Artists and musicians’ Christmas gift to Mary’s Meals
December 13, 2011
Artists and musicians’ Christmas gift to Mary’s Meals
By BILL HEANEY
Monday, December 12, 2011
Scotland’s artists and musicians handed over a very special Christmas cheque for £9,000 to one of the
country’s favourite charities today (Monday).
The money, which was raised during the group’s highly successful Festival of the Arts in Glasgow
last month, will be spent by Argyll-based Mary’s Meals on a new project to feed and educate poor children in a Third World country.
It will be the second feeding shelter to be financed from cash raised by the group, who have given
their time, talents and artwork free to raise money for Mary’s Meals, whose accountant, Monica
Lynas from Bothwell in Lanarkshire, picked up the cash at House for an Artlover in Glasgow.
Volunteer Mrs Lynas, whose family own a well known carpet business in Hamilton, said:
“This group have been extremely generous over a number of years now, and Mary’s Meals really
appreciates all the effort and talent that has gone into raising this money
which will be put to good use. It’s a fantastic Christmas gift.”
Their first shelter, the Chilingani Centre in Khombwe in Malawi, is already up and running and doing
tremendous work, according to Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow OBE., chief executive of
Mary’s Meals, who feed and educate more than 580,000 children in 16 countries across the world.
The Artists or Mary’s Meals money means that a further 1,500 starving children will be added to that
number because Scottish art lovers and music fans dug deep into their pockets
to buy paintings and attend concerts and a craft fair at the City Chambers and
House for an Artlover. It costs just £9 a year to feed and educate a child in theThird World.
The art exhibition included a Peter Howson portrait of Robert Burns and a portrait of Glasgow’s
octogenarian folk singer and TV presenter Jimmie Macgregor by the artist Paul Kennedy.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow said: “Our vision is to provide one good meal a day for a hungry child within a
place of education. We are doing that in 16 countries at the moment. But we
don’t just set up the feeding stations, recruit volunteers to staff them and
leave it at that. We track the academic performance of the children we feed and
we have seen some wonderful results.
“The young men and women now emerging will be the ones who lift their countries out of poverty and who
will take up the challenge to stamp out corruption and put measures in place to tackle AIDS and other
serious health problems.”
The great attraction of Mary’s Meals to supporters is that nearly all of the money raised by Mary’s
Meals – more than 90 per cent – is spent in the communities where it is needed
most and only a small proportion goes on administrative costs.
Magnus added: “We don’t use professional fund-raisers or spend fortunes on advertising.
We are growing through creative ideas like this one. I think that Artists for Mary’s Meals
is a particularly beautiful example of how we do things. It is through these little acts of love that the
vision we hold so dear is being achieved.
“This is that no child anywhere in the world goes hungry and that every child gets at least one meal a
day. It costs just £6.15 to feed a child for a whole year. Artists for Mary’s
Meals is helping to fund the lives of some of the world’s poorest children is
using your skills and talents to fund these little acts of love.”
The Rev Laurence Whitley, minister of Glasgow Cathedral, and Archbishop Mario Conti, who are
both patrons of Artists and Musicians for Mary’s Meals, said they were delighted that the group
had raised so much money for poor and hungry children.
Dr Whitley said: “Some of the country’s finest artists and musicians have contributed to this very
successful fund-raising Festival of the Arts and we are extremely grateful to them and to the many
people who came along to support them.”
Glasgow artist Netta Ewing, co-ordinator of the festival project, said: “A tremendous amount of hard work
and effort went into the festival and everyone involved excelled themselves. We intend to keep
going onwards and upwards from here.”
Artists for Mary’s Meals handed over a Christmas cheque for £9,000 to Mary’s Meals from money raised from
concerts and art and craft sales. Back row (left to right) Helen Burns,
Glasgow, Liz Mackinlay, Kilbrachan, Monsignor Gerry Fitzpatrick, St Leo’s,
Dumbreck, Glasgow, and Josephine Torrance, Duntocher, Dunbartonshire. Front (left to right) Margaret Houston and
Elspeth Glasgow, both Glasgow, Bothwell accountant Monica Lynas, of Argyll-based Mary’s Meals and Netta Ewing,
co-ordinator of Artists for Mary’s Meals. PICTURE by BILL HEANEY
Continuity – Music from Missal to Missal
September 7, 2011
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Continuity from one New Missal to Another
(Sound clip of Harp – Carolan))
Preparing as we are for the New Missal, many of us probably realize that it’s going to be a lot easier to introduce this one, than it was to launch its predecessor, the Missal of Paul 6th.
Of course, its useful to be reminded about the importance of ‘full, conscious and active participation,’ particularly through ‘the Mass parts’ – as we call them – (Kyrie, gloria, psalm, alleluia, sanctus, memorials, Doxology and Amen, and Agnus Dei), but its important to remember that, this time, we are not being asked to start from scratch! We already have a substantial repertoire and are not being asked to forego the fruit of so much work, by so many people, over the last 40 years!
((SOUND clip of Jubilee Sanctus part 1))
Settings of the new texts will gradually replace the current settings of the previous texts – though many composers have been able to re-write parts of their settings – but it would surely be foolish to lose repertoire, the tools of participation, before we can replace it. Undoubtedly, we have been here before! The language of the liturgy gradually changed in Rome from Greek to Latin in the 3rd and 4th century and we still have traces of the Greek as well as the Latin, which people have been happy to continue to sing ever since!
((SOUND clip of plainsong Kyrie part 1) )
Many priests and musicians, bishops, cantors and congregations take delight in the repertoire of psalms, in a variety of styles, which we are able to use now to respond to the word of God, to express our faith, our hopes, our humanity, in the range of situations which are part of our lives and the lives of others.
(Sound: clip of Ps 18)
These words of Psalm 18, seem so appropriate for the feasts of Apostles – including that of our own St Andrew, patron of Scotland, but they also can help us to voice our sense of the teaching of the apostles reaching throughout the world, bringing good news.
Listen now to words we use from Psalm 17 which can help us in our prayers to express our trust in God’s love for us. ((sound: clip of Ps 17 ))
Then, the acclamations with which we stand and sing to welcome the Gospel at mass have also already enriched us immeasurably -
‘Christ was humbler yet, even to accepting death. . . . . ((sound: clip of Christ was . . .))
or
I am the light of the world, says the Lord. . . anyone who follows me will have the light of life ((Sound: clip of Alleluia: I am the light ))
For many, the Missal of Paul 6th has been a source of much spiritual nourishment, even of great beauty and it has enabled us to express our faith for some 40 years – after all, “What you pray is what you believe.” – Using these texts in prayer, surely we will become at ease with them, and will enjoy their many biblical allusions – ‘from the rising of the sun to its setting, great is the name of the Lord. ’ ((Sound: clip of ‘From the riding of the sun . . ))
Pope Benedict on the Continuity of Sacred Music
June 1, 2011
Benedict XVI Underlines Continuity of Sacred Music
Says Tradition Rightly Lives Alongside Progress
MAY 31, 2011 Benedict XVI is underlining the continuity of sacred music that stretches back to the “authentic and glorious tradition” begun by St. Gregory the Great.
In a letter address to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, grand chancellor of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, the Pope called the centenary of its foundation an “important event,” and a “reason for joy for all the cultivators of sacred music.”
Placing the foundation of the institute in context, the Pontiff recalled that Pius X founded the institute in 1911, eight years after publishing an instruction on sacred music issued “motu proprio,” titled “Tra le Sollcitudini” (Among the Cares).
With the instruction, Benedict XVI recalled, Pius X “carried out a profound reform in the field of sacred music, returning to the great tradition of the Church against the influences exercised by profane music, especially operatic.”
The German Pope continued: “This masterful intervention needed, for its realization in the universal Church, a center of study and teaching that could transmit, in a faithful and qualified way, the lines indicated by the Supreme Pontiff, in keeping with the authentic and glorious tradition that goes back to St. Gregory the Great.
“Hence, in the span of the last 100 years, this institution has assimilated, elaborated and transmitted the doctrinal and pastoral contents of the pontifical documents, as well as of Vatican Council II, concerning sacred music, so that they can illumine and guide the work of composers, of chapel maestros, of liturgists, of musicians and of all formators in this field.”
Benedict XVI then highlighted the “essential continuity of the teaching on sacred music in the liturgy.”
Even modern Popes, he continued, such as Paul VI and John Paul II, reaffirmed “in the light of the conciliar constitution ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ [...] the end of sacred music, namely, ‘the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful,’ and the fundamental criteria of Tradition.”
He noted several elements of the Tradition of sacred music, such as “the sense of prayer, of dignity and of beauty,” “the primacy of Gregorian chant, as supreme model of sacred music,” and “the importance of the ‘schola cantorum.’”
Benedict XVI said the more traditional forms of sacred music have been “considered expressions of a conception that responded to a past to be overcome and neglected, because it limited the liberty and creativity of the individual and the communities.”
“However,” he countered, “we must always ask ourselves again: Who is the authentic subject of the liturgy?”
“The answer is simple, the Church” the Pope answered. “Not the individual or the group that celebrates the liturgy, it is first of all the action of God through the Church, which has her history, her rich tradition and her creativity.”
“The liturgy, and consequently sacred music,” the Pontiff explained, “lives from a correct and constant relation between healthy ‘traditio’ and legitimate ‘progressio.’”
Benedict XVI then urged the institute, “on the basis of these solid and sure elements, to which are added an age-old experience,” to continued “with renewed impetus and commitment your service in the professional formation of the students, so that they acquire a serious and profound competency in the different disciplines of sacred music.”
“Thus,” he concluded, “this Pontifical Institute will continue to offer a valid contribution for the formation, in this field, of the pastors and lay faithful in the different particular Churches, fostering also an adequate discernment of the quality of the musical compositions used in liturgical celebrations.”
— — —
The Company of St. Patrick’s Carillonneurs
November 19, 2010
The bell-ringers of St Patrick’s, Dumbarton
John Rainey, a parishioner of St. Patrick’s Dumbarton, writes:
In our parish we have a 23 bell carillon which I have played for many years on appropriate occasions. Our present PP (Canon G. Conroy) had the installation professionally overhauled about three years ago which resulted in increased use and more people taking interest. As a result on All Saints Day this year we formally founded the Company of St. Patrick’s Carillonneurs (of which I am the current director) with about eight members. The aim is essentially to enhance the liturgy and in general raise the local catholic profile in the local community. We also want to develop the art in younger people.
We are in informal contact with a church in Birmingham (St. Theresa of Lisieux and Our Lady of the Rosary, Saltley) with a near identical instrument modelled on our own, there being a historical connection with both parishes in the 1930′s. The carillonneur there is an accomplished player and has visited St. Patrick’s in the past. He is also involved in the British Carillon Society of which we are currently not members as it essentially an English based organisation which raises practical difficulties due to distance.
Although none of us are professional musicians, (I am a retired chemistry teacher) we write and adapt music ourselves to be able to play hymns, carols etc. within the two octave range available (C to C” less the two lowest semi-tones) and we are currently in the early stages of establishing a music library. We also will play appropriate secular items from time to time. To give the group identity and a degree of dignity (you may imagine how often I have heard “Quasi Modo” over the years) we have established a constitution and logo, see attachment produced in booklet form.
Currently we play on Sundays after our 10 and 12 Masses and activity at the moment centres around getting some of our “learners” into shape for Christmas. We have a home made practice instrument available for that.
From one New Missal to another: a reflection
May 5, 2010
From one New Missal to another: a reflection by Gerry Fitzpatrick
It is 45 years since we welcomed the first modern translation of the Roman Missal, and as we prepare to move onto a new translation it might be useful to reflect on where we have come from and how far we have come since 1965.
The repertoire for the Mass liturgy before the New Missal was introduced in 1965 was in Latin, though we also had an extensive repertoire of hymns for the Novenas and Benediction which were so popular at that time. Read more
Scots Hymn supplement for Feast Days
October 2, 2009
Scots Hymn supplement for Feast Days
A collection of hymns, songs and resources for feast days in Scotland will be launched by St Mungo Music in February. The contents include music, prayers and intercessions for feast days.
Some of the hymns are popular ‘Golden Oldies’ which are no longer available in contemporary hymnbooks, others are taken from the St Andrew Hymnal which is no longer in print, and others are contemporary.
They include: hymns for the feasts of Sts Ninian of Galloway, Columba, Mungo, Patrick, Our Lady, Margaret , Joseph, John Ogilvie, Eunan or Adamnan, St Bride, St Andrew, Blessed John Duns Scotus, Gregory the Great, Peregrin, and even a setting of a Litany of Celtic saints. A Workshop launching this book is being planned for February
The musical Preface is:
Preface
The hymn has a long history in Christian worship but an uneven one! The songs of the bible were given a special respect, but, strange as it may seem to us now, non-scriptural material was not always so readily accepted. From the 4th century until the period of the Reformation, hymns by writers such as St Ambrose, St Hilary, Rabanus Maurus, Venantius Fortunatus , Hermannus Contractus, St Bernard, St Thomas Aquinas and others seem to have been used in Morning and Evening Prayer, but not usually in the Eucharistic liturgy.
At the Reformation Luther and his followers created and used hymns both to instruct people and to allow them to participate more easily in public worship. Calvinists rejected any songs that were not scripture, but they promoted the metrical psalms very effectively, while Roman Catholics continued to use Latin.
By the late 18th century English writers such as Isaac Watts and John Wesley were paraphrasing scripture especially the psalms, and they then moved on to writing devotional songs. Catholic liturgy was still in Latin but there was an outburst of creativity in vernacular hymn writing for devotional use from early in the 19th century by Fr Faber (Sweet Saviour Bless us; By the blood; Faith of our fathers; Jesus gentlest saviour; Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all; Most ancient of all mysteries; Mother of mercy; My God, how wonderful thou art; O come and mourn with me; O Purest of creatures . . . . . ), by John Lingard, and many others including Cardinal Newman (Firmly I believe; Praise to the holiest. . . . ). Attention was also given to vernacular translations of some of the hymns from the first millennium.
I mention this because the immense creativity in hymn writing that took place after Vatican 2 was not something completely new! Rather, it was a renewal of what had begun more than 100 years previously – at about the same time as liturgists and musicians were beginning to think of restoring plainsong to the Church’s life in response to the excesses of secular styles in the music of the Mass – and its purpose was to promote faith, understanding, a sense of the holy - to provide people with accessible tools for public prayer.
Some of our favourite hymns of 50 years ago - many of them by Fr Faber -’ date from the middle of the 19th century and they were written for parish ‘devotions’ or ‘Benediction’ or ‘the Novena’ but not for Mass. When our liturgy moved into the vernacular, then naturally many of these hymns – since it took time to find a new repertoire of music for the texts of the Mass – began to be used during Mass, but they were not exactly ‘fit for purpose’ having been created for something else! Our repertoires began to be enriched by hymns taken from the Reformed and Anglican traditions – such as Praise to the Lord the Almighty; The Lord’s my Shepherd (Crimond); Praise my soul; The church’s one foundation; Alleluia Sing to Jesus; The day thou gavest; There is a green hill; For all the saints; Mine eyes have seen the glory; O Perfect love; O Thou who at thy eucharist; Thine be the glory; Lord of all hopefulness; Now the green blade riseth; Christ be beside me; Be thou my vision . . .. .
Even before the Council writers and composers in Scotland were adding their contribution – people like Francis Duffy, Mother Turnbull, Joseph McHardie, William McLelland, David McRoberts, Charles Fraser, Desmond Gunning, John McQuaid, and many others.
With the altered expectations in liturgy after the Council, contemporary writers such as James Quinn SJ set out to create songs for the liturgy, hymns which were suitable for mass and other occasions : O Come, O Come; Sing all creation; This day God gives me (St Patrick 7th c); Christ be beside me; This is my will; Where true love; the Seven Last Words; the St John Ogilvie hymn and many others particularly in ‘New Hymns for All Seasons’
The Iona Community began to make a difference in hymn singing through John Bell and Graham Maule : Will you come and follow me; I cannot measure; Jesus Christ is waiting; Lord Jesus Christ. . . . The music of Taize – such as O Lord hear my prayer; Jesus remember me; the St Louis Jesuits, Hubert Richards, Damian Lundy and many others helped to change the way we pray.
When the St Andrew Hymnal came out in 1964 it was just a bit late for its full value to be appreciated at that time. The attention of parish priests and musicians was on finding music for the liturgy and the call of the Vatican Council to ‘full, conscious, active participation’ was understood to refer primarily to the liturgical texts of the Mass, specifically to those parts which are assigned to the congregation: the Kyrie and Gloria, the Psalm Response and the Gospel Acclamation, the Sanctus, Memorial, great Amen, the Agnus Dei and the Communion Song.
Clearly, hymns continue to be immensely valuable to promote faith and its expression, for feast days and special occasions, and to provide repertoire for ecumenical services, but they have a limited place at Sunday Mass, and careful planning will ensure that we get a chance to enjoy them but their use doesn’t crowd the liturgy or lengthen it unduly!
This small collection of hymns and songs, many of them from the St Andrew Hymnal and others created since for specific occasions, is offered for those who will find them useful for special occasions and feast days in Scotland, whether in school or church. There are many other hymns and songs, new and old, which hopefully will be made available in future collections.
Gerry Fitzpatrick,
Director of Music,
Archdiocese of Glasgow
Psalms and Songs of the Bible Book 1
October 2, 2009
A new Publication from St Mungo Music
Psalms and Songs of the Bible Book 1
This collection of psalms and canticles is the first of a set of three, and includes versions of psalms 1, 4, 8, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. It also includes The Benedictus, the Magnificat, the Canticle of Ezechiel (to the tune ‘Slane’ and with optional descant and choir parts), and 3 versions of the canticle from Philippians 2:6-11. The settings have been made by associates of St Mungo Music in Glasgow. Some of the material is already on our
There is an introduction on ‘the psalm’ by Noel S Donnelly (which can be seen on this website under Liturgical Resources), and The Preface is as follows:
‘This collection of psalms and canticles is the first of a set of three. The settings have been made by associates of St Mungo Music in Glasgow. Some of the material is already on our website and more will follow. On stmungomusic.org.uk you will be able to read the words, see and print the music and, often, listen to the psalms or canticles being sung.
The psalm settings have been written for a variety of occasions and singers and it will be noticed that some are very simple while others make more serious demands on the psalmist. It is fair to suggest that In the more than forty years since the 2nd Vatican Council the increased attention we have given to scripture and our growing familiarization with the psalms both in liturgy and in private prayer has been of immense spiritual benefit to us. The Canticles or songs of the Bible too have practically been rediscovered. For most people the very word ‘canticle’ has implied The Song of Mary, or of Simeon or Zechariah – the Benedictus, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis of the Prayer of the Church. Now we are more aware of other biblical songs from both the old and the new Testaments and of their value to us who have inherited so much of faith from the people of Israel and the Christian community of Apostolic times.
The Archdiocesan Music Committee gladly acknowledges the generosity of the St Mungo Singers and the many cantors who have so kindly allowed recordings made in St Leo’s, St Albert’s, St Paul’s, Shettleston, St Michael’s, Dumbarton, Ibrox Parish Church and Pluscarden Abbey to be used to assist singers develop their repertoire.’
Gerry Fitzpatrick,
Director of Music,
Archdiocese of Glasgow August 2009
A workshop for launching this book is being planned for November 5th
Versicle, Doxology and Prayer of Vespers
November 1, 2008
Versicle, Doxology and Prayer of Vespers from the Office of St. Kentigern (The Sprouston Breviary) Read more
Opening Prayer for the Mass of St Mungo or Kentigern
November 1, 2008
Lord our God,
You chose St Kentigern as bishop Read more
The Story of St Mungo
November 1, 2008
In recent times there has been a renewal of interest in St Mungo in Glasgow, the city with whose foundation he is associated, and on whose Coat of Arms he features. Read more
