts. Several people sitting at the back were members of the "contemporary ensemble" of one of the parishes and took exception to an article I quoted from that took issue with the text of the song "Table of Plenty." They suggested that the music and text were "meaningful" and gave them "warm fuzzies". I think it was beneficial, as the Pastor and others weighed in on the importance of music not as a means of eliciting emotional responses but rather in properly disposing people to participate in the liturgy, both internally and externally. ("Full, active and conscious participation" was discussed in this segment).

There was also discussion about Benedict XVI's important work to bring about a "hermeneutic of continuity" out of the rupture created just after VCII. This became important in our final section.

After one more break we came back together and I shared some ideas about how to introduce chant, select music and texts more closely connected with the liturgy and therefore the "mind of the Church" and resources they could consult apart from the material (hymnals, music and planning resources) made available from the usual sources (OCP, GIA, WLP and the others). The books I shared included the Gregorian Missal, Parish Book of Chant, By Flowing Water, and Graduale Simplex. I stressed the importance of a "brick by brick" approach. I explained that great care needs to be given to the process so that we do not, in our attempt to bring about the reform of the reform, commit the same sins against charity that were committed by those who have created, facilitated and permitted the hermeneutic of rupture to occur and continue over the last 40 years.

A wonderful luncheon followed, and some discussion at the tables continued.

It was a good experience all around. I'm sure I made mistakes, but the priest I worked with was very kind, reassuring and supportive. He hoped that there could be future seminars presented at his church by others in the field. I was honored to be the first.