First of all, this post is pertaining to the happenings yesterday, Friday the 25th. I was expecting to have the stamina to give you all an update, but things didn’t pan out as they should have. Yesterday was certainly the busiest day, and yet, also the most fulfilling. We had breakfast as usual, had chant rehearsal, etc. . . but in addition to all the normal sessions, we had a Renaissance Polyphonic Vespers. It was beyond my wildest expectations. There were three choirs scattered around the church, each assigned certain antiphons, certain motets, and certain psalms which were sung with alternating chant and polyphony.
Two priests emerging from a polyphony rehearsal.
What was truly inspiring about that, though, was that the sanctuary was packed with real priests, young men in seminary, pre-seminary, and high school, and some of the most brilliant minds in sacred music today. In the sanctuary were a priest from the FSSP, an Oratorian, a diocesan priest, a priest from the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, and seminarians from Canada, New Orleans, and Arlington. The entire service was an experience of liturgical ecstasy. Unfortunately, I did not take any video, audio, or photos of the service. There were, however, professionals recording every aspect of the ceremony.
A Passionist nun partaking in a cool beverage at Starbucks
After the Vespers service (and the Mass which preceded it), I sat down for dinner with two nuns, one a Poor Clare from New York City, and one a Passionist Sister from Duquesne University. They were astounded to see people from Rochester, and we were astounded to see nuns who were wearing habits and weren’t over 70 years old. Folks, Rochester is so demented I can’t even begin to tell you the mental and spiritual cleansing that this Colloquium has been.
As I type this, I’m sitting in one of the campus cafe’s, listening to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” What a wonderful world, indeed. Last night as I walked back to the dorms, a group of young people had taken out their violins and just burst forth into song, playing Mozart with such spirit and gusto as I have seldom heard before. I would relate more to you, but my time is a precious and rare commodity which is being mined to exhaustion by the folks of the Church Music Association of America. And for that, I am immeasurably glad.
Tags: Colloquia 2010 and 2011, Liturgy, Music Sacred Catholic Liturgical and Chant, Orthodoxy at Work
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