CatholicYouthMinistry.com » Craig Colson

Preparing for Holy Week

Craig Colson — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:30:58 +0000

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 and cleaning the Church in between the Holy Day Masses. There is so much to do. Some of you reading this might just be responsible for the Sunrise Teen Mass at your parish or whenever you celebrate your Easter Mass with your teens so you may not be experiencing as much of the craziness associated with Holy Week that those of us who are Musicians and Liturgists for the entire parish deal with.

Whether that’s the case or not, we all need to look at how we are preparing for this Holy season and how we will celebrate it. Often times we can get caught up in the fact that this is our “job” and we just get into the “punching a time clock” mentality. I have seen it happen all too often and I have to admit that at times, it’s happened to me. Will we actually participate in the parish penance service by going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or just sing a song or two at the service? Will we attend the Liturgies and other Holy Week events at our parish even if we aren’t singing or playing music at them? What if the music will be more traditional than we prefer at these Liturgies? Will we still celebrate with the community or will we stay home and catch a show on TV? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves. Are we truly connected to the vine or are we just kind of hanging on the branch?

It’s said that Christmas is the “Most Wonderful Time of The Year,” and although Christmas is an amazing time and celebration, Holy Week and Easter trump Christmas. This is the most wonderful time of the year! The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Maybe you’ve never gone to an Easter Vigil before . . . What are you waiting for? This is the preeminent celebration of the year when we welcome in those candidates and catechumen seeking full initiation into our Church. What a great Liturgy to take part in. What a great Liturgy to invite our teens to. Have we involved our teens by inviting them to be a part of these holy days? It may not be too late to ask your parish Liturgist or Liturgy team if a teen can have his/her feet washed on Holy Thursday evening at Mass. What a witness to the community that would be. The challenge is to be rooted in Christ and be connected to our parish wholeheartedly.

Take the time to pray this Holy Week and make it more meaningful than any other we may have celebrated in the past. Remember that you get out of it what you put in. Christ is waiting with open arms, even for us who lead in the Church, to come to him humbly, without reservation, and give our lives to him again this holy season.

Music From the 2012 Winter Training Conference

Craig Colson — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:31:04 +0000

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 from the parish and the hotel was truly inspiring, seeing God’s wonderful beauty each morning as the sun rose over the crashing waves. I really like my job!

I had the privilege of presenting several workshops as well as co-leading the music for Sessions, XLT and the Mass with fellow worship leader Sarah Kroger and her band. It was amazing to see the Spirit moving through the conference participants as well as all the youth and families that came out for Monday evenings XLT worship event. Several people asked for the names of the songs that were sung throughout the event at the sessions, as well as the Masses so I wanted to take the time to share them with you whether you were at the conference or not.

We did a quick “live” recording on my ipad of an arrangement of the Traditional Latin “Sanctus” (Holy) as well as Tuesday’s Psalm of the day, which I wrote a setting of for the Mass. You will notice a mix of contemporary as well as traditional music that was done in a more contemporary style, while still respecting the piece. It has been our experience that young people can be drawn in deeply to the Liturgy through both types of music.

As we journey through this Lenten season, may we draw closer to God through the Sacraments and may our worship be “true worship” that truly pleases our Lord.

Liturgy – Monday, February 20
Presider: Fr. Jeff McCormick

Gathering:  Holy is the Lord – Tomlin
Kyrie:  Mass of St. Ann – Bolduc
Psalm Response:  Lord, You Have The Words-Bolduc (with Adapted Refrain)
Gospel Acclamation:  Alleluia – Angrisano
Preparation of the Gifts:   Mighty to Save – Morgan
Holy:  Sanctus – Chant, Contemporary Arrangement – Muglia
(Click here to download PDF)
Memorial Acclamation:  Mass of St. Ann – Bolduc
Great Amen:  Mass of St. Ann – Bolduc
Our Father:  Chant
Lamb of God:  Mass of St. Timothy – Maher
Communion:  We Belong to You – Thomson 
Communion 2/Song of Praise:  Revelation Song – Riddle
Sending:  Everlasting God – Brown, Riley

Liturgy-Tuesday, February 21
Presider: Fr. Jeff McCormick

Gathering:  All Creatures of Our God and King – Crowder
Kyrie:  Mass of St. Jerome – Colson
Psalm Response:  Throw Your Cares on The Lord – Colson (Click here to download PDF)
Gospel Acclamation:  Easter Alleluia – Haugen
Preparation of the Gifts:  Give Us Clean Hands – Hall
Holy:  Sanctus – Chant, Contemporary Arrangement – Muglia
(Click here to download PDF)
Memorial Acclamation:  Mass of St. Ann – Bolduc
Great Amen:  Mass of St. Ann – Bolduc
Our Father:  Spoken
Lamb of God: Agnus Dei-Chant
Communion 1:  We Come to You – Blakesley
Communion 2/Song of Praise: Amazing Grace-Newton 
Sending:  At the Sound – Ndolo

Songs from Praise and Worship and XLT

Here For You: Jesse Reeves, Tim Wanstall, Matt Maher, Matt Redman

Mighty to Save: Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding

How Great is Our God: Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash

Your Grace is Enough: Matt Maher

You’ll Come: Hillsong United, Brooke Fraser

Desert Song: Hillsong, Brooke Fraser

Lay it Down: Brenton Brown, Matt Maher

From The Inside Out: Joel Houston

Run to The Cross: Josh Blakesley, Sarah Hart, Mia Fieldes, Sarah Kroger

Fire Fall Down: Hillsong, Matt Crocker

Better Is One Day: Matt Redman

Jesus My Lord, My God, My All: Father Frederick William Faber

Divine Praises: Matt Maher. Mac Powell

Our God: Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin

At The Sound: Ike Ndolo, Robbie Seay

Restless: Audrey Assad, Matt Maher

These 40 Days of Lenten Music

Craig Colson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:00:48 +0000

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, will we just give up the same thing we gave up last year again or will we really take the time to reflect upon those things that lead us away from Christ? Will we truly seek to put those things aside and be more closely united with Christ in his Passion and death? As music ministers and servants of the Church and its Liturgy, the Church calls us to be examples and role models of its practices.

During Lent, how will our Liturgies change? From the environment, to the music, will people notice a shift in season when they enter into our churches this Ash Wednesday or will they just notice that we don’t sing Alleluia or the Glory to God? If these are the only changes they encounter then we’ve missed the mark. There should be an environment created that we are truly entering the desert with Christ for forty days. We also need to ask ourselves how our music ministry will become more of a desert experience? Prayer with our ministers is number one. If it’s not a common practice every Sunday, we need to make it a priority.

Less Instruments

Maybe we decide to scale back the instruments a bit during lent and let the voices shine through a little more to better support the singing of the congregation. Although this is always a good idea and should be practiced commonly, Lent is a great time to practice musician restraint. The Church also asks that in this season, the instruments only be used to support the singing of the congregation (GIRM 313).

In regards to a Youth Liturgy, how can we live this out? It might be a good idea to not have any instrumental music during Lent such as instrumental verses or instrumental postludes after the Recessional Song. You may want to make it a practice at your parish to have only light percussion instead of a full drum set on all or most of the songs during lent. I hate to make the reference, but sort of an “Unplugged” version of the music ministry would be appropriate during this Lenten season to bring a greater expectation to the season of Easter we will soon celebrate.

Maybe you’re considering not using instruments at all on one Sunday during the season or just one instrument that introduces the song and supports the singing. Maybe you put away the electric guitar for the season and have your guitarist play an acoustic adding a different texture and sound. Two acoustic guitars can be well done if one plays a capo version of the chords in a different key or if one plays some lead parts and the other rhythm.

Of course, we need to remember that on Laetare Sunday, which is the fourth Sunday in Lent, we are called to a greater joy and expectation of the coming Easter season celebrating that we are almost to the celebration of the Triduum and Easter (GIRM 313). This Sunday can be celebrated with more joy and anticipation of Easter. Departing in Silence during Lent or on Passion Sunday is a valid option as well calling our youth to practice a silence that will lead them to a fuller desert experience.

Hold the Alleluia

A common mistake that musicians sometimes make is not going through ALL the lyrics of a song while planning the music. Many songs use the word “Alleluia” in them. “God of Wonders” or “I Can Only Imagine,” both have the word “Alleluia” in them, but it’s easily forgotten until you go to sing it and realize that it’s there. Take the time to analyze all the lyrics of songs before setting them in stone on a worship aide or telling your group that it’s one of the songs you’re singing that week and having to make a last minute change.

Theme Song

Having a set theme song for the season that is sung every week might also be a good idea. Ask your Presiders to try and tie in the focus of the song into the Mass. It can really help to bring the season alive.

Some examples are:

Christ In Me Arise (Thomson) spiritandsong.com [Christ In Me Arise]
Desert Song (Fraser) Hillsong Publishing [This Is Our God]
Journey For Home (Bolduc) WLP [The Face of God, Voices As One]
Lead Me Home (Maher) OCP [Welcome to Life, Spirit & Song II]
Restored (Blakesley, Hart, Byrd) spiritandsong.com [From “The Commons: Restored”]
Revive Us, O God (Manibusan) OCP [Power of Peace, Spirit & Song]
Rise From The Ashes (Colson) Colsongs [craigcolson.com]

This lent, may we truly change our hearts and draw nearer to our Lord, especially through our Liturgies and the ways that we worship.

How to Get Your Teens to Sing at Mass

Craig Colson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:48:57 +0000

We’ve all seen it before – teens with their arms folded, staring out into space (if their eyes are even open at all). They’re whispering to their friends, giggling, and just plain not engaged in the liturgy. During the songs or homilies, all they hear is the teacher’s voice from the old Charlie Brown cartoons, “womp, womp, womp . . . womp, womp, womp, womp.”

If this at all describes your church on Sundays – then “Houston, we have a problem!” The question we need to ask ourselves is: How we can get our young people engaged in the liturgy, the highest point of prayer we have as a Church? I think to answer this question we need to return to some basic keys of youth ministry.

Build Relationships

We can’t forget that youth ministry is all about relationships. Jesus himself spent time building relationships with his apostles and we need to follow his example. If the teens don’t know you as the music minister, you’re just some guy or some lady with a guitar or who sits behind a piano.

I always tell musicians to consider it part of their ministry to be at most or every Life Night and retreat. If we spend time introducing ourselves to the teens and getting to know them and finding out what their interests are, we begin to build relationships. We may even discover that our parish has some teens with amazing musical gifts and talents.

A retreat is a great time to bring up the Life Teen band and not only provide Praise and Worship for the weekend, but have a jam session at free time and invite teens who play instruments to simply “jam.” Teens will often jump at the opportunity and you can use these moments as a time to begin dialogue with them. Now you’re not just the guy or girl with an instrument. You’re an actual person who they have begun to build a relationship with.

Now, when you invite them to sing at Mass, they know you and may just give it a try. Always remember that we are not drawing teens to ourselves or our own talent, rather to Christ through the gifts and talents he has given us.

Be Hospitable and Welcoming

Maybe your schedule prohibits you from attending retreats and/or Life Nights. Take some time before and after Mass to put down your instrument and go out and introduce yourself to a few of the teens. Tell them that you’re so glad they came to Mass tonight and begin a simple conversation with them. It can be as simple as, “What school do you go to?” or “What year in school are you?”

Again, this will help them to get to know you and be more apt to listen to what you have to say before Mass begins and participate with you. If this extra time conflicts with your pre-Mass music rehearsal, start practice 15 minutes earlier and make the time.

Invite, Don’t Scold

Before Mass, many parishes will take some time to “warm up” the congregation. When beginning this time, work with your Core Team prior to the Mass so that they know when they hear you begin to talk over the microphone they need to get the teens who may still be talking outside or in the vestibule in to their seats. Hopefully, they can work towards getting the teens to their pews five or ten minutes before the hour so that they have some time to pray before Mass.

When going over songs, make sure you have the attention of the congregation first. Don’t just start talking over them when no one is listening. Welcome everyone to the Mass and invite them to quiet down if their is still chatter going on.

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.

Pick Songs They Know

Song selection is key.

The liturgical documents of our Church talk about the “pastoral decision” in selecting music. That pastoral decision encompasses many factors. First of all, how many new songs will you be using at a particular Liturgy? It may be easy for you or your group to pick up and learn a new song, but it’s not as easy for a congregation.

Avoid picking more than one new song per week. Sing the songs they know to get them accustomed to singing. Be creative and of course, plan music that ties in with the readings and the focus your priest will be preaching about. Maybe you take a song your congregation knows and change the arrangement or instrumentation to make it sound a little fresher. Maybe the song stands great on its own and you don’t need to do that. That’s where the pastoral decision comes in.

Another question you need to ask is what key is the song in? Many musicians just sing songs that are too high for a congregation to sing. Try not to go above a “d” on the staff and occasionally an “e” but anything above those notes that you are expecting the assembly to sing is just too high, in my opinion. People will just put down the song sheet and listen.

Use the Life Teen Liturgy Guide as a tool to pick songs, but don’t think that just because there are songs recommended in the guide that you have to know them or use them. We try to give a variety of selections so that parishes who are in all different places and know all different kinds of music can benefit from them. Don’t just try to find the newest song on christian radio and think that you have to sing that song at your Mass.

The Mass deserves our highest focus and attention. We have a duty and a obligation to create an environment for our young people and our entire community to enable them to lift their voices to the Lord in song and praise.

How Can I Be a Better Music Minister in 2012?

Craig Colson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:00:22 +0000

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.

Prayer

Some of us may feel that we have let our prayer lives go by the wayside and we need to become refocused on Christ in our daily prayer. If we are leading people in prayer, then we ourselves need to be people of prayer.

Organization

For others, maybe our organization needs to be re-examined as we begin this new year. I have said many times that it is so important for us as ministers to be organized in what we do. Obviously, we can’t always do this on our own, so we need to seek out people to help us. In my experience, putting an ad in the bulletin for an office helper has always done the trick. Finding someone to come in and pull music, file or even put it in books for your musicians can be an absolute lifesaver.

Forgiveness

Another area we may need to refocus on in this new year is possibly mending some relationships that may be strained. Perhaps there is someone on our staff or in our ministry that we have hurt this year or even someone that has hurt us.

If we claim that we are a people of forgiveness then we need to practice it in our own lives. Seek out reconciliation in a positive way and be a peacemaker. It is so important that our new years resolutions not only be about keeping our bodies healthy, but our spirits as well.

Retreats

The final resolution I would like to suggest is that we all plan ahead to make a retreat this year. Maybe it’s a silent retreat or even one of the men’s or women’s retreats that Life Teen offers. It is so important for us to take care of ourselves. Often times we look at our calendars and say that there’s not a good time to go on a retreat, but we must make the time to renew ourselves at least once a year.

May this new year be filled with many graces and blessings and may we celebrate this new year with radiant joy!

The Final Countdown to the Roman Missal

Craig Colson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Well, you guessed it … I grew up in the era of big hair and glam rock bands. One of my favorites was the band “Europe.” In high school, I would constantly rock out on the drums to their hit song “The Final Countdown” until my Mom busted open the door to my room and screamed, “That’s enough!” If you have no idea what I’m talking about than my suspicion is true that yes, I really am getting old.

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.

Has your parish bought a Missal? I have this vision of people running to the nearest Catholic Bookstore on Friday, November 25th only to find out they are all gone. I hope that’s not a vision that comes true and everyone either has the Missal already in their possession or has ordered it to be shipped in time. Almost every major Catholic Publisher is offering a version of the Missal, so if you haven’t ordered one yet, now is definitely the time.

Have you begun singing the new Mass settings yet? Have you implemented all the settings that are going to be changing? (ie…the Gloria, Holy and Memorial Acclamation) If not, you may want to start introducing one new setting a week for the next few weeks if you have approval from the Bishop in your Diocese to do so.

Do you have something for your congregation to follow along with? It could be a pew card or maybe you are printing all of the assembly responses on your worship aide or using a power point. If you are using power point, have the prayers been typed in already and are people lined up to run the projection? Have those people practiced yet to make sure their timing is accurate? This will be a delicate time for people to respond correctly, so having the responses up in a timely manner will really count.

Now here are a few things you may not have thought of:

Do you have permanent hymnals in your church that have the old responses in them? If so, will you be announcing to people to not use them for the responses or will you be removing them from the Church? I’ve noticed many people at my parish picking up the hymnals during Mass (even though we rarely use them) to follow along with the new Glory to God and especially the Creed. They will need to know that these prayers will now be incorrect in those hymnals.

Will your priest(s) be singing any new response that the musicians will need to rehearse with them? Since the priests have been encouraged to sing more of the Liturgy, they may want to sing the introduction to the Memorial Acclamation or the Doxology to The Great Amen for instance. Take the time to meet with your presiders ahead of time to help them to sing the responses. It is also a good idea to give them a recording and/or sheet music to what they will be singing and give them some time to practice and get comfortable with the melodies and the new text. This new translation will be a big change for our priests and we need to support them as much as we can.

Finally, have you thought about how you will educate the people who will show up at Mass for Christmas? A recent study shows that a very small percentage of people who consider themselves Catholic, and don’t normally attend weekly Liturgy, have little or no idea about any changes that will occur on the First Sunday of Advent, 2011. We need to do our best to educate them as they arrive for Masses about the changes and why they have changed. Perhaps consider showing one of the videos in the “Word for Word” resource from Life Teen that will do a good job explaining the changes to people who will join us this Christmas.

May God continue to bless our Church in this time of transition and may we all be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and in the lives of those in our parish, most especially our young people. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

Liturgy Resources for Musicians

Craig Colson — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:36:56 +0000

I recently attended the Life Teen Musicians retreat in Tiger, GA at Life Teen Camp Covecrest. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Being from Phoenix, I enjoyed the rain showers that trickled down on us a few times during the four days I was there. It was a great week of sharing the gift of music, praising our God and enjoying fellowship with musicians, missionaries and the Covecrest staff who provided amazing hospitality!

Several times over the course of the retreat I was asked about different resources available for musicians looking for music suitable for the Liturgy and other youth focused events. I thought I would take the time now to share some of the resources that I use.

The first resource, that I believe is a “must have,” is the Life Teen Liturgy Planning Guide. This book comes with a regular Life Teen subscription and is essential, in my opinion, in planning a successful youth Liturgy that engages young people in the culture they live in. Each week the guide provides the readings for that Sunday, key words from the readings, sample prayers of the faithful, a synopsis of the readings from a teen’s perspective, as well as homily ideas for youth and other adults. It also has several musical suggestions for each part of the Liturgy and contains a worksheet to do your planning on. Each of the song suggestions, which range from contemporary to more traditional, contain the copyright information for that song as well as the publisher and what collection or website to find it on.

Once you have planned the music that you will use at your liturgy you need to obtain the sheet music for the song. A few websites I would recommend to obtain the music are www.spiritandsong.com, www.wlpmusic.com, www.ccli.com and www.worshiptogether.com. All of these websites contain downloadable sheet music and links to hymnals, CD’s, MP3’s and other instrument parts. It is important to remember that to print or project on a screen music that is copy-written you need to obtain a reprint license from the publisher of the music. This license can be obtained from the publisher by contacting customer service at any one of these companies. It is also important to remember that not all of the music on these sites will be appropriate for the Liturgy. Use the Church’s Liturgical documents as well as your own pastoral judgment to decide if a song is worthy of the Liturgy and reflects our beliefs as Catholics.

Another idea that can help in getting the music out to your musicians is to copy and paste listening links from the above-mentioned websites into an email each week to send out to your music ministry. I have found this very helpful with the musicians in my parish. They can just click and listen to a professional recording of the song we will be singing that week and hear how the composer intended it to sound. Sometimes you may want to do a different arrangement than the recording, so you can let them know that in the email. However, they still get a feel of the tune. Another website that is helpful in sending links and purchasing music is www.mycatholicvoice.com. Many of the links on this site are full-length recordings that are streamed. Many songs can be found on YouTube or GodTube.com as well and links from these sites can also be pasted into an email.

If you have a scanner at your church or office, another way to help your musicians is to simply make a scan each week of the music you will be using for that week’s Mass. That scan can be sent along with the email that contains the links each week so your ministers can actually have the melodies and words in front of them when reviewing music before your rehearsal or Mass. This will hopefully cut down on your rehearsal time and improve the quality of your ensemble.

Musicians, we are not always known as the most organized people in the world. My challenge to you is to plan ahead and take advantage of the many amazing resources that are available to you in this new age of technology. Use it all for the greater glory of God who is worthy of our praise.

Is the Catholic Church changing what songs are sung at Mass?

Craig Colson — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:53:12 +0000

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. Countless bloggers have been writing articles and posting Church documents to prove their point. Some bloggers have even going so far as to author their own quotes ‘written’ by John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Jesus himself, pointed out by Fr. Bob Schreiner in his video from his presentation at the 2010 Life Teen Liturgy and Music conference. It saddens me that some would go so far as to try to put words in the mouths of Church leaders that they wished they would say, but never have.

A recent blog has caused much confusion in Liturgical circles in regards to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM). The GIRM that we received in 2002 will be the GIRM that is in the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal, except that some of the language has been revised just as some of the texts have been revised in the Missal we will receive this coming November. The line that has caused confusion is in GIRM #48 where the four options for gathering songs are given. The fourth option used to read “some other suitable liturgical song.” In the New Missal, this line will read “some other Liturgical chant.” This change was written to be more faithful to the Latin word “Cantus” which more formally translates to the word “chant.” Many people however have taken this change out of context to mean that the Church is saying we can only use chant for the music at Mass. Fr. Richard Hilgartner, the head of the USCCB Committee on Liturgy has weighed in on this controversy stating that the word change is “really talking about what texts are sung, not the musical form.” You can read the full article here:

While reflecting on this idea of Sacred Music and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate, I was drawn to watch Fr. Bob Schreiner’s video once again from the September 2010 Life Teen Liturgy and Music Conference we had in Phoenix. Fr. Bob is an expert on the writings of John Paul II and I was reassured by the words of our late Pope when he stated the following:

“Sacred music is the beauty that invites prayer.”
“Sacred music must have holiness as its reference point.”
“Sacred music must adapt to the legitimate demands of inculturation.”

Yes, of course, chant is a big part of Sacred Music and we can and should expose our young people to it, but we also must ask ourselves: Do teens have a culture of their own or not? I think most of us will agree that yes they do, and we need to do what we can, within the mind of the Church, to reach out to them and meet them where they are at. We all need to ask ourselves if the music that we use and the way we present it invites prayer. If it doesn’t invite prayer, than we need to change, but we need to be open different styles of music that help speak to a culture that so desperately needs to hear the voice of Jesus. We must judge each musical piece we use Liturgically, musically and pastorally and always let the voice of God guide us as we pray the Liturgy of the Church.

An Opportunity to Go Deeper: The New Roman Missal

Craig Colson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:18:12 +0000

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 Catholic. I do have to say that it was noble of them to honor her wishes and celebrate a funeral for her in her own Church and faith tradition since she had held close to her heart. We did not celebrate a Mass, but we had a Scripture Service with music to pray for the repose of the soul of their Mother.

All of her children are involved in other denominations and all seemed to have their own ideas about what the celebration should be. We tried to be as pastoral as possible to their wishes and desires while not sacrificing Catholic beliefs and traditions. Although they were pleasant, a few things they said really upset me in the meeting and got me thinking that we need to do so much more to share our faith than we do.

There are so many misconceptions out there about what the Church teaches and professes to be true. I am not however naïve, and I do know that there have been many people in the Church who have not practiced what they preached and have let many down and sadly even hurt others in the process. I think if we are honest we can all admit that this sort of thing exists everywhere, in every organization. Most have us have met people who when they find out we are Catholic, they have some story to share about something negative that happened with a Priest or a Nun at a Catholic Church or School they attended in the past. When I hear these sorts of things, I want to say, “Wait! Things have changed! This has not been my experience at all!”

What I really think we can do is be knowledgeable enough about our faith to be able to share what it means to us and why we believe it’s true. Over the next few months we will be implementing the Third Edition of the Roman Missal and we have an amazing opportunity to share our faith, beliefs, and teachings about the the Mass! It is SO misunderstood and we have an unprecedented opportunity to seize the day and witness to everyone about why we do what we do. We’ve talked a lot about education and being prepared, but now’s the time when the rubber meets the road. There are many people who will hear some of the new language in the Liturgy and be critical of it. We’ve got to be prepared to explain it to the best of our ability and to help others pray through it. Non-Catholics will be hearing about it too through the media and possibly their own Churches since many of our prayers will again differ from those of different faiths.

There is a choice to be made here: Support these changes or work against them. We need to take this to prayer and do our part to spread the Good News of Christ to ALL the world and celebrate the greater meaning of the words we will soon speak and pray and why they are so important to us.

The Holy Spirit is moving and we need to not get in the way. Instead let’s allow ourselves to be instruments of hope and healing for those who don’t understand the greatest gift of all: the Eucharist.

Mass Music from the 2011 Life Teen Training Convention

Craig Colson — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:12:19 +0000

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 feast of Pentecost to begin the conference. Fr. Leo Patalinghug was our celebrant and he was truly inspiring as he allowed the Spirit of the Lord to work through him both in his inspired words and authentic actions.

I had the privilege of leading the music for the Mass with fellow worship leaders Ike Ndolo Band and Audrey Assad. It was so beautiful to see the Church come together as one from all over the country as well as different parts of the world. We truly lived out the first reading from Acts that speaks of all the different people of God coming together being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Each one of the Masses throughout the week was beautiful and moving in its own unique way, each refocusing us all on the Source and Summit of our faith, the Eucharist. We were even privileged enough to celebrate the Eucharistic Liturgy on Tuesday with our own Bishop of Phoenix, the Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted.

Life Teen’s focus has always been leading teens closer to Christ through the Sacraments of the Church from its humble beginnings over 25 years ago. It has always sought to draw young people to Christ in the Eucharist. It is our hope is that all the attendees at the Convention were inspired either for the first time or once again to make the Mass and the Eucharist the centerpiece of quality youth ministry.

We received many requests for a list of the music used at the Convention Liturgies – so here it is! At the end of this blog, you can download a list of the music used at the four Masses we celebrated at the 2011 Life Teen Training Convention. Hopefully, you will notice a mix of contemporary as well as traditional music that was done in a more contemporary style. It has been our experience that young people can be drawn in deeply to the Liturgy through both types of music. May God continue to bless us all and send us His Spirit as we seek to draw teens closer to the Sacraments, most especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.