33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Hello there POTHE!    

Welcome to the last weekend in Ordinary Time before the feast of Christ the King and the beginning of Advent.  Are you as surprised as I that we're at the end of the liturgical year again?  

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Today is Mother Cabrini's Feast Day, Friday, November 13!  Spend some time getting to know the first US Citizen (an immigrant from Italy) to become a SAINT!!!

I've just done a search on Youtube for the quote "well done, good and faithful servant" which comes from this weekend's Gospel reading and stumbled upon this arrangement, "Well Done" sung by the Visions Children's Choir.  It goes against my liturgical musical standards in so many ways:  its catchy and poppy, the kids are singing outside on a mountaintop rather than inside a church, and well, it's just not sacred enough. However, you may find this track emulates the "end times" with more immediacy because of those musical attributes.  That's the thing with music.  If we feel a personal connection to a piece of music, then we say it moves us, and we end up liking it more and if we "like" it more then we give it our stamp of approval.  In comparison, I really "like" the Rutter Requiem De Profundis because I remember being in high school choir and touring the Rutter Requiem with our chamber orchestra in which I played 2nd flute. That memory is powerful to be sure.  And to me that mournful cello opening sounds like "end times."  Does my preference for this sacred text and concertized version make it more appropriate for liturgy than say the children's choir version?  Well, there's the rub.  We can't go by feelings. Liturgical music needs to be SACRED. Cut off.  Separate from ordinary life.  Transcendent. Reverent and speaking of the "sobriety and holiness corresponding to the reality of liturgical worship."  So my personal opinion in the end is really worth very little.   READ MORE

This is where I spend some time, most every week, talking further about music at Mass, expounding on sacred music, updating Covid-19 developments as they relate to congregate church worship and helping you on your journey of faith through the medium of music.   Comments welcome and encouraged!   Enjoy!

Here you'll be taken to the Parish Music Webpage where you'll find links to our worship aids, information on our substantial and varied church music programs (youth through adult) and other resources to help you worship fully, actively and consciously.