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Views from the Choir Loft

Homeschooling (And Sacred Music) Snuck Up On Us

Veronica Moreno · June 14, 2019

84119 Homeschooling Catholic OMESCHOOLING kind of snuck up on us. When our oldest daughter approached school-age I thought, “How can I send her away to school so soon? She’s only five!”

To be honest, the seeds of our decision to homeschool were planted long before this moment, but here I had to face a choice: who was going to spend every day raising my daughter, helping her to be a saint? It had to be me. I was going to be the one to expose her to the good, the true, and the beautiful.

And so here I am, Veronica Moreno, mother of five, former special education teacher, wife, and cantor at the local parish. I’m not the most pedagogically-savvy, nor the most talented musician, but I currently live where education and music meet, and so I wanted to share some thoughts about that.

84116 homeschool BEFORE STUDYING ACADEMICS, but after teaching the Faith, I wanted my children to meet the sacred in all of the arts. For this reason, we listen to and recite Dickinson’s poetry, we have artist studies where we observe and live with Vermeer’s paintings, we have composer studies where our ears drink up Mozart’s sonatas, and we have a piano teacher who visits our two oldest once a week. But there is something different about sacred art.

Especially sacred music. Most astoundingly, when the music is for the Sacrifice of the Mass.

So, in preparing for this past year’s hymn-chant study, the materials provided by CCWatershed have been invaluable. As a busy homeschooling mom, having an easy-to-print pdf document of various ancient hymns and chants (especially those in neumes) has made my school planning easier. Additionally, there’s often recorded music to download or stream!

I am not the best sight reader, so instead of sitting at the piano plunking out the notes, these recordings help me and my children learn the hymn/chant much quicker.

At the start of this year, we learned “Ave Maris Stella.”

84177 ave maris stella
The chant might be easy to find, but where else can you versions like what CCWatershed provides? That may be four versions of ancient manuscripts; an accompaniment for keyboard; a 16th century part book corresponding to the setting by Victoria (a Spanish priest), a modern version; to say nothing of the practice videos they created for the Victoria Mass based on “Ave Maris Stella” such as this one.

My own children get to experience the rich tradition of our Church; they encounter the sacred. In turn, as a cantor I am also able to take these hymns and ancient chants to sing where they were meant to be sung: at the Holy Mass. In this way, we keep the faith alive at the kitchen table and at the altar.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: May 14, 2021

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About Veronica Moreno

Veronica Moreno is married to a teacher and homeschools five children. She has been cantor at her local Catholic parish for over a decade.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    26 January 2023 • FEEDBACK
    “Jeff, I wanted to personally thank you for your spiritual witness at the Symposium & often blogs that you write too. Praying that prayer in the mornings My God, my Father and my all (by Cardinal Merry Del Val), mentioning saints’ stories of Brébeuf, Jogues, John Vianney, monks who fought in WWII, their hard work in spite of terrible conditions, their relentless zeal for the faith, their genuine love for the laypeople they served, etc. Overall though—more than anything concrete I can point to that you did or said—it was your demeanor at the Symposium. I could tell you really absolutely love and believe the Catholic Faith. You don’t get that everywhere, even in Church circles. And your humility is what then makes that shine even brighter. It is super inspiring! God is working through you probably way more than you know.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Symposium Draft Schedule Released!
    Those who head over to the Symposium Website will notice the tentative schedule for 2023 has been released. This is all very exciting! Very soon, we will begin accepting applications, so please make sure you have subscribed to our mailing list. If you are subscribed, that means you'll hear announcements before anyone else. (It’s incredibly easy to subscribe to our mailing list; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.)
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Good Friday Polyphony by L. Senfl
    The editor of the Sacred Music Magazine recently made available to the public this splendid article by our own Charles Weaver. It includes an edition of polyphony for the GOOD FRIDAY “Reproaches.” Renaissance composers often set the various offices of Holy Week; e.g. readers will probably be familiar with the beautiful TENEBRAE setting by Father Tomás Luis de Victoria (d. 1611). From what I can tell, Ludwig Senfl (d. 1543) was originally a Catholic priest, but eventually was seduced by Luther and ended up abandoning the sacred priesthood.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

In the ’60s, I thought this emphasis on congregational singing was to encourage good Catholic hymns like “Immaculate Mary” and so forth … but after the Council, they threw them out, too!

— ‘Fr. Valentine Young, OFM (2007)’

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