Thanks to Gerald Sarafin for this:

Prayer for Acceptance of God's Will

O Lord, I do not know what to ask of You.
You alone know what are my true needs.
You love me more than I myself know how to love.
Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me.
I dare not ask either for a cross or consolation.
I can only wait on You.
My heart is open to You.
Visit and help me, for the sake of Your great mercy.
Strike me and heal me, cast me down and raise me up.
I worship in silence Your holy will and Your unsearchable ways.
I offer myself as a sacrifice to You.
I have no other desire than to fulfill Your will.
Teach me to pray.
Pray You Yourself in me.
Amen.

Attributed to either 17th Century Archbishop Francois Fenelon or Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, depending on your flavor preferences. As Gerald points out, it's nice to have the prayer in cvommon, regardless of the attribution...

Off for a Few

To: The 3rd Annual home Recording Jamfest and Barbecue, Andover, CT, August 8-10.

Backson...

For the benefit of my St. Blog's colleague AAE and the slow but steady stream of Adoremus visitors:

A somewhat more detailed review of the Cincinnati NPM Convention

Joys and sorrows, in no particular order:

1) J. Michael Thompson's Easter Procession (Litpress), a parallel to the stations of the cross, but designed for Easter season, was just excellent, both in concept and implementation. A great idea for giving the Easter season its due, and the ingenious mixing of choral responses with assembly responses really displayed the breadth of options. This is a topic that really deserves its own thread, but the short of it is that it is both innovative and yet strongly rooted in our traditions, and rock solid in its faith foundations. I really hope we take this to the world;

2) Though I'm looking forward to a second reading of the plenum addresses, I found myself largely put off by the one-sidedness of Mitchell and Ciferni's presentations. Coupled with the "GIRM and sacred texts" breakout I attended, which echoed the same point of view, I have to wonder if we limit our efficacy as an organization, in that there's a perception out there that we're squarely in the liberal camp, liturgically. I know at least one music minister who was not allowed to attend by his pastor, for precisely that reason. I believe we might have been served better by hearing a few dissenting voices as well;

3) I really got a kick out of Jennifer Breedlove's "solution" to the bilingual text issue at the WLP reading session. The response was bilingual, but the verses were sung line-by-line, with the choir singing a line in English, holding the last chord, while the cantor sang in Spanish over the held chord. Very nicely done - A very musical and prayerful approach to a thorny problem. I'd used the same approach with Latin and English once (on an Agnus Dei), but never thought to combine Spanish and English that way;

4) Ran into (a) my first choir director, (b) a musician from neighboring parish, (c) a co-keyboardist from an old parish, and (d) a Pittsbugh compadre (whom I'd never seen before or since) from the '99 convention. Seemed like every time I'd turn around, there was another blast from the past;

5) "Clown of God" (WLP) was a truly enjoyable drama, marred only by some serious feedback problems and some heavy mic pops. Funny how you only notice the sound engineering when it falls short. I also have to question whether a typical parish would really be able to pull that off, as claimed in the writeup. Fun nonetheless; and

6) Other magic moments: Val Parker and Rick Reed at the Millennium Hotel piano, Durufle at Pipedreams, discovering Concordia's Laudate and Jubilate series, SAVAE's Ancient Echoes concert, Skyline chili (but I'll stick to Detroit's coneys, thank you), the St. Meinrad Chant workshop, the John Bell concert, and FINALLY getting the NPM Detroit chapter off the ground!!!

Whew!

Canon Law / Labor Law Collide

So much for Catholic teachings on social justice. Kinda reminds me of labor advocate Bruce Springsteen's issues with his road crew a few years back - do as I say, not as I do?

I'd really like to see us (NPM) get something going with the American Federation of Musicians, but this idea seems to get a collective yawn from my colleagues. Maybe they're picturing a Brownsville-type reception...

Thanks to Aristotle Esguerra for the link. I hope he makes the gathering in Milwaukee. I've been gently chided by one of my NPM pals for the lefty comment - he felt it was a pretty balanced presentation. Recordings of the lectures are available from WLP if you're interested. Or the next issue of Pastoral Musician will have the texts.

And --- it seems Adoremus has found me as well. They have a lovely hymnal...

Quote of the Day

Sunday has to be connected to Monday. If it isn't, we aren't who we say we are.

I don't have an attribution, but thanks to fellow musician Ken for sending it...

Happy Birthday, Sunshine!!!

And Grandpa promises he'll get a new picture up here soon...

YMBK! Dianetics?

Or something very much like it.

But if this means I could finally play GROSSER GOTT straight through without hosing it up a few times first, I'd sign up in a heartbeat...

No wonder I understand VB

Man, this is depressing...

Back from Cinci

What a blast! Great to see all my old internet / church music pals again, plus met a few for the first time. It's always a bit of a shock to find out what someone really looks like.

I gotta take back part of my comment about "not just a bunch of lefty guitar pickers anymore", however. The lefties still run this place. Most strongly evidenced by the plenum addresses, but also in my class on the GIRM and musical texts.

I am probably more lefty than righty, but I REALLY would have liked some balance. what we got instead was a good deal of carping about the illegitimi in Rome, and promises that the wind would shift again. This was particularly troublesome in my GIRM class, where I had hoped to find out details on how the new rules would play out. It may still be too early in the process, but our presenter didn't seem to want to touch on that anyhow - rather to expound on how the crafters of Liturgiam Authenticam had really missed the mark, and how there would have to be yet another instruction soon.

OTOH, there ARE 2000 organists in NPM now, so some more balance there. And we got the Detroit NPM Chapter going, 22 years after we first tried it. I'll be running the mail list, and technically will be their so-called webmaster (because in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king). Should be interesting.

Here's a groaner:

Jesus and the Apostles were together, and there was a crowd with them. Jesus spoke:

"-y = x2 - 3x + 5",

then fell silent again.

There was a stirring of the crowd, who appeared puzzled. One of the crowd leaned over to an apostle and asked "what does this mean?"

The apostle replied, "Sounds like another one of Jesus' parabolas."

Meet our new bishops

I've crossed paths with all these guys, but know little about any of them. My old pastor, Msgr. Mike Lefevre, is returning to the Cathedral after 10 years at St. Blase. Not sure his new role - parish pastor, maybe? Hope he's not just pushing paper - says a great mass. Some of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking homilies I've ever heard.

Monday Moanin'

Apologies to Bob Talbert, may he RIP.

My granddaughter found my eyeglass lens, in my recliner. So apparently I had lost it the night before, and not noticed til I got to work. So that's all better now.

Niece's 30th birthday on the fourth. Celebrated at her place on the fifth. She lives in the 3rd floor of an old house in Pontiac with a couple of guys. We dragged the whole family there - I got the sense they were waiting for us to leave so the REAL party could start. Lotsa drinking, lotsa 80's tunes, a pretty good spread, but HER friends still hadn't showed up. We left about 10:30.

Fourth was a family get-together. Kinda sad that only half the family comes anymore - everyone's mad at everyone else. Still a good time, the grandkids really enjoyed the pool. And I was introduced to Cisco, apparently the drink of choice in the hood. A 12oz bottle packs the same wallop as a 40 oz. malt liquor. The red tastes revolting, but the peach is pretty good. Good thing I wasn't driving - really easy to get toasted on that stuff.

Another reminder from my prof that I really need to move faster with my organ pieces. He's right of course...

...so I spent all my spare time this weekend working in the studio on a pop setting of some song lyrics someone posted in the HomeRec BBS (got the lyricist's permission first). I'm happy with the result, but, of course, it's not helping my organ class.

NPM convention next week - debated not going, since I'm not working in the field now. But I hadn't seen most of my NPM pals since '99, so I'm going anyhow. For RC musicians who wrote off NPM as a bunch of lefty guitar pickers, things have changed a lot. Much more emphasis on organ repertoire, implementing Vatican directives, and a generally scholarly tone that didn't used to be there. Not that we'd ever be confused with Adoremus or Call to Holiness. But much more centrist than in the past. A good place to be.

Great Day...

NOT!!!!

(1) Started off the day eating something that didn't agree. (2) Driving to work, noticed my temple screw had fallen out of my glasses. (3) Emergency gas station stop due to (1), finally got to work (4) late, where I finally noticed that (5) the lens had fallen out of my glasses. Checked car, office, and parking lot, apparently lens popped out at the gas station, 53 miles away. Called gas station, they hadn't seen it.

The most circuitous part of this is that if I'd had a bit more coffee in me, I'd have realized the (5) risk to my lenses when I noticed (2) the missing screw - but it may well have been the coffee that caused (1) and (3). And (4), really.

Sigh. I'm getting through the day, though. I'll stop at the gas station on the way home, see what I can find out. Oh yeah, (6) Kim can't find any of my old glasses...

Still Here

Work, school, fam, and recording projects are taking most of my time.

Playing catchup this summer - had music theory 30 years ago, sans the sightsinging. So I'm "refreshing" over the summer, covering 2 semesters of music theory and sight singing. First final is next week. Seems to be going well. Also taking organ, and took an impromptu (no credit) vocal course. VERY helpful.

In Organ, I worked up a Joncas hymntune (name escapes me), and am now working an a harmonization of SLANE by Erik Routley. Almost done with the Vierne Complainte I began last semester, and have a couple of Couperin's "Mass of the Parishes" pieces on the horizon. Nice to have permission to take as long as I need to get the hymntunes "just right", but I know I need more practice time. Finally got the Hammond fixed - big improvement. Will still practice at the college once a week - touch on the Allen is much closer to pipe than on le grand Hammond.

Until I read "ALL candles, no matter what their shape, must be banned.", I thought maybe they were serious.

I bet Scalia would buy in. He actually referred to "the gay agenda" in his minority opinion on today's ruling striking down Texas' sodomy laws.

There are many times I appreciate Scalia's onservative Catholic point of view. Times like THIS make it pretty clear he's got no sense of perspective, though...

A Turning Point, of Sorts

disclaimer - this was a November 2002 entry - some Blogger weirdness resequenced it, apparently...

Kim and I have a running joke about the fabulous movie "Home for the Holidays", a funny and touching study in family dysfunction. We rent it every year just before Thanksgiving, so that when her family gets together, we're reminded that there are families out there, albeit fictional ones, that are even worse than us.

Not THIS year, though. I mean we did watch the movie, but the fictional family finally got out-weirded by the real one. Announcements and fights about homosexuality, childhood sexual abuse, negligent mothering, self-centered money-grubbing, and pulpit-pounding flew, Kim's brother stormed out, Kim's sister stayed pissed at everyone for hours.

Food was great though. I'm thankful for my nice, the great cook, my wife, who tried so hard to love everyone in that room, my granddaughter, the belle of the ball, who at 16 months is the prettiest little girl on the planet...

...and for MY side of the family, who never gets together for anything except weddings and funerals. "I am truly blessed", he said, only half tongue-in-cheek.

Good news for a change...

Nice to see such a balanced response from the US Supreme Court on the U-M admissions case. The goals are okay, let's be careful with the methods.

Works for me, which more than I can say for my "Blog This!" button. Which DIDN'T work for me.

Dad
My Dad died a little over two years ago: 1/11/01, to be exact. Interesting, because he was an electronics engineer , and did a lot of machine language programming (i.e., zeroes and ones) on first and second generation computers.

He was born 77 years ago today, James Brewerton Ricketts Jr. Or the Fifth. He was the fourth in a line (II through V) named after his great-great-great-uncle, a Brigadier General in the Civil War. I was the Sixth (but officially III on my birth certificate), but I changed my name when I turned 18 - too much baggage, I thought. Kinda sorry now, but the deed is done.

Anyhow, Dad married my Mom in 1953. They separated in 1974, and divorced in 1979. Dad married his second wife, Dorothy, in 1981. They met 1/13/81, the funeral was 1/13/01. Twenty years on the nose.

Dad got a BS from MIT, and MS from UWM, had three kids, six grandkids, four stepkids, and nine stepgrandkids. He outlived his daughter, my sister Alison, and his stepdaughter, my stepsister Mary Ellen. He had a great-grandkid, and another on the way, when he died: Our grandson Wesley was 7 months old, and our granddaughter Alyssa was on the way. We hadn't told the family about it... they found out at the funeral. A few of them haven't spoken to us since. We WERE planning to tell them...

Dad had a severe stroke in '95, never really recovered. He was wheelchair bound, obese (hadn't been, before the stroke), incontinent, and had a REALLY hard time speaking. He wanted to know why God would keep him around in such a state. While I don't know the answer, I suspect (1) it gave him the opportunity to let someone care for him, and (2) it gave the people around him the opportunity to care for him. He became increasingly humble and gentle as his days went on, and his wife, my stepmom, never lost heart in caring for him, being his advocate, and just loving him.

I still miss you, Dad.

I Hope this is Photoshopped!