The Junior Youth Choir Banquet

Medals and Chocolate and Food, Oh MY! It was such a lovely evening. After the whirlwind of work (we compressed what is normally a two hour set up by fifteen people into a blur of craziness all on one day with no Youth Choir! AGH!), the Youth Choir was at last able to trickle in as each school let out, and they donned their aprons and dug in for service and work.

This is the only picture of a Youth Choir member, and that is sad, because we look so splendid in our servant outfits...

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Unfortunately, my camera was the one outside taking pictures of JYC members as they exited with medals & certificates. Though we did not get any pictures of the Youth Choir working the Banquet, it was very exciting and fun to watch the Juniors happy and proud of the work they did this year.

We sang Laudate Nomen Domini, and then we cleaned and cleared until the kitchen was clean and all things put away (or at least tossed in the choir room for Ms. C to deal with later). I went in this morning and started hauling equipment back to my home for storage until next year.

With the close of the 2008-2009 Choir Season, I always get reflective about how much we've accomplished. For the Juniors, it is truly over until Fall 09. For the Youth Choir, we're just beginning a summer of work and play and song in preparation for Chicago & Rome.

Congratulations Juniors & Cherubs!!!! See y'all next year in choir!

Tiny Post Post Bead N Bake

THANK YOU ST. RICHARD'S.

We have Chicago funded now.

The next payment for Rome is June 1st for $200 per person. Those of you who are joining us will need to get your $200 in soon, too. As for the choir, I have every hope that we will be able to raise the $3000 necessary to make the next payment before June.

Thank you for your generosity and kindess. We will never forget the people of St. Richard's Parish. God bless you all.

I will upload edited videos and pics after the JYC banquet tomorrow night. Meanwhile, I should get some rest. What a weekend, and it isn't over until Tomorrow when all the trash is out and tables wiped down and kitchen restored to clean + 1. (ask me about clean +1, it's one of our favorite policies).

Good night St. R's, and God Bless Y'all!!!!!
Ms. C

Brownie Explosion and Fun with Fundraising!

For the full story...check out the videos of the BIG BAKE on YouTube--- CLICK HERE.

What can I say? 600 Brownie Pops, 2 trays full of GIANT NORMAL brownies, 2 trays of bark, and 15 very amazing young people. Several of our members even stayed last night for the cardboard campout with the Youth Department. Yikes! They are dedicated to Christ and the work of the Church...

So, today we start the sale. We actually DO need to raise money. All fun & hard work aside, there are real needs here for helping us get to Chicago and Rome. I pray that it will go well, but I also know the fantastic people of this parish...all will go well, and God Bless St. Richard's!

Baking Day!!!

Two days every year, I have the privilege of spending hours and hours working side by side with our Youth Choir. Today is "Baking Day" and this afternoon, each Youth Choir member will spend 4-5 hours (some will be there all 9 hours) covering brownies in chocolate & toppings, bagging them, ribbon-ing them, and displaying them.

It's exciting. It's chaotic. It's fun. Join us this weekend at ALL MASSES except, of course, First Holy Communion and take a look at the stuff they've made for you.

Of course, there will be silly videos.
Of course, there will be pictures.
Of course, there will be tired feet and the occasional splashing of dishwater.
Of course, we will pray for y'all.
Of course, God will be there, in the middle of it all, teaching us that the works of our hands and hearts are what matter most.

We may or may not make it all the way to Rome. All I know for certain is that in the work, in the moment, in the melted chocolate and toppings and sticks and singing, there is peace and joy and hope and light. These are acts of faith and love made by a small group of young people. Baking day means fellowship along the hard road, and WE ARE READY!

God bless the works of our hands, our hearts, our minds, and our voices. Deo gratias, Deo gratias.

Ms. C

Tonight We Work

"Anyone who likes to work can have a heck of a good time around here."

I have no idea who wrote that bumper sticker, but I have vivid memories of looking at it on my mother's bulletin board as a child, and took it quite to heart.

So, tonight, we work. I will try to upload pics late tonight or tomorrow. It looks like this:

• fifteen teenagers, one adult, and one four year old, and one oven
• 9 1/2 half sheet pans of brownies, the first two 9 X 13 inch pans of GIANT BROWNIES
• silver & swarovski crystal rosary bracelets lovingly designed and made by the girls
• wire crosses in every color of the rainbow (rainbow-colored, and sacred heart, too) made by the guys
• decorations for the Junior Youth Choir banquet on Monday night
• learning the three original songs by J.C. Patterson we will sing at our Draw Down
• all marketing materials created or updated
• Chicken Tacos, homemade queso, sodas & chips
• fellowship, prayer with each item we make for the good of those who buy them, friendship, and crazy silly fun...

Pray for us!!! Check back here tomorrow and share our joy. We will see you ALL Saturday & Sunday at all four Masses. There will also be draw down tickets available. Please be generous, as we have $2200 still to raise for Chicago and $3000 for Rome. God Bless St. Richard's, God bless the people of God!!!! Cantate Domino!

Honor Choir Performances by St. R's members

The youth choir would like to congratulate our one ACDA State Honor Choir participant, Claire (aka Mama's Girl). Yesterday was the culmination of months of hard work on six songs, two of which we will sing at Mass next year. The rest of the songs? They were well-executed, but not Sacred, so just a good experience in musicianship. Rehearsals began for this 35-minute performance by the 140-member Honor choir on Thursday night. All day Friday, and Saturday morning, they worked with their conductor, Dr. David M. Childs.

Thursday night brought a chance encounter with some of our Junior Youth Choir members, Mary K., and Luci, who were participating in the Elementary State Honor Choir this year. Congrats to the juniors!!!!! (I hear tell that Jason was there, too, but only in an official sibling capacity)

For the videos of the Honor Choir performing:

• CLICK HERE for Sicut Cervus
• CLICK HERE for Laetatus Sum
• CLICK HERE for I Want to Be Where Your Bare Foot Walks
  

So, feel free to amuse yourself with a game of "Where's Waldo" ala Youth Choir style...whoever can find Claire gets a wink and nod!!! Just email me with the exact location of our Claire, and I'll give you a comment nod in the comment box. *smile*

Why do I keep auditioning us for Honor Choirs? Because it is one guaranteed set of songs every year that can be taken all the way to performance level. The nature of singing at Mass, the heavy music load, often prevents us from ever really FINISHING the work on a song, so we don't get "there" until two or three years of singing it at Mass. Honor choirs help us understand both the process of finishing a piece, and how to apply that process as quickly as possible to our Mass Anthems. It's all about quality at home.

Congratulations to Claire and Mary K. and Luci. Good luck next year to ALL SRYC auditionees. NOW we know what it is we MUST do to increase our participation level next year.

Radio Maria and SRYC

I am excited to announce that I will be speaking on behalf of our little choir with Kathie Duggan on Radio Maria on Monday, April 20, from 2-3 PM. She and I will discuss choir formation, Catholic Youth music, Pueri Cantores, and they will broadcast some of our live recordings from Mass.

Please tune in on the net, or on the radio. To see Monday's schedule, visit the Radio Maria website by CLICKING HERE.

ALLELUIA, He is Risen!!!!

Easter morning came early and bright and full of energy and nerves. We sang, we worshipped, we had the requisite glitch here and there, and left with a sense of wonder and joy.

And apparently after Mass, when I said "we need to take a picture of the choir...things got a little boisterous..." *smile*
In the coming weeks, we will try very hard to earn the first serious payment for the Rome trip. $3,000. We must also earn the remaining $1,500 for the Chicago trip. Please pray for us, and if you would like to make a donation to the choir, please contact the Church office at (601) 366-2335.

We are now finished serving at Mass for the 08-09 season. We will sing again at the Feast of Corpus Christi, and will spend our time together between now and then working on the play for the Draw Down, and on the heavy music load for the Evening Prayer Festival at Chicago in July. It has been an amazing year with the choir. Watch this space for updates and announcements.
Our "serious" portrait. We're missing three of our singers here, as they had to be in Arkansas with military family.

Seriously, and with Passion

Celebrating the Triduum with my daughter at my side has been a privilege all these years. For every year she slept on the floor of a sanctuary somewhere while I prayed the entire watch, be it 3 hours or all night, she never complained. We were recounting all those long Holy Thursdays, and it reminded me---I have been honored to teach her the ways of silence and adoration through the years, in addition to hearing her voice soar with the angels. I think all our families in the SRYC have deep faith and deep stories to tell about worship and commitment and the power of God.

So, she woke up this Holy Saturday sick at her stomach. The prospect of not having her at Mass with me tonight is strangely shocking and empty.

And...as things do, it got me thinking: for our choir, one of the most important things we do is worship God together, a choir family.

Last week, we followed Jesus into Jerusalem.

Each family, in their own way, spent the week walking the way of the Cross. Some came to the various Masses, some struggled with finances and illnesses and the often hard life we must all overcome to be together. Some got dressed up and went dancing. Life has happened all week, just like it did 2,000 years ago. But something special happens this week, as our lives and our worship will show...

Tomorrow morning we rise with him. May God bless each and every member of the St. Richard Youth Choir, and may God bless and preserve their families. Thank you all for sharing your children with us.

Deo Gratias.
Cantate Domino!
Ms. C

30 reasons to be aware of world hunger

For us, the thirty hour famine made for an excessively difficult Mass. I looked out at my choir, especially the seventh graders, who had just gone through 30 hours without food and apparently had not slept well. They looked like they were each in various stages of exhaustive collapse.

Emotions were running high, concentration was minimal, and for the youngest of us, there was little or no sound being produced as they struggled just to stand. Bravery is one thing, but perhaps in the future it would be best not to allow anyone to sing after not eating for 30 hours.

It is a great privilege and service to God for us to sing at this Mass, this glorious Vigil Mass that begins Holy Week. I do not remember the 30 hour famine occurring on the weekend before Palm Sunday before, so I will do a bit more research next year to try to prevent a repeat of this year. I feel responsible for putting them up there without thinking about what condition they might be in when they got there.

One solution could be to require 30 hour famine participants to sit out the Vigil Mass, but then the Youth Choir would not be able to sing adequately, and we would have to rely on a small group and pared-down anthems. Not always a bad thing, but disappointing, given the importance of this particular Mass.

In any case, I was proud of them. They wobbled, but did not fall down. They sang as best they could, and God was with us in each moment. Next Sunday is Easter. We sing at the 8 o'clock Mass and though they may be a bit sleepy, they will presumably not be hungry.

Life lessons again, for all of us. Deo Gratias.