Gregorian Chant

At church I lead a Schola Cantorum, which is in other words a school of chant. We do gregorian chant as well as sacred polyphony. We sing monthly at Vespers, and yesterday was our November Vespers. One of our singers' sister recorded this. It is O Sacrum Convivium by Remondi. Unfortunately our bass got stuck in traffic and missed singing this one, otherwise we would have been a little more complete.  All in all, I am decently pleased at the way it turned out, all things considered. It is a wonderful way to praise the Lord, and we are so blessed to have an opportunity to sing.

Here are the lyrics of the song, from Wikipedia.

Original Latin (punctuation from Liber Usualis):

O sacrum convivium!
in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis ejus:
mens impletur gratia:
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.

Translation of original Latin:

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.

The End of the Rainbow is at the Shrine

The Catholics and Heretics blog has a new post up about the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, and how the priest there was put on leave due to his rentals of what essentially amounts to gay pornography. Video rentals which he had mailed directly to the Shrine's address!

In the priest's place Bishop Pepe appointed the openly gay Michael La Rocca as administrator. I mean "openly gay" as in he lives with his boyfriend, so it is not as though he is someone who lives a chaste and holy life, in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Interesting choices, Bishop. Very interesting.

Heaven

I was talking to my husband Phillip about the Sacred Music Colloquim, and how I would love to go. "I would be in heaven," I said dreamily.

Phillip: Yes, you would be in heaven. (He was referring to the daily chanted Masses)
Ivy (age 3): I don't want you to go to heaven.
Me: Well, not yet.
Ivy: I want want to go to heaven.
Me (reassuringly): Well, we can go to heaven together.
Phillip (ominously): We can all go to heaven together.
Me (laughing): Here, Ivy, drink this Kool-aid.
Ivy: You know the Caf'lick Mass is Heaven?
Phillip: How did you know that?
Ivy: God told me dat, when I was sleeping.
Phillip: What else did he tell you?
Ivy: Dat my gawdian angel was coming. And then I woked up and hugged her. God sent her, because he is Chwist the Lawd.
Me: Whats your guardian angels name?
Ivy: She doesn't have a name, because she never got born.
Me: Well what name do you give her?
Ivy: Her first name is Scwumptious. Her second name is Footpwints.
Me: So her name is Scrumptious Footprints?
Ivy: Yes.

And from there she continued on with a slew of words and descriptions about St Michael, her angel, God, and who knows what else. We were surprised at her understanding about the Mass, and so thankful that God is working in her heart and mind, even at such a tender age!

And the Thunder Rolls...

Last night and this morning Las Vegas had thunderstorms rolling through. I was actually surprised that the thunder and lightening was still going on as morning approached. Usually it blows over long before morning. For most of the night my area didn't get any actual rain, but the light show was spectacular.

At about 6am, the rain started coming down hard. It was beautiful. I have always been a big fan of rain and thunderstorms. So I was too excited to go back to sleep. I just had to enjoy the weather as fully as I could because it doesn't come along very often.

I got up, wrapped myself up in a blanket, made myself a piping hot latte and sat down on the couch to pray my rosary while I watched the storm. This rosary is for the intention of... I prayed. Although the thunder was starting to rumble further and further in the distance, as soon as I finished my intention there was an enormous and deafening clap of thunder. Let me just say that I have had enough happen to me that I have stopped believing in coincidences.

As I sat there in the semi-dark, praying, I had one of those delicious moments when you can feel God's presence. I was filled with such an overwhelming love and joy. I thanked Him for the countless blessings in my life.

And I thanked him for the beautiful thunderstorm, which woke me up and brought me to that perfect moment of prayer and worship, to the ideal way to start my day.

The "Other" Blog

Hey guys, I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been busy with my Graco partnership. Hop on over to my more frivolous blog and check out the posts and some video from this past week:


I am also doing a giveaway of a Graco Direct Connect Baby Monitor. Enter to win here!

This Aborted Baby Survived

This woman is a truly amazing speaker, and what a voice for life!

Her name is Gianna Jessen, and you may have heard of her before. She was born alive after an abortion attempt. Incredible story! My favorite line from this speech is, "If you think I am a fool, it is just another jewel in my crown."

The Church Suffering

One of Michael Voris' recent videos, which is very spiritually encouraging for those of us in Dioceses that are toeing the line of Protestantism.



This program is from RealCatholicTV.com