"Rays of Musical Light: Cloistered Nuns Share Record Label With Elton John"

From Catholic Online
By Sonja Corbitt

NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - "The whole world, compacted as it were together, was represented to [Benedict's] eyes in one ray of light" (The Life of Our Most Holy Father Saint Benedict, Pope Saint Gregory the Great).

It seems the cloistered, self-sufficient community of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation near Avignon, France, also sees the world through a Benedictine ray of light, and is about to diffuse a radiant love all over the world through the slow, soaring movements of their Gregorian chant.

Benedictine vows include Stability, Fidelity to the Monastic Life, and Obedience, and their communal life is centered around the eight canonical hours of the Divine Office. The Benedictine Divine Office is one of the most ancient daily observances of any kind anywhere in the world, and Gregorian chant is the oldest music ever written down.

Originating in the ancient Jewish prayer tradition, Benedictines continued the practice of daily singing of the psalms (meaning, songs) and have conducted the Divine Office for the 1500 years since St. Benedict first wrote and compiled his Rule. The Benedictine sisters at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation, following the Liturgy of the Hours, sing eight times a day.

Ora et Labora, Pray and Work

The mystery and poetry of Scripture at its earthly best, Benedictine prayer rolls on, as daily as parenting, washing dishes, and marriage. Its chant is a living, lived-in song, a relationship with God and Church revealed and expressed in ordinary, but sacred, words and music. It is benediction.

It is this blessing, this work of prayer at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation, France that attracted the attention of a talent scout for Decca Records. "When you hear them chanting, it's like an immediate escape from the stresses, noise and pace of modern living," he said of the prayer of Benedictine nuns cloistered there.

Decca Records is part of Universal Music, a British label which also produces albums by The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Amy Winehouse, U2 and Elton John. After chant first gained secular popularity through Enigma's chart successes in the 1990s, and the last Gregorian chant album released sold over a million albums, Decca Records went on a worldwide search for the finest female Gregorian chanters.

Their anxious ears finally came to rest on the lilting prayer of the Benedictine sisters in Avignon who were chosen over more than 70 other convents worldwide. Typically, prospective pop stars cannot garner enough publicity, but this group is slightly different.

Hidden Life

"We never sought this, it came looking for us," said the abbey's Reverend Mother in a statement released by Universal Music, and indeed, their seclusion posed some challenges for both the record label and the religious community.

"Before starting the recording we were a bit nervous," said English speaking Sister Raphael in an interview. She expressed the whole community's concern for the extraordinary project:

"We were a bit afraid of what was going to happen to our cloistered life, so we confided this to St. Joseph in our prayer: that if this was going to help people to pray, if it was going to help people find God, if it's going to help people find peace, [he should] make this go through."

And "go through" it did, presumably under his patronage and special protection. In accordance with St. Joseph's lifelong, heroic protection of the consecrated, Decca took exceptional measures to protect the isolation the nuns vow until death.

The album contract was passed to the sisters for their signature through the beautiful wood-worked partition that secludes them from the outside world, and recording engineers were only allowed into the convent when the nuns were in different parts of the abbey.

After setting up microphones in the chapel, they retreated to a separate room when the sisters sang, remotely directing the recording. To promote the album, the sisters filmed their own television commercial and photographed the album cover.

"We had to give the cameras to the nuns, because they had access to the more beautiful parts of the monastery," a Decca spokesperson remembered fondly, "so we had to actually hand everything over to them. And they were making their own TV advert, they were making their own CD cover, and it was a very interesting and different way of working."

A Ray of Musical Light

They have no access to newspapers, TV or radio, but the sisters are now on Facebook and YouTube, and their album, Voice: Chant from Avignon, will be released early this November. Remarkably, although the nuns never leave the convent, the whole world will feel the radiant peace of their singing.

"I think that our music appeals to a wider audience, secular and non-secular. The words have a very profound meaning that is coming from the Sacred Scripture. The singing in our daily lives is very important for us. It is our prayer," said Sister Raphael, conveying the heart of her community. It has been said that other than the Bible, the Benedictine Rule was the most influential book in the development of western civilization, a light in medieval darkness.

"It's not quite a question of how we feel when we sing, but who we are, and for whom we sing," the sisters confirm. Indeed, the chanted Office is a song of Love, and they consider this song as one way to contemplatively bring sacred, musical, Benedictine light to a dark, frantic, noisy world.

"The Monks of Le Barroux"

Fr. Zuhlsdorf has created a lengthy and beautiful post about the Monks of Le Barroux.

You can view his post HERE.

Learning Gregorian Chant in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) Seminary

Learning chant at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, NE.
Click HERE or on the picture above to see a slideshow about learning Gregorian Chant in seminary.

Interview with Cistercian Brothers from Stift Heiligenkreuz

"Mount St. Mary's Seminarians release first CD"

From Frederick News Post.com
By Ron Cassie

EMMITSBURG — After the Mount St. Mary's seminarian choir performed at the restored Baltimore Basilica in November 2007, several fans, including bishops attending the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, inquired if they had CDs available.

The answer was no. In its 200 years, the Mount's seminary choir has never performed any record-making. But a year later, a mobile recording unit pulled up in front of the Mount's Immaculate Conception Chapel to remedy that — and raise money to restore the Mount's chapel and organ.

The choir released its first CD, "Vespers Schola," on Dec. 8. Roughly 3,500 of the first 5,000 copies printed have been sold or given away, said Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vice president and rector at the seminary.

"We sent about 30 bishops copies for Christmas, and we've already had several send us notes back about what a wonderful CD it is," Rohlfs said. "We think we're going to have print another 5,000."

In 2010, the Mount will mark the 100th anniversary of its Immaculate Conception Chapel, and all the sale proceeds will go toward restoring the spiritual home of the school and seminary. The national Knights of Columbus, based in New Haven, Conn., have contributed $250,000 toward the purchase of the chapel's new organ. The Knight's supreme chaplain, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., is a Mount alum.

"The CD was released on the feast of Immaculate Conception, which is especially fitting in that it's the feast day of the chapel we're trying to restore," Rohlfs said.

"The whole project really shows Our Lady's grace in motion," said Frederick Ziegler, the Mount's organist and director of liturgical music.

The seminary's Vespers Schola (Schola is Latin for choir) performs 36 songs of liturgical music on the CD, including "Panis Angelicus," "To You Do We Come Seeking Mercy," three versions of "Ave Maria," an entire Sunday solemn Vesper's (evening prayer) service and Gregorian chants.

Seminarian Jason Burchell, 28, in a press release from the Mount, described singing in the schola as "a beautiful way to convey a love for Christ."

"We sing not because we want to polish our musical backgrounds, but to inspire, evangelize, and grow in our relationship with Christ," he said.

Seminarian Mike Zimmer, 24, said the CD is "an opportunity to slow down and really absorb the music, which will hopefully foster a setting that is more open to God."

On one hand, Rohlfs said there has been a renaissance of interest over the past few decades in Gregorian Chant records.

"I imagine that this CD will tap into that," he said.

During the academic year, the public can see and hear the choir at 9 a.m. Sunday Masses and 5 p.m. Sunday Vesper services at the Immaculate Conception Chapel.

"It's a truly magnificent CD," said Rohlfs, who noted the Mount's choir benefits from having 150 seminarian singing voices to choose from. "It's certainly the best CD in 25 years that I've ever heard from a seminary choir, without a doubt.

"As I rector," Rohlfs said with a small laugh, "I have to say that regardless, but I am telling the truth."

"We're not pop stars, say chart-topping monks"

From The Australian

By Iain Shedden, Music writer

BROTHER Johannes Paul and Brother Edmund are not the only monks visiting Sydney this week, but they must be the only two whose debut CD is in the charts across most of Europe.

The two young men, along with 15 others from the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz in Austria, have shocked the music industry - and the church - by becoming pop stars with their Gregorian chant music, recorded in their 12th-century monastery near Vienna.

Even more surprisingly, their success has come after they posted a home-made video of their chanting on YouTube for the benefit of tourists.

Yesterday in Sydney the brothers, who are leading a group of 40 Austrian teenagers on a pilgrimage to World Youth Day, were playing down their new-found fame.

"We don't feel like pop stars," said Brother Johannes Paul, 25. "We are monks. As monks, what we do is pray. We published this CD with these prayers. We're happy that many people have listened to it and that we have made people happy. But we don't want to be pop stars."

The monks' CD, Chant: Music For Paradise, came about after Father Karl Wallner from the monastery entered their video in a talent quest organised by record company Universal.

The CD, released in Australia last week, entered the British charts at No7 and topped the Austrian charts when it was released in May.

They can count the Pope among their legion of fans; the pontiff visited the monastery last year to hear them chant.

"The Pope is very devoted to the ancient forms of Christian prayer," said Brother Edmund, 24, "especially the Gregorian chants that we practise in our monastery, so he wanted to come and pray with us."

Unlike most musicians, the monks' day-to-day devotion begins with prayers at 5.15am.

"Life in the monastery is very beautiful," Brother Edmund said. "We dedicate that life completely to God in a harmonious way. With these beautiful ancient chants, we express this life."

Money raised from the CD will be used for the monastery's theology training program.

"We have a papal college for theology students, many from Third World countries, so the more CDs we can sell, the more we can support these students," Brother Johannes Paul said.

The brothers' main source of excitement this week, he added, was "to celebrate our faith and to see the Pope".

"So far (this week) we've only seen him in the newspaper," said Brother Johannes Paul.

"Latin Mass Workshop in Chicago a Success"

From Catholic Online

CHICAGO, IL (MAY 28, 2008) - Ever since Pope Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum in 2007, Marytown and the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius have been hard at work to educate priests how to offer the Extraordinary Form of the Mass according to the 1962 Missale Romanum. Their multi-media website, http://www.sanctamissa.org/, is not yet one-year old, yet it has already given assistance to priests throughout the world learning to offer the usus antiquor.

Because many priests regularly approach the Canons Regular for personal training in the Extraordinary Form, it seemed advantageous to them to offer a formal group-training workshop for priests so that the requests of more clergy could be met. Working in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Canons Regular received the blessing of Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, to carry out this work of formation, so that the pastoral needs of Catholics today could be better addressed. His Eminence also suggested inviting seminarians to the workshop so that they would also be able to gain from this liturgical and pastoral formation experience.

With enthusiasm, priests and seminarians descended upon the campus of Mundelein Seminary on May 19, 2008, to attend a hands-on workshop on the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass of the Roman Rite held at the Cardinal Stritch Retreat House. For the next five days, these priests and seminarians, who hailed not only from the Archdiocese of Chicago, but from all over the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Italy, and the Philippines, would study the ceremony, ritual, rubrics of the Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

Each day the participants of the workshop had an opportunity to attend celebrations Prayers at the Foot of the Altar and Mundelien Seminaryof the Traditional Latin Mass, ranging from Missa Pontificalis to Missa Lecta. Hosted by the Conventual Franciscans, the Missa Pontificalis and Missa Solemnis were celebrated at Marytown. The celebration of the Missa Cantata was held three times during the week at the St. Mary Chapel of Mundelein Seminary. The participants were greeted with warm hospitality by our hosts at Marytown and Mundelein, and everyone enjoyed participating in the robust singing of the Gregorian chant ordinaries and responses.

During the workshop, the Most Rev. Joseph N. Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago (photo at left), presented a talk entitled The Spirituality of the Traditional Latin Mass, showing how the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Mass, held in equal honor, can enrich the Catholic faithful in parish life. Plunging into the spiritual depths of the Traditional Latin Mass, Bishop Perry inspired all to receive the Extraordinary Form as a gift from the Church, meant to nourish souls with the grace of God.

Rev. C. Frank Phillips, C.R., Pastor of St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, and Founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, gave a lecture entitled The Extraordinary Form in Parish Life Today, detailing ways in which the celebration of classical form of the Liturgy can be successfully integrated into parochial life and help provide Catholics of all ages with a deep appreciation of the heritage and tradition that is ours.

While the priests of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius instructed the priests in the celebration of Low Mass and High Mass, the brothers taught the seminarians in attendance how to serve at the altar. Additional tutorials were provided in the correct pronunciation of ecclesiastical Latin as well as in Gregorian chant.

The workshop filled the Cardinal Stritch House to its capacity and had a waiting list of priests who expressed a desire to attend. Due to the popularity and success of this workshop, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius are scheduling future training workshops for priests and seminarians at the Cardinal Stritch House.

The entire success of this workshop was entrusted to Our Blessed Mother, and each day the priests and seminarians begged her intercession as they continued to study the celebration of the Extraordinary Form, so that they might return to their parishes and serve the faithful attracted to the Sacred Liturgy celebrated according to the venerable traditions of our fathers.

Photos and more details can be found here: www.sanctamissa.org/en/workshop-article.html

Sandals & Fiddlebacks

Yes! Wonderful - Franciscans of the Immaculate celebrating the Extraordinary Form. Not just that, but they have put together a fantastic video of the Mass with exceptionally beautiful music provided by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. Benedictines, Dominicans, Cistercians, and Carmelites all have communities that have either recently or long since embraced the Extraordinary Form, espeically in the wake of Summorum Pontificum. Many of these communities have not just celebrated the Mass in the Extraordinary Form, but have fully embraced our Holy Father's theology and teachings about the liturgy that went into his issuing of the Motu Proprio (Continuity of Reform). This strikes me as particularly important as a part of a renewal in some religious communities. When one thinks of the long line of Franciscan Saints, going all the way back to their Seraphic Father Francis, they would have all celebrated or assisted at a Mass that either was the Tridentine Mass, or was something very close to it - in the couple of hundred years before the Council of Trent. The Capuchins would have spent the vast majority of history celebrating this Mass. Saint Padre Pio famously refused to celebrate the Ordinary Form, and some of the last video we have of him, is of him celebrating Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Now a beautiful video once again showing sandled Friars in fiddlebacks...

Hat tip to New Liturgical Movement

"Austrian monks win recording contract with YouTube clip"

Read my recent post about the Cistercian Monks from Heiligenkreuz HERE. Youtube video to go with the article below is at the bottom of this post.

Monday, March 24, 2008 12:26 PM CBC News

A group of Austrian monks have signed a major recording contract after submitting a YouTube clip of their Gregorian chanting.

Universal Music put out a call in religious publications for "monks, men of the cloth and sacred singers" in February.

Recording executives were inundated with hundreds of demos but said the monks from the Heiligenkreuz monastery stood head and shoulders above the competition.

Tom Lewis said he was "blown away" by the quality of the monks' singing.

"It was beautiful, beautiful music, and they're using the very latest in terms of communication devices available to them to get their music heard," Lewis told BBC News.

"They're lovely people, they're very passionate about their music and they're very excited about this opportunity."

Universal is hoping to re-create the success of the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo De Silos in northern Spain, who reinvigorated interest in Gregorian chanting through a CD that sold in excess of five million worldwide in the early 1990s.

The Gregorian chant is a melodic ritual song that has its roots dating back to the sixth century.

There are 80 monks at Heiligenkreuz, a Cistercian monastery located in the Vienna woods that dates back to 1133.

An album, set for global release later this year, will be recorded next month.

The monastery's Rev. Karl Wallner said the album would include about a dozen singers.

"It's a fun experience because I didn't think they would choose us — it was just for fun that we [contacted] them. It's a good thing because Gregorian chant is part of spirituality and our life."

Wallner also said he didn't think his monks were on the level of music superstars.

"We're not Robbie Williams or Michael Jackson, we're just a group of monks who sing every day."

Carmelite Monks in Wyoming #3

Below is an article from the Billings Gazette about the Carmelite Monks is Wyoming

Clark monks release chant CD
By RUFFIN PREVOST
Gazette Wyoming Bureau

CLARK - In winter, the vast, scenic countryside around the tiny foothills community of Clark is serene and quiet. The frigid air and lingering snow cover seem to compress any sound before it is swept away on the Wyoming wind.

On a morning walk down one particular gravel road, one might hear the screech of a distant hawk, or perhaps the crunching sound of deer cautiously stepping through frozen brush.

A trip to the far end of the road might reward early risers with a surreal auditory delight: the medieval melody of Gregorian chant, borne on the wind from behind a high wooden fence.

For the past two years, the Carmelite monks of Clark have risen at 4 a.m. to begin each day in prayer, often performing the centuries-old chants in worship.

And now they've recorded a CD to share their chants with others in hopes of raising funds for a host of ambitious projects. "The Mystical Chants of Carmel" features 14 traditional prayers and hymns in Latin.

"We wanted to make a CD where people could listen to it and meditate or pray," said Father Daniel Mary. "Chant has that very peaceful, soothing quality."

Father Daniel - who was born Daniel Schneider, but like all monks in his order, has adopted Mary as his surname to honor the Blessed Virgin - smiles broadly as he discusses the transcendent power of chant.

"Some of the chants, like 'Audi Filia,' you can tell the soul that created it was totally inspired, totally immersed in God and prayer," he said.

Ancient music

Codified in the ninth century by St. Gregory, Gregorian chant was adopted from Jewish temples and developed over the centuries into a cornerstone of Roman Catholic Mass, Father Daniel said.

Father Daniel and the other six monks in his monastery spend up to eight hours a day in prayer, with much of that time devoted to chanting.

"Our prayer life is quite active," said Father Daniel. "All day long, you have times you come together in the chapel as part of that process.

"The chant CD is mostly the prayers we do from the Mass. All of our prayer in liturgy and Mass is chanted in Latin," he said.

Father Daniel, a native of Clark, founded the monastery two years ago with Michael Wright, who is now Brother Michael Mary.

They had been living in a Minnesota monastery that was more hermetic and isolated, and wanted to establish an order in Wyoming rooted in the Carmelite tradition of an agrarian lifestyle.

The Clark monastery opened in October 2003, in a ceremony at which the bishop of the Archdiocese of Wyoming symbolically closed it off from the world of profane cares outside.

"When Bishop Ricken shut the gates, at that moment, there was this extraordinary peace and sense of God's presence," Father Daniel said. "And that's the way it remains - very much a peaceful environment."

Brother Michael said he felt freedom, rather than isolation. He said his life before he was cloistered was filled with worldly distractions.

"Then, all of a sudden, the doors were closed," he said, "and I had this freedom of my soul to just waste myself in prayer, with nothing holding me back."

Father Daniel acknowledges that the monks' presence in Clark has raised a few eyebrows.

"We're an exotic species here," he jokes, saying people often observe through binoculars as the monks hike to a cross at the top of a hill behind the monastery.

"We sometimes wear a hunting jacket to let them know we're human," he said.

Word of the Wyoming monks spread, and their numbers have grown from two to seven. One young member learned of the Clark monastery through Google, an Internet search engine.


"He just loves it here," Father Daniel said of 20-year-old Brother Simon, who hails from New York. "To him it's like a foretaste of Heaven.

"And for all the other brothers, it's the same thing," he said. "It's amazing how God calls them. It seems deeply rooted in their soul to give their life to God with prayer. That's why they come."

The monks accept prayer requests from nearby St. Barbara's Catholic Church in Powell, and from other sources across rural northwest Wyoming.

Some leave phone messages asking for prayers, while others - sometimes two or three people a day - trek to the remote monastery and ring a bell outside the walls to summon a monk.

"People realize monks are there to pray for the world," Father Daniel said. "We want to intercede before God, to be channels of grace for the world."

No distractions

The monks enter the monastery on a six-year journey culminating in a vow of lifelong commitment to the order, pledging poverty, chastity and obedience to the church.

The telephone is used mainly to accept calls requesting prayers. Radio, TV and Internet are forbidden as unwelcome distractions. Outsiders are not allowed within the confines of the cloister.

Monks typically leave the monastery only for special reasons, like a medical emergency or the death of a relative.

Next to the monastery fence is a tiny cottage, which visitors enter through an outside door while the monks enter from within the monastery. Father Daniel jokingly calls it "the neutral zone."

Food and other necessities are brought by outside "runners," much as it has been done for centuries.

Applicants to the monastery, who come from all backgrounds and walks of life, are carefully screened by Father Daniel, who must be sure they are well-suited to the monastic discipline before accepting them into the order.

He said he has heard from more than 100 serious, qualified applicants, and expects to add another seven or eight new members over the next year.

The converted summer home that serves as their monastery can host a maximum of 15 men, making plans for expansion a top priority and a chief reason for the CD fundraiser.

"We can't turn anybody down," Father Daniel said. "If they're meant for us, we have to take them in. That's why we're already thinking about where we're going to found the next monastery."

Big plans

Father Daniel said the monks have reached an agreement with a benefactor to acquire 110 acres near Heart Mountain. Their hopes for the land now rest on raising money for its purchase, which he says they're working to accomplish, and finding well water on it, a goal whose success will depend on God.

Father Daniel hopes to build a monastery there with room for 30 monks, along with a church big enough for 500 worshipers and a hermitage, where visitors can sample for a few days or weeks the cloistered life of the monks.

Beyond that, he and Brother Michael have discussed plans to establish a monastery in Montana, somewhere between Billings and the Wyoming state line, which is just a few miles north of Clark.

As Father Daniel pages through a coffee table book of photographs of European cathedrals - talking of his plans for a gothic church in rural Wyoming - he displays a quiet, steady confidence born from a life of singular purpose and unquestioned commitment.

"It might be five years down the road, but we're going to do it," he said. "We have some people that could really finance this whole thing already behind us. They want to see us do our part, but we have no doubt it's going to happen."

For now, Father Daniel and the Carmelite monks of Clark are focused on a few simple agrarian goals, such as acquiring livestock and perhaps some chickens.

While the monks don't eat meat, tending to the animals and gardening - along with other work like making their own sandals or woodworking - are a large part of the discipline of monastic life.

Manual labor is one of the four pillars of a monk's daily routine, Father Daniel said, along with recreation, scripture study and prayer.

In prayer, the monks will continue to chant, he said, because chant "has a power to it that is out of this world, and it draws souls into transcendence."

Details

The monks' CD can be ordered online at www.carmelitemonks.org/chant.html. CDs can also be ordered by sending $15 plus $3.95 shipping and handling to Carmelite Monastery, P.O. Box 2747, Cody, WY 82414

Carmelite Monks in Wyoming #2 VIDEO LINK

Salt Lake Tribune slideshow, with beautiful pictures, about the Carmelite Monks in Wyoming.

Click here to go to the slideshow.

Visit the Carmelite Monks website.

Carmelite Monks in Wyoming #1

The post below was written by Deal Hudson on September 25, 2007 and orginally posted on his personal blog.

The Last Carmelite Monks in America

By Deal W. Hudson

The last eight Carmelite monks in America, perhaps even the world, live in a four-bedroom rectory in the mountains of northwest Wyoming.

With 35 candidates in various stages of discernment, they hope to move 70 miles away to a 492-acre property near Carter Mountain once owned by "Buffalo Bill" Cody as his hunting preserve.

"Buffalo Bill's house is dilapidated, but the newer lodge on the property was meant to be a monastery," said Rev. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified, the 40-year-old prior of the community.

"We are sleeping in all kinds of places all over the property -- one is sleeping in the library, one in the office -- we are going to have to be moving no matter what."

Father Daniel founded the community on October 15, 2003, when Bishop David Ricken of Cheyenne sealed their enclosure. For Father Daniel, it was a homecoming: His father, rancher Jerry Schneider, runs the Mt. Carmel Youth Ranch four miles up the road. The youth ranch, like the monastery, is starting to gain a national reputation. Parents who want help with troubled youngsters send them to Schneider.

Father Daniel exudes the same kind of can-do enthusiasm that animates his father, who is one of the most unforgettable characters you will ever meet -- a massive, soft-spoken cowboy with a deep devotion to the Mother of God. It's obvious to me where the son's determination comes from.

He left his life as a Carmelite hermit in Minnesota because they were losing their vocations. "Young men simply could not adjust to a solitary life; they needed a community -- that's why I asked for permission from the prior to start a monastic community."

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of Minneapolis gave Father Daniel permission to contact Bishop Ricken in Wyoming, who had let it be known that he was looking for Carmelites to live in his diocese. Archbishop Flynn said to me, "This is meant to be, this is of God." After the meeting with Flynn, Father Daniel called Bishop Ricken, who immediately invited him to Wyoming.

"I think we are the only community of Carmelite Monks in the world that live a cloistered life." The eight brothers live in a "constitutional enclosure," which they can leave only for medical reasons, not even for a death in the family.

They do, however, foster relationships with their families, who can stay at the guesthouse. The only contact the brothers have with people outside the community are the special visitors they invite to stay in the "speak room."

Though they don't meet with very many people outside the community, they do sell them coffee. On their Web site there is a tab for "Mystic Monk Coffee." Click the tab and you will find for sale an array of coffee beans "roasted solely by real monks who are passionate about coffee."

You will also be offered the doubled-handled "Mystic Monk Mug." Father Daniel explained, "It is a longstanding tradition that Carmelites drink coffee using both hands in thanksgiving for the fruits of the harvest."

Why coffee?, I asked him. "Out here in Wyoming there's not much you can do. I have a brother, Michael Mary, who worked in coffee shops all his life and really has a lot of knowledge about coffee, so we just went for the gusto and tried it." They started selling coffee in June of this year, and sales are already brisk. "It was just meant to be, I guess," says Father Daniel.

It was just meant to be. That phrase was used a number of times by Father Daniel when I interviewed him. He told me that Buffalo Bill died a Catholic, receiving last rites on his deathbed, and so the new monastery and retreat center "is meant to be."

By Christmas, Father Daniel and his fellow monks hope to be celebrating the Tridentine Latin Mass and singing Gregorian chant in the shadow of Carter Mountain.

I will stay in touch with Father Daniel and his "last Carmelite monks" and will let you know if the move to Buffalo Bill's property "was meant to be."

* * *

Father Daniel asked me to request your prayers and your support. To send a donation, or some books for their monastery library, write to:

Carmelite Monastery
P.O. Box 2747
Cody, WY 82414-2747

Seminarians Begin Learning Gregorian Chant

MARGUERITE MULLEE DUNCAN, music director at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, guides seminarian Scott McKee through a Gregorian chant lesson recently. McKee, from Albuquerque, N.M., is studying for the priesthood at Holy Apostles in Cromwell. "It's deeply spiritual," McKee said of Gregorian chant. "There are people who listen to chant and are not Catholic, but they feel something in it that touches them." (MARK MIRKO / November 15, 2007)

And The Chant Goes On
By Charles Proctor
Staff Writer - The Hartford Courant
November 24, 2007
Cromwell

On Thursday nights they gather here, in this basement classroom with whitewashed walls, a banged-up piano and a wooden crucifix perched above the chalkboard.

They are five men, four in black suit jackets and white collared shirts and one in the slate gray habit of a friar. They come from places like South Dakota, Kansas City and California. All want to be priests.

With their teacher and the rows of empty chairs as their audience, they fill their lungs with air and sing the sonorous chants that are centuries upon centuries old.

Or try to sing them. Tongues trip over lyrics crafted in a dead language. Their lungs give out under syllables meant to be held for seven, sometimes 10 seconds.

But the men, all seminarians at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, are devoted to it. This is a class in Gregorian chant, one of the world's oldest musical traditions.

And, as any of its disciples would tell you, there's nothing quite like it in the world.

"It's supremely beautiful. It's deeply spiritual," said Scott McKee, 46, a member of the class who is from Albuquerque, N.M. "There are people who listen to chant and are not Catholic, but they feel something in it that touches them."

Gregorian chant has been a part of the Catholic Church's heritage for over a millennium, written in a Latin text with tones that rise and fall to a cadence formed before the ninth century. There are enclaves in Connecticut where it is still practiced regularly.

But classes in the ancient art are rare. Yale has held them and plans to again next year. Specialists traveling in the state sometimes host chant seminars.

The class at Holy Apostles is unique in that it trains future priests both how to chant and how to teach it to the laity. Students learn to conduct and compose. This year's midterm, for instance, asked students to write their own chants.

The goal is to graduate seminarians who will safeguard and spread an age-old church tradition, one that scholars say was, until the 1980s, in serious danger of tumbling into irrelevance.

"We are the Latin rite Roman Catholic Church," said the Very Rev. Douglas Mosey, president and rector of Holy Apostles. "We don't want the parishes to lose their rich Latin heritage. We don't want our language and our music to just drop out of consciousness."

The most recent threat to chant came, inadvertently, from the church itself, experts said. In the early 1960s, the Second Vatican Council decreed that priests could incorporate the vernacular, or native language, into the liturgy.

Suddenly, pastors in Latin America could lead prayers in Spanish. Priests in Uganda could celebrate the Mass in Swahili. Meanwhile, ceremonies performed in the traditional Latin declined in popularity. And Gregorian chant went with it.

In addition, groups that wanted the church to adopt more progressive ideas encouraged it to shed some of its orthodox roots. Latin became synonymous with everything that was inaccessible and outdated about the church.

"The Latin liturgy and the chant unfortunately become a game of political football," said Margot Fassler, professor of music history and liturgy at the Yale Divinity School.

The trend began to turn around in the last two decades, when traditionalists rallied to reintroduce the Latin Mass and chant.

They found an unexpected ally in the New Age movement. People interested in spirituality and meditation sent the album "Chant," recorded by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, to the No. 3 spot on the Billboard charts in the 1990s. Suddenly, Gregorian chant had rock-star status.

Most recently, Pope Benedict XVI in July gave parishes the autonomy to decide whether to celebrate the Mass in Latin. The announcement paved the way for more priests to bring Latin back into the church.

The upshot has been an increased interest in chant today among the laity, especially youths, said Marguerite Mullée Duncan, Holy Apostles' music director and professor of liturgical music who teaches the chant class.

"There is a hunger for it," she said. "People realize that this is not a museum piece. This is a living art form."

Mullée Duncan has taught chant at Holy Apostles for nine years now. She also leads chant seminars around the state, and this summer plans to take a small group to a chant workshop in Barga, Italy.

Given the amount of ground she has to cover, her chant classes at Holy Apostles tend to evolve into part vocal coaching, part music theory and part language.

At a recent session, for instance, the students spent several minutes debating whether the "h" in Latin is pronounced. (Consensus: It isn't.)

Of course, the class's emphasis is still mostly on singing. Mullée Duncan opens every class by singing a simple Latin invocation: "Benedicamus domino." Let us bless the Lord.

To which the students sing back: "Deo gratias." Thanks be to God.

What happens next varies from class to class. The students sometimes sing as a group with either Mullée Duncan or another student leading them. Other times, students troop to the front of the room one by one and sing individually.

Occasionally, Mullée Duncan will accompany a singer on piano to help him find the right tune. More often, she watches from a corner and praises, cajoles and critiques. But she doesn't hesitate to take more hands-on measures.

At a recent class, when one of her students struggled to get the right rhythm, she stood behind him, gripped his right arm and swept it up and down as he sang.

"I know it's odd to be singing and have someone grab your arm," Mullée Duncan apologized to the student afterward. But it seemed to work.

The students, who range in age from late 20s to late 40s, cheerfully plunge into the unfamiliar music. They know that when they become priests, singing will be a necessary part of their duties.

Not that that makes it easier. Especially because many of Mullée Duncan's students readily admit they have had almost no musical training.

"It's hard," said Steve Jones, 48, from Thousand Oaks, Calif. "This is an older modality of music, and you have to first learn how to hear that. It's very different from the music I grew up with."

To make the ancient and alien familiar, Mullée Duncan draws analogies to the everyday. When conducting chant, she tells her students, their arm should move like pulling taffy. When singing it, the words and tones should flow like maple syrup, she says.

Her students race to digest that before their final exam on Dec. 6, which will be a public performance by the class of the "O Antiphons," a traditional chant usually sung the week before Christmas.

They also try to cram chant into whatever time their schedules allow. Some meet daily before 6 a.m. to practice. In the evening, they will often seek out spots on campus to stretch their vocal cords, not always an easy task given Holy Apostles' relatively small size.

"The stairwell in the dorms is pretty good," offered Brother Daniel Williamson, 35, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, during one class. "The acoustics are great."

But, added McKee, "We don't really have a place we can go and just belt it out."

Except for this classroom on Thursday nights, where the five men sing chant to the empty chairs and the cross-bound Christ figure on the wall.


To see video of Holy Apostles College and Seminary's Gregorian chant class, visit www.courant.com/gregorian

Ecclesia Dei to Ask Seminaries to Teach Traditional Mass

From Rorate Caeli:

Important: Ecclesia Dei to ask seminaries to teach Traditional Mass

According to Italian news agency Adnkronos, the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" will soon publish an order addressed to seminaries "in which it is required that the celebration of the Latin Mass be taught to future priests":

"According to what has been learned from authoritative sources, the dicastery presided by Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos (among the main supporters of the return of the Mass according to the pre-Conciliar rite) would be considering a circular addressed to seminarians which, in practice, is aimed directly to those bishops who [are] 'disobbeying' the Pope's motu proprio (...)."

It is not entirely clear from the report if the order will be an exclusive document or if it will be part of the general document of clarification of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum which will be published shortly (according to several news agencies and sources).

*** VIDEO*** Abbaye Notre Dame de Fontgombault

Hat tip to Fr. Blake for this video. As he said on his blog - "Enjoy this video, it is French. The images are are quite beautiful, especially the procession of the 70/80 of monks and individual Masses in the early morning. See their webpage."

***VIDEO*** Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery of Clear Creek

Frustratingly I can not get this video to embed AND play, so here is a link to a very well done mini-documentary about the beautiful foundation at Clear Creek.

http://www.thejesustv.com/view/234/benedictine-monks-in-oklahoma-new-foundation/

I'm really not a fan of this "JesusTV" image, but if it works I guess I have to live with it.

Beauty and Vocations

I've been meaning to write about how beauty promotes vocations (particularly beautiful liturgies). Until then a hat tip to New Liturgical Movement for finding and posting this video.

Eight young men in a schola (Farther Along Octet) singing Palestrina's "Adoramus Te, Christe" - eight men - and listen to how beautiful it is! You can not tell me that if we heard and saw this in our churches more often that there would not be many more young men hearing God's call to the priesthood. No, music won't in and of itself create priests, but in today's world this is so clearly prayerful and sacred that upon hearing it more young men might incline their ears to something other than the drumbeat of the world. Unfortunately what they get instead is weekly doses of the most banal music possible, or worse. (My not so humble opinion of course.)

Watch, listen, and enjoy! If you like it, watch their other videos on YouTube which will appear at the end of the video.

Update: I had to post one more on here... Palestrina's Sanctus & Benedictus

Back from New York

Regular posts to resume tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy some pictures from the Church of St. Agnes in New York located on "Archbishop Fulton Sheen Place". The original church burned down in 1992 and was re-opened in 1996. It is a beautiful church. We attended the 11:00am Tridentine Mass, that was quite full, of mostly younger folks. The music, Gregorian Chant, was spectacular. Honestly, it sounded as good as anything I've heard, and came from a five person schola! The celebrant was a philosophy professor from Fordham, preached on the gifts of the Holy Spirti - it was excellent. Well, enough already, here's some pictures...

Seminarians and Learning Latin

As I continue to read through our Holy Father's recent Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis", I finally read the entirety of the section in Part II - "The Latin Language".

This is the part I found interesting:

"...I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant;"

It will be interesting to see which seminaries respond to Pope Benedict's request, and when.

On the note of the use of Latin, there is a decent "top story" piece done by a Boston TV station about a return to the use of the Traditional Latin Mass. Watch the video here.

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Hat tip to Catholic Church Conservation for the video.

Now that's a fire! Part II

I posted previously about the Easter Vigil fire building capabilities of the Dominicans. In that post I mentioned that a friend of mine said, "those Domincans know how to build an Easter fire." Now I understand why he said that - he saw what they did at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. I just watched the Easter Vigil video they put online. Beautiful music, beautiful vestments, and quite a fire. Makes the fires I've seen look pitiful by comparison.

Check out the Easter Vigil video. (large file/may take a little while)

While you are at it, watch their tenebrae video as well. (large file/may take a little while)