I just thought I'd share some thoughts about my own experience with this. While in college I have found it interesting to see the parallels between struggling to grow as a musician, especially as a vocalist, and struggling to grow in holiness. Being a musician has helped me to better understand the struggles of the spiritual life. As a musician, it can be frustrating at times to see how slowly you progress. You realize you have deeply engrained habits in the way you sing (or play), that are very difficult to change to become better. To improve, you must be diligent in working on those problems/habits specifically even if you would rather practice what you are good at. You also will only improve as much as the effort you make to practice. Your singing is also very much affected by how well you physically, emotionally, and psychologically take care of yourself. For example, if you deprive yourself of sleep, it is very hard to sing without going flat, or to truly focus during practice time.
How similar the spiritual life is to musicianship! We tend to have deeply engrained sinful habits that can be frustrating because it is so hard to root them out. We can also become frustrated with ourselves when we know we do not take the time or effort to practice those virtues that will counter and help to change such habits. We also tend to prefer to continue those spiritual practices that we know we are good at and not challenge ourselves to take a step deeper in transformation and the path to holiness. We get in a comfort zone and for a while often like being in auto pilot. Our prayer life is also affected by every other aspect of our well being. If I am lacking in sleep, going to adoration is not as fruitful because I cannot focus and be as attentive to the Lord.
No matter what aspect of my life, it seems I cannot escape such fundamental spiritual realities. It manifests itself in all tasks and vocations in life. And on that note, I am going to head off to go practice organ, since I desperately need to if i really am going to get any better in that!
Friday, February 22, 2008
SNOW DAY!
Today we have a snow day! As the teachers here say, cancellation of classes is the only time students cheer to not get something they paid for. Coming from Vermont, it's awesome to get a snow day when there is only about 5 inchest of snow, if that. However they have a point in cancelling, since we are supposed to get sleet and ice a little later on. I think it will be a good day to take a nap. As a senior, it seems I never can get enough sleep! Course, when I have a friend from home that calls often, that makes it a little harder to get to bed on time :-) But that's okay. I'll sacrifice sleep for that.
Also, I'll be lacking sleep this weekend some more, since for the first time in a long time a group of friends and I are driving down to DC to go swing dancing at the Spanish Ballroom Saturday night. I'm excited, but it also means getting to bed at about 4am Sunday morning and having to wake up at 9am to get to church in Berlin, NJ. I guess a nap will be in order on Sunday afternoon when I get back. Hope everyone else has a good weekend!
Also, I'll be lacking sleep this weekend some more, since for the first time in a long time a group of friends and I are driving down to DC to go swing dancing at the Spanish Ballroom Saturday night. I'm excited, but it also means getting to bed at about 4am Sunday morning and having to wake up at 9am to get to church in Berlin, NJ. I guess a nap will be in order on Sunday afternoon when I get back. Hope everyone else has a good weekend!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Vision Statement
I currently am taking a the last class that is specific to my church music concentration and for one of our assignments we had to write a vision statement for our own parish or one that we would be involved in "planning worship" for. Now, there tends to be a fair amount of stuff covered in some of these classes that isn't all the practical or usuable for me since the Catholic understanding of a musicians role in worship is very different from that of most Protestants. Catholic musicians do not "plan" worship. It has its own set structure. We are there to serve the liturgy, even if our service is "ars integra" of the liturgy. However, with some tweaking, I think a vision statement is a wonderful idea for a Catholic parish that is trying to undertake reform/renewal of liturgy and music. It should be something that succintly gets across to the parishoners the direction the church is trying to head in and in broad terms, WHY that is the direction the church is taking. So considering my own future position as a music director, this is what I came up with so far, although I think I would want to give it some more thought and change it a little. Any of your own Catholic thoughts are welcome:
Vision Statement:
1) Rediscover and learn our Catholic heritage and traditions that have been forgotten and that enrich our faith.
2) Renew our parishes by combining the best of the old and new in our liturgy and parish life, embracing our traditions in a new way in light of the modern world.
3) Extend the gift of our faith to others, having strengthened our faith by the renewal of a Catholic culture and liturgical life, which fills us with a desire to be leaven for the world.
I think something like this gives some clarity to changes being made and helps to word the renewal in a positive way. I would think expressing the missionary aspect of the church as a result of that inner renewal would be important, considering the emphasis on such in "Sacramentum Caritatis".
Vision Statement:
1) Rediscover and learn our Catholic heritage and traditions that have been forgotten and that enrich our faith.
2) Renew our parishes by combining the best of the old and new in our liturgy and parish life, embracing our traditions in a new way in light of the modern world.
3) Extend the gift of our faith to others, having strengthened our faith by the renewal of a Catholic culture and liturgical life, which fills us with a desire to be leaven for the world.
I think something like this gives some clarity to changes being made and helps to word the renewal in a positive way. I would think expressing the missionary aspect of the church as a result of that inner renewal would be important, considering the emphasis on such in "Sacramentum Caritatis".
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The liturgical Tilt-a-whirl
Another tribute to Fr. Ben:
Does this church make anybody else feel as disoriented as being on an amusement ride?
Does this church make anybody else feel as disoriented as being on an amusement ride?*Side Note: Sadly, these really are Catholic Churches. Destroyed and hoisted upon Catholics by the one and only "Fr." Richard Vosko, alive and well and still on the rampage. :-(
New UFO Landing site
As a tribute to Fr. Ben:
Maybe if the aliens choose to come, they'll help to usher in Vatican III.
Maybe if the aliens choose to come, they'll help to usher in Vatican III.Piero Marini's book
There's been alot on the NLM blog recently about Piero Marini's new book dealing with Vatican II. One of the most recent reviews I found interesting was by Fr. George Rutler, who is a well known and respected orthodox priest near NYC I believe. Here is part of his review:
Marini is not a slave to the principle of noncontradiction. The Consilium was "to reflect the hopes and needs of local churches throughout the world," but two sentences later Holy Mother Church becomes something of a nanny: "In order to renew the liturgy, it was not enough to issue new directives; it was also necessary to change the attitudes of both the clergy and the lay faithful to enable them to grasp the purpose of the reform." In case the people thought something was being done to them instead of for them, various means of social communication would be required "in preparing the faithful to welcome the reform.
"The result was implemented on March 7, 1965, with the instruction Inter Oecumenici. Busy hands then set to work in their laboratory to introduce the "broad innovations" that the author says were desired by the council. Some of these matched propositions of the 1786 Synod of Pistoia that Pius VI condemned for its Jansenism. These included vernacularism, elimination of side altars, didactic ceremonial, and astringency of symbols. The versus populum posture of the celebrant was taken for granted in the romantic archeologism that Pius XII warned against in Mediator Dei. Translation of the lectionary gradually expanded to a practical neglect of Latin. Regrettably, the author seems to take an unedifying satisfaction in how the Congregation for Rites was "marginalized" and "now had to submit to the authority of the Consilium and accept its reform unconditionally."[...]
The editors of Marini's A Challenging Reform explain that their aim is to "keep alive" the "vision" of the Consilium, but their diction is a voice in a bunker, embittered by the failure of people to be grateful. If an organism is truly healthy, it does not need a life-support system. [...]For all its proponents' goodness of intention, this kind of thing confuses universality with internationalism, treats the awesome as picturesque, suburbanizes the City of God , and patronizes nations and races. [...]
Perhaps greater contact with pastoral reality would have anticipated the chaos that comes when ardent but misbegotten theories are imposed on the people of God who do not regularly read Notitiae. The blithe obliviousness of many experts to damage all around them is, nonetheless, breathtaking. At times in various lands it is like watching a venerable procession of Alcuin, Ivo of Chartres, Gueranger, Fortescue, and Jungmann and finding, at the end Inspector Clouseau.Those entrusted with so great a project as the Second Vatican Council would have done better had they not felt obliged to act with such haste. One problem in the frantic rush for deadlines was the inconvenience of the Italian postal system. There will never be another ecumenical council without email."
The part that really struck me and that I would like to know more about is the connection he mentions between reforms that were suggested after Vatican II and those that were suggested in the 1700s, many of which were the same, and back then were condemned for their Jansenism! if such is true, how and WHY did we end up approving such reforms in the 20th century?! It is not like principles of Jansenism are now ok. This really disturbed me and sometimes I feel like the more I learn about the liturgical reforms there were the implementation of Vatican Council II, the less I want to learn about it because I do not want to become overly depressed and pessimistic about the state of liturgy in the church or reject the new mass, despite my knowledge of how many "problems" it has.
It is hard for me as a young faithful Catholic at times to be part of the movement of restoration because just thinking about it can be tiring, but I know it must have been so much worse for all those orthodox faithful Catholics who lived through the 70s and 80s.
"Deal graciously, O Lord, with Sion in thy goodness, that the walls of Jerusalem may be rebuilt. Then wilt thou again accept true sacrifice, oblations, and burnt-offerings; then shall they offer bullocks upon thy altar." - Ps. 50
Marini is not a slave to the principle of noncontradiction. The Consilium was "to reflect the hopes and needs of local churches throughout the world," but two sentences later Holy Mother Church becomes something of a nanny: "In order to renew the liturgy, it was not enough to issue new directives; it was also necessary to change the attitudes of both the clergy and the lay faithful to enable them to grasp the purpose of the reform." In case the people thought something was being done to them instead of for them, various means of social communication would be required "in preparing the faithful to welcome the reform.
"The result was implemented on March 7, 1965, with the instruction Inter Oecumenici. Busy hands then set to work in their laboratory to introduce the "broad innovations" that the author says were desired by the council. Some of these matched propositions of the 1786 Synod of Pistoia that Pius VI condemned for its Jansenism. These included vernacularism, elimination of side altars, didactic ceremonial, and astringency of symbols. The versus populum posture of the celebrant was taken for granted in the romantic archeologism that Pius XII warned against in Mediator Dei. Translation of the lectionary gradually expanded to a practical neglect of Latin. Regrettably, the author seems to take an unedifying satisfaction in how the Congregation for Rites was "marginalized" and "now had to submit to the authority of the Consilium and accept its reform unconditionally."[...]
The editors of Marini's A Challenging Reform explain that their aim is to "keep alive" the "vision" of the Consilium, but their diction is a voice in a bunker, embittered by the failure of people to be grateful. If an organism is truly healthy, it does not need a life-support system. [...]For all its proponents' goodness of intention, this kind of thing confuses universality with internationalism, treats the awesome as picturesque, suburbanizes the City of God , and patronizes nations and races. [...]
Perhaps greater contact with pastoral reality would have anticipated the chaos that comes when ardent but misbegotten theories are imposed on the people of God who do not regularly read Notitiae. The blithe obliviousness of many experts to damage all around them is, nonetheless, breathtaking. At times in various lands it is like watching a venerable procession of Alcuin, Ivo of Chartres, Gueranger, Fortescue, and Jungmann and finding, at the end Inspector Clouseau.Those entrusted with so great a project as the Second Vatican Council would have done better had they not felt obliged to act with such haste. One problem in the frantic rush for deadlines was the inconvenience of the Italian postal system. There will never be another ecumenical council without email."
The part that really struck me and that I would like to know more about is the connection he mentions between reforms that were suggested after Vatican II and those that were suggested in the 1700s, many of which were the same, and back then were condemned for their Jansenism! if such is true, how and WHY did we end up approving such reforms in the 20th century?! It is not like principles of Jansenism are now ok. This really disturbed me and sometimes I feel like the more I learn about the liturgical reforms there were the implementation of Vatican Council II, the less I want to learn about it because I do not want to become overly depressed and pessimistic about the state of liturgy in the church or reject the new mass, despite my knowledge of how many "problems" it has.
It is hard for me as a young faithful Catholic at times to be part of the movement of restoration because just thinking about it can be tiring, but I know it must have been so much worse for all those orthodox faithful Catholics who lived through the 70s and 80s.
"Deal graciously, O Lord, with Sion in thy goodness, that the walls of Jerusalem may be rebuilt. Then wilt thou again accept true sacrifice, oblations, and burnt-offerings; then shall they offer bullocks upon thy altar." - Ps. 50
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