Two
Sunday’s ago, November 10th, the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary
Time, Matthew gave the responsorial psalm at Mass and he had me film it.He does these and other parts of the Children’s
Mass regularly, but I present this one because I just happen to capture
it.
Here
is the psalm for that day, PS 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
R. (15b) Lord,
when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
My steps have been steadfast in your paths,
my feet have not faltered.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking I shall be content in your presence.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Another
Easter come and gone. Yesterday at Mass as
part of the children’s choir, Matthew was asked to do the Alleluia. The Alleluia has one of the few solos for
choir at Mass, so he was excited. Others
might get nervous, but he was eager. And
he was so proud, so for a change he made sure he was spiffily dressed. My wife got him a tie, a real tie, not a clip
on, and he had me tie the knot and I slipped it over his head. He had a new belt and dress shirt and he had
his mother put on hair spray to keep his hair perfect. First, here’s a picture of him before Mass.
Second,
the altar was beautifully decorated for Easter.
Here are a couple of pictures.
First the entire altar.
And
a close up of the left side lectern with the statue of the Risen Christ placed
near it. That was specially brought up
for Easter.
Finally
here’s Matthew with his Celtic Alleluia.
That
man in the video in the green shirt told me after Mass how wonderful Matthew
does the Alleluia. He really does.
Today,
arguably the holiest day of the year, as my custom now for the last five years,
I participated in the annual Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a sort of mini Stations of the Cross
procession, we only do five stations, but the distanced walked is about two and
three quarter miles. It starts in
Brooklyn at the St. James Cathedral-Basilica, and then the pilgrimage ensues by
crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge, stops at Manhattan’s City Hall, stops at the
World Trade Center, and concludes at lower Manhattan’s St. Peter’s Church. It’s organized by local chapter of the Communion and Liberation Movement, which is a Catholic religious organization of
religious and lay members. Fr. Richard Veras seems to be the primary
coordinator, though I don’t know if that is his role. Fr. Veras was the pastor at my parish, St.
Rita’s on Staten Island, for a number of years but has moved on. He has published a number of books and is a
monthly contributor to Magnificat
magazine.
The
form of the events has not changed in the five years. I detailed them in my 2014 entry, which you
can read here.
I
didn’t take a lot of pictures this year.
It was overcast. But here’s one
picture of the procession ahead of me on the Brooklyn Bridge.
You
can see how far long pilgrimage of people ahead of me, and I was toward the
front. The local news lists us in the
hundreds, but it seems more to my non-expert eye.
I
was able to film one of the pieces sung by the wonderful—and I do mean
wonderful with no exaggeration—Communion and Liberation choir. At the St. James Cathedral, they sing “Go to
Dark Gethsemane.” Let me preface, for
some reason my camera just would not focus on the choir. The video is blurred but I did capture the
singing.
We
passed a little garden as you come off the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan
side and the tulips were in bloom.
And
of course we passed the new Liberty Tower at the World Trade Center. I don’t know what that weird sculpture is out
in front, but who understands modern art?
This post gives me so much joy. I have always felt Matthew has musical talent. He has always had a talent to pick up a song’s tune and remember the lyrics. The children’s choir at church is something he has always wanted to do, but he had to wait until third grade to participate. Well, this year he started third grade and Wednesday night was the first practice. The musical director thought his voice wonderful, so wonderful that she had him lead the Alleluia at his very first Sunday Mass with the choir.
I was able to film him at yesterday’s Mass. Here he is leading the Alleluia.
Unfortunately
the video is not sharp enough to see Matthew singing. The first recitation is Matthew solo, and I
think you can hear how sweet his voice is.
When the entire congregation responds with the second and third recitations
unfortunately you can hear an ugly male voice in the forefront of the voices. He was near my phone and I’ll have another
word on him at the end.
But
I also filmed the entire chorus during two of their hymns. First, the offertory hymn, “Open My Eyes,
Lord.”
That’s
Matthew with the white shirt with the pink sleeves. That’s the musical director playing piano,
the younger children of the choir toward the front, and the older in the
back.
Here
during the recessional hymn, “Though the Mountains May Fall.”
The
kids are wonderful, and the music director, Debbie Williams, is great with the
kids. You don’t hear it with the
children’s choir, but she has a wonderful voice. I think she’s opera trained.
Now
back to that ugly man’s voice in the Alleluia.
I must confess. That was me, and
I’m very embarrassed about it. I’ve
said, there are two types of Italian men, those that can sing and those that
think they can sing. I’m ashamed to say
I’m of the second type obviously. I don’t
realize how bad I actually sound until I hear it played back. Matthew has been making fun of me ever since
we heard the recordings.
