Sacred Music Coach

Co-opting religious concepts for New Age

Carl — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:02:03 +0000

I was listening to the Catholic Laboratory podcast by Ian Maxfield yesterday, where he was bemoaning a recent report in NewScientist magazine about the effects of mental practices on recovery from illness.

Yeah, stunning, I know. If you are grounded in your thinking, this will help you recover faster.

Ian’s remark, though, was about the particular New Agey practices that they mention:

Positive thinking
Trusting relationships
Knowing your purpose
Meditation

Sound familiar? Yes, these are core practices of our religion and belief in God.

Yet, NewScientist also tends to promote a strongly secular attitude that religion is unnecessary, that God is an artifact of weak thinking. There’s a lot of this going around these days, where religious concepts and practices have been wrapped up in the vague “spiritual but not religious” hogwash.

Spiritual, I guess, in the sense that we ~~worship~~ honor ~~our God~~ ~~a more powerful being~~ “the universe.” As if “the universe” gives us any particular purpose.

As a career and business coach for 12 years now, I’ve associated with a great many people who get caught up in the whole New Agey thing. So I’ve come to understand some of how this mindset is emerging.

This seems to be the idea: There certainly is something more powerful than me, or my family, or even society as a whole. Perhaps I’m not comfortable calling that “God”, because that would imply that He gets to tell me what to do. Instead, I’m more at ease with the thought that I get to do whatever I wish, like my parents taught me: “You can grow up to do anything you want! We just want you to be happy!”

So we co-opt the scientific concept of “the universe,” and assign to it a sense that it’s always there to help us. But fortunately it’s so large that we can’t possibly have a responsibility toward it. That’s safer than the 60s’ “Mother Earth,” because we found out that we indeed can do damage at that level, which means we have to take some personal or societal responsibility.

Then we have the mixing of global cultures, so people start seeing some similarities between religious practices across the world. You meditate, I pray. You play drums, I chant. We both burn incense for similar purposes.

But you can really only meld these together into New Age if you get rid of a particular God. You have your version of God/Goddess/Gods/Higher Power, and I have mine, but we’ll just focus on the practices that seem similar. We’ll just replace that God Stuff (hey, what did he ever do for me anyway?) and assign the target of our attention to be The Universe, or Mother Earth, or an even more undefinable Power Of Attraction.

Sorry, folks. Having a relationship is pointless unless it’s with someone. If you’re trying to love nothing in particular, it’s not love. It’s an emotion, maybe, or an interesting thought – but love isn’t love until it reaches someone.

So go ahead and learn from New Age thinking. It’s good to realize that we have a responsibility to something larger than ourselves, and that we are all interdependent.

But don’t expect there to be much of a point to all that unless it also calls you to The Purpose which has been given to you by your maker. The life of infinite love that we’re all called to here and beyond.

Relationship killers

Carl — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:25:59 +0000

This column today was so insightful that I thought I’d share it in full with all of you. Lloyd Thomas is a fellow coach here in northern Colorado for whom I have the greatest respect. If you want to subscribe to his weekly column, follow the directions at the bottom.

Lloyd J. Thomas, Ph.D. has 30+ years experience as a Life Coach and Licensed Psychologist. He is available for coaching in any area presented in “Practical Life Coaching” (formerly “Practical Psychology”). Initial coaching sessions are free. Contact him: (970) 568-0173 or E-mail: DrLloyd@CreatingLeaders.com or LJTDAT@aol.com.

RELATIONSHIP KILLERS

By Lloyd J. Thomas, Ph.D.

It is not the big traumas that usually destroy relationships. It is the build up of “the little things.” It is the little frustrations, the little habits, the small irritations, which gradually, almost imperceptibly, erode a relationship away.

After such slow erosion, one of the partners in a relationship suddenly “wakes up” and realizes he or she is very unhappy with their relationship and doesn’t know how s/he “got that way.”

Perhaps becoming more aware of the common “relationship killers” might help people to prevent or “cure” the destruction of their relationship. Here are some of the “little killers” of any close or intimate relationship.

CRITICISM When we become critical of our partner, or ourselves the relationship suffers. Contrary to what most of us learned in elementary school, there is no such thing as “constructive” criticism. Criticism always tears at self-esteem. It erodes self-confidence. It can dissolve the best of relationships.

The antidote to criticism is praise and encouragement. Rather than pointing out what is “wrong” with yourself or another, focus on what is “right” or what might be a better alternative. Encourage yourself and your partner to practice new alternatives to what you wish to criticize, rather than just pointing out what you don’t like.

COMPLAINING No one likes “whiners and complainers.” Complaining does nothing positive to a relationship. It merely highlights what you don’t like, not what you do like. When your partner complains, it is left up to you to figure out how to address the complaint…usually an impossible task. Frustration builds if you attempt the impossible.

Instead of complaining, ask directly for what you want. There is only one way in the English language to ask directly for anything. That is to use the two words: “Will you…” It also helps if, before you ask directly, you identify for your partner, precisely what it is you want. Being clear about what you want and asking directly for something to address that want, is certainly more likely than complaining, to result in your need-fulfillment.

ACCUSING Making accusations always invites defensiveness. It never nourishes a relationship. Accusations makes your partner an adversary regardless of the truth or falsity of the accusation. Do you want an adversary for a relationship partner? You’ll get one if you make enough accusations.

If you accuse, you are part of the problem. If you make suggestions, you become part of the solution. Rather than accuse, make suggestions regarding the satisfactory alternatives to the accusation.

DEFENDING Whenever we feel attacked or threatened in some way, we defend ourselves. A very effective defense, and an even more powerful relationship killer, is withdrawal. If we are always defending ourselves, the partner has no chance of becoming close or learning to know us as we really are. Withdrawing from a relationship kills that relationship as quickly as walking off a tennis court stops the match.

The more open and vulnerable you are in a relationship, the more likely you are available to receive emotional nourishment. The more likely you are to be honestly known by your partner. Self-acceptance is the key to comfortably sharing yourself with your partner. Both being known and being emotionally nourished, strengthens a relationship rather than eroding it.

The last relationship killer is BLAMING. Blaming always deceives the “blamer” into believing he or she has no power over that for which s/he is blaming another. The “blamee” is always hurt. The “blamer” is always weakened by not taking responsibility. Blaming results in developing a relationship of pain for one, dependency for the other.

Taking responsibility for your actions, choices…indeed your life, and practicing the use of your own personal power, is the opposite of blaming.

Avoid the relationship killers above and you stand a much better chance of creating a relationship where both of you grow and thrive. Add some love to it, and you might just be fulfilled and happy.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dr. Thomas is a licensed psychologist, author, speaker, and life coach. He serves on the faculty of the International University of Professional Studies. He recently co-authored (with Patrick Williams) the book: “Total Life Coaching: 50+ Life Lessons, Skills and Techniques for Enhancing Your Practice…and Your Life!” (W.W. Norton 2005) It is available at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.

If you found the above column useful, feel free to share it with friends.

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Lloyd J. Thomas, Ph.D.
3421 Polk Circle West
Wellington, CO 80549

A crisis of faith?

Carl — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:51:00 +0000

I’ve had a number of things happening in the last few months which seem to be trying to push me away from having faith – in myself, in my church, in God. They’re subtle, but after they start mounting up you start thinking there might be a pattern.

But I find myself paying attention to this, and my soul reaches out as if to yell, “No! My faith is alive and growing!”

It’s all about having intention, making a decision.

Perhaps it’s because I’m at an inflection point in my life, with big changes happening on several dimensions. An interpretation could be that the Devil himself is taking advantage of the opportunity to beat me down.

No. I choose to have faith. In my church, in my family, in myself.

Gearing up for a great year!

Carl — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:59:09 +0000

This past week I’ve been preparing for our new chant year – practices begin on August 22nd, and our first Mass is September 19th. As before, I was able to have a 1-on-1 discussion with almost every member of our schola, and got some great feedback and ideas about what challenges we should take on as a group.

But I’m definitely stretching in some new directions. Based on some wonderful experiences of singing falsobordone psalms at the Colloquium in June, I decided to give it a shot. The problem is that we need to start off simple, with three part STB harmonies adjusted to the capabilities of this group.

Which means I’d have to compose something. Not exactly my strong suit – to this point I’ve merely done Alleluia verses and the occasional Responsorial Psalm.

So I started off with Tu Mandasti, the appointed Communio for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time. First task was to simplify the antiphon a bit, because we still struggle with long melismatic passages. Now to tackle the verses.

Understand that my musical background consists of about 10 years of piano when I was a kid (my mother was a piano teacher), playing French Horn through High School, and singing for about the last 12 years or so. This means that my ability to put together harmonies is a lot more based on what sounds good to me than of any kind of real education. I can sing decent harmonies, mind you, but it’s a different matter to try to write it down. It doesn’t help that my ability to play more than one note on the piano is, well, limited. You might say pitiful.

But harder still was to do chant harmonies. I’m a relative newbie to this chant business, and we’ve done everything unison and a capella. I haven’t had to worry about harmony, and am in great awe of people at the Colloquium who can just devise it on the fly.

What I’ve ended up with is the simplest possible melody, mode V, with straightforward harmony. I haven’t yet made the practice recordings, so there’s going to be some chance that I’ll have to rework it. And of course recording a 3-part harmony will be a challenge with just my own baritone voice, but I think I worked out a reasonable compromise when we did a 2-part Adoramus Te Christe a couple of years ago.

Wish me luck. This is new territory for us.

The servant leader

Carl — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:45:03 +0000

You might have heard the notion of leader as servant. I imagine that it might be based in the model of Christ as servant of His people, I’m not sure. But I have some experience with the idea that I might like to share.

Here’s the core of the idea:

The group is the ones who deliver the value of the organization, much more than the leader personally.
The leader can have the most impact by helping his people to deliver that value, removing obstacles and facilitating action.
Therefore, the leader can be most valuable by thinking of himself as servant of the group.

But this is just the starting point, there’s more to the story.

Let’s look at Jesus Christ as humble servant.

Interested in this idea? I wrote more about it from a secular point of view on my business blog.

It’s important to note that Jesus didn’t take this idea of service to mean that nobody is providing leadership, or that everybody leads in their own direction. Instead, He provided incredibly strong direction, even when that contained messages which were hard for people to accept.

He also didn’t shy away from distinguishing between good and bad behavior, from articulating right and wrong. But He always kept this in the context of the big goal, the salvation of His people.

So as a leader and servant of your volunteer group, of your workteam, of your family … what does this mean? What are we to learn?

For me, it comes down to some key shifts in your mindset:

As leader, you have some specific jobs you need to do, the same as anyone else in the group. That includes leading the charge on promoting a common purpose and direction, stepping up for the tough decisions and tradeoffs, and letting people know how well they’re doing.
As servant, you should always be asking yourself: “What am I doing today to help this group be the best they can possibly be?”
This should all be done with an attitude of loving support, clarity of purpose, and the inherent value of each person.

Your group will see a big difference when it’s more about getting useful things done together than about your own ego.

Video from the Pittsburgh Colloquium!

Carl — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:11:17 +0000

CMAA Colloquium XX 2010 from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

In addition, the audio recordings are all available on http://music.dierschow.com/2010Colloquium.

Our music is a tabernacle

Carl — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:30:41 +0000

At the Colloquium last week, one of the priests mentioned the relationship between sacred music and worship in his homily. He said something which was quite interesting, that I’ll attempt to paraphrase as best I can:

“Our music is the tabernacle, the means of delivery of the Word to the faithful.”

This is a fascinating idea, that the word of God is conveyed through readings, through ritual, and especially through sacred music because it reaches so deeply. And when people hear the word, they receive the Word.

It’s hard to get my mind around, but it strikes me as truth. Our music isn’t about feeling good about ourselves and how “well” we are worshiping. It’s about giving another means for each of us to receive the blessed Word, the ultimate gift, from our maker.

I’d be interested to hear what thoughts this sparks for you!

Revitalize!

Carl — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:04:22 +0000

I’m really enjoying God’s gift of yearly cycles. During the summer, especially, is my time to refresh, re-energize, and re-commit. This is possible because so many things slow down during this season as people focus on vacations and family.

Sometimes the summer “break” feels a little weird because our kids are grown up and I’m running my own business, but that’s a topic for another day.

For the last three years, I’ve gone to the Sacred Music Colloquium. It’s totally consuming and draining, but my spirit is renewed for the coming year. I’ve been able to work with so many deeply talented and spiritual people, and have ideas I can take back to my parish.

It’s also a time to connect with each member of our Schola one on one, to see how things are going for them. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to call this week, though, as most people were out in connection with the upcoming holiday. That’s OK – we’ll connect over the course of the coming month.

I’ll be looking at doing another parish chant workshop this year, as that was so well received last summer and helped double the size of our schola. I’ve got some wonderful ideas to work with that came from the instructors and attendees at the Colloquium.

It’s also a time of reflection and planning for our upcoming RCIA year. I’m excited that we’re going to take a day to focus on this next week, to see what needs to be adjusted. We’ve been doing this during the summer for many years, and it’s always a great exercise to get the RCIA team aligned and focused on the most important thing: Bringing people to God.

What could be more important?

3:00 AM?

Carl — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:59:58 +0000

Yesterday was a challenge!

Up at 3:00AM, to drive to Denver, grab a flight. Then hang around in Milwaukee for 4 hours, and finally on to Pittsburgh. OK, that’s enough whining.

Meeting up with all my great Colloquium buddies was wonderful, as expected. I started out tired, but when we got to singing … heaven! It’s just such a wonderful experience to be immersed with a bunch of great people who are all passionate about bringing back this heritage of music.

Today we did the simplest Mass, English Ordinary Form. That’s mostly just for practical reasons – there’s not enough time to practice anything very hard. We did the Richard Rice ordinaries, which is the first time I’ve heard them done for real. Quite excellent, in my opinion.

I don’t know that I’ll be able to put up as many posts this week as I’d like, since I don’t have network access on my own PC. But rest assured that the recordings are coming! For a teaser of the program, go to http://music.dierschow.com/2010Colloquium.

Refresh and renew

Carl — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:18:31 +0000

Colorado's state flower

Summer is my time to reflect and renew my commitments for the coming year. I talked about this some last June, when I was struggling with whether our schola would achieve critical mass. Looking back on the progress, we now have grown to a dozen loyal and talented members, now including women as well as men.

We really are quite blessed. Despite challenges and frustrations, it’s wonderful to be bringing this traditional music back to our parish.

As I head to the 2010 Sacred Music Colloquium, it’s a great opportunity to build my own energy and bring new ideas back to the schola. As in past years, I’ll meet with each member individually when I return. The purpose of this is to help give voice to people’s celebrations and concerns in a confidential setting, which helps me to lead us in a direction that most people can get excited about. It also helps each individual to test and rebuild their own personal commitment.

I’m thinking that I might repeat the workshop I gave last August, since that was so successful in bringing in new members. It sure changed the energy of the group, and has been a real gift to me as well.

But first – first! – off to Pittsburg for a week of joyful learning and singing!