Dope Dealer

Bob Dylan

This current semester, I have been teaching a seminar on the “Poetics of Bob Dylan” at a nearby Jesuit university.  Okay, go ahead and laugh, but I did an informal tally of how many universities currently offer courses on Bob Dylan, and it’s over 300.  

He’s an important literary and cultural figure even if you do just think most of his songs are about his dope dealer. My students and I usually do a quick cultural-historical overview of a time period or theme, and then I give them the lyrics to a Dylan song, and we listen and I point out some of what I think are the important themes. 

The students in this course are bright and are by and large good writers, but they’re also college students, so they spend a lot of time staring at me blankly or texting in a manner they think is discreet.

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Link (here) to read the lengthy piece by James T. Keane, S.J. entitled Varieties of Religious Experience found at The Jesuit Post

"Soul Of My Saviour"

There are many great hymns written in honour of the Sacred Heart . Among them a tune by the Jesuit William Maher, who also gave us the tune of 'Soul of my Saviour'. The words are a translation of a German original says Monsignor Philip Whitmore , an expression of the international flavour of this devotion .Monsignor Whitmore also explains how these hymns make a strong appeal to our emotions : "....We pray to the Heart of Jesus to touch our cold, ungrateful hearts , and to set them aflame with love for Our Saviour. "  

Listen to this programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick (here) at Vatican Radio

Josh Groban Sings A St. Louis Jesuit Song

Listen to Be Not Afraid, sung by Josh Groban

Josh Groban

Be Not Afraid was written by Bob Dufford, one of the St. Louis Jesuits. The St. Louis Jesuits, a group of Catholic musicians who popularized a contemporary style of church music through their compositions and recordings in the 1970s and 1980s. The group, originally made up of Jesuit seminarians at St. Louis University, used acoustic guitars and pop-style melodies and rhythms to set biblical and other religious texts to music sung in English

Link (here) to Let Us Sing!

A Musical Fundraiser For Jesuit Seminarian In The Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The Jesuit Communications Foundation, Inc. (JesCom) presents the Philippine Madrigal Singers in “Madz Goes Jesuit: From Traditional to Contemporary Sacred Music,” a fund-raising concert for the benefit of the Jesuit Seminaries, on Aug. 18 and 19, 7:30 p.m. at Teatro Aguinaldo, Camp Aguinaldo, QC. The Madz will trace the development of religious music from the classical era to the post-Vatican II era that gave birth to Filipino liturgical music spearheaded by well-known and beloved Jesuit composers like Fr. Manoling Francisco and Fr. Eddie Hontiveros, among others.

Link (here) to the full article.

Pone Luctum, Magdalena

The Ecquis binas columbinas is a very graceful poem, and the best passion hymn of the school, but is below the subject. The Tandem audite me is a hymn based on the false interpretation of Solomon's Song, but is very pretty. The Pone luctum, Magdalena is perhaps the greatest of all Jesuit hymns, and has found nine Protestant translators to do it into English. It is rather a fine poem than a fine hymn.

Link (here) to the protestant book entitled, Latin hymn writers and their hymns.

CEASE THY WEEPING
Pone Luctum, Magdalena

Cease thy weeping, Magdalena,

Calm thy grief and dry thy tears,

This is not thine hour of sorrow,

There is now no cause for fears,

But a thousand for rejoicing,

Rise, and give thy gladness voicing,

Alleluia!

Smile again, O Magdalena,

Let thy joyous features glow, Every cause of grief is vanished;

Banish every sign of woe ;

Christ has made a glorious morrow,

Triumphed over sin and sorrow.

Alleluia!

Sing thy praises, Magdalena,

Christ is risen from the tomb ; Lo, he liveth, lo, he cometh,

Victor over dole and doom ;

Whom we mourned in death's dark prison,

Robed in living light, is risen.

Alleluia!

Lift thine eyes, O Magdalena,
And resume thy wonted cheer;

See, how bright his forehead shineth,
See, his wounds like gems appear !
Yea, like pearls the wounds are glowing,
Light on our new life bestowing.

Alleluia!

Sing thy praises, Magdalena,

All thy light is come again, Sweet with joy thy bosom swelleth,

For the power of death is vain,

Far away be grief and mourning,

See the risen Lord returning. .

Link (here) to the book entitled, Early Christian Hymns: Series II by Daniel Joseph Donahoe

Jesuits And The Divine Office

This is from Shawn Tribes New Liturgical Movement.

Several years ago, a Jesuit friend of mine moved into a house of his order for priests who are studying, teaching or working in Rome , at the same time as two young Polish Jesuits, also new to the Eternal City. The custom of this house was daily concelebration at one principal Mass for all of the residents.

After living there for a few months, the two Poles proposed to the rest of the community that they get together on occasion to read (not to sing) Vespers, perhaps one or two Sundays a month. The proposal was immediately rejected by the consensus of the community; as one of the older Italian Jesuits put it, “We do not do that,” referring not to that house specifically, but to the Society of Jesus as a whole.

It is of course a well-known fact that the Jesuits have never had choral singing or recitation of the Office as part of their order’s way of life. Their two great Roman churches, the Gesù (1584) and Sant’ Ignazio (1650), have enormous sanctuaries, designed to be clearly visible from the entire nave; unlike the churches of older religious orders, neither one has any choir stalls.

When the order was very new, shortly after Saint Ignatius’ death, they were temporarily forced by Pope Paul IV, who never liked either Ignatius or his order, to accept the obligation to choral Office. Diego Laynez, one of the Saint’s first companions and his successor as Superior General, protested, but to no effect. In the true spirit of Ignatian obedience, the Jesuits began celebrating the Divine Office in choir; and in the true spirit of Ignatian independence, dropped it three years later,

with the permission of Paul’s successor Pius IV, a Pope much more sympathetic to the Society and Ignatius’ vision for it.

In releasing his order from the communal celebration of the Office, Saint Ignatius was not motivated by disdain for or lack of interest in the public prayer of the Church.

As Fr. Robert Taft, himself a Jesuit, points out, “(t)he evidence for Ignatius’ personal devotion to the public hours and his daily attendance at them…is beyond challenge.” (The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, p. 301) His purpose was rather to keep the members of the Society from being tied down to any obligation which might impede the apostolic works in which they would be engaged.

A Jesuit would never have to break off his studies, his teaching, his spiritual direction or time in the confessional to run off to Vespers at the church of his order. The idea was not that he was free to ignore the Divine Office, but rather, freer to participate in it, if he so desired, with those who retained the traditional choir obligations of the secular and religious clergy. The site which St. Ignatius chose for the Gesu’, the first church of his order in Rome, is a just few minutes walking distance from the parish of San Marco, the Pantheon, (one of the most important basilicas in Rome at the time,) the Silvestrine monastery at Santo Stefano, the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and the Franciscans at Santa Maria in Aracoeli on the Capitoline Hill. A member of the community at the Gesù could therefore chose to attend the celebration of the Office at any one of these quite easily, while retaining all the freedom necessary to do the specific work assigned him by his superiors.

Link (here) to read the rest of this great post

A Slow Fading Of This Tradition

Avelino Rejoice Dhakul, 81, never fails to bring tears to people's eyes when he renders the Passion of Christ from the Christa Purana, describing scenes from the crucifixion at the Good Friday service at St Francis Xavier Church, Vile Parle. Dhakul, who has been singing solo for the last 25 years, is keen that others should step up to carry on the torch, but he says sadly, "I have no luck so far.''

Singing of verses from the Christa Purana, which is written in the old Marathi script, is a looked-forward to ritual during the season of Lent in some of the old churches of suburban Mumbai, although the last three decades have seen a slow fading of this tradition. Lent, commemorates 40 days of fasting and abstinence, before the death of Christ on Good Friday.

The singing involves a mournful incantation of the verses, which detail the life and death of Christ. This is done during the Passu ceremony when the body of Christ is lowered from the cross for veneration by the congregation.

The Christa Purana is part of the religious and cultural tradition of Catholics in Mumbai, Goa and Mangalore.

Written by an English Jesuit missionary, Thomas Stevens, who studied at Oxford and settled in Goa in the 17th century, the writing follows the Hindu puranic style and is regarded as an epic.

Link (here)

Lucerne Jesuit Church Site Of European Music Festival

State Choir "Latvija" made its debut at the Lucerne Festival

On March 30 the State Choir "Latvija" made its debut at one of the world's most prestige music event, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, as LETA learned from the producer Ieva Vitina.

At 7 p.m. yesterday, at the Jesuit Church of Lucerne,

the choir "Latvija" performed Chapter Eight (Song of Songs) by Alexander Knaifel jointly with Riga Dome Boys Choir, Youth Choir "Kamer..." and violoncellist Patrick Demenga Andres Mustonen (Estonia). (Switzerland); conductor:

Beginning of the Lucerne Festival can be found already seventy years ago, when on August 25, 1938, the legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini gathered his most talented colleagues at the time in one orchestra and they all together performed a concert at the Tribschen Gardens, in front of Richard Wagner's mansion.

Nowadays, Lucerne Festival is an important and highly acclaimed music life event, attended by an audience of around 120,000 music lovers from all around the world annually.

Link (here)

Pelestrina, Charpantier And William Byrd Composers For The Jesuits

Recovering the Jesuit musical heritage
Musician and scholar, Father T. Frank Kennedy SJ

Father T. Frank Kennedy is a Jesuit musician and scholar who has found actual scores of music composed for Jesuit schools in the 17th and 18th centuries, and then produced some of these very early examples of Baroque music. Composers who worked for the Jesuits include Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Marc-Antoine Charpantier and William Byrd. Kennedy teaches at Boston College which has also begun a new Monumenta Musicae Societatis Iesu to make this recovered music more accessible.

Link (here) to the MP3 audio podcast

St. Francis Xavier, S.J. Life Set To Music

Francisco Javier - La Ruta de Oriente (Routes of the Orient)

This two-disc set is perhaps Jordi Savall 's most ambitious and handsome one yet! It is programmatic, following the life and eastern travels of Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the founder of the Catholic Church’s Xavarian order. Vocal and instrumental music from various periods in his life abound. There are lively dances like the opening rotundellus and melancholy sacred refrains with original instruments, like Dios Te Salve. Listening to these works, you realize how easily religious and secular culture comingled, sometimes within the same composition. At the end of the first disc, there is a virtuosic African drum piece and a riveting Indian raga, ostensibly of the type Xavier may have encountered in his travels. Perhaps to keep Xavier’s roots in mind, Savall has inserted a snatch of Gregorian chant between an Iberian villancico (folk song) and the Indian raga.

Link (here)