Here’s the core of the idea:

Sometimes the summer “break” feels a little weird because our kids are grown up and I’m running my [...]]]> I’m really enjoying God’s gift of yearly cycles.  During the summer, especially, is my time to refresh, re-energize, and re-commit.  This is possible because so many things slow down during this season as people focus on vacations and family.

Sometimes the summer “break” feels a little weird because our kids are grown up and I’m running my own business, but that’s a topic for another day.

For the last three years, I’ve gone to the Sacred Music Colloquium.  It’s totally consuming and draining, but my spirit is renewed for the coming year.  I’ve been able to work with so many deeply talented and spiritual people, and have ideas I can take back to my parish.

It’s also a time to connect with each member of our Schola one on one, to see how things are going for them.  Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to call this week, though, as most people were out in connection with the upcoming holiday.  That’s OK – we’ll connect over the course of the coming month.

I’ll be looking at doing another parish chant workshop this year, as that was so well received last summer and helped double the size of our schola.  I’ve got some wonderful ideas to work with that came from the instructors and attendees at the Colloquium.

It’s also a time of reflection and planning for our upcoming RCIA year.  I’m excited that we’re going to take a day to focus on this next week, to see what needs to be adjusted.  We’ve been doing this during the summer for many years, and it’s always a great exercise to get the RCIA team aligned and focused on the most important thing:  Bringing people to God.

What could be more important?

I’ll also be making recordings next week of Colloquium XX in Pittsburg, so let [...]]]> If you want the audio recordings from the 2008 or 2009 Sacred Music Colloquiums in Chicago, drop me an email.  They’re available on the website at music.dierschow.com/2008Colloquium and music.dierschow.com/2009Colloquium, but the recordings are pretty huge if you want to download ALL of them.

I’ll also be making recordings next week of Colloquium XX in Pittsburg, so let me know if you would like to get a copy of that.

I’ve made a number of data CDs of these recently, including a couple that I’m taking to Pittsburg.  These are DATA CDs – just a number of ZIP files – because the audio CD versions would take at least a dozen discs.

So drop me an e-mail if you’re interested!

I’m glad that this one wasn’t the first time we got together, [...]]]> For the third time now, we pulled together all the chant choirs from the parishes in Fort Collins to do a single Mass.  Or in this case, two: one at my home parish, and one next Sunday at the most traditional church building in town.

I’m glad that this one wasn’t the first time we got together, because it was just crazy.  Just to give you a feel for it, the planning was again done by three directors, and we never actually got together and met.  On top of that, we had four practices, and never had more than one of the directors at each.

I felt particularly bad, because I didn’t attend any of the practices myself, having been waylaid in London last week due to the volcano.

But with God’s grace, it came together this morning.  Not perfect by any means, but God doesn’t demand perfection.  He just wants to give all for His worship and glory.

My deep thanks go out to all the singers this morning, who especially showed grace and enthusiasm despite some big-time chaos.  And I know we’re all looking forward to next week, when we have the chance to sing in a wonderfully resonant space.  I think that will blow a lot of people away who haven’t had the chance to sing that way before.

The reason for mentioning it here is that our chant schola is featured – [...]]]> There was an interesting piece on a local news channel about a teacher at the University of Northern Colorado who uses the Ward Method to successfully teach music.  I haven’t met her yet, although I’ve been interested to attend one of her workshops.

The reason for mentioning it here is that our chant schola is featured – OK, for maybe ten seconds – in reference to the Ward Method growing out of Gregorian Chant in the Catholic Church.

Check it out on the 9News website.

I’m heavily involved with the RCIA program in our parish, which builds toward the Night of All Nights that we just experienced yesterday.  A three hour Mass brings into clear focus how we are to act [...]]]> I absolutely love this time of year.  Easter is a chance for a deep spiritual renewal – in so many ways.

I’m heavily involved with the RCIA program in our parish, which builds toward the Night of All Nights that we just experienced yesterday.  A three hour Mass brings into clear focus how we are to act as believers, and to help others on their paths toward redemption.

Tuesday night the RCIA class will have a reflection on this weekend’s mysteries, which is undoubtedly the best class of the entire year.  Usually we can’t stop people from pouring their hearts out, which strengthens others and reinforces within themselves.

Our chant schola sang for the Good Friday Veneration, and I was very pleased with the result.  We did almost the same music we did last year for Good Friday, so most people were pretty comfortable with the music.  As an added bonus, we had a local TV station film our practice, to be combined into a segment about a professor at Colorado State University who helps tone deaf singers by teaching them Gregorian Chant with the Ward Method.  They’re saying that the segment should air on Denver Channel 9 (KUSA) this Friday, but of course things can always change.  If you want to be specifically notified, drop me an e-mail at carl@dierschow.com.

A very blessed Easter season to all of you: Use the upcoming weeks to build your new spiritual life!  Christus resurrexit!

One of the challenges is to make the offer to our pastor, and to the person [...]]]> Back in November we got people from all the parishes in Fort Collins together to sing sacred music for Mass.  That was so wonderful, we’re going to do it again!  We’re looking at the end of February, at my home parish.

One of the challenges is to make the offer to our pastor, and to the person who normally leads music for that Mass, in such a way that they’re likely to be excited about this opportunity.  I’ll be focusing on how this can help make the Mass a special liturgical experience, build relationships with the other parishes, and give an opportunity to promote truly sacred music.

When we got together to make plans, it was interesting to see how hard it was for the three of us to make decisions.  Each of us has radically different expertise, and nobody is the clear decision maker.  We’re each trying to bring our gifts, contribute ideas and observations, and support each other in achieving our various goals.  Goals which aren’t always clearly articulated, of course.

But it works!  We focused on what would be the best fit for the second Sunday of Lent, for the skill of the singers, for the pastor and the congregation, and for the limited amount of practice time that we’ll have.

Again, it comes down to trusting in the Holy Spirit.

It was amazing.

Not perfect, mind you – that might be a bit much to expect for how little time we had to practice together – but there’s no question that the Holy Spirit [...]]]> In my last post, I talked about the first city-wide chant scholae Mass that we put together.  Well, the Mass was last night, and…

It was amazing.

Not perfect, mind you – that might be a bit much to expect for how little time we had to practice together – but there’s no question that the Holy Spirit was with us as we helped to bring the congregation to prayer.

We had 24 of us there, representing four parishes in town.  Trying to reconcile the different skill levels and styles was, well, interesting, but also a wonderful learning experience for all of us.

I captured the recordings and a couple of photos on my website, click here.

I have to say that I’m humbled by the power of the Holy Spirit here in our presence.  It was an incredibly powerful, and holy, experience for me.

I wasn’t surprised to find a lot of little details which we had different – a couple [...]]]> Last time I talked about the upcoming big chant gathering we have next Sunday.  Well, we had our practice yesterday, and finally got a chance to meet and find out what we’ve learned, and whether it was the same thing.

I wasn’t surprised to find a lot of little details which we had different – a couple words here, a dotted punctum there – but it was quite a few.  You’d like to think that the basic chants are exactly the same from one book to another, but they’re not.

I was really glad that everyone had such a sense of humor and an extra dose of patience.  There’s still some details yet to be resolved (one of the schola directors was out with swine flu yesterday) but we’ll get there.

And it will be glorious, because this is about God, not us.  This takes deep trust.

That’s what we’re praying for.

It’s [...]]]> We now have less than two weeks to go until we have the scholas from 3 Fort Collins parishes join together to sing a single Mass on November 15th.  Actually, I found out that we can claim four parishes, because a gentleman has joined us from Greeley who is the “one person schola” for his parish.

It’s a bit of test for our faith.

First, we only have ONE chance (next Sunday) to practice together as a single group, and no doubt a lot of decisions are going to be made that afternoon.  The Ordinaries are different (Mass XI) than what my group is used to, so they’re having to learn this in a short period of time.  The group has also found out how much I re-draw each of the songs, because now we’re singing some straight out of Parish Book of Chant and other sources.  It’s not like I do a lot, but even subtle things by putting the end of each line at a breath mark – that’s throwing people off.

But we have to learn sometime, this is as good an opportunity as any.

It doesn’t help that my group is also singing a Mass next Sunday, so we had to spend most of the practice time yesterday on THAT music (which is sounding great!) rather than the music for the 15th.

I’ve learned to trust in the Holy Spirit, and to remind myself:  We don’t have to be perfect.  Our job is to remind the congregation that GOD is perfect.

And it helps to have a sense of humor, not to take it all so seriously.  We’ll do fine.