June 2009
Our featured album this month is Trust. Like The Cenacle, Trust is based on the writings of Servant of God William Giaquinta. Its theme is one of service and trust in not only God’s divine providence, but also His helpers. For instance, Our Lady of Trust is here for us to help us. Jesus invites us to come to Him through her holy and immaculate heart.
We are encouraged to go forth and trust that the Spirit will guide us, provide what we need for the journey, and give us the words we need when we arrive. We take with us the image of the Smiling Christ, our Crucified Lord who, in the gentle rest of death, knew victory was His. He knew what was to come in a few short moments. He knew death itself was undone.
It this age of promiscuity, abortion, “no-fault” divorce, and looking for love in “all the wrong places” it’s time to “move forward in love” and TRUST.
May 2009
This month’s pick for Album of the Month is Full of Grace.
May is the month of Mothers, spring flowers, and May Crowning. How could it be anything else?
Full of Grace is a CD entirely devoted to the Blessed Mother. Stephen has long had a devotion to her, and this was the first tribute he wrote for her.
The more projects he does, the more he slips in a humble tribute to the Queen of All Saints. For instance, My Mind’s Eye, Stephen’s secular CD begins with the song “Would She Smile”. The she in question is Mary. Stephen has written songs for each mystery of the rosary, and he snuck in a Mary song in his latest work, The Cenacle. It is his way of saying, “I love you, MOM,” to Jesus’ Mother and ours.
April 2009
This month’s pick for Album of the Month is Think Inside the Box.
April is a time when many children receive First Communion and many adults are received into the Church in full communion at the Easter Vigil Mass. Spring is a time to remember new life, and the Eucharist offers new life in Christ.
The other day I was explaining Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to my child: “We take Jesus into our mouths, and He goes down to our hearts. He lives there, and when we are tempted to do something wrong, He says, ‘No, no, no.’” Being a temple of God is not something we are catechised to believe anymore. That doesn’t make it any less true.
This album is designed to draw us deeper to the Lord. Let us listen and rest in Him.
March 2009
This month’s pick for Album of the Month is For the Saints.
March is a month of feasts. There is St. Patrick’s feastday on the 17th, St. Joseph’s featday on the 19th, and the Annunciation of our Lord on the 25th. All of these happen to take place during Lent which takes precidence over them. (I find it ironic that Christ’s suffering is more important than His conception, but who am I to question it?)
When we think of St. Patrick, we think of green, booze, and corned beef and cabbage.
Unfortunately, many forget he was once a Welsh boy who had been abducted from his father’s lands and sold into slavery in Ireland. At that time it was a pagan country whose gods demanded sacrifices with no promise of love or protection. These misguided people were loyal to their idols out of fear for their safety and the safety of their loved ones. Their gods hated them. While Patrick learned their customs from proximity, he privately prayed 100 times a day.
Catholic missionaries came to this land and found Patrick working as a shepherd on his master’s land. Patrick’s prayers were answered. His fair hair had reminded them of angels, and they rescued him. Finally allowed to worship properly, he became a priest. His superior asked that he return to Ireland since no one else had spent time there, and thus they had not been able to convert the natives’ hearts to Christ.
He agreed. He returned to the land of his inprisonment, and he ministered to the people. He gave them a choice. Follow a god who hates you and would sooner kill you than hear you, or follow a God who loves you, sent His Son to die for you, and will protect you from the gods you used to worship. Well, when he put it that way…
And that was how St. Patrick drove the Serpent out of Ireland.
There was no beer involved!
The featured song is a prayer of St. Patrick.
February 2009
This month’s pick for Album of the Month is Love Found.
February is considered the month of love with Valentine’s Day at the heart of it. Around this time we begin to long for flowers, chocolates, and that special someone to share them with. (If this is not the case, perhaps Love Lost would be a better choice for you.) It is a time of hope and the first hints of springtime. With it come the stirrings of affection, renewed vitality, and the joy of holding another’s hand in your own.
This album is a collection of songs written for special couples on their wedding day. Stephen looked at each relationship and put together just the right images to depict the unique love of each couple. There are songs of sweet courtship, passionate romance, and the eternal vows of matrimony.
The featured song illustrates the difficulties of the change in relationships as a single man leaves his bachelorhood behind to join his bride-to be.
January 2009
This month’s pick for Album of the Month is Peace of Earth. It takes us through the seasons of Advent and Christmas, weaving in secular moments in a way to guide us through a secular world with Christ ever present in our hearts.
Each year we are asked to step outside of the world in which we reside and spend time preparing for the coming of the Lord as a Child. During the season of Advent we are asked to fast and pray, to look at our lives and simplify, and build within our hearts a cradle filled with blankets woven of love.
The interior of our hearts cannot be musty from ill-use. They cannot be dark with guilt or flooded with unrepentant sin. Our hearts must be swept clean with frequent confession, disinfected with regular attendance at Mass, and spruced up with regular visits with the Blessed Sacrament.
At long last the waiting is over, and the Baby arrives! There are several beautiful feasts within to octave to follow: the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christ; the feast of the Holy Family; the feast of the Holy Innocents, the first martyrs; and the Solemnity of the Mary, the Mother of God.
In the weeks to follow, we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord when Magi came to pay Him homage and offer Him three very prophetic gifts. We celebrate the Presentation and the Finding of the Child in the Temple.
The season closes in near February 2nd with the Baptism in the Jordan and the celebration of the beginning of the Jesus’ public ministry.
Until that time we build a nursery, we fill it with love, we let it grow to a big boy’s room, and we let it grow in beauty and splendor to hold the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE as He comes to us each day, each week, each moment of our lives.
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