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To post a comment, ask a question, or submit an article contact me, Mark, at bumpy187@gmail.com.
..and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of only two churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.
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Catholic Music Label to Release Nuns' Album for Advent
Catholic News Agency
By Carl Bunderson
Nuns of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles community record their Advent album. Credit: De Montfort Music.
Denver, Colo., Oct 31, 2012 / 01:03 am (CNA).- Kevin and Monica Fitzgibbons left lucrative positions in the entertainment industry to found a company that helps unique new artists – and their De Montfort Music label will soon release an album by contemplative Benedictine nuns.
“We want to be able to bring these beautiful hymns across the ages, and chant and polyphony, and the Benedictines of Mary are extremely talented,” Monica Fitzgibbons told CNA Oct. 25.
“When we heard their music, we knew that there was something really special going on there musically that would fit in with our mission for the label.”
Monica and Kevin met through the entertainment industry, where Kevin worked at Columbia and Sony and she was part of DreamWorks. Both grew up as Catholics, but during their careers they experienced a kind of conversion or “completion” of their faith.
“After we got married and started to have kids, we both realized...how do we reconcile this and what our identity is going to be as married people with these children?” Monica said.
She credited God for this interior transformation, who she said worked through both religious and laity to encourage them in the deepening of their faith.
With “truth in charity, those little seeds were planted and it helped us realize that we did want to be part of music and entertainment and film, and to help bring that out in the world.”
She said that in the entertainment industry, “every now and then there would be something that was new, and it would always have a deeper, spiritual underpinning to it.”
From that basis, the Fitzgibbons founded Aim Higher Media in 2007, to “help encourage artists to listen to that inner voice.”
Out of that grew De Montfort Music in 2012.
“We really wanted to have something...that could be for religious communities to put their music out where it would be a nice, purer place for just that genre” of sacred music, Monica said.
“We could be the bridge between the global entertainment industry, so their music could get out but that the world would not be getting in.”
The couple's latest produced album, “Advent at Ephesus,” is by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. An order of cloistered, contemplative Benedictine nuns in the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph, they are “so faithful” to both the Magisterium and the Pope, Monica noted.
The sisters' life is marked by obedience, stability, and what they call conversion or “continually turning” towards God. They have Mass daily according to the extraordinary form and chant the psalms six times a day from the 1962 Monastic Office. They also support themselves by producing made-to-order vestments.
Between the sisters' obedience and the beauty of their chant, Monica said that “it's like a slice of heaven when you're around them.”
After hearing the sisters' self-released CD, the Fitzgibbons were inspired to contact them about releasing a new album.
With a distribution deal through Decca Records, the largest international distributor of classical music, De Montfort Music enlisted a Grammy-award winning producer and engineer to “essentially build a recording studio in the sisters' chapel.”
In three days of recording, the Benedictine nuns laid down 16 tracks for the release, all of them music for the Advent season. “Maybe that's what this whole thing is about” said Monica, “shining the light on Advent through this beautiful music.”
Monica pointed out the importance of beauty in music, and the centrality of that in De Montfort Music's mission.
“If there is a high bar of musical quality to the projects we put out, we believe that will draw in all kinds of people, whether they're faith based or not, seeking the faith or not.”
“We want to project to the world what's true and beautiful, especially when done in magnifying God.”
The Benedictines' CD, “Advent at Ephesus,” will be in stores Nov. 20, but is available now for pre-order at www.demontfortmusic.com. The sisters also have their own website, benedictinesofmary.org.
Blogger's note: Click this link (www.demontfortmusic.com) and watch the video.
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Reader Comments
A comment on the Mexican saying of dying three deaths (Post #250): "Mexicans and Italians think alike, those gone cannot be forgotten. We pray for them in death as we prayed for them in life!"
On all Souls Day and praying for those who are in Purgatory: "I wonder how many people know about the Plenary Indulgences that can be gained for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. The Fraternity of St Peter had it in their last newsletter about how from November 1st through 8th, you can gain a Plenary Indulgence each day by attending Mass, Communion, (and Confession within the week) and visiting a cemetery and praying for the Poor Souls. It is explained in more detail in their newsletter, but is a wonderful opportunity to do this for the Poor Souls. I always try to do that and encourage my kids also. It can only be given to the Poor Souls."
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Freedom Is Worth a Prayer
National Review Online
Bishop Conley, a Kansas native who was raised Presbyterian, is the incoming bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska; he talks about the reason for the prayers, and other Church and state matters with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Regarding the new “Novena to the Mother of God for the Nation”: What does Mary have to do with the upcoming elections?
BISHOP JAMES D. CONLEY: As Father Fred Miller reminds us in the introduction to our novena, “Catholics have always turned instinctively for help to Mary, Mother of God in times of need.” We are certainly in a time of great need in our nation, particularly as we prepare for the general elections in November. From the very beginning of our history in the United States, our Catholic bishops have turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a powerful intercessor. For example, in 1792, Bishop John Carroll, America’s first Roman Catholic bishop, chose Mary as the Patroness of the United States and entrusted our young nation to her maternal care. Mary is our life, our sweetness, and our hope — particularly in times of need.
LOPEZ: Is this presidential election in particular more important than others? Are prayers more necessary?
BISHOP CONLEY: It seems to me that a lot is at stake in these particular elections. Many of the foundational values that shaped our country from the very beginning seem to be at risk. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI and the American bishops have recently noted the erosion of religious freedom and the protection of conscience rights in the U.S., the first of our freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Other fundamental values seem to be in danger: the God-given right to life of every unborn child, the value of virginity for our young people and the virtue of chastity for all vocations, the very definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman who are open to receive life from God, and the responsibility we have to care for the disabled and the elderly until God calls them to Himself. There are many other issues, but these alone demand a certain urgency of prayer and concern.
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