Sing! Sing! Sing!

Choir practices have started up at Stella Maris and Sacred Heart and what a joy it is to sing the Mass!!! How perfect to begin this on the birthday of our dear Mother Mary! Oddly, the more I have on my plate to practice, the more I'm writing as well. Don't ask me how or why, but I'm so rejuvenated. Praise God! 

The picture is from the Mass of Dedication of St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church last year. It was such an honor to be invited to sing with their choir and alongside the professionals. Some of my favorite people are in the picture so what a delight to receive it from the music director at St. Clare. She's recruiting! I've been happy with my own recruiting efforts for our two church choirs and barbershop chorus!

A lot of people don't think they can't sing Gregorian chant, so here's a crash course in a little over half hour from Floriani/Gregorian Chant Academy. 

Singing, like writing, or any other creative pursuit, is so good for our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. See: Choir singing improves health, happiness – and is the perfect icebreaker | University of Oxford   I can personally attest to its healing power--my migraines are much diminished when I sing or write. So I wish upon you much creative work, good health, and abundant blessings.  

September Saints

How quickly this year is going--it's back to school for my future son-in-law (his last semester, yay!)--and the rest of it is going to fly! We begin celebrating High Masses again with the Nativity of Mary. Only three birthdays on earth are celebrated in the Catholic Church: The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Dec. 25th, the birth of Mary, His most Holy Mother on Sep. 8th, and the birth of St. John the Baptist on June 24th. All three were sinless. Jesus, by virtue of being the Son of Man; Mary, for being conceived without Original Sin (by the foreseen merits of our Lord's Sacrifice on the Cross); and John the Baptist, sanctified in his mother's womb at the Visitation. All other saints worked out their sanctification with fear and trembling, as we should too. (Phil 2:12) 

September is also the month of Mary under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow…” ~ Lamentations 1:12 You can see the prayers and promises our Lady promises to those who remember her sorrow here: Know The 7 Sorrows and Promises of Our Lady of Sorrows (goodcatholic.com)

1. The Prophecy of Simeon. ~ Luke 2:34–35
2. The Flight into Egypt. ~Matthew 2:13
3. The loss of the child Jesus in the Temple. ~Luke 2:43–45
4. Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary.
5. Jesus dies on the cross. ~John 19:25
6. The piercing of the side of Jesus, and Mary's receiving the body of Jesus in her arms. ~Matthew 27:57–59
7. The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb. ~John 19:40–42