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Third Sunday of Easter
18 April 2010
Dear Friends in Christ,
Several items for your attention:
1. In the summer of 2008, Kevin Clarke became the first full-time organist and choirmaster of St. Mary’s Church in the history of our parish, and in the nearly two years since his arrival, he has transformed the musical life of the congregation. Kevin came to us from Texas, where his wife Lisa was born and bred and where he had worked almost all of his professional life, and now because of family obligations, Kevin and Lisa and their children Lucy and Hugh need to return to Texas. Sunday 13 June 2010 will be Kevin’s last day of service to St. Mary’s, and I am deeply grateful for his remarkable leadership with our choirs and his peerless performance at the organ.
2. The search for Kevin’s replacement has already begun, and I am confident that we will find a musician of great skill to pick up where Kevin left off and continue to build our program of sacred music into something beautiful for God. The liturgical life of our parish has become well known among the liturgists, theologians, musicians, architects, artists, and pastors who are all contributing to the movement often called the “reform of the reform,” and our next organist-choirmaster will be someone with the education and experience to deepen our already rich experience of the Church’s worship.
3. This Wednesday is the feast of one of the brightest lights of Christian civilization, St. Anselm of Canterbury. Anselm was born in 1033 to a noble family in Aosta, an ancient city in the Italian Alps, just over the border with France. Anselm entered the Benedictine monastery at Bec in Normandy at the age of twenty-seven, and because of his brilliance, Anselm’s monastery became one of the most famous centers of learning in the eleventh century, just before the rise of the first universities (all founded by the Church). In 1093, after having served as prior and abbot for nearly 30 years, Anselm became the Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in 1109, famed both for his holiness and for his learning, and St. Anselm is reckoned “the father of scholasticism” because of his influence on the intellectual life of his day.
4. Monday 19 April is the fifth anniversary of the election to the Chair of St. Peter of Pope Benedict XVI. Let us support our Holy Father with prayer:
Father of providence, look with love on Benedict our Pope, your appointed successor to St. Peter on whom you built your Church. May he be the visible center and foundation of our unity in faith and love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Father Newman