Don’t get me wrong, Catholics pray with their body. We lie prostrate, we kneel, we sit, and we fold our hands in a posture of prayer. Sometimes we even extend our hands over our head in an open posture of worship.
All of these postures, even the hands over the head, are rooted in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. They reflect the interior disposition of the soul and it’s receptivity to Christ. So what about hand motions? Why do I say it is not prayer?
“How do you write songs?” In my travels and my meetings with people along the way, it’s one of the questions I am asked the most. Songwriting is hard to explain. I’ve shaped songs like clay pots, molding them on the wheel of my mind slowly and deliberately; other times they’ve shot like bullets out of my pen in a frenzy of inspiration; and some I’ve spent more than two years on, and still haven’t finished. Like children, every song is different, and they are birthed with varying degrees of struggle and joy. So it’s a tough thing for me to write about, because I am still figuring it out myself. How do you answer a question you are still asking?
I love that the liturgy is made up of both the ancient and the modern. Old, steadfast laws and traditions meet the new and ever-changing culture and yield the beautiful, living Church. At each Catholic Mass, the nave is filled with evidence of what happens when young and old collide. Fresh Easter lilies pose proudly near the antique Presider’s chair, the newborn is held by her grandmother, the altar server presents the Sacramentary for the bishop, and for Life Teen parishes, the drum set tries
In recent months I have received many questions from Liturgical Musicians as to what Instruments are appropriate for Liturgy and which are not? Some people feel that only the Organ is appropriate for the Liturgy while others feel it acceptable to use any instrument that can produce a sound. Whenever a question like this comes up, before I answer it, I always think it is best to go to the documents of our Church instead of trying to just answer it myself. After all, the church is making its decisions
Well I hope this title caught your attention and no, I’m not just going to tell you to make your practice shorter by practicing fewer songs. Today, most people have access to the Internet and, as we know, are spending a lot of time surfing the web, watching videos and listening to music. Well, why not direct some of that time that your musicians are spending in cyberspace to learning the music you will be going over at your next practice? In recent years, the production quality of Catholic music
At a recent Life Teen Liturgy & Music Conference I asked a large group to use only their ears and listen to the silence. Then, after a brief moment, the band on stage played a loud, crashing introduction to a song. People were startled, to say the least, but that was the point. This is, after all, what parishioners experience at Masses every Sunday.
For most people in Catholic Youth Ministry, summers are packed with youth conferences, summer camps, and mission trips. These are exciting times for your teens because they can get out of town for an summertime adventure with their peers. But in a more profound way, these events give many teens their first opportunity to experience the living God, a God who is real and loves them very much. This big experience is narrated with big music that touches their hearts in a way that their everyday iPod music never has.