What Hobbits Can Teach Us About Music for Mass

MARCH 13, 2023 What Hobbits Can Teach Us About Music for Mass MARK HAAS As human beings, we experience life through our senses. What we hear, taste, see, touch, and smell can have lasting effects on our psyche. The Catholic Mass should sound, taste, look, feel, and smell like something from another world, as it is from another world. The Mass is heaven coming down to touch earth. When you step off the street and into a Catholic Church, you should be transported to something far different from your ordinary life. Music for the liturgy should embody an other-worldly nature. It should be counter-cultural. In 2007, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gave instruction to music directors: “The liturgy, though it must always be properly enculturated, must also be counter-cultural.” (Sing to the Lord, 12) Similarly, in 2019, Pope Francis spoke about liturgical music: “[Liturgical music] is not just any music, but holy music…Above all, clearly distinct and different from that used for other purposes.” Liturgical music, at its best, expresses a beauty that draws us out of our current time/space/culture/etc. This music can lift us toward God, Who is outside of time and space. Such music nudges the spirit to...

Salesian January, Don Bosco conquers TV in Italy

07 January 2022 (ANS – Rome) – After just a few days of broadcasting, there has already been much positive feedback to the transmission of the Eucharist from the Salesian Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome – every day, three times a day, live on TV2000, and Sunday also on Canale 5. And on Sunday 30 January, on the eve of the Feast of Don Bosco, Rai 1 will also broadcast a “Salesian” Mass with live coverage of the Eucharist that the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, will preside from the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians of Valdocco, Turin. Starting from 1 January, and for the whole month, TV2000 (channel 28 of the Digital Terrestrial, 157 of the Sky platform), the television broadcaster of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), is broadcasting Masses live every day from the Sacred Heart at 7, 8:30, and 19 (UTC + 1) – the latter also retransmitted simultaneously by Radio InBlu, the radio station of the CEI, and on www.vaticannews.va. Furthermore, on Sundays 2, 16, 23, and 30 January, the Mass celebrated in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at 10 am (UTC + 1) is also broadcast on Canale 5, which on those occasions provides the live...

Throughout January live Masses from Rome’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart

31 December 2021 (ANS – Rome) – 2022 opens with good news for the Salesian Family and all the sympathizers and friends of Don Bosco: starting tomorrow, 1 January, and until the feast of Don Bosco, 31 January, TV2000 will broadcast Mass live every day from the Salesian Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome. Furthermore, on Sundays throughout the month, Canale 5 will also broadcast the Mass from the same basilica. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, TV2000, the television broadcaster of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), has decided to strengthen the religious events broadcast on its frequencies in order to accompany and render a service to viewers and faithful. For this reason, every month the Eucharistic celebration is broadcast live from a different parish or shrine in Italy, every day, in three different time slots. For the month of January, the Salesian month, the choice fell on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, located in the heart of Rome and part of the same complex that today houses the Salesian Headquarters. Starting tomorrow, therefore, TV2000 (channel 28 of the Digital Terrestrial, 157 of the Sky platform) will broadcast live Masses at 7, 8:30 and 19 (UTC + 1) every day...

Marian Shrine Christmas Schedule & Announced Masses 2021

December Dawns…And so we begin the last month of 2021. There is plenty to celebrate: Advent continues, St. Nicholas Day, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception & Christmas. MARIAN SHRINE Christmas Mass Schedule:December 24 – Friday – Christmas Vigil Mass – 7:00 pmWe will have our regular 11:00 am Confessions & 12 noon Mass during the day.December 25 – Saturday – Christmas Day – 11:00 am & 12:30 pmDecember 26 – Sunday – Regular Sunday Masses – 11:00 am & 12:30 pmThe December Announced...

US Bishops Foster Eucharistic Devotion with New Document

CHURCH UNITED STATES BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE EUCHARIST The Bishops of the United States vote to approve a document entitled “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church”, and link it to a pastoral plan for Eucharistic renewal. By Devin Watkins US Bishops are calling on American Catholics to “enter more deeply by faith and love” into the Mystery of Mysteries, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Meeting for the Fall General Assembly of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Bishops on Wednesday approved a document dedicated to the Eucharist with a secret electronic vote of 222 in favor and 8 against, with 3 abstentions – an overwhelming consensus of over 95%. Entitled “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” the document is divided into two sections: “Christ’s gift of Himself in the Eucharist and our response to that gift.” According to USCCB president Archbishop José Gómez, the document is closely linked to a separate initiative to promote Eucharistic renewal, including plans for a National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Returning to the Table of the Lord The Eucharistic document seeks to remind Catholics of...