Death of a great song writer

One of the most famous names in Catholic Church music is that of Joseph Gelineau. He was very popular back in the 1960's writing many simple but powerful settings to the psalms for use in the liturgy. He later went on to write refrains for the Taize community in France. I will come across a psalm setting by him in a liturgy I'm part or or attending, or even schedule one myself on occasion. Why I like his music is because it is easy for the congregation to learn, yet includes beautiful chordal progressions in the verses that catch any ear when done well.

I just heard today that Joseph passed away a few days ago. I'm including his obituary.

+ Rest in Peace.

Joseph Gelineau died in hospital in the French Alps. He had fractured a femur and was hospitalized. It was not possible to operate for ten days, due to circulatory problems. In the event, the surgery was not a great success, and then a renal blockage appeared which it was impossible to do anything about.

The funeral is this Tuesday, August 12, in the village of Vallorcines in the Savoy Alps, and Père Joseph will be buried with his Jesuit brothers in Grenoble.

August WitW

Sorry I've been absent so long... its been an unusually long month. Without further adieu...

A few years ago I found myself reading a quirky book called Zen and the Art of Guitar. One of the lessons that stood out the most for me was their description of how to master an art form. The student of an art must begin by putting on a white belt every day, according to the author. Every day, that student sees himself or herself as a novice… a beginner. Over time, that belt begins to gray and becomes worn and dirty. Eventually, the belt turns gray and then black, without the student even noticing it. Continuing the practice, the belt eventually wears itself clean and becomes white again. Only by not being focused on the status of the belt does a student learn to improve and grow, eventually having the same color as the beginner.
How would this apply in the life of a student of the Christian life? David Haas wrote a catchy tune called “We Are Called.” The lyrics to the refrain are as follows:
We are called to act with justice.
We are called to love tenderly.
We are called to serve one another,
To walk humbly with God.
I don’t see any room for pride, self-serving, or aspiration in this gospel inspired way of life. The gospels try to teach us that serving others, loving others, seeking justice and walking HUMBLY with God does, in fact, please God and draws us closer to the community of faith. No matter what we are faced with, be it brutal and seemingly insurmountable challenges or a place of being loved and adored or just the everyday predictability of a comfortable life, maybe Jesus is teaching us to be that student, always looking to learn more and grow more and not to be the best or greatest at anything. Blessed are the poor, the meek, the humble and the despised. Theirs is the kingdom of God.
As we face new challenges, a lot of times it’s easy to think we have all the answers and know exactly how to handle things. I think walking humbly with God means knowing that the more we think we know, the less we really do. One of my favorite catch phrases is: I’m not great, but I’m an apprentice to greatness. It’s God’s wisdom, love and power that give me the strength to move mountains.

As the fun ends...

Wow, what a week a couple weeks ago. I didn't blog before this because I have been recovering for the last week. We had our annual summer social at the parish Thursday through Saturday. There were some very powerful storms that came through unfortunately, but I think we had fun despite the incliment weather. Last year I volunteered to help with the Texas Hold'em portion of the social, and this year, I volunteered to run the whole thing. What a lot of work that turned out to be, but what a great deal of fun I had with it. We had nightly mini tables all through the week, and a big tournament on Sunday. With close to 90 players, we ran about five exciting hours. Thanks to everyone who came out to play and deal and supervise. I cant wait for our next one.

Opposites attract

Just reflecting on my life...

Last night, my dinner club got together for the third time. We had a fantastic southern inspired dinner with ribs, sweet potatoes and polenta with goat cheese. My fried zucchini even fit in pretty well. We had two guests for dinner as well, our host's nephew and her mother. It was a very pleasant evening hearing stories about their life back home in Kentucky. We were there for close to five hour just eating, talking and laughing.

And now for something completely different...

Tonight, I was asked to take a visiting missionary out for dinner after he talked to our communtity. He is a priest from India, and runs a vocational school there. This was his first trip outside of India, and he winds up in Indiana. Ironic? Anyway, our discussion as we enjoyed our Chicago style pizza ranged from music to poverty to global political structures. How different from the night before, but still as engaging and enjoyable for me.

Some days, I really love my job.

Unanswered Prayers

On a more personal note...

Ever have one of those series of experiences that really makes you wonder about your life? About whether you are really connecting with the people YOU feel like you are? I've had some of those lately. For me, this experience has come in the form of weddings. Two of the women I have cared about more in my life than I'd care to talk about, got married. A couple months apart, both of them married men who seemed to make them unbelieveably happy. The funny part is, I was an important part of their life when they met their to-be husbands.

I guess its the fact that I was hoping that I would be the one to make them happy, or maybe it is the jealousy I feel when I know someone can really feel like that. On a positive note, I have been successful in stepping back and really caring about them enough to say that their happiness is SO much more important than my selfishness. "If you love them, set them free." Right?

On a slight tangent, I was watching Drumline last night. One of the big catch phrases in that movie is "One Band, One Sound." Toward the end of the movie, the band director calls aside the head of the drumline and asks him, "Do you remember why I said you would be a good leader for this group? (or something like that)" He replied, "You said I liked the sound of the line better than the sound of my own drum." I've seen that movie four or five times, so I dont know why that just struck me like it did last night. Maybe because I believe that the love I have for those around me isn't about how I "sound" to them, but how my contributions can help them sound the best they can.

I think this lesson applies to these two women and their pursuit of happiness. If I was to be selfish and want them in my life more, then maybe they wouldn't have found these great men who make them so happy. I would have stood in the way of their voice being heard.

I also apply this lesson to my life as a Director of Music as well. Many people in the parish here think that I need to do more solo work, and lead with my voice. I tend to step down and give all the support, training, and encouragement to the leaders in this program, helping them to shine with all they have. I have opportunities to make a difference here, but usually its when someone (or a group) really does well. I am so proud of each and every person who I work with here. We have made some beautiful music together (metaphorically and actually speaking).

I used to pray to God to bring someone back into my life. I've been through quite an emotional rollercoaster with a few people along the way. Maybe I just need to be thankful for unanswered prayers. God hasn't let me down yet. Its about the sounds of the line (choir, community, family, friends) after all.

June WitW

Wow, its been a while since I posted anything. Amazing how time flies by when you're having fun. So, I think I'll post two, just because I've had so much running through my head lately. Here is my newsletter article from this month. I already blogged about it, but this article has gotten me more comments than anything I've written so far.

You know, unity is a funny thing. We sing about it, we pray for it, and we hope for it among Christians and fellow citizens of this country and the world. I recently had a parishioner come up after mass and comment on the inappropriateness of one of our songs because it was too “Baptist.” We may not be in unity with other Christians in our doctrine or structure, but can we be unified with them in the Spirit?
The early Church struggled with the same questions. They were faced with quite a few non-Jewish people wanting to follow the teachings of Jesus in community, but some people would have nothing to do with it unless they followed the “right way.” They struggled over issues ranging from following the Jewish calendar or prayer styles to circumcision. We have many of the same questions today. For example, how do we deal with a non-Catholic person who wants to teach in a Catholic school? How do we feel when a member of our community decides to leave the Catholic Church and go to another?
Jesus talked about one faith, one God, and one Spirit. One image I’ve always liked is that of the “body of Christ” with a body, a mind, and a spirit. The body is the structure – a particular denomination’s buildings, rules and specific rites. The mind is the doctrine – the teachings and beliefs. The spirit is the Holy Spirit – the animator of our faith life and inspiration for all holiness. If we can’t be unified in the first two areas, maybe its best to work on the latter, and most important, one.
Of course, to even begin to imagine a unified Christian church, we need to work on unity among ourselves, person-to-person. If we can succeed at connecting with each other one-on-one, then maybe we can show the world the power of Christ still present after all these years. I think that working and praying together in a faith community is exactly what Christ had in mind.
I’ll leave you with the lyrics to one of our most well-known songs here at Good Shepherd, “One Bread, One Body.” My favorite line is “and we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.” Let’s continue to strive for unity among ourselves as a faith community, and therefore witness to the world that Christ is alive and thriving here.

You cant win for trying aka. You cant always get what you want

Part 1: The curse of the piano

First of all, I never claim to be a pianist. I have had minimal lessons over the years, but the whole doing scales thing never really stuck with me. Not to say I wouldn't give it another shot someday soon, but for now, I am a liturgical guitarist and a vocalist. When I was hired on at Good Shepherd, I made this evidently clear. So, we set up some goals: 1) Convert the parish to guitar music, or 2) cultivate musical talent from the congregation, or 3) learn how to play piano (or organ) and lead the music that way. I got to work right away with the first two possiblities, knowing that I would get to the third in time. Due to some constraints, I was the only instrument at the early Sunday mass, so I played guitar. If anyone's ever been to an early Catholic mass, they know it's not a guitar sort of crowd. I would get comments like "I love the music today, are we getting a piano player soon?" A couple months ago, I was feeling invulnerable, so I tried my mediocre piano skills out on the early mass crowd. I could never have expected to be swamped at the piano after mass with congratulations and wishes on my continued return to the bench. To this day, I have played piano at every early mass, and now I play for our "Over 50's" mass as well as prayer services, reconciliation services and monthly benediction. I still play guitar for school masses and with our Spirit and Life choir, a nice balance I thought. Well, Fr. Attila comes up to me this weekend and makes the comment that he misses the guitar. Talk about irony.

Part II: "Baptist" music isn't all bad.

Also, when I was hired, I was asked to be a cheerleader of sorts - to bring energy with my music as well as new and exciting music. I've done my best with this, slowly seeping out the repatoire I had gathered over the years. This weekend, I choose "Shall We Gather At the River" as our closing song. This has been one of the favorites and a song that seems to invoke quite the passionate singing. One man came up to me after our Saturday mass and wondered how this "Baptist" song made it into the mass. I tried my best to answer him as I was thinking he was joking by saying "Well, its in our hymnal and I like it, so I put it in." He replied in a cold, brutal way with "Well, anything will get in there if its shoved up someone's a**" and walks off. Yikes! I'm glad my job doesn't depend on his opinion. Fortunately, a woman also came up after our later Sunday mass to say hi. She said how much she appreciated by spirit and my body movements as I directed the choir. I know sometimes I get a little too into the music. :) So, I guess these two people I dont remember meeting before kinda balanced out for me. I'm still pumped up about music and picking the right songs for the litugy and making people glad to be there. A once in a while negative comment is good for keeping my ego in check.

In other news...

I played guitar for our scouts on their spring outing this weekend. As I was setting up, two girls from our school came up and volunteered to help me sing. That just made my night. I have been leaning what I can about leading children, and I took every opportunity to encourage them to come back and do it again someday.

The adult choir performed two of my arrangements this weekend. I know they aren't original songs, but they are my harmonies, and that left me with some butterflies today. I have been feeling much more confident about writing and arranging for voices and instruments. I am so looking forward to this month's Spirit and Life choir as I get to arrange for a variety of instruments (depending on who shows up). Heck, we may even have a ukelele this month. Whoo hoo!