Among the many incongruities of life, there are few more odd and charming as the Hillbilly Thomists. Perhaps you know a bluegrass band or two, but have you ever heard of one composed of Dominican friars and priests? What else could possibly be so odd, yet so perfect, as a group of guitar and banjo-wielding Read more
Only the most myopic would deny that a kind of mushroom cloud has covered the Catholic Church for the past half-century. A small, but quite significant part of that spiritual nuclear winter has been the profound collapse of Sacred Music. Votaries of the “spirit of Vatican II” (in today’s au courant vernacular, “the New Paradigm”) Read more
Nineteen-year-old Anne Wilson loves the stars, the television show “The Walking Dead” and her morning cup of vanilla iced coffee from Dunkin’. “I feel like it’s just straight from God,” she said. “It’s like he blesses that coffee in particular.” More than anything, Wilson says, she loves Jesus — as the teenager from central Kentucky Read more
It’s a long-standing joke that the Church of England exists largely to remove any idea of religion from our national life. The more the Church has sought to make its services more “inclusive” and “relevant”, the more Christians have converted to other denominations where they think things are done properly (notably Roman Catholicism), and the more those curious Read more
Contemporary worship music is often banal. No matter the content, the form by itself trivializes what takes place in the liturgy. We keep trying to put asunder what God has joined together—medium and message, form and content—but invariably the divorce does not end well. I’ll never forget when our kids came home with a new Read more
Better music at Mass and carefully chosen songs would make attending Mass a more uplifting experience for churchgoers, reports a survey of nearly 2,000 Catholics. The May 4 survey reflected the views of those aged 21-39 and one of the questions the Truth Data Survey asked was: “What would you like to change at Mass?” Read more
“Ongoing unsustainable losses” at Wellington’s Sacred Heart Cathedral have put the music department in the spotlight. The financial situation has been made worse because of the cathedral’s temporary closure and Covid-19. The church says it has no option but to restructure, and if the current plan is put into action, it will see the Cathedral Read more
Two local musician, both internationally acclaimed in their own right, performed in concert to celebrate the opening of Our Lady of Kapiti Catholic Church in Kāpiti. Construction of the new church complex began January 2019, and Cardinal John Dew blessed the church and parish centre on Saturday, May 30. Organist Dr Kemp English and his Read more
Fr Chris Skinner SM of Auckland’s Marist Seminary has composed a new song, Super Supermarket Worker, a tribute to all the supermarket workers of Aotearoa New Zealand and particularly those he has met as the “designated shopper” for the eight-strong seminary community these long Lockdown weeks. “I was really conscious of all the supermarket workers Read more
Josh Roe was live for newscasts at Faith Community Wesleyan Church. It is one of the many buildings destroyed by the Easter storms. Tracy Coats saw the piano in the rubble and told Josh that she felt it just needed to be played. Read more