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Views from the Choir Loft

Chore wars and maintaining motivation

Veronica Brandt · November 7, 2015

chore wars ASHING DISHES, CLEANING the bathroom, folding clothes, all these things are small but important everyday tasks. There is a temptation to avoid them, begrudge the time and effort they take, but it is acts of service like these that are the real treasures in life.

Today has been busy. Saturday is the day when we catch up with the housework. Sometimes we get everything done by midday and have the rest of the day off. Sometimes it takes a bit longer. I have four sons aged 8 – 14 who do much of the work, which is great as they also generate much of the mess. Today they were particularly eager to complete their work.

You see, this is the first day we have tried out a game called Chore Wars. It is a very silly adventure game based around household chores where people you live and work with can keep track of the everyday tasks. For each adventure, like washing dishes, you get experience points and gold coins as well as the chance to fight monsters and gain treasures, not to mention the system of keeping track of your own balance of strength, dexterity, charisma, intelligence and wisdom.

And as I have been busy adding new adventures to their inventory and keeping an eye on who is doing what, I have been wondering what to write about for the world of liturgical music. Until it struck me.

This play acting actually has some correspondence to a deeper reality.

It is in mundane acts of service like this that we gain grace. We might feel over worked and under appreciated but we have an omniscient, omnipresent, benevolent God who sees all and rewards all in secret. And He is even smarter than the Chore Wars algorithms. And you don’t have to go and keep track of everything you do on a computer. Perhaps it is better if you don’t because those who get their praise in this life : “they have had their reward”.

But that’s not to say a little imaginative play can’t help us maintain political control over our human will.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Legitimate and necessary concern for current realities in the concrete lives of people cannot make us forget the true nature of the liturgical actions. It is clear that the Mass is not the time to “celebrate” human dignity or purely terrestrial claims or hopes. It is rather the sacrifice which renders Christ really present in the sacrament.

— Pope Saint John Paul II (20 March 1990)

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