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Views from the Choir Loft

If you are having a bad day, this is what it means

Richard J. Clark · April 24, 2020

F YOU are having a bad day—if you are having a bad week…no—revise that—if you are having a rough year, here is what it means: It means you are human. It means you have a heart. It means you feel deeply. It means you are connected with your loved ones and fellow human beings. It means you are mourning and in grief. It means you are quite normal.

If you struggle now, you love deeply. In turn, know you are loved deeply. I hope you know and feel this. More importantly, God wants you to know this.

This is not to discount nor minimize serious suffering, much that is chronic, much that was ongoing. Cancer treatments continue. The loss of loved ones continue. Challenges great and small go on as before. The current pandemic “piles on” to a life that with certainty delivers challenge and pain, but also joy and love.

TODAY I SAW what I took as a reminder that of hope. Just outside the front steps of our house was a blooming yellow flower. But this flower was growing out in the cracks between rock and concrete. Yet it blooms.

If nothing else, it made me smile, reminding me that in placing our trust in God we will blossom even harsh conditions.

MEANWHILE, IT HAS NOT felt much like the Easter Season, nor like Spring bringing new life. No congregation, so choir, no ordinations of several new priests in a few weeks, and a canceled choir tour. I caught myself looking for a purple tie for a televised Mass. It still feels like Lent.

But instead of counting loss, a sense of gratitude is heightened. I am ever more grateful for work, simple opportunities, health, friends, family, and abundance of love. Eyes are opened to ongoing blessings and gifts from God. This is not loss but awakening to renewed life!

TODAY, WE CARRY A COMMON CROSS. This is in addition to many other heavy crosses you likely are already carrying. As Simon helped Jesus, we help each other. God knows your troubles as he has searched you, and he knows you.

I often find Psalm 139 a great source of comfort and reassurance. Here is a recording from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross with Richard Kelley, trumpet performing a meditation on Psalm 139: 1 “Lord, you have searched me, you know me.” There is grief. There is joy.

GRIEF AND SUFFERING often have one searching for meaning. From the Office of Readings from the Proslogion by Saint Anselm, bishop:

My soul, have you found what you are looking for? You were looking for God, and you have discovered that he is the supreme being, and that you could not possibly imagine anything more perfect. You have discovered that this supreme being is life itself, light, wisdom, goodness, eternal blessedness and blessed eternity. He is everywhere, and he is timeless.

Oremus pro invicem
Let us pray for each other.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: April 24, 2020

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Richard J. Clark

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski
31 December 2020 • “COMITES CHRISTI”

The feasts for Saint Stephen Proto-Martyr (26 December), Saint John the Evangelist The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (27 December), and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December) seem untouched by any liturgical reforms. These are very powerful feasts—I believe they once possessed octaves—and I believe they could sometimes “overpower” a Sunday feast. The rules for octaves in the olden days are extremely complex. These feasts are sometimes referred to as a single entity as: Comites Christi (“Companions of Christ”). This is just a guess, but there seems to be a triple significance: STEPHEN martyred after Christ lived, JOHN was a martyr who knew Christ personally, and the HOLY INNOCENTS were martyred before Christ’s birth.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“I have, on the other hand, retained several more or less traditional tunes, absolutely valueless and without merit from a musical point of view, but which seem to have become a necessity if a book is to appeal—as I hope this one will—to the varied needs of various churches.”

— A. Edmonds Tozer (1905)

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