Concert at St. Gabriel

St. Gabriel Parish in Detroit

Is celebrating 93 years.

One of the many festivities being planned
Is a wonderful concert.

This will take place this Friday,
September 26th at 7:45p.m.,
immediately after the evening mass.

Featured in this event will be
Proyecto Artifice and Rondalla San Gabriel,
Both groups are from St. Gabriel parish.
St. Gabriel pastor, Fr. Jaime,
Directs both of these groups.


A special guest choir will also be part of this event,
Cántico de la Mujer Latina.
Translated, the group’s name means
Canticle of the Latin Woman.
And, you guessed it,
It’s a Latina Women’s Choir.
This group is directed by yours truly.
The concert will be primarily in Spanish,
Though Cántico de la Mujer Latina
Will sing at least two songs in English.

You’ll also be able to hear some original poetry
As I will be reciting one of my works that night as well!

The event will also feature an Art Gallery.
I’ve already seen some of the works to be displayed
And I can say first-hand that the artwork is spectacular!
At least 20 works by a young man name Gilberto
Will be on display during this event.

This enjoyable evening is the brainchild
of the pastor, Fr. Jaime Hinojos.
Fr. Jaime is always finding creative ways
of celebrating special moments in parish life.

Do Join us:
Friday - Sept. 26th@ 7:45p.m.
St. Gabriel is located at
8118 W. Vernor
Detroit, MI 48209

The concert will take place in the school hall.

Better yet,
Come to mass at 7:00p.m.
And then stay for the concert and art exhibit.
And, oh, mass is in Spanish!

Yahoo Map

About the photo:

Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego.

I took this photo on Sunday there at St. Gabriel.

I've always admires this Guadalupe side altar.

Now just think,

if you come to mass before the concert

you'll be able to admire this altar, too!

Religious Women

This labor day weekend
I spent some time with religious women.
The Grand Rapids Dominicans
and The Missionaries of Charity.

On Saturday,
members of my women’s choir
drove up to Grand Rapids.
We were invited to participate
in the Perpetual Profession of Vows
of one of our members.

I was totally impressed
by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids.
They are a dedicated and prayerful bunch,
to say the least.

They are aware and involved.
Just entering the Dominican Center at Marywood
one saw immediately
how involved they are
in areas of justice and peace.

And the art on the grounds
was just amazing.
And I love art,
all things creative.
So, needless to say,
I took few photos!
But I was impressed
that these ladies
say a lot
with the art they have on exhibition.
To even have art on exhibit
is saying something.

I totally enjoyed my company
at lunch and at dinner.
These ladies make you think.
These ladies gently agitate
to make your brain cells grow!
I just love that!

The mass and profession
were just wonderful.
There were several hundred people in attendance.
The chapel was packed.
My women’s choir joined the Dominican Sister’s choir
and it was just an experience
that I will never forget.
The whole assembly sang and responded
with great gusto, with energy and enthusiasm.
Theirs is a preaching charism
and preach they do!

And then,
almost in polarity,
I spent Monday evening
with the Missionaries of Charity.
They are holding a novena
in honor of their foundress, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
They are another amazing group of women,
in full habit
and living in the barrio of Southwest Detroit.
To tell the truth,
I was just plain honored
when they invited me to the convent.

The novena was simple.
All in Spanish
before the Blessed Sacrament
and with people from the neighborhood.

These wonderful Sisters
got it.
I mean,
they got it.

You know,
when the rest of the liturgical world
is struggling to define Liturgical Inculturation,
struggling to control Popular Religiousity,
struggling to create a Liturgical Catechesis
(as if it needs to be “created”), . ..
. . .or any other liturgical buzzword or phrase,
these wonderful Sisters just plain got it.

When the rest of Detroit
is struggling with clustering
and who gets what mass time
and who gets what priest.. .
.. .well, these Sisters just plain got it.

It’s not about what parish you belong to.
It’s not about who your pastor is.
It’s not about what time you gather to pray.
It’s about Being.

They accepted the popular piety of the neighborhood
and incorporated their patron saint.
As a pastoral people,
they accepted the language and culture
of their surroundings
and worked to use the same to affirm the faith.

They didn’t just invite other people into their world.
They dared to enter into the world of others.

And they did so with a rosary novena.
It was simple.
It was powerful.
And it moved me to tears.
These women,
whose first language is neither English nor Spanish,
sang Pange Lingua in Spanish.
That, my friends,
was more than I could bear
and the tears just made themselves present.

In a previous blog entry
I said something about holy space, sacred ground.
These Sisters just plain got it.
They sang an ancient hymn
that has been historically sung in Latin
in Spanish
in Southwest Detroit,
in a neighborhood that they gently adopted.
Pange Lingua.
It wasn’t only about the Blessed Sacrament before me.
It was about Body of Christ
that surrounded me at that moment.
I just cried.

I have the great honor
of being invited to serve as Pastoral Musician
for their big feast day this Friday, tomorrow.
If you’re in the Detroit area,
please do come to St. Gabriel Parish for 9:00a.m. mass
with these Sisters, The Missionaries of Charity.
(Holy Hour at 8:00a.m.)

You know,
these women,
the Dominicans and The Missionaries of Charity,
are really quite the same,
despite their obvious differences.
They are living examples of people
who have become all things to all people
in order to bring some of them to Christ.
Would that more of us would do the same. . . .

God's Work of Art

This summer I had the opportunity to participate in a most wonderful event in the city where I live. Wyandotte’s Crafter’s Alley is an event sponsored by the Wyandotte Business Association and runs at the same time as the Wyandotte Art Fair. Although this event took place in July, I thought I’d share my experience as well as some photos here.

Artists and crafters lined the streets at Wyandotte’s Art Fair and Crafter’s Alley. The finest works of art I experienced during the festivities weren’t sold by any artist, crafter or vendor. The finest form of art I experienced was in the form of body art: tattoos.

Personally, I’ve never given tattoos much thought, however, I must say that it is an art form I admire. I am a musician and while I have never particularly cared for opera I appreciate and respect all of the preparation and talent needed to sing opera, to compose opera. In much the same fashion, I appreciate and respect the art and talent in every tattoo.

Words have power. If a mother yells at her six-year-old daughter, “you’re stupid. You’re ugly,” those words are not uttered without effect. Those words carry impact. But what if words are part of body art?

I met a young man at the event with a very elaborate and ornate tattoo. Amidst the designs of his tattoo was the word, “hate.” Another young person had the words, “infernal confusion” on her arm. I wonder how seeing those words every day effects these young people. I wonder how it is that they came to choose these particular words for their tattoos. The irony is that these young people were browsing the rosaries I made.

I have always had a great love for popular religiosity, those faith expressions that are born at the grass roots experience, born from the living experience of the populace. Quite often, these expressions of faith aren’t recognized by the church or are even shunned by the church. The tattoo has certainly not been widely accepted as the only “mark” or “seal” is the one given at baptism.

Personally, I have seen that popular religiousity finds expression in many forms. Popular faith truly finds expression in art.

I also had the opportunity to meet a young man who shared the story of how his father had a great devotion to Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos. As he embraced his young child he told the story of how his father had hopes of one day traveling to San Juan de Los Lagos to “pagar una manda.” In Mexican faith expression, a “manda” is where the faithful publicly thank God, Our Lady and the Saints for prayers answered. Pilgrims travel many miles, often doing the last stretch on their knees as they approach a specific sanctuary. Sadly, this young man’s father died before he could fulfil his “manda.”


He further explained that he was going to do what his father didn’t get a chance to do: publicly make a “manda” at Our Lady’s shrine. He said that he, too, had a great love and devotion to Our Lady. The procession to Our Lady’s Shrine that this young man will make in his deceased father’s honor will begin at Detroit Metro Airport. More specifically, the procession has already begun in his heart.

He then told me had Her tattooed on his back. Although the tattoo was still a work in progress, he permitted me not only to see it but also to take a photo. I never would have thought that a tattoo could be used for evangelization, but this young man taught me a lot that day. Now that was, without a doubt, the most affective and effective piece of art I witnessed during this particular event. In fact, that art witnessed to me!

A young lady who browsed and then purchased a rosary wore the fourth tattoo that caught my attention. Perhaps the rosary she wore as body art on her wrist and the back of her hand expressed her devotion to Our Lady much more than the rosary she purchased from me. This young person was also gracious enough to permit me to photograph her tattoo. Have you ever thought about how often you use your hands, about how you use your hands? Every time she pays a cashier, every time she shakes someone’s hand, every time she waives she has a prominent tool for evangelization available. Every time she uses her hand she gives witness.

My time at Wyandotte’s Art Fair and Crafter’s Alley was truly blest by those who not only had art on their bodies, but art in their heart. I’d like to thank these young people for what they brought to me. You, my friends, are God’s work of art.

Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos, Pray for us.

Español Aquí

Spanish Here

Welcome to Liturgy House

Hello and welcome to Liturgy House. Here I hope to muse, reflect and perhaps even challenge others, especially those of us for whom worship, liturgy, the bible, church life and ministry are a part of the very fiber of our being.

Liturgy is life. What’s more, Life is Liturgy. Liturgy, with a capital "L", should reinforce and lock in time in a public way and before God that which already is (life). If a young couple is in love and they choose to spend the rest of their lives with each other (and they choose a church wedding) they make it a public and formal ritual by celebrating the sacrament. That is to say, through the liturgy. In a sense, they were already about "the work" of the wedding liturgy by developing their relationship. Their life is a liturgy, small "l".

This hypothetical wedding, and indeed all Worship and Liturgy, cannot and should not be planned in a fashion that is disconnected from the lives of the assembly who gather. Liturgy is more than just ritual. I repeat what I stated in the previous paragraph: Liturgy is Life & Life is Liturgy.

Sometimes, however, a worshiping community can be disconnected from what is going on in their own neighborhoods, in their own backyards. . . .indeed, disconnected from "the work" that is life. This disconnect can cause a disconnect in the work of Liturgy, a disconnect in the manner and fashion in which Liturgy is celebrated. Slowly but surely I’ll expound on these thoughts through "the work" of this blog.

And so, I have created this blog because there are so very many thoughts dancing around in my head. Oh, and somewhere along the way I’ll surely write about dancing in the Liturgy. And art and environment. And Music. And I’ll surely write on one of my favorite subjects: Cultural Adaptation!. . . .and before anyone starts writing and commenting and calling me a heretic, let say publically here and now that I can barely imagine a Dia Doce celebration without Matachin. For those of you who don’t know what Matachin is, what Dia Doce is, well. . .you’ll just need to trust me and check in on this blog every now and again!

Having said all of the above, let me simply state that it is sometimes just plain cathartic to write, to just release the words from one’s mind!

And when, in fact, we release those words and place them on parchment (albeit, electronic parchment), they often return to us with ideas from others. And so, the dialogue begins.

And isn’t liturgy celebrated best in dialogue, when all respond, participate?

Welcome to my house, to our house, to Liturgy house.
Mi Casa es Tu Casa.
Peace to all who enter here.

Espanol Aqui / Spanish Here

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About the photo: I have a particular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Can you tell? I've visited the Basilica in Mexico City several times and even had the honor of serving with my friends as guest choir. Yes, we'll surely discuss popular piety here at Liturgy House!