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The sounds of the Sistine Chapel Choir…
The singers are at the pope’s side for all important papal celebrations. The Sistine Chapel Choir performs when the pope presides over the Christmas Eve mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, and they sang at the private Vatican mass to honor Pope Francis’s 80th birthday. And as the oldest choir in the world — evidence of their existence dates back to the seventh century — they’ve seen a few popes. The Sistine Chapel Choir performs inside the Sistine Chapel CBS News The bulk of the choir’s repertoire is sacred music composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina, who lived from 1525-1594, composed his music with the Sistine Chapel in mind, drawing inspiration from Michelangelo’s colorful frescos adorning the walls and ceiling. With masterpieces like The...
If there is anything I have learned, it is to let our good and holy clergy and religious in…..
For weeks I prayed and prepared. I taught my youngest how to address him. I wiped baseboards and dusted chandeliers. I planned a menu that didn’t overestimate my cooking abilities but seemed worthy of the extraordinarily special guest. I polished silver and curated a jazz playlist just hours before I set out the tray of Brie cheese and fig preserves for a simple yet not-so-everyday appetizer. It started out just as I had hoped. We sipped our wine and laughed together in the usual get-acquainted rhythms. Our youngest son child sat cozily at our kitchen bar tucked between our Bishop, visiting our home for the first time, and one of our dear priest friends. Then, it happened. The child leaned forward and stuck out his little tongue (in good Communion form, I will...
A meditation on the mystery of time…
I open our New Year’s Eve late night Mass (11:15 PM) with the observation that we begin Mass in one year and end in the next. New Year’s Eve highlights the mysterious passage between years. In a way I suppose it is no more mysterious than the passage from Thursday to Friday or from 10:00 AM to 10:01 AM. In one sense, nothing could be simpler than time. I might ask you, “What time is it?” You might reply, “It’s 1:15.” Simple! But time has mysteries about it. What is time? Some say it’s merely a measure of change. But that doesn’t really make a lot of sense because change doesn’t occur at a steady pace at all. Some say it’s just another way of measuring distance in the space-time continuum. Time and distance are certainly related. To look out at the stars at night is to look into the past; i...
The quest and questions of the Magi…
(And Then I Wrote…) Since this site began more than six years ago, every Thursday I have been publishing a reprint from my column “Across the Universe” in the British Catholic journal, The Tablet. I have finally gone through all of them (except for 2019’s columns) and I’ve even re-published a few of the oldest ones that came out here before our readership had grown. In order to let my backlog build up a bit, I am taking “Across the Universe” offline for 2020. Instead, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written an published in various places… often obscure. This one is not so obscure, and in fact it’s a reprint of a posting here from four years ago… but I thought it would be appropriate to show it aga...
Teen climber falls 500 feet on Mount Hood — and survives…
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Three-year abuse lawsuit window opens in California…
Sacramento, Calif., Jan 2, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- A three-year window opened in California Wednesday, allowing lawsuits over childhood sexual abuse that would normally be impeded by the state’s statute of limitations. The window was created when California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 218 into law in October. In addition to the window, the bill also permanently adjusted the state’s statute of limitations for civil suits regarding childhood sexual abuse. Previously, a person had until the age of 26, or three years after discovering damages from sexual abuse, to file a claim. The state now allows plaintiffs to file lawsuits until the age of 40, or five years after discovering damage. The California Catholic Conference said in a statement released at the bill’s signing that the state’s bi...
The Sisters of Life show the way to unshackled freedom in 2020…
Sisters of Life nuns sing hymns following a papal mass conducted by Pope Francis in Philadelphia, Pa., in 2015. (Mark Makela/Reuters) Learning real freedom from some joyful, loving women ‘This time, with freedom!” Sisters Mary Karen and Mary Gabriel implored. It was a rare “off” day for Sisters of Life from different convents getting to be together at their motherhouse in the suburbs of New York. And they did what any healthy family might do on the second night of the octave of Christmas — they gathered around an outdoor Nativity scene with fire for warmth and sang carols, and eventually other devotional songs. Some of the younger sisters (this is a youthful community, not even 30 years since its founding) had just got done with a hopping Pentatonix “O Come, All Ye Faithful” mix. Advertise...
I still have hope that Christ will bring my kids back to the faith…
We could feel tremors before the break, the shift in how she spoke, in how she treated others. We could see his heart hardening to God, to the Church, to us. Some would say that’s adolescence, but it always felt like more. Praying, engaging, hugging, creating special time—we did all of that and it kept our relationships alive, like blowing on the embers. We weren’t saints about it, we were parents. We’d be too hard, too soft, too talky, too quiet, too prayerful, and yet not witnessing enough. It felt like trying to maintain a sandcastle against the high tide of the world. It felt like the world would win and children would leave. As parents, it felt like the waves crashing over. There’s no small amount of soul searching that goes on when someone you love leaves the faith. You look for that...
Kids, don’t be like Redskins owner Dan Snyder. Be courteous and classy like Giants owner John Mara instead…..
Kids, be John Mara. Don’t be Dan Snyder. Today’s lesson in character comes from the annual NFL bloodbath when teams fire their failing coaches the day after the season ends. The New York Giants fired their head coach, the Washington Redskins their president, having fired their coach in mid-season. The Giants stumbled through two seasons with head coach Pat Shurmur. They won 9 games and lost 23. They did worse the second season than they did the first. That wasn’t all his fault. The general manager Dave Gettleman made some bone-headed moves (and the team still suffered the effects of his incompetent predecessor), some new players didn’t play as well as expected, some key players got injured. His players supported him, and sometimes the Giants looked like a really good team. But he didn’t do...
A new heart for a New Year, always!…
As Time cries, “Advance!”, we look back on a year that might fill the mouth of Time with lamentation. The Syrian civil war, the Christchurch mosque massacre, economic collapse in Venezuela, Hong Kong protests, the El Paso Walmart shooting, the Sri Lanka Easter terror attack, the Notre-Dame fire, and political upheaval in America. What is the common man to conclude when considering the depravations and deprivations of his fellows as church bells chime on New Year’s Eve? There is no better tale to ring an old year out and a new year in than Charles Dickens’s The Chimes. This little story by the great storyteller deals with the temptation to look back on the tragedies of a year gone by with dejection, even believing that man is “born bad.” While Catholics do not believe that man is born bad, ...
The evolution of the coffee cup lid…
[embedded content] Author AJ Jacobs shows how the coffee cup lid was perfectly designed to give you a full sensory experience while drinking.
Pope Francis apologizes for losing patience with woman who grabbed him in viral video…
Vatican City, Jan 1, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis apologized Wednesday for losing his patience with a woman who grabbed his arm in St. Peter’s Square on New Year’s Eve. “Many times we lose our patience; me too. I apologize for yesterday’s bad example,” Pope Francis said in a departure from his prepared remarks for the Angelus prayer Jan. 1. While greeting the crowd in front of the Vatican nativity scene Dec. 31, a woman yanked the pope’s arm. Visibly upset, Pope Francis slapped her hand and walked away frustrated. After his impromptu apology, the pope said that contemplating the nativity scene helps one to see with the eyes of faith a vision of “the renewed world, freed from the dominion of evil and placed under the royal lordship of Christ, the Child who lies in the manger.”...
