Rejoice! We’re getting so close to the greatest celebrations of our Church: Holy Week and Easter! For me, and many others that work in the Church, this is definitely the busiest time of the year. From practicing with music groups to putting scripts together, right down to making sure the cleaning people will be straightening [...]
The 2012 Life Teen Training Conference just wrapped up in Indialantic, Florida at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church. What an amazing group of Priests, Youth Ministers, CORE Members and Musicians who came from all over the United States and Canada to go deeper into their understanding of Youth Ministry and our Lord. The view [...]
In just over a week we enter into the sacred season of Lent. Forty days of fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and a call in this “Year of Faith” proclaimed by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to strengthen our faith and to help strengthen the faith of others. So what will change? In our own lives, [...]
One of the keys to inviting people to sing is simply that – to invite. Don’t scold the congregation and don’t show your frustration and start saying how you come here week after week to lead them in song and no one sings! This is the wrong approach! Simply invite and affirm them. Remind them that our role at the Liturgy is to practice full, active, conscious, participation as Vatican II tells us. Tell them that it sounds so beautiful to hear their voices singing God’s praise together.
2012 is here! If we look back on 2011 I think we can all say it was a busy year. Most of us spent this last year preparing for the implementation of the New Roman Missal that we received on November 27th of 2011. Now that the Missal has been implemented and our Christmas preparation has come to an end, we can focus on the things that we may need to change in our personal lives or our ministries.
Well there is a countdown going on today and it has nothing to do with 80’s rock bands, but everything to do with the third edition of the Roman Missal. We are only 19 days away from this new translation of the current Sacramentary we use at Mass. So here’s the question … are you ready?! I hope the answer is: “Yes!” If you are worried that you may have forgotten something, let’s start with the obvious.
Although I’ve only been alive a short period of time compared to how long the Church has existed, it is clear to me through studying history that the debate over what music is suitable for Liturgy has been going on for a long, long time. In recent years this musical debate has taken to a new highway, the Internet.
I recently met to plan music for a funeral with a family who has been away from the Church for a long time. Unfortunately, they view the Church as a dictatorship full of rules and regulations they do not understand. Their Mother passed away and she was the only member of the family who remained [...]
The 2011 Life Teen Training Convention was four amazing days of prayer, praise, fellowship and community. Nearly 500 attendees, including Priests, Youth Ministers, Music Ministers and Core Team Members filled the convention hall at the Doubletree Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona last week. This year’s theme, Veni Sancte Spiritus, was truly prayed as we celebrated the [...]