We have all been given a special and profound gift in our Holy Week & Easter liturgies and its music. It is a gift that will change us. It is a gift that will help us to know God’s love more fully and spread that love throughout the world. I hope you and your loved ones will take advantage of this gift – all of it – so that we might give thanks to our God and allow ourselves to truly experience the profound love that is made present in our time of worship together during this incredible, beautiful, and most holy week.
In this Lent, we seek to reconnect with God and deepen our faith through self-examination and intentional reading of scripture and prayer. At Saint George’s, our music of Lent also allows us to reconnect with the ancient music of the church through plainsong, or plainchant.
During penitential times, such as the season of Lent, we often pray the Kyrie in place of a hymn of praise (Gloria). The Kyrie is a prayer not just for ourselves, but for the church and the whole world. It is more than just a plea for God’s mercy, it is a call for God’s favor and an expression of praise to a merciful God who loves and cares for all things.
I love Advent and I love Advent hymnody even more. Often our Advent hymns get overlooked as we rush to hear or sing our beloved Christmas carols and we miss out on the depth and wonder – the mystery - these Advent gems offer us. This Sunday we get to sing two of what I think are probably everyone’s favorite Advent hymns. Here is a little about them.
America’s beloved children’s choir expert, Helen Kemp (1918-2005) had a wonderful chant which she uses regularly with her children’s choirs and in her workshops with adults:
“Body, mind, spirit, voice, it takes the whole person to sing and rejoice!”
Music consoles. Music heals. Music alters, and it transforms.
In western culture, music is often thought of as “one” of the arts. We often relegate it to areas of life regarded as decorative or enhancing instead of foundational. In some eastern communities, however, there is no word for music. It is inseparable from life. It is an essential, foundational part of being human.
“Dear, Ben. The time has come.” These were the first few words of the latest email I received from our organ builder, Martin Pasi. Indeed, the time has come! Construction has begun on our new organ, Opus 28, or “The Arlington Organ” as it is referred to in Martin’s shop. Over the next 16 months, Martin’s team of five artisans will fashion and shape raw materials into the thousands of individual parts which make up an organ. Metals
As a child, I remember my father telling stories of his childhood and growing up in northern Minnesota in a devout Catholic family. His family loved to tell the stories of uncle Pope Pius X and how my grandmother’s grandfather ran away from home to save his future family from having to be nuns or priests.
