Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

After Christmas my choir director has said that we are going to learn chant!

Although I have done a bit–the Agnus Dei, and some other pieces–I am thrilled to really get to learn this act of sacred singing. Our pastor is very musically-inclined so I know he will enjoy this!

To get y’all excited, here, from Fr.Z is a great chant article. 

(OK y’all–ignore the political parts of the article and just focus on how great the chant is. Chant is all parties, all the time. Everyone can love chant! And if you don’t, you should try it! There are some great albums out there. 

Yikes, I just said albums. I am an 80s child.

Oh, and one more note: at my parish, the choir does sing the octavo for the day upfront (we have no loft and sing the Mass from a section in the pews), because the acoustics are better. Our director is always telling us that we are there to serve the worship, not to show off.) 

The whole thing is pasted below the jump. (Read on …)

So Lent is upon us. What are you doing?

Here’s my plan:

–Daily Bible reading (apart from the Magnificat). I have the CAtholic Women’s Devotional Bible, and I use their daily meditations.

–Lenten Reading plan: The Confessions; On The Passion of the Christ (Thomas a Kempis), and Lent and Easter with John Paul II (meditations and Lenten actions).

–Attend my parish’s Wednesday soup suppers (which are really yummy!) and Stations of the Cross (new this year–I’m excited!).

–Daily rosary (I hope I hope I hope)

–Attend at least one week day Mass per week

–Confession (at this point, it’s just getting there again. I’m not going to set a grand goal of once a week–yet. We’re working on it!)

–And the fast and abstinence requirements.

For a great Lenten primer, go here and download the guide to Lent. It is great!

Tomorrow is The Big Day, or, if you prefer, The Day Before The Big Day. Since I sing Midnight Mass, Christmas Eve always feels like The Day to me, since it’s a long day.

Singing Midnight Mass is one of the privileges of being in the parish choir. This, with the Triduum, is our most intensive Mass and one that requires months of preparation. Tomorrow, along with the baking, celebrating, and traditional events, there will be much practicing of the cantata we are singing before Mass, as well as the Mass music proper.

Praising God in song and chant is one of my favorite ways to pray. While I have developed a love of contemplative, silent prayer, singing is a true release, an expression of my soul and what I really feel in that moment. The Christmas and Triduum Masses are especially prayerful, since the music tends to be the same every year, so I can truly delve into the mysteries of the lyrics and the Mass without being distracted by my part.

My choir has about 35 people, give or take. Tomorrow night we will meet and begin singing our program at 11:00. For about an hour our voices will set the stage for the Mass we are about to offer to the Lord. The music is not perfect, but it may well be tomorrow; the atmosphere has a way of changing us, motivating us to offer our best on this night. I, of course, will be pacing up and down the choir room and the vestibule, as is my habit, until we begin warm-up. I am always filled with nervous energy.

The Mass begins at Midnight, and our new pastor has an affinity for chant, which I love. So I imagine the Mass will be a bit longer than usual, but who cares? Midnight Mass is truly a joy to attend. Singing “Joy to the World” as the recessional is always a high point, as organ, flute, trumpets, and voices join together to praise The Word Made Flesh.

We will praise God with our litugry, our “work of the people”, as we welcome His Son to earth.  And I can think of no greater privilege than to welcome His Birth in song with my choir mates.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice! –St. Paul

Happy Gaudete Sunday, everyone!

It amazes me how Advent goes so fast (and Lent, usually, seems interminable). What have you been doing to spiritually prepare for Christmas? Have you added any new practices–more prayer time, daily Mass, daily rosary, etc.? During Advent I read from Magnificat’s Advent devotional, as  well as a book called “Advent and Christmas with Pope John Paul II.” I find that these help keep me in the right frame of mind as Christmas approaches.

As we enter the home stretch, these lyrics might help us focus (we’re singing this song next week, so if you’re in my parish, come out!)

Are we ready for the babe of Bethlehem
To be born in a lowly stall?
Are we ready to greet the tiny little king
Who will come to save us all?

Are we ready for the star of Bethlehem
to appear in the winter sky?
Are we ready to follow anywhere it leads
And let its light fill all our lives?

Prepare ye the way for the King of Glory
Once again proclaim the wondrous story
God has sent His own true Son.
But will we know Him when He comes?

Are we ready for the song of Bethlehem

to declare our Savior’s birth?
Are we ready to  join the angels as they sing
And spread the news to all on Earth?

Prepare ye the way for the King of Glory
Once again proclaim the wondrous story
God has sent His own true Son
But will we know Him when He comes?

Are we ready for the babe of Bethlehem
God’s true and promised Son?
Are we ready to greet the tiny little King
And will we know Him when He comes?

Will we know Him when He comes? 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Today we have the RCIA folks at Mass for the first time–I think today was the rite of Acceptance? I could be wrong (we know how my hearing can be in church)…but I have never seen it performed before. Personally, I really enjoyed it.

There is one catechumen that really touched me. She’s an older woman, probably in her late 50s, who was on supplemental oxygen. My first thought: there but by the grace of God…

But it was so touching to see her and her sponsor. Both of them were very emotional, and her sponsor kept hugging her and touching her reassuringly. It was really nice to see that sort of connection between two people. You could tell that this woman really wanted to be received into the Church.

Parish Council meeting tomorrow, along with our parish’s annual Advent Evening of Reflection. Next week–penance service. Gotta tell you, not my favorite thing–but I will go. Especially during this discernment process, I need to go more frequently than my current once-every-few-months habit.

Speaking of discerment–still praying, still asking God to show me His will. Plans seem good for the February retreat in Ann Arbor with the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

I keep running into Dominicans. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

Since October is the month of the Rosary, and Oct. 11 is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (followed closely on Oct. 13 by the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, where her messages were focused quite closely on the Rosary and the importance of its recitation), my church has decided to have rosary said after each Mass during the month of October. We also going to try to do this in May.

I have gone to our 10:15 Mass, which is usually the best attended. The first week, I led the recitation, and about 10 people were there. Not too bad. I’m not sure how many were there last week. For this, I don’t think it’s the  quantity of people that’s important. It’s the fact that we’re doing it at all. It was nice to be saying the rosary in a group, and it felt like we were bathing the church in our rhythmic prayers, helping to prepare the sanctuary, as  it were, for the next Mass. We were seated near the tabernacle, which added to the feeling.

I try to say the rosary daily, and normally I say it silently and alone. Saying it communally was, however, something I grew up with; occasionally we would say the family rosary, and Dad was a big fan of saying a decade or so in the car on the way to school or church.  The rosary has permeated my life and it’s an important devotion for me.

On top of saying it after Mass, my faith sharing group (FSG) has also been saying it at the end of our meetings this month.

It has been said that the rosary is “the weapon.” It is one of the most powerful prayers we have. If you don’t say the rosary regularly, or not at all, this would be a good month to consider doing so. Mother Teresa once wrote that when she was having spiritual difficulty, she would pick up her rosary and say it slowly and deliberately, until the pain had passed or lessened. It is a great way to increase meditation and reflect more deeply on the life of Christ and His Mother. It makes us realize that they truly experienced every human emotion, and know what we are going through here on earth.

Tonight as I drove into my parish parking l0t for a parish council meeting, I happened to look at the Rose garden.

It looked incredible–several varieties of roses were in full bloom, brightening the garden with patches of ivory, rose, pink and peach blooms. It’s October–I didn’t think we’d have many left. But there they are, and several buds look like they might be coming along, too.

It was truly a shower of roses. How appropriate on St. Therese’s feast day.

(Oh, and a picky pronunciation note–it’s TE-REZE, not Theresa or whatever. I know it sounds nutty and snobby and Frenchy (well she was French), but that’s how you say her name. It’s helpful in distinguishing her from St. Teresa of Avila. OK I’m done being picky now. :))

Whew.

What a day.

After reading about suffering, etc. from Mother Teresa’s new book, and Mother Angelica’s Little Book, I thought, hey, I’m ready for some more stuff. It’s been light lately, let’s bring it on!

Well, we sure did bring it on. Today was a really, really dark day. And I can’t say I was really all that pious about it.

I was discharged from the hospital (again) on Tuesday afternoon, after Msgr. Funk came to visit around lunch time (he is a great hospital visitor, by the way). Came home, slept, had the home care people come to the house (M&D) to talk about the IV drugs. We did the midnight dose (actually closer to 1), and I went to bed.

Today I was totally in a black mood. Pain/period had something to do with it, but I absolutely could not see any real point in life/living/ my existence in general. I was totally ready to pass on these crosses. So much for “bring it on,” huh? Oh man. I was wallowing in extreme aridity–very much Psalm 22 (”my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”).

Part of this is due to some issues w/ my doctor’s office, which are best described over at the Bucket. But when I get lung infections, I get pain that goes with it (this is from plueral effusion, apparently, according to Todd, if you’re interested). And while I have a high pain threshold, it’s not that high. That’s why we went to the ER on Saturday night. Well I was having a lot of pain today that wasn’t being handled all that well (the drugs I have make me nauseous, so pick your demon) and I guess that was a real impetus for all sorts of Screwtape-like devils to come in and do their work.

I’m feeling a bit better now, having been reminded by my excellent parents that Screwtape is ever-among us and uses down times like these to undermine our faith, trust and general feelings of love towards God. I’m trying not to let him get to me. But man, it sure is easy to just give in when your body is racked with pain and you’re thinking of lots of ways–several of them probably not Church-sanctioned–to make it go away.

Prayers are helpful. Thanks.

Prayer update, too: my little transplant buddies continue to get better. Thank God for that.

at last. Again…hopefully it lasts longer than 36 hours this time!

My parish priest came to visit right before I was discharged today, and that made me really happy. He is a great priest, and I just love it when he comes to visit. He is very thoughtful and quiet, but also has a great sense of humor. And he offered me his opera tickets since he’s going out of town that weekend (I feel sort of like the trip has “fortuitiously” arisen, but no matter), and I thanked him rather profusely because I have been dying to see La Boheme, which is the opera. Msgr. Funk is, like I said, really nice, a good priest, and he likes our choir music! :)

Sadly I don’t think I’m going to St. Louis for my cousin’s wedding (:-() because I’m on an IV drug course, but I will be here for the parish picnic, if I feel up to going, which should be fun.

Thanks you for prayers–keep them up, please, so that this may only be a nice two week drug course and not have any extra issues–as well as for the prayers for my little buddies. The girl w/ the heart transplant (I’ll call her K) was riding her tricycle down the hallway this morning!

From my pastor’s homily yesterday:

“If you want to know about humility, look at the Michigan football team.”

:) Go bucks!