Perhaps you know a bluegrass band or two, but have you ever heard of one composed of Dominican friars and priests?

What else could possibly be so odd, yet so perfect, as a group of guitar and banjo-wielding mendicants taking up the time-tested tradition of Southern music?

The Hillbilly Thomists first formed in the Dominican House of Studies, born of the simple desire to play music as a visible expression of God's invisible grace.

They view as a model of their project Flannery O'Connor, from whose writings they take their name and numerous references in their songs.

The Hillbilly Thomists made their public debut in 2017 with their eponymous first album, then followed up their success in 2021 with Living for the Other Side.

With a combination of their own songs and covers of old Southern classics, both albums displayed healthy respect for past tradition and an eagerness for fresh art and new songs.

On July 7, 2022, the Hillbilly Thomists made their next breakthrough with their album Holy Ghost Power.

Unlike their previous forays into the world of music, this new collection features a veritable treasury of homespun, expertly crafted, and distinctly Catholic bluegrass.

Holy Ghost Power takes the listener on a panoramic trip through Southern spirituality infused with Catholic sensibility.

From the drawling, Flannery O'Connor-brimming title track to the thoughtful and moving "Veronica," and then right back to energetic jams like "Way Down in New Orleans," the album is nothing short of a holistic, but perhaps whiplashing, the rollercoaster experience of Catholic bluegrass.

One could do manifold things with the spiritual and emotional depth and breadth of Holy Ghost Power, but in particular I'd like to focus on how that strength of variety and the sheer wonder of a band such as the Hillbilly Thomists exemplifies the elegance of Dominican spirituality.

St Dominic's spirituality holds a unique place among others as a combination of the active and contemplative life.

He emphasised in his life and works that one could be a zealous apostle and a high mystic simultaneously.

His solution to the classic dilemma of Martha and Mary: Why not be both? Contemplative prayer and study were the wellsprings of active preaching.

Holy Ghost Power's artistic range presents the same sort of difficulty that St Dominic sought to overcome in founding the Order of Preachers.

Sometimes playful and catchy like "The Power and the Glory," sometimes quiet and modest like "Love is Patient," it can be difficult to see the album's artistic unity.

Dominican spirituality, the attempt to reconcile and fuse the best of both worlds, is the key to comprehending how it all fits together in Holy Ghost Power.

The peaks and valleys aren't sloppy writing and organisation, but an intentional attempt to bring apparent opposites into one chorus. Disparate tones find their union through the focal point of the distinctly Dominican project to bring distinct elements into one whole.

The spiritual artistry of Holy Ghost Power is ultimately akin to the delightful fact of the band's very existence—who could have expected opposites to be joined in such a way? After all, Dominicans aren't professional musicians, but scholars and preachers; and if one expected any music from them, bluegrass would hardly be their guess.

Nevertheless, The Hillbilly Thomists have shown once again in Holy Ghost Power the strength of Dominican and Catholic spirituality to adapt to any culture and mood, and fashion them into a symphony of God's praise.

• Peter Watkins writes in The Torch that takes seriously the values to which Boston College is committed as a Catholic university. The Torch desires an active and healthy exchange of ideas. Moreover, its chief end is to be a tool for the new evangelization.
• Hillbilly Thomasts Spotify
• Hillbilly Thomasts Deezer
• Hillbilly Thomasts Tidal

A small, but quite significant part of that spiritual nuclear winter has been the profound collapse of Sacred Music.

Votaries of the "spirit of Vatican II" (in today's au courant vernacular, "the New Paradigm") knew well the power of music in liturgy.

If their "reimagining" of Christianity was to settle its roots deeply in the souls of Catholics, music was the key.

They learned well the perennial wisdom of Plato when he wrote in The Republic, "Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul."

Or Aristotle in The Politics:

Emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythm; therefore, by music a man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music has thus the power to form character, and various kinds of music based on the various modes, may be distinguished by their effects on character—one, for example, working in the direction of melancholy, another of effeminacy, one encouraging abandonment, another self-control, another enthusiasm, and so on through the series.

Almost 800 years later, Boethius echoed these great giants of natural wisdom when he wrote, "Music can both establish and destroy morality. For no path is more open to the soul for the formation thereof than through the ears."

Added to these, they observed the great success that Arius enjoyed in winning the masses by composing hymns.

Whole populations found themselves praising the Arian Christ, no longer God, but only like God.

Stevedores sang these Arian hymns as they loaded cargo on ships anchored in the harbours of Alexandria, Carthage, or Thessalonica.

In this way, Arius' poisonous heresy swept over fourth-century Catholicism like a mighty tidal wave. So swift was this heretical deluge that it prompted the now famous, albeit terrifying, lament of St. Jerome, "The world awoke and found itself Arian."

For all these reasons, we could justifiably add to the venerable theological axiom lex orandi, lex credendi a new one: lex cantandi, lex credendi.

Or, more idiomatically, "We begin to believe the way that we sing."

When Catholics in a typical parish are served lounge music instead of sacred music, their souls suffer a kind of dry rot.

They experience not the "fear and trembling" of Calvary but only the wispy breezes of the musical theatre.

This is no longer religion but vaudeville.

Worse still, when the music descends to mimicking the rock concert, the soul undergoes a proportionate excitation. And not to divine things.

If a Catholic denied traditional music is not allowed to be struck to the depths by the likes of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" or Franck's "Panis Angelicus," then he is left to be drowned beneath the indulgent waves of sentimentality.

The former hymns steel the soul for supernatural contest, the latter for mindless self-absorption.

Sacred Music is the indispensable instrument of the Holy Spirit in leading souls in their march toward Heaven: it is gravity and solemnity wrapped in the stunning beauty that only music can offer.

Looking at music in general, or sacred music more particularly, we see two principles at work.

One has to do with simply being human, the other with being a Catholic.

Both reasons go directly to the soul of man and his civilisation.

For those who think narrowly, music in Church is a kind of mood setter, cute but irrelevant.

An ampler mind recognizes that music acts like an earthquake upon the soul, unleashing powerful forces for good or ill.

On a purely natural level, music is the sheen that glistens over life's quotidian dreariness.

It is a part of beauty.

Without beauty, man's life becomes flat and self-absorbed.

Music lifts man's soul out of its prosaic circumstance and sends it soaring to heights it would not know without it. Or depths. Music's power is so potent that it can arouse passions able to perform heroic actions or debased ones.

Almost twenty years ago, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decided to play only soft classical music throughout its Manhattan Bus Depot because psychologists had proven it would lower crime.

On the other hand, nightclub owners know to play loud, percussive music, piquing the passions and producing the emotional abandon that sells liquor and facilitates sexual license.

No human heart is exempt from racing to the stanzas of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or any march of John Philip Sousa.

Music has its own grammar and vocabulary. Differences of language, age, and race cannot impede its impact.

Once again, such an impact was duly noted by Plato.

In The Republic, he teaches, "No change can be made in styles of music without affecting the most important conventions of society." It was exactly for this reason that he forbade music in his Republic.

As Michael Linton expresses, Plato spoke brilliantly to this subject when he taught that "music does not merely depict qualities and emotional states but embodies them."

A performer singing (or a hearer listening) "about the rage of Achilles, for instance, would not only be depicting the emotional states of anger and violence and the personal qualities of Homer's hero, but he would be experiencing those things himself."

In 1570, France's Charles IX created the Académie de Poésie et de Musique. In his lettres patents, the King declared,

It is of great importance for the morals of the citizens of a town that the music current in the country should be kept under certain laws, all the more so because men conform themselves to music and regulate their behaviour accordingly so that whenever music is disordered, morals are also depraved and whenever it is well ordered, men are well-tutored.

Music is not only integral to a full human life, but it possesses the power to shape human life; though Plato expresses it with philosophical brio, each one of us already knows this. One need only consult your own experience.

Thus, sacred music builds civilisation and ennobles character.

It does, however, even more.

When music is composed to honour the Blessed Trinity at Holy Mass, it is called Sacred.

Under that purpose, music consummates its highest end.

It not only brings man to the heights of beauty; it brings man to Beauty Itself, Almighty God.

Man is never so intoxicated than when he is surrounded by Sacred Music.

This music transforms him and pierces man's soul to the core of his being. Often, it produces contrition so profound that a man's life can take a wholly different course.

St Augustine attests to this in Book IX of The Confessions: "How I wept to hear your hymns and songs, deeply moved by the voices of Your sweetly singing Church! Their voices penetrated my ears, and with them, truth found its way into my heart; my frozen feeling for God began to thaw, tears flowed and I experienced joy and relief."

On these grounds, Mother Church has encouraged the most exquisite Sacred Music known to man.

Not only that, she has felt it her grave obligation to protect it.

The stakes could not be higher.

Man's soul hangs in the balance.

If the music is wrong, the teaching of the Church will be wrong, and men will go wrong.

So it is that in this century, the popes have devoted much energy to defining and carefully regulating the conduct of Sacred Music.

They also appreciated the corrupting forces in the last hundred years militating against dogmatic truth and trumpeting sentimentalized subjectivism.

It was this awareness that clearly inspired Pope St Pius X to promulgate his masterpiece on sacred music: Tra Le Sollecitudini, whose one-hundredth anniversary Pope John Paul II honoured with an appropriate tribute.

In that document, Pope St Pius X taught that the three properties of Sacred Music are universality, goodness of form, and holiness.

He declared that those properties are perfectly fulfilled in the Gregorian Chant of the Church.

They also become the paradigm of all Sacred Music.

They raise it above the idiosyncratic in cultural forms (universality), possess the high marks of the grand music of the ages(goodness of form), and excite in souls a hunger for God (holiness).

Pope St Pius X teaches, "The Church has constantly condemned everything frivolous, vulgar, trivial and ridiculous in sacred music—everything profane and theatrical both in the form of the compositions and in the manner in which they are executed by the musicians. Sancta sancte, holy things in a holy manner" (Tra Le Sollecitudini, # 13).

The Church's Sacred Music are the wings that carry Christ into man's soul.

Remember that when you hear choirs singing the jewels of the Church's treasury of Sacred Music. You are witness to a great moment. Culture is being changed, and starved souls are being filled with God.

Victor Hugo once remarked that a man has the power to make of his soul a sewer or a sanctuary. Music does too.

• Fr John A. Perricone, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. His articles have appeared in St. John's Law Review, The Latin Mass, New Oxford Review and The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies.
• First published in Crisis Magazine. Republished with permission.

"I feel like it's just straight from God," she said. "It's like he blesses that coffee in particular."

More than anything, Wilson says, she loves Jesus — as the teenager from central Kentucky explains in "My Jesus," her debut recording that recently hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart for Christian music.

The bluesy gospel ballad's success doesn't end there: The official video has been viewed 6 million times on YouTube. A live version of the song, with co-writer and Christian artist, Matthew West, has been viewed more than 2.5 million times on Facebook.

A live EP from Wilson, which includes "My Jesus," has been streamed more than 37 million times, according to a press release from her record company.

But though full of full-throated praise, "My Jesus" is not a triumphal call to follow the Lord. Written after Wilson's brother was killed in an accident four years ago, the song reaches out to those who are going through difficult times. In that, it may be a hit for the COVID-19 era.

"Are you past the point of weary?" the opening lines of the song ask. "Is your burden weighing heavy? Is it all too much to carry? Let me tell you 'bout my Jesus."

Wilson, who co-wrote the song with West and Nashville songwriter Jeff Pardo, said her rapid rise to stardom began on a dark day.

After hearing the news of her brother Jacob, who was 23, Wilson said she went to a piano and began to play "What a Beautiful Name," a popular Hillsong Worship anthem. Her parents eventually asked her to play the song at Jacob's funeral.

The then-15-year-old, still in braces, later recorded a video of the song with some friends and posted it on YouTube.

"This song is dedicated to the loving memory of my beloved big brother, Jacob," Wilson wrote in the video's caption. "Thank you Jacob for always encouraging us to praise God, work hard, and always be kind. We love and miss you more each and every day."

That YouTube video, which itself has been viewed a quarter million times, caught the attention of a producer in Nashville and eventually led to Wilson signing with Capitol Christian Music.

"The unprecedented success of ‘My Jesus' is just the beginning, and we cannot wait to see what is to come for Anne," Capital Christian Music co-presidents Brad O'Donnell and Hudson Plachy said in a statement.

Wilson grew up in a Christian home, attending a Presbyterian church for most of her childhood. Her parents taught her about faith in God, and she says that she made that faith her own as a teenager.

Her parents also introduced her to country music, especially the songs of Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. She remains a huge Dolly fan, citing Parton's 1980 hit "9 to 5" as her current favourite.

Though Wilson started playing the piano at a young age, she said that she had never sung in public before her brother's funeral. An astronomy and science buff, she said her childhood dream was to work for NASA.

Being a professional musician had never crossed her mind, she said.

In a phone interview, Wilson said she hopes Jacob is proud of her. The two were close growing up and she recalled his sense of humour and kindness. She recalled one day when, knowing that Wilson had stayed home from school because she was feeling sick, her brother decided to go out and hunt some squirrels for her.

Jacob took his hunting dog, Sally, out to the backyard, shot a squirrel and cooked it up for lunch. The meal made her laugh and was surprisingly tasty.

"We put powdered sugar on it and we dipped it in barbecue sauce, and whatever that combo is, it was so good," she said.

Wilson has spent the last two years honing her skills as a musician and writer and learning the craft of singing for a living. She's also moved away from her family's home, settling in Franklin, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb that's home to Christian music stars such as Amy Grant.

When not on the road, Wilson is working on songs for her album, due out next year.

The success of "My Jesus" caught her by surprise. She knew the song was good but was taken aback by how well it connected with listeners. Most of all, she said, she feels grateful.

"It's been a whirlwind of emotions," said Wilson. "Just thankfulness and gratefulness, watching God take my story, which was something so broken, and turning it into something so beautiful."

• Bob Smietana is a veteran religion writer and national reporter for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The more the Church has sought to make its services more "inclusive" and "relevant", the more Christians have converted to other denominations where they think things are done properly (notably Roman Catholicism), and the more those curious about Christianity have avoided the C of E.

Confirmation of this absurd situation arrived yesterday in new guidance for faith schools from the Church, preposterously named a statement of "entitlement and expectation".

No, this does not refer to David Cameron's catastrophic attempts to build a post-Downing Street business career, but what hymns should be chosen for singing in assemblies.

The diktat has it that strongly "confessional" hymns are to be avoided because they may make children and teachers alike feel uncomfortable.

They are said not to be sufficiently "invitational", which seems to equate Anglican worship with a cheese and wine party.

Those of us (and I speak as an atheist) who thought one of the purposes of religion was to make people feel guilty about having done things frowned upon by the Bible, and to expect God to be both unhappy about our behaviour but to forgive us our trespasses, will wonder what is wrong with a little discomfort.

Apparently, the halfwits who run the Church of England (and are running it into the ground) feel it is dangerous because "there should be no assumption of Christian faith in those present."

It is all, of course, about diversity: and the increasingly toxic idea that causing someone the mildest offence (such as assuming that someone in a Christian school might actually subscribe to Christianity) is equivalent in gravity to gratuitously amputating one of their limbs without permission or anaesthetic.

In a Church of England school, it is surely a reasonable assumption that the children are there because their parents subscribe to the basic tenets of the Church of England and the Christian faith; and that the teachers are grown up enough to know what to expect when they sign up for such a job.

The children, like generations before them, can like it or lump it until they reach the age where the law says they are masters of their own destiny.

The teachers, having reached that age, if they feel the institution insufficiently diverse, should go and work somewhere else.

Millions of us who found the Christian story somewhat far-fetched nonetheless went through our educational careers being culturally enhanced by the magnificent tunes that many of our hymns featured.

The doctrine, except for the precociously devout, were neither here nor there.

One obvious casualty of this bonkers pronouncement will be one of the most ravishing hymn tunes ever written, Repton - recognisable immediately from its opening lines:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Forgive our foolish ways!

One can almost hear the squeals of anguish from the Church's imbeciles-in-chief.

Can we really be expected to tolerate being told that some of our ways might be foolish?

And even if they were, why would it be God's place to forgive them?

That magnificent tune comes from Sir Hubert Parry's oratorio Judith.

In these culturally benighted times, when the nearest most children come to being inculcated with an idea of beauty is being force-fed pop music and the inanities of CBeebies, when otherwise would they have a chance not just to hear, but to participate in, the music of a composer so great as Parry?

One must also doubt that they are encouraged to sing another of his majestic tunes, Jerusalem - which although not a hymn appears in most hymn books - given the entirely erroneous associations made for it with English nationalism and, therefore, colonialism, fascism, imperialism, white supremacy and all the rest of the largely imaginary components of our growing litany of cultural self-hatred.

It is suggested, instead, that other favourites such as Kumbaya and Lord of the Dance - neither of which one could pretend has the slightest association with a high aesthetic or cultural enrichment - are perfectly safe, because they do not entail undue grovelling to the Almighty for real or imagined wickedness.

It does not seem to occur to the those advocating this censorship that few take any notice of the words anyway, and that in life we all have to put up with things - including aspects of the Church of England - that we find tedious or that we disagree with; but that in putting up with them we are provoked to think, mature, and eventually form our own conclusions.

The Church of England has done its best to desecrate - and I choose that verb carefully - its cultural heritage.

Worshippers have been driven away by having to endure the Princess Margaret Bible and the Rocky Horror Prayer Book. Organs have been replaced by guitars and tambourines. Continue reading

• Simon Heffer writes a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph

No matter the content, the form by itself trivializes what takes place in the liturgy.

We keep trying to put asunder what God has joined together—medium and message, form and content—but invariably the divorce does not end well.

I'll never forget when our kids came home with a new song they had learned at school:

I say Pharaoh, Pharaoh
Oh baby let my people go!
Huh! Yeah, yeah, yeah

Don't be too hard on the song.

It at least keeps together what belongs together—form and content.

The simplicity of the tune and the part-sensual, part-infantile body motions suit the song's utter vacuity.

It would be unfair to tar all of contemporary worship with the pharaoh-pharaoh brush.

Still, the form-and-content relationship requires careful theological and metaphysical reflection.

When traditional Calvinist churches switch from the Genevan Psalter to worship songs, it's not just the form that changes.

Calvinism itself is doomed at that point.

When Anglicans trade their organ-led anthems and chants for band-led praise and worship songs, what is lost is a catholic spirituality that foregrounds reverence and humility in adoration of God.

When Catholic liturgies replace Gregorian chant with evangelical songs, a mystical and contemplative tradition comes to an ignominious end.

The arguments are invariably the same: To be missional means to adapt in form, while remaining theologically the same.

The argument assumes it's possible to put asunder what God has joined together.

But medium and message cannot be put asunder.

The Genevan Psalter has the five points of Calvinism baked into its tunes; even the organ is indispensable in conveying that God is sovereign and puny creatures are not.

The musical form of Gregorian chant suggests that its words are meant for meditation and contemplation.

Just as monks read Scripture in lectio divina for the sake of mystical union, so they sing Scripture in musica divina as a form of contemplative prayer. "Pharaoh, Pharaoh" just doesn't do quite the same thing.

The suitability of music for worship does not depend on lyrics alone.

Back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan wrote Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.

In this book, he coined the expression "the medium is the message." McLuhan was convinced that we have to think more about the medium and less about the message.

Why?

It's the medium that produces the message.

When you control the medium, you control the message.

We all know that Twitter is not suited to a discussion on the difference between inherent and infused righteousness.

When we put asunder medium and message, we let go of the particularity of liturgical traditions, telling ourselves that what counts is simply keeping the message intact.

The new medium that results is predictable: Liturgical renewals in Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic churches end up looking nearly identical. Continue reading

• Hans Boersma is the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Professor in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary.

The May 4 survey reflected the views of those aged 21-39 and one of the questions the Truth Data Survey asked was: "What would you like to change at Mass?"

UCANews.com reports the survey was conducted by Radio Veritas and against a background of declining churchgoers among the young professional demographic.

Most respondents said having a good song selection is lacking in many parishes.

"We conducted the survey to know the real needs and potential areas of improvement in celebrating Mass. Many do not go to Mass or abandon religion because they see the Catholic faith as boring," Radio Veritas president Father Anton Pascual said in an interview aired on the station.

"A good choir and song selection are important to many churchgoers, with 24 percent of those surveyed saying that good music is indispensable to worship," Father Pascual said.

They believe that carefully chosen songs would help them connect better, he added.

"Before the pandemic, I went to church every Sunday. I never missed a Sunday even though I really did not enjoy Mass. Music is one way to improve the whole experience and a good sound system will help that," Manila resident Gerald Giuia told UCA News.

"A good choir and song selection are important to many churchgoers, with 24 percent of those surveyed saying that good music is indispensable to worship," Father Pascual said.

"Before the pandemic, I went to church every Sunday. I never missed a Sunday even though I really did not enjoy Mass.

"Music is one way to improve the whole experience," Manila resident Gerald Giuia told UCA News.

Young professional respondents also wanted a good sound system so they could hear and participate better.

The survey was conducted in the Philippines.

Source

• UCANews.com

The financial situation has been made worse because of the cathedral's temporary closure and Covid-19.

The church says it has no option but to restructure, and if the current plan is put into action, it will see the Cathedral lose its director of music, Michael Fletcher.

The restructure has shocked the choir, some parishioners and others in the local community.

Music and the choir were both highlighted in the Cathedral's promotional re-opening campaign video.

Debbie Matheson, the church's parish leader, says the proposal was put to various parish communities for consultation.

As a result of those conversations, the church made changes to the proposal, she says.

"We are holding further consultations before making our final decisions."

She will not, however, elaborate on "private employment matters."

The enforced closure of the cathedral has scattered the cathedral's communities far and wide from their spiritual home, Matheson notes.

"Our aims and prayers are to be able to carry on and meet the needs of our parish in a pastorally sensitive and financially viable way."

However, a strongly worded email sent to the parish on behalf of the church choir calls the move "ignorant, demoralising, condescending and cruel."

Speaking for the 'choir collective', an Upper Hutt parishioner at the Cathedral, Clare O'Flaherty Thomas says she is "appalled" at the proposal.

She says it is disrespectful, is causing "unbelievable feelings of grief and pain".

She expects "more from a Catholic organisation."

O'Flaherty Thomas asks how those whose positions maybe dis-established will be able to financially survive.

Are "food parcels in the offering?" she asks.

O'Flaherty Thomas says the intention to downsize the department shows senior church staff have no idea of what constitutes a professional level of "sacred" music, "let alone understand[ing] a director of music's training and qualification requirements."

To request prayers for the music department while effectively "demoralising them, causing stress and trauma" is "very condescending", says O'Flaherty Thomas.

She says that if these proposals go ahead the life of the cathedral will irrevocably change.

"The silence when the cathedral reopens will be deafening. No music, no community."

O'Flaherty Thomas did not suggest how the ongoing unsustainable losses might be overcome.

The cathedral has been closed since July 2018 due to earthquake risk.

Work began last August to strengthen the building, but it's uncertain when it will reopen.

The Cathedral, a Category 1 heritage-listed building received $8.5m from the Government's "Shovel Ready" Infrastructure Fund.

The total cost of strengthening is $16.5m.

Including the Government money, the Cathedral fundraising campaign has raised $11m.

$5.5 million is still required to complete the interior and exterior restoration and refurbish the historic Hobday Organ.

Source

• Stuff
• Cathedral reopening campaign
• Image: Archdiocese of Wellington fund-raising promotional video

Construction of the new church complex began January 2019, and Cardinal John Dew blessed the church and parish centre on Saturday, May 30.

Organist Dr Kemp English and his partner, renowned violinist Yuka Eguchi​, celebrated the opening with a concert in the church last Sunday.

It was also an opportunity to raise some money from ticket sales.

The couple relocated to the Kapiti coast earlier this year, moving into their rental the day before Level 4 lockdown.

During their walks around the neighbourhood during the lockdown, they would wander from Raumati Beach to Milne Dr, past the new church, by then in its final stages of the build.

English was taken with the place, walking around the exterior and gazing through the windows.

"I said to Yuka every day, 'This is a fantastic place for a concert.' I think she got sick of me saying that."

When lockdown lifted, they volunteered their services, and the church was pleased to sign them on for an opening concert.

English has performed around the world, from Hong Kong to Glasgow, and given masterclasses in the UK, China, and Australia.

He brought his own organ on its bespoke trailer, which he uses to play concerts all over the country.

Eguchi has been concertmaster of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Mozart Players.

She is now assistant concertmaster and first violin of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Both are fresh off the back of a travelling organ tour of rest homes around the country, in conjunction with charity From Us With Aroha.

The current parish was formed by the combining of Our Lady of Fatima in Waikanae with St Patrick's parish Paraparaumu

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

"I was really conscious of all the supermarket workers and want to acknowledge them and give thanks to them," Fr Chris says in this video before launching into his catchy new song.

Listen to the supermarket song

Tracy Coats saw the piano in the rubble and told Josh that she felt it just needed to be played. Read more

Lyons sent a link to the songs to the prime minister with a note saying: "We think these songs could play a part in this current time of remembering. Here is the link that will enable you to hear them: chrisskinner.org.nz/we-are-you."

He received a reply from the prime minister's office thanking them on behalf of the prime minister and telling them a copy of the email had been sent to the Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Megan Woods, for her information.

One song is inspired by the words used by Adern at the time of the tragedy that "You are us"; it has the title, We are you

Lyons said You are us was a phrase that sprang up almost immediately after the tragedy, directed at the Muslim community, reassuring them that the rest of Aotearoa-New Zealand stood with them.

"I wanted to place the phrase in the mind of the killer and others who think the same way: 'You are us - and we are you.'"

​Lyons said Chris Skinner's music reflected the theme very well, giving energy to his words, and also emphasising their urgency.

Skinner has written a second song inspired by the outpouring of public support with flowers, resulting in the "Garden in the street".

"For me, the floral tributes provided a beautiful display to show the Muslim community that they were not alone in their grief and trauma. We were standing with them," he said.

"My hope is that the song will support and comfort the Muslim Community and that it touches into the hearts of all New Zealanders who stand for peace and believe and uphold the gift of our common humanity."

Source

• Suppled: Fr Chris Skinner
• chrisskinner.org.nz
• Image: screenshot chrisskinner.org

Promoters said the tickets have all sold bar a "small allocation" of extra tickets that will go on sale next week. continue reading

As a young man, he was accepted into Weber State University in Utah on a full football scholarship.

From there he was drafted to the Cleveland Browns. He later went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens.

After his football career was cut short by injury he turned to opera.

Now it was his new passion so he moved to new York. He got work as a host in a restaurant across the street from the Metropolitan Opera.

His plan was simple: meet opera stars and study them like a "playbook."

One day Kiri Te Kanawa was signing autographs in the Metropolitan Opera bookstore.

"I approached her with CDs and DVDs that I had of hers and wanted her to sign it, and she looked up and saw me.

In New York, when you see a Polynesian person...you click, you come together and become a family because we are so far away from our homeland," Ta'u said.

"So when she looked up and saw me, she automatically knew that I was Polynesian and asked me what I was doing in New York.

"I told her that I live here and I am trying to pursue a singing career.

"Right off the bat, she knew that this was a hard life and she asked me if I had any help. I said no. And she said, 'Well, can I help you?' I said, 'Yes, please do.'"

Months after they met, Te Kanawa took him to sing in front of the head of the vocal department at Juilliard.

She described his voice as a diamond in need of polishing, and she was committed to helping him shine.

Pupu'a spent the next month preparing to try out for Julliard's artist diploma programme.

Out of about 100 singers auditioning, Pupu'a was one of three selected.

Today, Pupu'a is an acclaimed opera singer who takes great joy in sharing his gift with the world.

Source

• edition.cnn.com
• abc.net.au
• Image: instagram.com

In 11th-century Guido of Arezzo created an early version of the solfège system based on the lyrics of Paul the Deacon's hymn. Read more

Now I admit, the blessing of the palms and the reading of the Passion we're moving, and the homily was first rate!

But, as good as it was, two hours later I'd have to really think to remember the homily! But that hymn.

Four hours later I was still humming it!

I couldn't get it out of my head! Not just the tune, the words, echoing in my brain.

Even now as evening hastens on the chorus impresses itself upon me!

A Methodist Hymn, doctrinally sound, but a Methodist hymn all the same.

With the exception of a hand full of Latin hymns and a few Marian songs, you'll only hear them if you go to Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, modern Catholic Church music is, at best, forgettable, at worst heretical, and universally unsingable.

I couldn't fail to notice that even on that powerful old anthem, the cantor and I were singing a duet.

Most Catholic Church music is simply a recycling of insipid folk rock, left over from the 1960's.

We're talking stuff Peter Paul and Mary wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole!

Remember, Peter Yarrow wrote that beautiful hymn, "Morning Has Broken," I used to hear that occasionally at Mass! And the late Dave Brubeck wrote an amazing "Pie Jesu" for Pope Saint John Paul II, so "church" music doesn't have to be banal!

I've agonized watching caters struggle with tortured harmonies and award lyrics.

If a professional can't sing this stuff, how can we expect the congregation to??? Is it any wonder Catholics don't sing?

I grew up protestant, mostly Methodist and Presbyterian, we had great music.

One of my favorite hymns growing up was "Faith of Our Fathers"

Little did I know it was a Catholic hymn!

I thought it was about protestants facing persecution from Catholics. Turns out it was quite the opposite, English Catholics persecuted for the Faith! Wow!

This great hymn had been co opted!

To my point, I was ruminating all day about that great old hymn.

When I was a child in my Presbyterian Sunday School, we learned to sing the Gospel before we could even read, "Jesus Loves Me," "Jesus Loves the Little Children."

It's not just in church, we've always learned through song, many of us first learned our ABC's through a song.

This teaching method is ad old as the scriptures themselves, the Acrostic psalms are organized alphabetically, with a section for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

All the verses in each section began with the same letter.

Remember the Psalms were sung; Jewish children learned their faith and their alphabet at the same time!

John Westley, an Anglican minister started the Methodist Church.

He was, by all accounts, a fiery preacher, but his brother, Charles was a hymn writer without equal!

His hymns taught the faith to millions, Methodist took off among the illiterate poor of England!

John couldn't be everywhere, but the hymns of Charles Westley, sang Methodist across the world!

Song are a powerful tool for evangelization.

Martin Luther turned a German beer dining song into an anthem that turned the world upside down, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God".

Wesleyan songs along with not a few powerful Catholic hymns sang to my soul as a young boy!

I remember singing them at the top of my lungs while swinging on my back yard swing set!

I internalized the content of these great old hymns!

As I indicated earlier I'm a convert to The Catholic Faith, and over the years since, I've watched the Church borrow from Protestantism, mostly the wrong things, discipleship programs, fund raising, etc. But we cling to our insipid, banal , just plain bad folk music!

I have always loved the music of Bach, he wrote church music that reinforced the sermon!

There's powerful, single music out there that is doctrinally correct and orthodox!

Music that teaches the faith! Music that can reinforce a good homily, or overcome a bad one! Music that can teach the faith and set the faithful on fire for the Gospel!

I have a modest proposal!

Recover our Catholic musical patrimony! Recapture those great anthems of the faith stolen from us by protestants or relegated to the musical dust bin, in favor of bad folk music!

• By Robert Atkinson, M.I. First published Catholic365
• Image: Maxwell Fernie Trust

In a unique concert collaboration, Sharon O'Neill, Shona Laing, Debbie Harwood and Hammond Gamble will visit environs of some of the country's most beautiful churches and cathedrals.

While all four artists have worked with each other previously in various capacities the Church Tour will be the first time that the four have shared the stage together. Continue reading

He will be accompanied by Brothers Matthew and Ghishlan.

While they are in New Zealand they will be taking part in events in Otaki, Wellington and Christchurch.

The Taizé community was founded by Brother Roger in 1940 in a village in France of the same name.

Taizé has become a significant gathering place for young men and women from all over the world.

During the European summer it is not unusual for up to 5000 young people to be welcomed there each week.

Their distinctive form of music is profound and yet simple and accessible and seems to strike a chord with young people.

In 2015, the Taizé community will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of its foundation and it is inviting everyone to remember its founder, 100 years after his birth and ten years after his death.

To prepare for this Brother Alois inaugurated a new stage in the pilgrimage of trust, which Taizé has led for many years.

Gatherings with young adults were planned for each continent - in 2012 in Africa, 2013 in Asia, 2014 in the Americas and in February 2015, Brother Alois will make his pilgrimage to Australia and New Zealand.

Events

Monday 9 February at Otaki and Ngatiawa

• At 7.00 a welcome (powhiri) and service in Rangiatea church at Otaki with the local communities.
• After at Ngatiawa River Monastery for those who wish.

Tuesday 10 February in Wellington

• 7.00pm: Workshop at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Wellington
• 8.00pm: Pilgrimage to St Paul's Cathedral, Wellington
• 8.30pm: Evening prayer with a short reflection by Brother Alois, prayer around the cross and celebration of the Resurrection in St Paul's Cathedral.

Wednesday 11th February in Christchurch

• 7.00pm Workshop for young adults: "Becoming the salt of the earth - Taizé; the life and prayer of a community."
• 8.30 pm Evening prayer

These events will take place in the transition cathedral.

North Island enquiries mpoynton@xtra.co.nz ; South Island enquiries taizechristchurch@gmail.com

Source

• Supplied
• Image: gymnasium-marienstatt.de

It was an 18th birthday present, and he wanted to wear it straight away. But, as a teenager "mucking around … wasting potential" in west Auckland, he was dressed up with nowhere to go - but church.

"I just turned up. And I pretty much haven't missed a Sunday since."

It's a "funny story", he knows. "But when I got there, it was just real. I was connecting with God, I felt His presence, and I felt that was what was missing. Out of that, faith became personal for me."

But that service was "nothing like this", Cameron agrees, nodding his head towards the source of thumping bass on the other side of the wall.

We're sitting in a changing room at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua, which is serving as a makeshift green room - complete with a rider of Phoenix juices and scented candles - before Cameron takes to the stage to give his sermon as lead pastor of Arise Church.

"Sermon" may not even be the right word for it. An Arise service is part rock concert, part variety show, part stand-up gig ("To quote from Bruce Almighty…").

It's hard at times - like a five-minute tangent when Cameron pulls a pastor on stage for an impromptu rendition of the Frozen theme - to pinpoint just how and where the Bible fits into this slick, enormous production.

There are volunteers to guide you to a car park and a seat in the stadium; a 14-piece band, featuring seven enviably confident and well-dressed young singers; a camera crew, a smoke machine, a big screen.

God works in mysterious ways, and many of them demand a multi-plug. Continue reading.

Source: The Wireless

Image: Arise Church

Sacred Music Radio which plays 24 hours a day, features religious and sacred pieces of music from the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Islamic faiths, as well as music not directly connected with any specific religion.

Michael Vakil Kenton, one of the founders of the station, says: "Music has the ability to cut through cultural dividers, going beyond borders and boundaries, creating an atmosphere that can be subtle and indefinable, or joyous and transcending.

"Our vision is that, as a result, by appreciating the music of diverse faiths, people may find themselves realising their common ground." Continue reading

Their Album, 'Reason to Believe' is to be released on 1 November.

Brian Martin, from the Hawke's Bay, brought the two singers together.

In April 2011 he was in New York. He woke in the early hours and remembered that the Breakers had played the final of the Trans-Tasman NBL basketball championship. Interested in knowing the outcome, through the internet he tuned into NZ radio for the final score.

While waiting he heard Jim Sutton reviewing the first album of artist Janice Bateman. Brian thought that her voice came through with such quality and clarity that he was inspired to send her an email. That was the beginning of' 'Reason to Believe'.

When Brian got home he brought Fr Chris and Janice together to look at the possibility their working together.

"I wasn't sure about being involved in the project given my vocation, style and previous recordings. I am more at ease with the behind the scenes approach." says Fr. Chris.

"This particular project is a bit more out there but Brian assured me he would keep all that in mind."

Janice and Chris recorded the album in January of this year in Orewa with Mike McCarthy at his studio. She had recorded her first album with him and Chris had recorded the single 'You raise me up' with Mike in 2005.

Reason to Believe is an album of duets and solos, including timeless classics such as Flying Without Wings, Bridge over Troubled Water, Smile, In the Arms of an Angel, Amazing Grace and Sailing

Janice Bateman

Christchurch singer Janice Bateman's debut Album "Here I am" rose quickly to number 5 on the NZ charts and won immediate acclaim. She was voted the Female Artist of the Year at the Variety Artists of New Zealand awards.

Fr Chris Skinner

Chris is a Marist priest. He began writing his own songs from the age of 16 and recorded his first album in 1990. On average he has produced an album every two years since then and sees his music as an integral part of his priesthood.

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