Posted Today at Holy Childhood Catholic School in Mascoutah, IL
It’s always a great joy of ours to visit Holy Childhood in Mascoutah, IL for Catholic Schools Week. Just such an engaged student body, and a joy to play with band-mates Rick and Dan, and today Dan’s girlfriend Katie on tambourine.
Two more concerts later this week – Happy Catholic Schools Week all!
Starting tonight, Orin (today’s blogger) will again be attending the 20th annual Liturgical Composers Forum in suburban St. Louis. This gathering was begun by Fr. John Foley, SJ two decades ago, at the time a program of the now largely non-existent Center for Liturgy at SLU. These few days bring together some of the most familiar…
One of the reasons I want to blog regularly is so that I can have a place to document my faith journey. All of us are called through our baptism to be ministers of the Gospel. I believe that in sharing my experience of trying to live Christ each and every day, I am in…
It’s my (Orin’s) turn again at Any Given Sunday Project to write a Sunday Scripture reflection, this one for this coming Sunday, January 14. The psalm of the weekend holds a special place in my heart, and is central to a story often told at Oddwalk appearances. Here’s an abbreviated version of what you may…
Last night, a dastardly collection of villains gathered in Fulton, MO to ring in the new year. In attendance was Lucius Malfoy, Dracula, the big bad wolf, representatives from AT&T and Sprint, a shark, a baby shark, the Queen of Hearts, Darth Vader, Catwoman, Dru, a minion, two instances of Stan Kronke, and Mike Matheney.…
I’d like to begin this week with the song, To Know Darkness, beautifully written by Orin and included on our 2007 album, Walk Away Different. Take a moment to listen to the song. I’ve included the lyrics here as well— God our Father, we long to see you as you are. If we seek you…
It is hopefully no surprise to anyone by now that the Church has entered another new year, as always beginning with the season of Advent. It should also surprise no one when I (Orin) observe that some places have been in full-on Christmas mode since November 1, if not before.
Many of our peers in Church life, be they youth ministers, liturgists, priests, or the faithful baptized are bothered, perhaps even perturbed by the rush into the Christmas celebrations, and that by 7pm on December 25, some trees have already been kicked to the curb. “One thing at a time,” they exclaim. “We need more stillness, silence, waiting, expectation in our lives. We need to remember the Lord is coming again! We need to remember our traditions and our history.”
I suspect I can speak for Shannon too, but I certainly don’t disagree with any of that. I am at the same time not so sure how much the angsty “Waaaaaaaah it’s still advent and also get off my lawn” sorts of statements and social media posts help. Perhaps it’s just venting among friends, but I don’t think it’ll “convert” anyone to a certain way of seeing things, in this case the need we all have for a few weeks of advent in our lives.
A few days ago I posted this as a comment on a friend’s facebook status – a status that was more tongue-in-cheek than anything – but was still one about how Christmas had begun too soon.
Working at a Catholic shrine where a christmas drivethru of lights began a week (or sometimes more) before thanksgiving and the first thing one saw was a giant arch that said “Merry Christmas” across the top, I feel your pain. I used to be rather “vinegar” about it all; I try to be a little more “sugar” these days.
So, to that end, We at Oddwalk crafted a little video, one that is itself goofy and tongue-in-cheek, but attempts to use humor to remind folks, “Hey, don’t forget it’s still Advent around here.” Hopefully this little bit of sugar will go further than some folks’ vinegar this time of year. We are better evangelists when we do so with joy, after all. So, check out what happens when you take some cheery advent songs and change them from major to minor. Advent blessings to you all. Orin
This past Friday, our parish lost our pastor, Fr. Frank Bussmann. Late on Thursday night, after spending Thanksgiving with his family, Fr. Frank headed for home. He only managed to get about ten minutes down the road before he suffered a massive stroke behind the wheel, causing him to crash his car. Luckily, no one else…