Learning from the orchestra...

Don't worry, I won't be writing about those musical stuff since I have other more interesting stuff for you to write about here :P

I was watching the conservatory's orchestra tonight under the baton of Leon Fleisher, one of the most legendary conductors/pianists. Indeed it was an extraordinary performance as far as I follow the conservatory's orchestra series and yet, indeed (I dont know why) it is very insightful also.

It is really amazing to see how different conductor can make the orchestra sound different. What is unique tonight is that a 'young' orchestra - consists of students- under the baton of a great conductor, can make a really great improvement in a week of (yes, intense) rehearsal. With hard work, trust and obedience to the conductor's instruction, putting one's deep effort to the music, they really make a good music today...

It was popping in my mind that, isn't our life is just like that? We are the 'young' orchestra (how old you are, guys, in the eyes of our Eternal Father, we are always babies...) trying to make a good music. Just as when the musicians lose focus at the conductor they will be lost in the music too, most of the time we are not making a good music in our life because we lack of focus to our Divine Conductor, to our Lord.

As happened tonight, there are beautiful moments in the concert, there are also scary - not so smooth moments. But what make it different between a great musicians and not is that, a great musician will keep putting his/her heart and mind wholly to make beautiful music all the time, regardless what happen. So does it with a great conductor will not give up in leading the orchestra or lose trust to the orchestra regardless any incidents may happen during the performance. So do we with our faith and love for God, shouldn't just merely based on feelings or incidents. Yes, I know, experiences may affect our faith journey, but again, love for God, prayer life, is not only about feeling. We are to put our whole heart and mind, always, everywhere - at all time, to make a good music together with the Conductor in our life. I'm sure this Conductor will keep conduct (lead) our life always, regardless whatever 'wrong pitch' we may sound in our life. He will keep moving His baton conducting our life, we only need to always always trust to Him (just as the musicians should trust in the gesture the conductor signalling) and being docile in the process..(I truly can understand how much effort the orchestra has to make during the rehearsal in order to 'get' what this conductor wants....)

It's really amazing to find how a young orchestra can sound different! We too, in our young age, we can sound different, if we follow His baton. A great person is not a matter of how many times (s)he succeeds, but how many times (s)he is able to stand up and begin again after his/her failures, humbly admit the past failure, asking for His forgiveness, and move on with eyes keep focusing on God. Yes, your life can be a great symphony if you allow our Lord to be the Conductor :)

(And yes, after this I also learn that...none of us can say that whatever you are doing or whatever your passion is, can't be useful for others. We will never know that at one point of time, God wants YOU to be His instruments to open someone's eyes who is listening to you making music, who is reading your writings, who sees you working, or just passing by in your life...)

Photos!

Click the link below each photo to access the respective album:

From 22.2.09 - Legion DoR

From 25.2.09 - HMG's 100th meeting

From 26.2.09 - Therese's bday

From 2.3.09 - Valerio's FFM talk

From 5.3.09 - Paul's bday

From 12.3.09 - Millennial Meeting

Angelus Domini

A stunning rendition by University of North Carolina's Clef Hangers.



H/T Prashanthi

V		Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae;
R		Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.
All		Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
V		Ecce ancilla Domini.
R		Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
All		Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
V		Et Verbum caro factum est.
R		Et habitavit in nobis.
All		Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
V		Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix.
R		Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
V		Oremus.Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem, ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
All		Amen.

This calls for some...

glitter...

St. Frances of Rome

Frances was born in the city of Rome in 1384 to a wealthy, noble family. From her mother she inherited a quiet manner and a pious devotion to God. From her father, however, she inherited a strong will. She decided at eleven that she knew what God wanted for her -- she was going to be a nun.

And that's where her will ran right up against her father's. He told Frances she was far too young to know her mind -- but not too young to be married. He had already promised her in marriage to the son of another wealthy family. In Rome at that time a father's word was law; a father could even sell his children into slavery or order them killed.

Frances probably felt that's what he was doing by forcing her to marry. But just as he wouldn't listen to her, Frances wouldn't listen to him. She stubbornly prayed to God to prevent the marriage until her confessor pointed out,

"Are you crying because you want to do God's will or because you want God to do your will?"

Read the rest of her inspiring life here at Catholic.org >>

"They have no more wine"

It is no big secret, I believe, that we Catholics at one point or another, find it difficult to pray the rosary. There's a long way from the first Hail Mary to the last and so there are lots of opportunities to be distracted. It's a struggle, and perhaps sometimes, we need to find creative solutions.

Of late, I've taken to imagining the mysteries, as suggested by a priest. Got an overactive imagination? Turn it to worthwhile things. So I did. And last meeting, upon meditating on the Luminous mysteries, there was one mystery that stood out so vividly: The Miracle at Cana.

A wedding. People happily celebrating a union. Music, laughter, tall stories fill the air. Our Lord is right in the midst of it, although perhaps no one but His mother fully understood it at that time. Plenty of food to go around, plenty of rich and tasty wine to fill the guests.

Until suddenly, the wine ran out. The waiters were in a pickle. What to do? Surely there wasn't any emergency delivery service at that time. What to do?

The Bible tells us only that "when there was no more wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no more wine.' " How could she have known? I wonder.

Perhaps, amidst all the celebration, there was one woman taking everything in silently. The stories, the music, the laughter. But unlike the others, she looks around and perceives more than they could. Perhaps she noticed a distressed look from one of the waiters, a small hint of anxiety. Here she shows how sensitive she is to the needs of those around her. Or perhaps, the waiters had heard about Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe they weren't sure what all the fuss was about Jesus, but just maybe, He could help them. But they didn't know how to approach Him.

'His mother is here,' perhaps someone said. 'We could ask for her help. He would listen to her.' And so they look for her in the crowd. It doesn't take long for them to find Mary, who is ever so close to everyone who needs her intercession. They hastily tell her the problem, growing more desperate as time passed by with the wine vats empty. But she doesn't need too many words; looking at their distress, she understands. Sure enough, she approaches her Son. Just like in the Annunciation, she probably didn't know how He will do it, but she was certain that He will do it.

"They have no more wine." Such simple words that all of us can relate to. We have no more wine. Every week, work keeps on piling up. There's hardly time to breathe. No time to pray. No time to do active work. Someone needs help, someone needs a friendly conversation, but there's just no time to stop. No time to sit and talk. No energy to force out a smile and encourage someone else.

I have no more wine, my Lord. I'm running on empty.

Then you stop for awhile, because the next step is just too heavy to take. You close your eyes, but it's too hard to pray on your own. Fortunately, you have the prayers of the Church. And you start praying the Our Father, the Haily Mary. Just a few, you think to yourself. I just need to relax. So one bead leads to another...and another... And once again you hear her saying, "Your child has no more wine."

And even though Jesus responds that His time has not yet come, He does it anyway. He gets up from the table and goes to the back room. At His mother's request, He responds to a plea for help.

But there's a catch. Mary says, "Do whatever He tells you." A call to obedience. You have asked for help. Now, be humble enough to do what He wants you to do. Believe in Him, and He will provide.

The waiters do not understand. But they already see Jesus walking towards them, and they have no more time to figure out what she just told them. So they take her for her word, for who could better know a son than his own mother?

When Jesus told them to fill the waterpots with water, they must have wondered if they'd heard Him correctly. They needed wine, not water. Did He even know what He was doing? They couldn't understand. But they see Mary, perhaps standing quietly to the side, and they remember her words. "Do whatever He tells you."

And so they do. They give him their active cooperation. They bring the wine to the headwaiter and it turns out to be even better than the first one. And for the rest of the celebration, they have more than enough.

How magnanimous our God is! Just when we think we are running on empty, when we think we've hit rock bottom, we find out that He has been safely holding us in His hands all along. Just when we thought our vat has run dry, He fills it to the brim. He gives us what we need to carry on. To this very day, He continues to offer us His wine, His blood. And when He gives, He gives magnanimously.

When we find ourselves running on empty, let's not forget that Mary is ever ready to help intercede for us. But let us also not forget what she said next. "Do whatever He tells you."

Allocutio for the 998th meeting of Regina Coeli Praesidium

The Holy Eucharist
(allo by Sr. Therese)

Natural event happens following the natural law that we know in the universe. When we consider something is a miracle, usually it refers to a supernatural interference. However, miracle doesn’t break the law of nature. It fits as a new event to the pattern of natural law and assimilates to that pattern. Just as how it happens in the natural law, we understand that the present moment has a direct link to the previous history. We need to take account the previous accident into consideration of our present moment/condition. Holy Eucharist is the most wonderful miracle ever happened. The Holy Eucharist does not behave against the natural law when we take it into our physical body. Once we received the Holy Eucharist, the miracle happens to our being, the Miracle that Christ lives us, and shall affect our present condition. We need to love and believe the Miracle that just happened to us by our living the Miracle, our effort to keep the Presence of God.

PS: guys, I try to summarize as best as I can..so, apologize if I leave out some beautiful analogy and examples that she shows. Please feel free to add about it.

Adoro Te Devote

Therese ended her allocutio today with my favourite Eucharistic hymn:




Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,
Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,
Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius;
Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas,
At hic latet simul et Humanitas,
Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:
Deum tamen meum te confiteor.
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini!
Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini!
Præsta meæ menti de te vívere,
Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:
Cujus una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio:
Ut te revelata cernens facie,
Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ. Amen



Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran---
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory's sight. Amen.

(translation of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.)

This wasn't the translation she used though...would like to find it.

When was the last time you went to confession?

I remember Fr. Marin's allocutio two or three weeks ago. He stressed on the importance of confession. We cannot forgive ourselves with some hocus-pocus introspection. Nor can we ask others to forgive us. The only way we know for sure that our sins have been forgiven is by receiving it from Christ himself, and that is what we receive when we go for confession. 

From Fr. Z:

Jesus Christ, God and Savior, gave us the Sacrament of Penance, of Reconciliation.

This is the ordinary means by which He desires us to seek forgiveness for our actual, post-baptismal sins.

There is no sin that any limited little mortal can commit which is so bad that God cannot forgive it.

Christ gave His own power to forgive sins to the Church He established, the Catholic Church.

Priests exercise this ministry in the Church, acting by virtue of their ordination, as "another Christ".

When you confess your sins to a priest and he gives you absolution, you sins are taken away… not merely covered over or set aside.  They are no more.  You may remember them in sorrow, but they no longer harm your relationship with God.

Mortal sins break your saving friendship with God.  Mortal sin places you at risk of eternal separation from God and the happiness of heaven… forever.

Confession and absolution repairs that rupture and returns you to a state of friendship with God.

Awareness of mortal sin should drive you to a confessional.

In our weakness we will sometimes put off going to confession.  Perhaps fear or embarrassment keeps us away.   Time slips by.  Days become weeks become months become years.  

Then you die and go to your judgment.

So … maybe the priest is not friendly or the confession schedule is a little narrow…. so what?  A better confessor is some distance away… so?  It is a little hard… not convenient… too much to do….  And?

What is a moment of embarrassment, what is an interruption of your oh-so-important routine compared to the eternity of heaven or of hell?

You do not know the moment when your reckoning will come, friends.

Have you fallen into the trap, willingly or innocently, of going to "general absolution" without making a confession of your sins in the proper way?

The Sacrament of Penance heals your soul, strengthens you against sin, and – simply on the basic level of peace of mind – works wonders. 

I will never forget one somewhat slow afternoon in a confessional… just a bit bored…  I heard someone get in and slid open the window.  "Bless me Father, I have sinned.  It has been sixty years since my last confession…."

When we were finished he wept and said "I’m free."

Our question:

When was the last time you went to confession?

"My Father made it!!"

I can't stop myself to write about this at the end...

A friend of mine, Rina, shared this to me few days ago...

We often take for granted the fact that we are children of God. Yes, this beautiful fact of Divine Filiation has been repeated over and over again, but a lot of time it just pass through and seems that we (I!) don't enjoy the beauty as much again.

Once, a father of a girl is a contractor. When the girl goes around the city, she passed by the buldings that her father made. She proudly said to her friend, "Look! My father made it!"

Just as the Father that loves His children so much, He wants to leave us some 'finger print' that we can always recall His love and presence. Don't you realize that the sunrise is how He said 'good morning to you?', the sunset, wind, your friend around you, is how He said, "I love you"? It's how He wants to keep in touch with you. So, the next time you passed by a beautiful scenery, or seeing a beautiful rainbow, a nice plant or tree, remember always to recall, "Hey! My (yes, YOURs too!) Father made it!" and let yourself be amazed....