"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
For the last few weeks in the Roman Rite, we have been hearing the “Bread of Life” discourse from John 6. As a result, I am sure many of you have been singing “I Am the Bread of Life” by John Michael Talbot. Well, good news! It turns out that there’s been a new verse released for the classic song:
(I do actually quite like the song, but this was too funny not to share)
Today’s Music Monday is going to be a little be a little different… Those of you who know me or who have read my testimony will have heard me mention the name “Maeve”. Maeve is a member of the Verbum Dei community who really helped ignite my faith while I was at university in Southampton. I recently found out that, not only does she have a website, she also has just released a new album, neither of which I had heard about!
I looked around for a video of Maeve singing “Woman of God”, possibly my favourite song of hers, but I couldn’t find it 🙁 So instead, here’s a compilation video of Maeve singing and speaking Italian… 🙂
As we’re a few days away from Advent, I wanted to highlight a campaign currently underway here in San Diego, lead by my friend Salma:
As is well-known, the Christmas liturgy attracts many visitors to church who will otherwise not darken the doorway for the rest of the year, with the possible exception of Easter. As such, it is a ripe mission field! In order to capitalize on this, my friend Salma is raising money to allow her to hire professional musicians to augment the music at the Sunday Mass, to provide a setting in which souls will be more docile to the moment of God’s Spirit. Please check it out and, if you live in the area, go listen to the results 🙂
The album “Hints & Guesses” is the first full-length album from Alanna-Marie Boudreau, a young musician from New York who was recently touring here in San Diego. About a month ago I received a copy of Alanna’s new album in advance of its release this September (iTunes, Website), so after a few weeks of listening to the album in my car, I wanted to share my impression of it.
The title of the album comes from a line in a TS Elliot poem, The Four Quartets, which speaks about the glimpses we get of something beautiful and awe-inspiring, but which hasn’t yet been fully revealed. In an interview on her YouTube channel, Alanna compared it to seeing the early morning sunlight before the sun itself has risen, explaining it as “the sense of home-sickness that you can’t really describe”. These are themes to which a restless pilgrim can certainly relate!
We’re back to classical music for this week: “Sancte Deus” performed by All Angels. If you attend the Byzantine liturgy or pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the lyrics should sound familiar…
Sancte Deus
(Holy God)
Sancte Fortis
(Holy and mighty)
Sancte et Immortalis, miserere nobis
(Holy and immortal one, have mercy on us)