Last week I talked about the chant workshop I put on in our parish. The primary point of that workshop was just to grow familiarity with chant. But then…
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Last week I talked about the chant workshop I put on in our parish. The primary point of that workshop was just to grow familiarity with chant. But then… I’ve been stressing over the chant workshop that I put together for our parish, and unfortunately it also fell on a day when I had two job interviews. Let’s just say that there was no shortage of adrenaline coursing through my veins yesterday. It’s exciting, we’re starting up our new year of chant for the parish. I subscribe to a lot of online newsletters, because it helps me to maintain a broader perspective and generates new ideas. I ran across one yesteday that held a real challenge for me. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. — Matthew 6: 7-8 This is directly before Jesus introduces his Disciples to the Lord’s Prayer. That prayer is simple and straightforward, definitely not babbling. We Catholics seem to like to fill things up with words, petitioning God to hear our every need and want. But God already knows that. He doesn’t really need me to tell him what I want. Instead, I need to create space for listening. I tried doing that in my prayers last night, and it was quite difficult, even for someone trained as a coach. My problem was: What am I listening for? Emotions? Insights? Burning bushes? This will be a challenge for me, but it feels very right. I’ll challenge all of you as well: Are you taking enough time to listen to God? I made some good progress this week on setting up an Introduction to Chant workshop for our parish. It’s now scheduled for the evening of August 20th, and I’ve made sure people know that it’s open to anyone and everyone in the parish. Specifically: kids and women, as there seems to be the misconception that chant in our parish is for a bunch of older white guys. We also got our box of 40 Parish Books of Chant, so I’m parceling those out to the three parishes that ordered them. And we’re settling down on wanting to get the three choirs together for November 15th and possibly December 8th for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. So much preparation to work on now! Looks like it’s going to be a busy weekend. I just wanted to pass along this pointer to a newsletter that I’ve been reading for a couple of years: Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment. Check it out, and if you like it, sign up here. This is probably the only newsletter that I always save until I have some quiet time to read and ponder. How rare is that? The progress this week on Sacred Music Coach has been pretty amazing. First, the website now exists. Here we are! More important, I had a chance to talk with some new friends – Pepper, Eric, Barbara – and reconnect with an old friend, Jon, about my ideas for group coaching in this area. Everything isn’t clear yet, but the pieces are falling together. Just a quck update to let you all know that the audio recordings that I captured from the Sacred Music Colloquium are all up and online – whew! This is truly wonderful and uplifting music, it’s hard to know where to start. The Colloquium came to a magnificent and emotional close today with a Mass of almost two hours. Everybody sang, and it was truly wonderful. The Colloquium is drawing to a close – tomorrow we have the final Mass and a concluding brunch. We’re getting to the bottom of our inch-thick music packet, and people are giving their heartfelt thanks for such a wonderful and spiritually filling experience. |