Making the 60-second Sermon (C26O) (C06O)

First, have you ever thought about how hard it is to say something, just one thing, something you feel strongly about in a persuasive way, in just one minute? When I was asked to contribute to the PrayTell blog's "60-Second Sermon" series, I knew that it felt like a good idea, but I didn't realize how hard it would be to try to say anything meaningful in one minute. The time I spend editing my idea down to a single minute is a much, much longer process than coming up with an idea and writing a draft.

Living at St. John's Abbey (and University) in Collegeville, MN, Benedictine monk, musician, and liturgical scholar Fr. Anthony Ruff began the PrayTell blog in 2010 as a well-informed and "intellectually grounded" forum for "pastors, liturgists, musicians, and scholars," containing "practical wisdom about prayer, sacraments, and the community of the faithful – in short, worship." The blog has certainly evolved into a wonderful meeting place of minds, people of various points of view, engaged in mostly respectful dialogue on every imaginable subject related to the discipline. In the latter part of 2018, Ruff contacted a few dozen people from his address book and asked them to film themselves giving a "60-Second Homily" on a specific Sunday or feast day, and the series has, first under John Kyler and Nic Cortez and now Jason Horstman (SJU grad assistants) been online consistently since the first Sunday of Advent in 2018.

I've seen a lot of the posts, but not all, and know that familiar faces and names like Rita Ferrone and Rita Burns Senseman, Jaime Cortez and Craig Colson, Diana Macalintal and Kate Williams and Michael Silhavy have all contributed.

In October of last year, John Kyler contacted me on behalf of Fr. Anthony, asking if I'd be part of the new project. The concept, he said, was that each "preacher" would give a one-minute message based on the gospel, inspirational and "right-to-the-point." The part that really interested me was that the message be characterized by "compelling imagery, short anecdotes, and wit and humor," all of which appealed to my style. Later, I was assigned the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time earlier this year, for which I wore a cheap crown and referred to King George III's song in the musical "Hamilton" to talk about the reign of God. So much fun.

I got my friend Mark Karney, a videographer at whose studio we have made several albums and who has made some catechetical videos from my songs for parish events, to help me realize some of my ideas. He made the videos way better than anything I could have done. I mean, it's the gospel, it's a minute-long commentary, not a Spielberg movie, but people are accustomed to a certain level of professionalism in video, and Mark definitely contributes that piece. Using green screen and background graphics and videos made the "sermon" more interesting and engaging, and Mark loves doing this kind of thing as much as I do.

Then, this summer, PrayTell asked me to do a handful more of these during the year, and I was delighted to be able to say "yes." Our second little sermon is on the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

Here is the new video, if you haven't seen it. Note that the "famous" crown from my first 60-Second Sermon has been placed casually to my right on the bookshelf, in front of the "Atlas of the Bible." This was by popular demand, and I think it is a very great idea that references Alfred Hitchcock's style and will have filmmakers talking for generations. 😅 Click here to see the readings for this Sunday to which the video refers.

Pro tip: when you're green screening in a video, don't wear a shirt with green checks. 😑🙄 How was I to know? Who am I, Bill Maher? I'm not even Matt Maher. Luckily Mark is a genius and you can't tell.

I actually made two "test" videos to share with a small group of friends to get feedback on which idea they liked better, and I think they chose wisely. What I presented to the crew at PrayTell was pretty much the first of the two ideas I'd had, though I changed the ending at lunch on the day we taped it, right before heading over to Mark Karney's house to make the video. The second one did have its advocates, however.

In that second test video, I focused more on the responsorial psalm as a representation of the (fictional) Lazarus's faith, and wondered, "I wonder what the rich man is singing today?" The question is reminiscent of a (possibly apocryphal) Tom Conry story from the 1980s (but if it didn't happen, it should have), when Tom said at a conference that he had a gut sense of what was wrong with the church when he heard a church assembly of well-fed white suburbanites (like me) singing John Foley's "The Cry of the Poor" (like me) and thinking that they were singing about themselves (like...😳) Here's the rough video that I did not send to PrayTell.

And, because there's no end to this once you start, here's a third one that I wrote but didn't video. It was too late and I had already made the one you saw. That doesn't stop Brain from working. This is about 20% too long, so I would have had to do some serious editing to get it down to a minute.

LAZARUS, VERSION 3: 

We have a wealthy man, and outside his doorway, a poor sick man named Lazarus.
The rich fellow doesn’t see Lazarus.
He is selectively blind to Lazarus, to his pain, his need, his hunger.
I’m that rich guy.
No question that through very little fault of my own I have a good income,
Good health, good family, a home,
And once I get over the shock of realizing how that separates me from most of the world,
I have to start asking myself,
Who am I not seeing?
Who am I walking over to get comfortable again?
I hoard my time.
So when Mick corners me on Sunday morning with the list of his woes,
I can’t wait to break out of that conversation.
Lazarus was probably relieved to hear Jesus say that there’s no freaking way the rich can get inside the reign of God. Not even Abraham has strings to pull.
So whatever you’re rich in, start giving it away.
Do everything you can to wake up to people’s need.
Pour yourself into the breach.
That’s how the chasm between the heaven and hell inside us—and between us —starts to disappear. 

That's a little bit about my little contribution to Fr. Anthony Ruff's terrific project out of Collegeville, the 60-Second Sermons that are published on the blog every Monday for the following Sunday. Here is a link to the archive of the series, so you can click around and hear what different people did with different gospels. The wonderful richness of everyone's insight is really edifying in the best possible sense.

That's about it. This is important to me because the process makes me distill my insight, knowledge, and faith experience about a certain group of scriptures down to an essence of one minute, and so I have a responsibility to be both clear and evocative, using images and the resources of my personality to express truths that don't originate with me or belong to me. It's like both poetry and music: at the end, you want the piece to say more than you actually put into it, and you trust that it does because, first of all, you never had it all in the first place. Like the seed scattered in the field, it grows when we're asleep, it does our work in us, and we pass it on as best we can. It's just a story, from a man who told really good stories about a reality for which there really are no words: the reign of God.

I look forward to doing a few more of these. Keep listening, friends, and pass the stories along. If necessary, as St. Francis of Assisi said, use words!

Now, since all free video comes with a commercial (in this case, a PSA!) and these couple of Sundays give us prophet Amos as well as Lazarus and mammon, I wanted to offer you one of many ways that we can actually do something on behalf of the poor: support the Crop Hunger Walk in Barrington on October 13. Here is a link to my walker page: some choir members and other parishioners are walking the 10K in support of fighting hunger, with people from all the churches of Barrington. I will keep you in my prayers that Sunday at my masses, and hope that the word of God will always remind all of us to be doers as well as hearers. Crop Hunger Walk, an activity of Church World Service, does just that. Thanks for reading this far!

For Liturgical Composers Forum: Putting the "Sing" into "Fundraising"

My awesome colleagues and friends, mostly from LCF,
now surround me in my office and bring me joy
and inspiration. I think that's what they bring me...

One possible downside of being a published composer is that it's never a secret how old you are. No matter how many times I ask them to change my birthday to, say, a decade or two later than it seems to be recorded as, my publishers, bless their hearts, keep writing 1952. My birthday is May 29, so on that day, I will be 39. Well, for the 27th time. 66, if you want to be all scientific about it.

On the upside, I still just have one date, as in (1952 - ). So things could be worse. Or maybe better, for you. (See my rant about "The Dash" here.)

With first communions and confirmation taking place almost entirely in April this year, Deo gratias, I've had a more reflective May than I expected to have, and that kind of leisure around one's birthday almost inexorably leads to thinking about one's blessings and the amazing good fortune life has brought me. Let me clarify: not a fortune, exactly, lucre-wise, but I've been able to live my life among wonderful friends and family, I've made something like a living doing what I really love, and I've been affirmed in my work over many years by the people whom it has been my pleasure to serve.

Music is a grand collaboration, a school of cooperation and surrender. I've said a million times, and I believe it, that there is a sense in which I am so aware that I have no business doing what I do, that almost everyone else I know in the ministry of music and liturgy knows more or is more gifted or practiced and studied more. In a room full of my colleagues, everyone is better than I am at some aspect of ministry. But I know also that I've been given enough, and that it's not about me anyway, but about the collaboration, about building musical communities, about reminding people that Christians were "born singing," in Pere Gelineau's wonderful phrase, that God is love, and that people in love make signs of love, like singing, even nonsense syllables like ahhhh❤️---lehhhh---loo❤️ooo----yaaaa😍ah, and so on. It takes a village to make a musician, and all the unselfish friends and mentors and teachers I have had since I was a child at St. Vincent de Paul School in Phoenix, with the wonderful Daughters of Charity for teachers and choir directors, have given me a high bar to stretch toward in music ministry, and a constant reminder that, again, it's not about me, it's about us, and it's about God-with-us.

The last time I wrote an article about the Liturgical Composers Forum (though I did post a set list of a concert in other years here and here), I mentioned that they had somehow miscounted the ballots and elected me to the steering committee, where I was able to work with Tom Kendzia, Carol Browning, Jaime Cortez, Feargal King, most recently Tony Ward and Christian Cosas, and the St. Louis executive committee members Betty Halley and Paul Hasser for four years, trying to envision our future as a group and shape it not just for survival but for growth. This past January, in what had to be some kind of lesson in both humility and the need for better communication, I was re-elected to the steering committee and made chairperson in absentia. I took this as you might expect, that it was a sign from God that no one else wanted to do it, and as a punishment for missing the meeting to have lunch with my local friends from St. Vincent's church. But I also took it seriously, in the sense that, something wonderful had been given to us all—to us composers and to the church—by the work that had been begun by John Foley, SJ, from the Center for Liturgy at St. Louis University, and then by all the team members who have served the Liturgical Composers Forum (LCF) since, under the various members of the steering committee, led by Roc O'Connor SJ, and then by Tom Kendzia.

The Forum's membership, from our point of view, has always been anyone and everyone who has a "significant body of work" published by a major publisher. After some discernment about this while we were writing up and discussing some bylaws a few years ago, the membership came up with a few wrinkles on that original idea. We're still working through some of these, but one that we did implement was that people whose goals and ministries align with ours are now admitted on a case-by-case basis as "associate members," with all the rights and privileges (such as they are) of full members except the right to vote. We welcomed some of our first associate members this past January, and we look for others in the future. We imagine that composition and liturgy students, text writers, publishers, and people who might liaise with other similar groups (NPM, AGO, FDLC, etc.) might also become associate members. We've consciously tried to recruit and welcome more Hispanic composers, and we are also quite conscious of trying to encourage more women composers to attend. We had our largest turnout so far this year of women composers, but certainly are looking for more parity as we grow.

Costs are always a concern. Four years ago, we added a concert to the last night of our meeting, an option for those members who are able to stay. We invite the friends of Composers Forum and the church of St. Louis to an evening of our compositions led and sung by the members. This has been of benefit both to us and to the Mercy Center, the conference and retreat center where we meet each year, run by the Sisters of Mercy. We manage to (at least) break even every year through a combination of (modest) dues and a conference fee. We did a book project, edited by John Foley and published by Liturgical Press, a three-volume series of essays by the membership on aspects of liturgical music and composition. Under the umbrella title The Heart of Our Music (link above), the three books explored various aspects of our craft:

The Heart of Our Music: Underpinning Our Thinking: Reflections on Music and Liturgy by Members of the Liturgical Composers Forum 

The Heart of Our Music: Practical Considerations: Reflections on Music and Liturgy by Members of the Liturgical Composers Forum 

The Heart of Our Music: Digging Deeper: Reflections on Music and Liturgy by Members of the Liturgical Composers Forum

The royalties from all three volumes were donated by the members to the LCF.

Two areas where we currently need funding are scholarships for composers unable to pay registration costs and stipends for our two hardworking executive committee members. In the latter case, we voted that a stipend for them is a matter of justice, and we're currently working on getting grants to help cover these costs. But guess who's trying to get the grants? You guessed it: our hardworking executive committee. We think that in a year or so we may have this under control. But we feel that underwriting worthy but needy members who can't afford to come to our meetings will be an ongoing ministry of the group. We need everyone's voice. The  publishers really help underwrite our costs, we closely watch our budget and our yearly fees, but things happen. Each year we work toward better communication with each other, sharing ideas and strategies for writing and balancing the demands of family, work (most in parishes or academia), and faith, we work toward new ways of mentoring and helping each other make our work better.

This is why you may have noticed that I have a birthday fundraiser going for LCF this year. Already, less than a week into the two-week drive (and it's not even my birthday), we've far exceeded my expectations, making me wish I'd just asked everyone to send ME money, and I could have had a much better vacation this summer! But instead this has been put through the fundraising arm of Facebook, and over fifty people have already contributed.

If it's possible for you to contribute via Facebook (link here), please do. LCF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your donations are tax deductible. If you aren't a Facebook user, you can make a donation directly to LCF by sending your donation to

Liturgical Composers Forum

c/o Betty Halley

1355 Kraft Street

St. Louis, MO 63139

You don't have to worry: this won't be a yearly event for me! I just wanted to try to give us a small financial cushion going into the 2019 meeting, when we hope to give a push for women composers, and make more inroads welcoming the wonderful Spanish-language composers working for the church.

Look, I just want to say "Thank you" to all of you who support your local church musicians and especially composers and text writers. I want thank everyone who teaches music and poetry and language and theology and inspires young(ish) people of faith to want to be songwriters. I am so very grateful to people like Rev. David Windsor, CM, and Sr. Georgianna and Sr. Thomas Anne DCs, of my first parish, SVdP in Phoenix, and to Bob Klimek, Bill Fraher, Mike Javor, the late Jim Mahoney, Sr. Anthony Poerio IBVM, who has also gone before us into glory, Cyprian (Daniel) Consiglio OSB Cam., the late John Gallen, SJ, Tom Kendzia, Gary Daigle, Tom Conry, every choir member or cantor or instrumentalist who ever worked with me, my mom, my grandfather, Terry Donohoo and everyone else who inspired me, encouraged me, taught me, helped me learn to be more generous and broader in my lyrical brush strokes. There are dozens, maybe hundreds more of you, of course.

At 66, I know that my life is nearly half over, and it's about time to pass the torch to the next generation of church musicians so that they, too, can know the special kind of anonymity that comes from writing songs, the joy of teaching a pew to sing. But to borrow a couple of phrases, "to you who bow," "we will make music to you while we breathe." It's so worth the effort. It's such a joyful, rewarding ministry. It is a great honor to be a part of the Liturgical Composers Forum, and I hope you will join me in making a gift this spring for the health and longevity of our ministry!

Letting our light shine--St. Anne's Hope Ministries

In my last post, about the Crop Hunger Walk next month, I mentioned that for the first time our music ministry team of walkers and fundraisers is partnering with Hope Ministries and House of Hope, our parish's cluster of social outreach ministries and its shining light, the resale shop. I wanted to introduce you to the woman who is coordinating all those efforts, Marie Jochum, who came to us in 2014 from Catholic Charities Refugee Program in Chicago. There are, quite literally, hundreds of volunteers who work year round in St. Anne's many outreach ministries, and Marie came onto the scene after the death of Sr. Lorraine Menheer, SSSF, the beloved founder of House of Hope and the woman who had dreamed and built "Annie's Attic," a parish-wide garage sale that benefitted the poor, and that over a two week period collected, sorted, and sold donated items that covered every square inch of the campus, raising money for their work, making really good used items available for resale at excellent prices, and filling trucks with the unsold items for the warehouse and donation to other Chicago charities. It was a sight to behold.

Over the last year three new hires (excluding the parish school) have, as they do not tire of reminding

us geezers, brought the average age of the parish staff down a couple of decades. With assistant faith formation director Jeffrey Joseph and pastoral associate Michael Beard, Marie brings a new generations vision of the gospel to our parish life. I asked her a few questions about her life, and I'd like to share a bit of her response with you so you can see the reason we are so excited to be working with her, to have her in the parish. Then, I'd like to share with you the brief talk she gave at the 2015 appreciation dinner for the House of Hope volunteers, which filled the dining room at our local Pinstripes last month. It will give you a glimpse of the scope of what Hope Ministries is doing in the parish for the Barrington area. For me, it's a moment of doing what Jesus asked us to do in the Sermon on the Mount, letting the community's "light shine for all the world to see, so that others may see the good you do, and give praise to your Father in heaven."

Me: Marie, can you tell me a little bit about your background, how you got interested in social work, and what led you to St. Anne?

MJ: I went to college at Catholic University of America in (Washington) DC. I have a Masters in Social work from DePaul. I wanted to be a sociologist (among other things…I also wanted to be a princess named Princess Dream for awhile too). I was interested, still am, in war and the movements of people in response to war and genocide. In high school (Loyola Academy) and in college I did a lot of volunteering (Catholic Worker House, immigrant rights group, Guatemala, etc.) and those experiences led me to be more interested in the lived, daily experiences of people beyond just studying them.

Me: What work did you do with Catholic Charities Refugee Program before you came to St. Anne?

MJ: I’ve worked primarily with refuges and immigrants. I loved that work and still do. I’ve done lots of different types of social work with this population. I am really interested in how a community can respond in better and bigger ways to the needs of our neighbors…meaning program expansion and development.

Me: This is the thing, isn't it? I've always felt that it was important for any church to open up pathways for people to exercise their calling to work for the gospel. People really seem to want to help, but often don't see any clear access to various ways to work for social justice. I know that when Sr. Lorraine and others began the food pantry in Carpentersville, it was an opportunity for my family to begin work together, and after all these years I still love doing that.

MJ: Yes, we are creating space for all of us to serve in the ways we are best equipped to do and allowing opportunities for engagement so that we can learn from the marginalized in our communities. 

Me: Can you tell us about any "conversion moments," times in your life when you knew that this was the kind of work you wanted to do?

MJ: A conversion moment, I have them twelve times a day and usually they are more like me being dragged kicking and screaming by the Holy Spirit (hello! …that’s how I ended up in Barrington). I am not sure I can pinpoint one moment; more a series of moments that led me to believing that Jesus wasn’t joking about serving our brothers and sisters. I love Matthew 25. Not the judgment part in terms of me being included or the idea that I could deserve somehow to be included in the group on the right…I’ve a far way to go for that. More like when he says that whatever you did for the least you did for me, and what you didn’t do, you didn’t do for me. To me this isn’t something sweet, this is real. If I claim to be a lover of God, then how can I not serve God? 

To me serving means the dirty work. It’s more in the ugly, hard moments that I learn about God’s love than in sweet songs (uh, no offense...) or platitudes. It's in the interactions I have had with the refugee, the homeless mother, the substance user, the angry drunk, the abuser, the undocumented, the mentally ill, that I have met God. That for me the incarnation is made real. That God came to us as Jesus and that it mattered. It should change the way we deal with the “other.' 

All of this is hard though, I can’t say that I am  “good” at it or that I always do it lovingly…thus the dragging, kicking and screaming of conversion. Especially as this intersects with my professional role as a social worker and setting boundaries and discerning what is best for a client and for an organization (or ministry as it is here). I just know that my own personal brokenness has been responded to with such love and grace by God and by God made manifest in my tribe of people. My hope is that as a ministry we do this for others, and I think we do, we provide hope and more importantly we tell people that they matter,that their life is valuable and that they are loved by a God that’s bigger than any brokeness or any of the shit life throws at them. 

Me: OK, and to follow up with hipper interview questions–favorite color? 

MJ: Yellow

Me: Celebrity crush?

MJ: Gary Daigle.

Me: If you only knew how many times I've heard that! Any last thoughts?

MJ: Well, yes...I also I blame my mother for tipping my life toward this work. We had "solidarity with the poor" nights….she would make a very simple meal (rice and beans) and we would talk about how better to serve the poor in our communities. Yup. Mama Jokes. 

Maybe, friends, you can begin to understand why I look forward to having Marie on staff with us at St. Anne for many years to come. It's hard not to catch her fire for her work even while being a little intimidated by she exposes how much closer we really are to tremendous suffering than maybe we had imagined. But there is hope in the solidarity of a community that faces that suffering together. That's what I hope to catch. Hope.

Now, as promised, this is the text of Marie's talk to the House of Hope volunteers at the 2015 appreciation dinner from last month. Even I, who work at St. Anne and know a lot of these people as my friends and neighbors for over twenty years, was amazed at what they are able to do in the community on behalf of the poor. I leave you with Marie's words:

______________

Tonight we celebrate you. You the volunteer who works long hours in House of Hope, sorting

through bags of clothing, moving furniture, working with a family as they move from despair to hope. This year brought our ministry many changes and joy.

This year, we were called to serve in increasingly bigger and bolder ways. You responded to this call the way you do all things…with joy and hard work.

This year we fed 6,200 people. 6,200 of our neighbors in need who came to us for help in keeping their families fed and healthy. Even more than food you offered hope.

We worked with 1700 households in our community that were in need of rental assistance, help with prescription medication, school supplies for their children. You kept lights on and homes heated. You repaired cars. You kept people employed and self sufficient. But even more than that you offered hope.

You gave out $170,000 in grants to 14 local organizations that feed, house, and counsel those in need; extending our reach in the community further than the Project Hope walls. But even more than that You offered hope to our community.

In order to do all of this you worked long, hours in the food pantry, Project Hope office, on the grant committee, on the Board of Advisors and at House of Hope.

House of Hope: This year we had another record breaking year. You just can’t stop yourselves……For the first time in our history, House of Hope brought in over one million dollars in revenue. One million dollars to serve God’s people. Thank you. Thank you. Our clients thank you, our community thanks you, I thank you.

A special thanks goes out to our (donations truck driver) Jim. I literally begged him to come. We all did. So perhaps we can show our gratitude to Jim even with him not being here.

From polishing silver, to keeping our pantry stocked, answering phones, sorting and pricing shoes, linens, clothing, household goods, sporting equipment, stationery, the welcoming of customers & Clients alike …. All of these moments you are offering grace and mercy. You offer this mercy to each other, to our clients, our customers

One of the many things I am continually impressed with is the way that we minister and are ministered to by one another. This is a community of friends, neighbors, and family. Nowhere was this more apparent then in the passing of our dear friend and manager Caryn. Many of you walked with her in her final weeks, visiting, praying, and supporting Jim and Peggy as they cared for Caryn right up to the end. It was beautiful to see this community come together to support one another.

Caryn remained deeply committed to Hope Ministries to the end of her life. She shared with our ministry some of the financial gifts of her life for which we are extremely grateful. As you know, One of the things Caryn was most passionate about was serving families who faced a housing crisis such as a fire, flooding, or transitioning out of homelessness. She loved putting together the things that turn a house into a home. We will specifically be using these funds from Caryn to serve families in a housing crisis. Continuing to pass on the gift of mercy and love that Caryn was to all of us.

The book of notes and memories you shared with Caryn near the end of her life was full of stories of hope. Stories that demonstrate the many ways you are a community of the faithful. Faithful real people.

Some days the thought of yet another bin of clothing might be enough to put you over the edge. Or hearing of yet another tale of substance abuse or family disintegration may be enough to hang up your Project Hope hat. Sister Lorraine’s vision of working together to serve the poor is a hard one. She did not intend that this work was to be done by one person. Her vision was and our vision remains to do this work together, as a community….a community of the faithful who are real people. This life of service within a community challenges us to be together in the tough parts of life and the hard parts of serving. The tough conversations, the tough decisions-it is not easy to do this work.

And yet You demonstrate, that it’s worth it. The call of the faithful is answered daily by each of you, to serve, to love in the hard times and through the hard moments.. As a community You demonstrate an openness to learn, to grow, and to think in new ways about old problems. You are a group of people open to God’s call. Open to listening to the Holy Spirit as lived in our real lives. In the smelly, ugly bits, just as much as in the times of rejoicing.

As we continue to grow in all parts of our ministry, change is inevitable. We know Peggy will be retiring as our General manager next June. She and I along with the Board of Advisors and ministry leaders have been working closely to ensure our long term sustainability, I am confident in all of you to continue to do the work of serving the poor because this call was not reserved for Sr. Lorraine, for Peggy, for Diane, for Jim. This call is all of ours. Those of us in this room and the many others we invite to join us. As we continue to evolve, I want to share my awe for each of you as you serve God’s people with love and mercy. Your brave, generous, open, and humble response to the call to serve is an inspiration. I can’t wait to see what next year brings us.

So while I am in awe of the money we’ve made, the people we’ve fed, the grants we’ve given and I am certain we have the best "upscale" resale shop in the state….I am convincd that what we do best is this; being in community with one another. Ministrering to each other, offering hope to our community, and growing in faith together. 

 This is who you are, this is who we are.

RPM - "Rhythm Prayer Move" project

The word "salvation" derives from the Latin word for "health," salus, and without making too much of that point, as physical-spiritual beings there is benefit to seeking health of both body and spirit. While sickness is no blockade to God's love, and certainly never a sign of divine disfavor, the lack of health can block out ability to be of service to others, and by focusing our attention on our pain and causing worry and fear, it can impede our ability to focus within on meaning-making and  outwardly on service to those who need it..

It's tricky to figure out how to say this, and someone may have a better idea. I've known a lot of sick people, chronically sick, even mortally, who are a lot more other-centered than I will ever be. But by the same token, Jesus never un-healed anyone. Prophetic utterances in Isaiah never described the reign of God as bringing more death, or making people sicker. Restoration to wholeness, to salus, can be an outward sign of the integrity of community, as well as the importance of the individual. As a parent and spouse, I hope to be healthy enough to provide for my family, be of service to my church and to others, and to continue to find and share meaning with others through the gospel until my days are over. For now, it seems the best way to do that is to stay as healthy as I can, and be aware of and helpful to those who are unable to achieve physical health.

My friends Lisa Bagladi and Pedro Rubalcava have collaborated on a musical project to help us achieve mens sana in corpore sano cum spiritu sana. Their concept is "Rhythm Prayer Move," or "RPM," and they have produced together some downloadable music for us. I've known Pedro for more years than either of us cares to recall, but certainly it's three decades; Lisa I've known since the late nineties through our mutual friendship with Gary Daigle. For many years, Lisa graced our liturgical prayer at St. Anne with her beautiful flute playing that flows from an inner integrity as well as well-practiced chops. When I heard that they had been working on this project, I asked Lisa if they might want to share a little bit about the work on my blog, so I asked them some questions and they have answered them. I love these two!

How did you get the idea to do this?
Lisa: Starting as professional dancer, musician, and fitness enthusiast, I began to develop the practice of this method of praying well over 20 years ago. I remember 6 weeks after having my twins (the 3rd and 4th girls) trying to get back in dancing shape, but couldn’t go anywhere because I had 4 kids, four and under. I would find quiet time in the day, while they were napping, and I would have a great need to not only exercise, but truly center myself in prayer, to regenerate for the rest of my busy day. I would use ethereal meditation type of music to relax, then I would start moving in my small space, to work up to an aerobic type of pace. I would focus on a psalm or mantra and started to practice this. I found my experience of going into deep prayer while moving repetitively and rhythmically to be profound, and I just wanted to share it with people! I started to imagine the perfect music to support this, and was on a continuous search. Nothing quite met what I was looking for. Either tracks weren’t long enough, or the tempo had too many changes, or other people’s lyrics (while still beautiful and inspiring) got in the way of my silent listening to God, so I thought, well, I guess I should just create something. I played around with my flute and garage band and developed some ideas…..about 8 years later decided it’s time to make it so. I shared this concept with other musician friends, and while they liked the idea, it didn’t completely resonate, until one day, I shared it with Pedro, and he immediately shared in the vision. He let me know that he wanted to partner with me on it as he had some of his own ideas for something like this as well. We started to play around with the musical ideas and formulated them into our first volume.

With my professional background in dance, dance prayer, as well as continuous study in the area of the mind-body-spirit connection for health and wellness, I envisioned developing this into a lifestyle-type brand of music and method for people to use in their everyday lives. We developed a workshop format and are offering it to parishes, ministries, and groups that are interested in learning and incorporating this type of prayer and mind-body-spirit experience not only in their ministries, but personal life as well. There is a lot of exciting breakthroughs in science and our understanding of the value of prayer combined with moving and it’s effect on our biology, and we hope that this is a wonderful tool and aid to support people on this journey of health and holiness!




Pedro: Lisa is the one who interested me in the idea. However, in my own prayer experience for several years the idea of creating and singing short phrases taken from Scripture and from the Psalms in particular is something that I have used consciously  and unconsciously to accompany my prayer. In think I even began to call this “walking prayers” - chants and melodies that I could use as a focusing element and continuously repeat – not unlike what might be familiar to us through the Taizé prayer experiences.

What are your unique contributions to the project?
Lisa: I composed the Psalm 63 and Psalm 23 instrumental pieces of volume 1. I envisioned a middle-eastern longing feel to the Psalm 63 (My Soul Longs for You, My God) and for Psalm 23, (The Lord is my Shepherd, I Will Want For Nothing) I heard a sort of musical dialogue with God out in the woods, with a Native American feel to the music. (I especially like this piece for running, it has a good rhythmic tempo for breathing and moving) I play flute on the recording of all the pieces. In our workshop experience, I lead everyone in the movement, while Pedro leads our musical support and accompaniment.




Pedro: "Un ángel habló en el sueño" (An angel spoke in a dream) has two inspirational sources. One is the idea from the gospel of Matthew’s infancy narratives in which God speaks to Joseph through an angel appearing in a dream – three distinct times. To me these are wonderful stories of faith and how the Divine enters into our lives. For some reason the idea of an angel appearing to Joseph in the dream seemed like it should be in a flamenco rhythm who’s melody speaks in the voice of the angel telling him to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, and then to “get up” and return to Nazareth after Herod’s death. The second inspiration was actually a dream that I had in which a mother and daughter were dancing a flamenco rumba and in which I was the guitarist that was providing the soundtrack for their beautiful dance. To me this song has a lot of breathing in it and movement. “Blessed Are They Who Believe” as a mid-tempo expression allows me to breathe more deeply and I imagine it as a cool-down or warm-up song that allows us to stretch. This was inspired by the “doubting Thomas” post-resurrection account in the gospel of John—“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” The melodies actually came out of singing those words. After our conversations and reflection on the scope of the project I agreed to become the musical producer of sorts.

Who or what inspired your collaboration?
Lisa: I believe the Holy Spirit inspired our collaboration, as we both share in the desire of leading people into a multicultural deepened prayer experience. Our music is more in the genre of world music using rhythmic percussion and instrumentation. Working together on this has flowed very naturally. Also, Pedro’s gift of leading prayer through music and poetry has always been inspiring to me. In addition,we have teamed up with some wonderful musicians that share in our vision, Antonio Gomez - percussionist from Seattle specializing in latin, and middleastern rhythms and music, and Joseph Hébert, Cellist, professor of music and choir director from the Bay area, along with others that are able to join us in different settings, who will be contributing to our future volumes.

Pedro: Yes, ultimately it was the Holy Spirit  Several years ago, Lisa had asked me (and Peter Kolar) to listen to something she had put together on Garage Band that was a percussion track with flute and spoken word. That led us to have on-going conversations about “bodily" prayer and the idea of creating music that was intentionally religious that allowed people to pray while they moved exercised. Our conversations led to sharing of ideas surrounding this very concept and experimenting in live settings with groups of people, leading them in the prayer experience. These conversations led to further conversations with the folks that Lisa has already mentioned (Antonio Gómez and Joseph Hébert) about possible collaboration. I think we all share in the power of music to transform and integrate our prayer life.

What do you hope to achieve through RPM?
Lisa: Our mission is to help ordinary people (fitness buffs or the newly inspired to incorporate more exercise) in bridging their fitness and prayer life together, and offer ways to deepen their spiritual life through this higher awareness, leading with intention, and a surrender to the living God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Our workshop and retreat formats offer a unique, interactive, and engaging experience that provides an oasis from the traditional workshop format, employing the ability to learn through multiple intelligences. We find that the kinesthetic process of learning and praying through the body, in community, reaches and touches people on many levels. The feedback that we have received is that with the experience of live percussion, instruments, and voice to support the rhythm of breathing, moving, and praying together creates a unique communal bonding experience--truly praying as ONE. This experience allows people to connect with the divine through their very body, unifying body, mind, and spirit.  This type of praying is not new, but very old, and very alive in other cultures and religions around the world. Somehow this experience got lost in our U.S./western culture, despite the fact that this was a way of life for the native peoples of this land.  Catholics may be experiencing an element of it in their local yoga or zumba classes, but the unique opportunity to bring our Catholic imagination and theology to it provides inspiration and enrichment, besides that wonderful stimulating feeling of stretching and getting the blood flowing!

Pedro: Lisa expresses this very well. Providing folks with the opportunity to enhance their lives by connecting them with the experience of intentionally praying as they move, can only lead folks to deepen their prayer life. The more people pray and deepen their relationship with the Living God, the better our world is. I have a dream/vision of the transformative power of the Holy Spirit influencing one person exercising at a time, and moving from there to one more, and the next and so on. We know that music is a powerful gift and tool. Let’s use it to make a difference.

Any perspectives on how someone might jump into the world of danced prayer?
Lisa: While the RPM—Rhythm Prayer Move—recording is great for dancers, we also envision it being used by runners,walkers, bikers and anyone working out at the gym. We all use headphones and an iPod of some sort, and our music is important to keeping us pumped for the workout. Hopefully people will find this music as a wonderful alternative and option to help sustain them through their workout, and help them engage in a deepened prayer experience and connection with God!

Pedro: Even for folks who are not into heavy workouts, walking and simply breathing well and deeply is beneficial. RPM is hopefully a simple tool and way that people can enter into this bodily prayer experience and in time develop into more options for the way that folks are extending their prayer life into meditation and reflection using the musical prayer chants. It’s exciting.

In addition, we have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RPMoveMusic  or put "RPM Rhythm Prayer Move" in the search bar. We invite people to LIKE our page. Our aim is to include inspirational content around the subject of Prayer, Fitness, Health, Spirituality, and Wellness.  The music is available for download on iTunes, Amazon, and all the other digital music outlets.
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To contact Lisa for more information, email her. You can sample the other songs from their CD on iTunes (links below) or Amazon (direct link above). Blessings and the very best of luck to Pedro and Lisa in this new enterprise and ministry.

 

Light, Love, and Responsibility - Sunday with NPH

No, not Neil Patrick Harris. "Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos."

Our parish almsgiving project this year was tied to Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos ("Our little brothers and sisters"), a project that began 60 years ago based on the vision of Fr. William Wasson. A newly assigned associate in a parish in Cuernavaca, México, Fr. Wasson intervened with a court to dismiss charges against an orphan boy who stole from the church's collection box to buy food. He petitioned the court for custody of the child, and not only got custody of the boy, but continued to received other orphans as a ward of the court. Ten years later, beginning in Arizona, charities were incorporated in the USA and elsewhere to support the NPH project, which later became affiliated with one another. In addition to the house in Mexico, there are now NPH houses in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. (Source)

I discovered that I have my own strange ties to the people involved with NPH as well. A former associate pastor of St. Anne, Fr. Jim Hurlbert, left his pastorate about 5 years ago at St. Alphonsus Liguori in the city of Chicago, and, with the blessing of the cardinal, went to NPH Guatemala as a spiritual guide with a vision to build a chapel for the pequeños there, which he has done with donations from friends and colleagues in the States. And an Arizona family, Trisha and Jim Hoyt, whom I've known especially through Trisha's catechetical work around the country (Jim is a deacon), has at least two children who are intimately involved with NPH, and their daughter Melissa is the special events officer for NPH in the midwest, with an office in Chicago. A video that her brother Chris made about his work with NPH is shown below.




The preacher at all the masses was Fr. Ron Hicks, a young priest who had worked with NPH after college and then for several years as a priest. Ron is now, thanks be to God, the new Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In his homily, he challenged us to be light for a world full of darkness by our continued support of NPH. He told stories, and had Alexis, one of the young men who was visiting with the NPH group, tell a bit of his story so we had some idea of who the kids are who are in the NPH project. Alexis told us that he was born sickly, and that his mother was extremely poor. At the age of two, she abandoned him, and when he came to NPH he was malnourished and sick. The boy who stood before us had obviously recovered completely, had just finished high school, and was giving back a year of service to NPH by teaching physical education and being a "big brother" to younger boys in the dormitory.

What struck me was that these were not ordinary orphanages at all: these kids were not going to have foster homes. NPH creates communities. Those who work there give the children who come to them unconditional love, food, education, and an environment for growth. They teach the children the responsibilities that come from love; particularly, they expect that, after graduation, the children will give a year of service back to NPH in some capacity for which they have a gift. Fr. Ron said that many people ask him if children leave without doing so, if, after graduation, they just walk away. He said that in 25 years of association with NPH, he has not heard of that happening in any of the homes.

A Guatemalan cultural group in Chicago gave NPH the use of their beautiful twin marimba set, and the kids sang songs during mass, danced, and performed at a fiesta for the parish on Saturday evening. During mass they sang some of their own liturgical songs ("Vamos al altar," and a Marian song called "Es Maria la paloma blanca") accompanied by marimba and drums, as well as the more familiar "De Colores" and an arrangement with Spanish text of the Sebastian Temple Prayer of St. Francis, "Hazme un instrumento de tu paz."

The kids stayed with host families in the parish for two weeks while they visited churches and schools in Chicagoland, and the parishioners I spoke to had a great time with them in those visits.

As you might suspect, there was a time when the "old Rory" would have had una vaca about this irruption into the Lenten liturgy on a scrutiny Sunday, performing at mass, etc. etc. But being older has some benefits, and one of them is clearer vision (I hope) about what liturgy is for, who belongs, and (thank you, James Alison) who the real protagonist is. Maybe that vision, in fact, was created in this blind man by the same fingers that made mud paste on the Sabbath by the pool of Siloam, who gave the light of creation to one who was born blind. I may have earned that blindness through education, and clung to it tenaciously for some years, but I would like to say some day that "now I can see," and that my sight was restored, as we proclaimed in the gospel and in the scrutiny, by the one who is light of the world.

More about NPH
Make a donation? Click here.
Learn how to sponsor a child? Click here.

Catching (real) Fire - David Haas's vision for Music Ministry Alive!

A week from Friday evening, St. Anne Catholic Community in Barrington will host an historic concert, if history can be measured in the small world of Catholic liturgical music. In a rare conjunction of schedules between us and a church calendar that requires a spiritual crowbar and WD-40 to pry open, at 8:00 pm on Friday, October 10, David Haas, Fr. J. Michael Joncas, Marty Haugen, Gary Daigle, Terry Donohoo and I, along with a few dozen of our musical associates from St. Anne and St. Edna, will perform a concert to benefit Music Ministry Alive! (MMA).

MMA is David Haas's dream child, now sixteen years old, an annual study week for high school and early college age liturgical musicians, held on the campus of St. Catherine's University in Minneapolis. With a faculty comprised of nationally and locally recognized leaders in the fields of sacred music, theology, and liturgy, MMA embraces a model of apprenticeship and mentoring as it seeks to pass on not just the love of liturgy and music, but the treasure of the gospel and love of Christ from one generation to another. MMA spells out its mission as being "to engage and empower young people to serve as liturgical music leaders in the church." Over its sixteen year history, it has served 2200 young people with a staff of 550 adult leaders. The faculty represents a "who's who" in a wide range of fields that touch on the core area of faith transmission: theologians and scholars like Fr. Michael Joncas, Art Zannoni, Sr. Kathleen Harmon, Sr. Gertrude Foley, and Fr. Ricky Manalo, pastors like Ray East, and a wide range of musicians with expertise in a variety of instruments and disciplines, Lynn Trapp, Rob Strusinki, Rob Glover, Jaime Cortez, Tom Kendzia,  Bonnie Faber, Robyn Medrud, and many, many others.

David and co-director Lori True, campus minister at St. Catherine's, have developed a holistic curriculum for attendees that includes daily morning and evening prayer, workshops and lessons with time for music rehearsals, concerts, general presentations by staff members, faith sharing, scripture study, and a concluding concert open to the public given by the students and faculty together. A unique feature of MMA is an adult track held during the same week in which adult community members can participate with the proviso that there is a youth attendee from their parish attending. The musical requirement is dropped for the adults, so that the adult can participate in a range of topics from music and liturgy to scripture and ministry development.

With national financial support from the bishops' conference and others failing to keep Vatican II-mandated liturgical centers open, and with the loss of other formational efforts like the North American Forum on the Catechumenate, private efforts to form, mentor, and inspire future leaders need to be encouraged. Musical and institutional training alone cannot form liturgical leaders. Young people, and older ones, need to be brought along in a matrix of Christian love, nurtured by scripture and prayer, inspired and enthused by the charism of others and the ministry of the church. We are all called to be part of that effort. I cannot strongly enough support the work of Music Ministry Alive!, and hope that you will consider supporting them as well, whether by attending our concert, making a donation, or finding young people whose path in the Church might be shaped by an encounter like this. Thank you, David and Lori, and all who have given themselves to this project and others like it (I'm thinking of Youth Sing Praise! every summer at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, and I know there are others around the country as well.)

This is how "singing a new church" will happen, person-to-person, sharing faith, grounded in the Word and in prayer, attentive to the gifts and needs of the church and matching one to the other. God wants us to catch the fire from one another. Music Ministry Alive! is one beautiful way we can see it happening.

If you can't make the concert, donate to Music Ministry Alive anyway. Music Ministry Alive! is a non-profit foundation and donations to the program are tax-deductible. For more information, if you or someone you know might be interested in attending next summer, get more information here. Thanks, everyone!

Meet J. Michael Thompson, musician, teacher, colleague, and friend

Things My Friends Are Doing - Entry #1

The world of music and worship has opened so many doors to me, doors behind which there are cookies, lunches and dinners, bottles of wine, and lots of great conversation, laughter and insight, that I realized it might be good to share on occasion as events demand the work some of my friends are doing, especially as it relates to music and publishing.

One such friend is a longtime colleague in the Pittsburgh area, James Michael Thompson, whom I call Michael, or JMT. Originally from the St. Louis area, Michael is a liturgist, musician, theologian and teacher to whom many have looked for kind advice and from whom many, myself not the least of whom, has received equally kindly fraternal correction when being wrong (which is understandable) or uncharitable (which, in our line of work, really isn't.) He's the genuine article. JMT has been a pastoral musician since 1967, as well as a teacher (grade school, college, seminary), author, composer, and workshop leader, with many years' experience as a "bridge-builder" between the western and eastern Churches.

For many years, Michael lived in Chicago and directed the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop, a Franciscan institution whose liturgical ministry to Chicago's working Catholics is largely year-round and round-the-clock. The Schola Cantorum has made a couple of trips to St. Anne's to help us celebrate our parish feast day with solemn vespers through the years.



Michael has written a book recently of which he is justifiably proud. He called me to tell me that that he was thrilled that an Amazon reviewer had written parenthetically that he intended "to use copies of both works in RCIA classes as supplemental material for catechumens/candidates!" The book is entitled Lights from the East: Pray for Us, and it is a wonderful spiritual introduction for many of us whose knowledge of and appreciation for the Eastern life of Christianity is a serious gap in our grasp of the tradition.

By way of introduction, I asked Michael to write a few words of his own to invite you to read his book. He has obliged us thus:

January 19 is the memorial of St. Macarius the Great, one of the "desert fathers" famous for his ascetic life and for his ardent defense of the orthodox faith against the Arian heresy which denied the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. You might not be aware of that, because St. Macarius is not on the "General Roman Calendar."  He is, however, one of the saints listed on that date in the "Roman Martyrology," a catalogue of the saints and blesseds recognized by the Catholic Church.  Each day has multiple listings: St. Macarius the Great is #4 out of the twelve saints listed for January 19. Why do I mention this? 

My book, Lights of the East, Pray for Us! has been recently published by Liguori Publications.  It is an attempt to open up for readers (both Western and Eastern Christians) the immense and marvelous riches that the saints of the Eastern Churches can provide.  The fifteen saints span in time from the time of the Babylonian Captivity through the middle 20th century.  Yes, you read that correctly---one of the things that the book points out is the liturgical observance of the holy ones who antedate the coming of the Messiah.  Twelve of these fifteen are on the calendars of both the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic Churches; the last three in the book are members of Eastern Catholic Churches who were martyred by the Soviets in Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War.

The book is more than a collection of hagiographies.  Each chapter contains a brief biography with some historical detail, a scripture reading from the feast day of the saint; a liturgical text from the Byzantine books for that saint; a reflection whose intention is to connect the saint's life with the reader's life; and, in conclusion, a hymn text written by me, using the folk melodies of the Galician and Carpatho-Rusyn people of southwestern Ukraine. (The music is there, too.)

There is an excellent introduction to the Eastern Christian concept of personal holiness, written by the Rev. Dr. Peter Galadza. Fr. Peter teaches liturgy at the Metropolitan Andriy Sheptitsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario.  The introduction is worth the price of the book ($14.95), but the rest of it won't hurt you, either!

Here's what I can say: I've learned a lot about Christianity from Michael over the years, but more importantly, I've learned how to live as a better Christian from his example and guidance. His love shines out in the music he prepares, writes, and conducts, and shines out when he writes about Jesus Christ and his church, East and West. Take a look at his book and his music—of which this is only a small selection on iTunes.