Music Ministry in Ordinary Time

 It's been a while since I have written on this music blog.  We have journeyed through the Christmas season and the seasons of Lent and Easter and are now in ordinary time.

This year has been the recovery year from the two year "hiatus" during the covid pandemic. The choirs and the cantors/instrumentalists have been dedicated and worked hard this year to bring forward prayerful and beautiful music for the liturgy.   We have grown in numbers and in our music.  Thank you to all the music ministers of St. Therese. 

Ordinary time is really not so ordinary.   We have beautiful readings at Mass that show us the way to follow Jesus in our everyday lives.  

The cantor schedule for July and August is now out, and soon we will be looking at the choir schedules and plans for the next choir season.  God bless us all with a time of rejuvenation in these summer months.

ADVENT IS COMING!

We are entering into the beautiful season of Advent.  What does the Church say about Advent? "Advent has a two-fold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnity of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ's Second Coming at the end of time.  For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight" (Universal Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar 39)

The music chosen for Advent reflects these two comings:  "O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appear."  "The King shall come when morning dawns and light triumphant breaks, when beauty gilds the eastern hills and life to joy awakes". "Wait for the Lord, whose day is near. Wait for the Lord: be strong, take heart."

We also hear the words of the prophet Isaiah as he speaks of St. John The Baptist:  "A voice of one crying out in the desert: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.", and this is reflected in the music by Michael Joncas "A voice cries out in the wilderness: prepare a way for the Lord! A voice cries out in the wilderness: make straight a highway for God". (A Voice Cries Out)

SOME NEWS:   The Christmas Concert has been postponed until next year.

Where Did The TIme Go?

It's amazing.   This weekend we are at the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Autumn in Indiana is finally emerging with the storms today and tomorrow bringing the colder air.  Where did the time go!

The readings for the Sundays have focused on living the life of servant.   This weekend we hear "whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Saint Therese Choir is a community of service.  The choir members have made a commitment to weekly rehearsals and to coming every Sunday to bring prayerful, beautiful music to the liturgy.  No one person is above any other person in the choir....rather we serve one another and the community of St. Therese through our song.

Choir began in early September and has rehearsed every Wednesday evening and has sung for Mass every Sunday since that first rehearsal.  However, it's not too late for potential  new members to contact me for information or to join the choir.  All are welcome!

We also have a need for 8AM cantors.  This ministry requires a good voice, a prayerful presence at the microphone and the time for rehearsal and for preparation and prayer at home with the psalms and the hymns.   Interested?   Contact me and we will talk.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Mark your calendars.   The Christmas Concert will be Wednesday evening, December 29th at 7PM. More information will follow soon.

Food for the Multitude

 I love the Gospel story of Jesus multiplying the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish that came from a boy in the crowd that was listening to Jesus.  After Jesus worked a miracle, there was enough to feed the multitude and have twelve wicker baskets of fragments of bread left over.  In the first reading God works through Elisha to feed the crowd of a hundred people with some left over "as the Lord had said".  

We sing Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18 with the refrain:  "The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs."   Thanks be to our loving God.   In the psalm we sing: "All your works shall thank you, O Lord, and all your faithful ones bless you.  They shall speak of the glory of your reign, and declare your mighty deeds."

This week we begin a new hymn called Come To The Feast/Ven al Banquete. Verse one echoes the Gospel of this weekend:  "Like the child whose fishes and loaves fed the multitude, in the Lord the little we have, broken and shared, becomes abundant food."  The refrain which is English and Spanish calls us to come to the feast of the Lord Jesus and receive his Body and Blood as our food.

CHOIR OF HOPE:    All old and new members are welcome.   Come to the choir room this coming Wednesday at 10AM for a time of prayer and song.

MUSIC FOR THIS WEEKEND of 17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  July 25   Gathering Hymn: No. 606 Glory and Praise To Our God;  Hymn at the Preparation of the Altar: No. 838 Come To The Feast/Ven al Banquete; Communion Antiphon: Bless the Lord, O my soul and never forget all his benefits; Communion Hymn: No. 916 I Receive the Living God;  Closing Hymn: No. 636 Now Thank We All Our God.     The Mass setting is the Mass of Renewal.

Summer of 2021 and Ordinary Time

 In this beautiful season of summer with everything in full bloom, our music ministry is rapidly coming into full bloom.  The hymnals are back in the pews, we have been able to release the masks and the plexiglass, and we also now can have choirs again.  God is good!

The church has this to say about the participation in music at the Celebration of Mass:

• "The celebration of Mass, as the action of Christ and of the People of God arrayed hierarchically, is the center of the whole of Christian life for the Church both universal and local, as well as for each of the faithful individually. For it is found the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God in the Holy Spirit. In it, moreover, during the course of the year, the mysteries of redemption are celebrated so as to be in some way made present. As to the other sacred action and all the activities of the Christian life, these are bound up with it, flow from it, and are ordered to it."  GIRM16."

All music is chosen with the praise of God, the season of the year, and the particular Scripture and prayers for each particular Celebration of the Mass.

• "It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that the celebration of the Mass or the Lord's Supper be so ordered that the sacred ministers and the faithful taking part in it, according to the state proper to each, may draw from it more abundantly those fruits, to obtain which, Christ the Lord instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood and entrusted it as the memorial of his Passion and Resurrection to the Church, his beloved Bride." GIRM 17

Prayerful, beautiful, well-prepared assists the assembly to "draw from it more abundantly those fruits".

• "This will fittingly come about if, with due regard for the nature and other circumstances of each liturgical assembly, the entire celebration is arranged in such a way that it leads to a conscious, active, and full participation of the faithful, namely in body and in mind, a participation fervent with faith, hope and charity, of the sort which is desired by the Church and which is required by the very nature of the celebration and to which the Christian people have a right and duty in virtue of their Baptism. GIRM 18

This is a clear directive to all musicians to take particular care with the choice of music, the quality of music, and to make sure that the assembly knows the music and can participate with conscious, active and full participation.  

MUSIC MINISTRY NEWS:   

• Choir will begin in September and you will be receiving notices in the bulletin about how you can become a new member.   For current members, you are receiving regular newsletters and you have received a choir schedule with all the information you will need.  
• The Guitar/Vocal group has begun to come together again, and will be singing as a group on August 7th at the 5:15 Mass.
• The Choir of Hope is also resuming with a rehearsal on Wednesday morning, July 28th at 10AM in the music room.   New members are welcome!   If you are interested in joining this Choir, please contact Beverly at sttheresemusic@gmail,com or call 413-1233. The Choir of Hope sings for funerals.
• Saint Therese Chimers:    Will be resuming soon on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 - 7PM. No starting date has been set yet.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time   July 18 

Entrance Hymn:  No. 853  All People That On Earth Do Dwell    Responsorial Psalm:  "The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want."  Alleluia verse: "My sheep hear my voice says the Lord. I know them and they follow me."  Hymn at the Preparation of the Altar and Presentation of Gifts:  No. 588 I Have Loved You  Communion Antiphon:  The Lord, the gracious, the merciful, has made a memorial of his wonders. He gives food to those who fear him."  Communion Hymn:  No. 35 Shepherd Me, O God  Closing Hymn:  No. 604 All The Ends of the Earth.

Welcome!

Here we are at the end of January 2021.  Last year at this time we had no idea that music ministry would be so radically altered.  Since the middle of March we have seen the discontinuation of congregational singing until two weeks ago when we were allowed to begin singing softly under our masks.  Regular choirs have been discontinued, and cantors must sing behind plexiglass or in a separate room. Our hymnals have been removed from the church.   Everything is so different.  However, we have the Eucharist at the Celebration of Holy Mass.  We have a new pastor who is full of energy and has a great knowledge of theology and liturgy and shares it regularly with the parishioners.  So, even though the outer structures have changed for music ministry, we still have the core of our Faith and our Liturgical Celebration.

We love our music ministry and we miss the many aspects that we cannot do right now.  However, we will never take our music for granted again!   God bless you!

The Beauty of Ordinary TIme in the Liturgical season after the Easter Season

I was struck by the power of the antiphons, readings and the responsorial psalm for last Sunday, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  They were so appropriate for the times that we live in right now.  In the midst of division and hatred and anger and so much stress from the covid-19 virus, Christ says: "Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.

The cantor chanted: "The Lord is the strength of his people, a saving refuge for the one he has anointed."  And again, in the responsorial psalm, the cantor prayed in song: "But I pray to you, O Lord, for a time of your favor.  In your great mercy, answer me, O God, with your salvation that never fails.  Lord, answer, for your mercy is kind, in your great compassion, turn toward me."

For liturgical musicians, this is a difficult time.  We cannot sing in our choirs, or play our flutes or trumpets and we cannot sing as a congregation.  But....God is here for us always and we pray to him through our liturgy for help and acknowledge his kindness and compassion.

Know that the time will come when we will be singing again!  The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says that music is integral and fundamental to the liturgy.  We will be singing again!!