Oddwalk Ministries

Category: quote

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Are You Listening?

This year, I (Orin) have been posting on Facebook the little doodles that my parish Children’s Choir creates in their music while we are rehearsing.

As I’ve looked through the music which is turned in, in addition to unicorns, flowers, and other odd scribbles, I also look for signs that they are paying attention during rehearsal – they’ve marked a dynamic for a phrase, or where or where not to breathe, or how long to hold a note, etc.

In addition to speaking of the musical elements of a piece, we do spend a little time speaking about the text of a piece, what it means, why we are singing it, and other facets.  So, I was heartened a few days ago that one singer chose to doodle on this text we had spoken about briefly, on this piece the choir sang on Holy Thursday night a couple weeks ago. They were not only paying attention to me and how we worked on the music of the piece, but on the text too, putting these core words of our faith, taught to us by Jesus Christ himself, in their hearts and souls as well.

When Christ – or his ministers in the here and now – teach us, are we listening with only our ears, or our brains, or are we listening to Christ with our hearts and souls as well?

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The Work of Christmas

It’s a busy few weeks for me (Orin) right now, yet it is my week for a Jesus-Justice-Joy post.  In the midst of my busy-ness, occasionally my thoughts turn to why it is I am so busy, with a follow-up question of whether I see in all the things I do a building of God’s reign, or, if you like, am I going about the Lord’s work?

This poem, pictured, has been a dear one to me ever since I became aware of it some years back. As we are just two days past the Church’s celebration of Christmastide, I thought it appropriate to share with you all today.  May we all take a second to see if we are, in all we do, building a world filled with Jesus, with Justice, and with Joy.

 

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Maker of All Things

I (Orin) am a privileged and joy-filled composer today.

First, yesterday, the 9:30 J&A choir took my “An Advent Fantasia” for a spin (their first time with it) this morning, and sang it warmly and well. [ GIA: https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/an-advent-fantasia-print-g8785 ] Shrine peeps may remember this from some years back. The combined choirs at the 11pm Christmas Eve mass will sing it as their first prelude too.

Then, yesterday afternoon, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus beautifully sang my newest creation (like, from Dec. 3-5 of this year), “Maker of All Things” as the encore to the program “Fulfillment: An Irish Christmas.” My original Christmas text, which I posted on Facebook a couple days ago – with pseudonym provided by Philip Barnes – and an arrangement of the Irish melody SLANE (“Be Thou My Vision,” etc.). I’ll share audio here when I can.

My wife Erin, when she attends SLCC concerts, will, to help keep herself engaged, scribble little notes in the program as the concert progresses. The text of my piece was on the back cover of the program, next to which you can see her surprise in her purple notes – I hadn’t told her about any of this, and she hadn’t noticed anything (here or in the program) until PB started announcing it to the audience.

She also pointed out afterward something that had somehow slipped my mind – we sang “Lord of All Hopefulness” (another SLANE text) at my dad’s funeral and at the little memorial for both Mom and Dad here in STL these past few months. A little temporary amnesia allowed for a little “God-wink” today.

“Hope of the nations, and hope of each heart:
Dwell in us, love us, and never depart.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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We Cannot Do Everything

The wreath, with a candle marking each week of the season, is a traditional symbol of the Advent. (CNS photo/Lisa A. Johnston, St. Louis Review)

This morning, I (Orin) was briefly interviewed by Matt Reichert, who hosts the NPM Ministry Monday podcast, and is co-host of the great “Open Your Hymnal” podcast on Catholic liturgical music. Matt is reaching out to several parish music directors – who this time of year have 12 or 14 irons in the fire – to ask them, “What do you do to remain sane during Advent?” It’s such a busy time for folks in church music, so the question and the podcast episodes could not come out at a better time. It will likely be split into two parts, with my part likely airing a week from today, or possibly in the next one. We’ll be sure to let you know!

One of the things we briefly talked about was a few lines from what is commonly known as the “Oscar Romero Prayer,” even though he didn’t write it. Check the endnotes at the link above:

This prayer was first presented by Cardinal Dearden in 1979 and quoted by Pope Francis in 2015. This reflection is an excerpt from a homily written for Cardinal Dearden by then-Fr. Ken Untener on the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, October 25, 1979. Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Dearden in his remarks to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2015. Fr. Untener was named bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, in 1980.

The line that came up is this:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

For me, it’s very freeing, perhaps even joyful, this particular sense of liberation. I, and we, do the best we can with the time, energy, and resources available to us, knowing that we can’t do it all – and that there is a broad Christian community who is also working very hard to build the reign of God on earth.

If you don’t know the whole prayer, please do take a moment to read it and pray it, perhaps even make it a daily part of your advent spirituality.

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The Most Important Catholic Word

Robert Feduccia at NPM

I (Orin) just returned from a week in Baltimore attending the National Pastoral Musicians (NPM) 41st annual convention. This gathering is a time for seeing old friends, hearing wonderful speakers and breakout sessions, and encountering new music for the liturgy.

Oddwalk friend Robert Feduccia gave a fantastic keynote Wednesday morning, titled “The Liturgy and the Church’s Mandate to Grow.” There were so many takeaways from the presentation; I want to share just one here.

Robert told the story of a conversation he had once with Bishop Caggiano of Bridgeport. The Bishop had asked Robert what the most important Catholic word was. After a couple failed guesses, the Bishop informed him that, to him, the most important Catholic word was “and.”

And.

So deceptively simple and so important to our faith and world today. Those of you who know me reasonably well know I have been beating the “Both/And” drum for at least a decade now. When our faith paints, I think, far too many things as “black and white,” and when our world seems to create more and more “us vs. them” moments all the time, it is important for us to remember that our faith calls us to both/and, just as our savior Jesus was himself an earthly both/and: both God and human.

Now, of course there are times things truly are black and white, and there are times where some subset of humanity must be distinct from some other subset for valid reasons. We do well, though, to limit those times to only the most necessary and not try to superimpose distinctions where there are none really to be had and especially when they are not helpful.

Our faith is one pf paradox – one where things that seem to be opposites dwell together in mystery and without conflict: death is life, weakness is power, being last is being first. That is, we are called to both death and life, to both weakness and power, to both being last and being first. Just as Jesus himself lived as a both/and, so we too must try to first see the “and” in every situation, every person, and every relationship. Only then are distinctions and discussions of them coming from a place of love and dignity.

And: the most important Catholic word.

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If you don’t…

There’s a new meme circulating around, like the one here, which I (Orin) have made a version of in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way.  The gist of the meme in general is for a person to point out when they are at their worst and when they are best, and that some significant other in their lives needs to love the meme-making person at their worst, or else that significant other doesn’t deserve the meme-maker at their very best.

(Describing and analyzing memes makes them even more funny, right?)

Anyway, what I’m going for here, by way of amusement, is that 1) I’m at my worst when I pick up the keytar and “try” to be “cool” (which is quite possibly accurate), and 2) that I don’t really have a best – in a way, the joke is possibly even that my worst is all I have.  When seen through eyes of faith, of course, that’s all wrong.  The meme as a whole is asking another to love unconditionally – and so far, so good.  But what rubs me the wrong way a little bit, is that most of these memes try to distinguish human worth and value by something pretty superficial – either physical appearance, or by certain accomplishments, or other external things.  Something Oddwalk often tries to “get at” when present retreats is that our worth, our dignity, is given us by God, that we are created by God in God’s image and likeness, that we are temples of the Holy Spirit as a dwelling for the Divine.  Each of us, regardless of gender, race, any economic or social status, even regardless of our faith (or lack thereof) have this innate dignity.  Nothing can change it, nothing can take it away.

If we were to try to make this meme about God’s love for us, we would quickly find we couldn’t, really.  Sure, we are all sinful, and in those worst of times, God still loves us as much as ever.  And to try to say that God might not as some point deserve us, well, that’s just kooky, to put it colloquially.  And as God loves us, so we must try to love another: to love at all times, and to never place ourselves on a pedestal, that someone feels they must earn (or deserve) our love.  This Christian dignity, once recognized and lived out, will truly change the world, making it an infinitely more just and peaceful place.  We must not only live love, we must be love, at all times.  Are you ready to pick up the challenge?

Pope Francis, in “Gaudete et Exsultate,” tells us that he often likes

“to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile.”

May we too all see holiness in every person we meet!

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To, or Through?

Hello all, Orin here.  I realized as I sat down to craft this week’s Jesus-Justice-Joy post that Shannon and I have been remiss in letting you know a bit of exciting news.  In addition to the book that will be coming out this July sometime, we’ve also both been writing new music, and incorporating some…

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