Pinewood Castle

Music for Lent

The liturgy of the Church in Lent appropriately focuses on silence and chant. At home, however, we have not unplugged the CD player yet, rather, hearing some gems written for Holy Week.

Carlo Gesualdo's motet for Tenebrae is wild and wonderful. As the Prince of Venosa, Gesualdo (1560-1613) possessed his own artistic license and was known for his "undisciplined counterpoint". Although his mother was the niece of Pope Pius IV and his uncle was St. Charles Borromeo he is not remembered for holiness or piety, but rather for murders of his adulterous wife, her lover, an infant son and his father-in-law. His music is both anguished and other-worldly.

A Season of Passion is a 5 CD set that contains a variety of works. Lots of music for the money.

• Disc One - a sampling of Bruckner, Schubert, Bach and Bizet
• Disc Two - Highlights from Handel's Messiah
• Disc Three - Highlight's from Bach's St. John's Passion
• Disc Four - Highlights from Verdi's Requiem with Pavarotti
• Disc Five - Pergolesi's Stabat Mater

Palestrina's Music for Good Friday represents the best of polyphonic Renaissance polyphony. Palestrina (1525-1594) held various positions in Rome beginning as a choirboy at St. Mary Major and moving on to the Sistine Chapel choir, choirmaster of St. John Lateran, choirmaster at St. Mary Major, full-time service to a Cardinal, master of the papal choir at St. Peter's Basilica and a role in the reforming music after the Council of Trent to include polyphony. His music is known to reflect the insights gained as a spiritual disciple of St. Philip Neri.

I Think I've Got it Covered

I think I am done with my last minute splurges too. I had a few things to get out of my system. Like a salon haircut after which my husband did say I looked ten times better (that means a lot coming from him). A nice wool coat 75% off. Some CDs. A nice meal of fettuccine Bolognese sauce (made with ground beef and tomatoes with white wine, whole milk and pancetta) with a glass of red wine. Time for a little more austerity.

Lenten Plans:

Bake a braided wreath with toothpicks this week (p. 94 of this month's Faith & Family).
Bake bread on Thursdays for Friday.
Rotating breakfast, lunch and simple desserts (like dates and oranges) lists posted on pantry door.
Assembled a Lenten songbook for circle time.
"Growing Good Fruit" from A Year With God ready to go.
Lenten path on window from last year.
Planning on two stations every Friday night at home.
Catholic Mosaic books at the ready.

Holy Week:

Decorate Easter candles
Make Easter cards
Color eggs
Lenten Tea
Take a spring break and go on some local field trips early in the week.
Don't forget to use the lamb cake mold! (I forgot last year!)

For Me:

I loved Father's sermon yesterday about giving things up for Lent. Basically, the message was this: do more than give up M&M's or TV or soda. Try giving up sin! Will God really care if we give up candy if we are unwilling to give up our attachments to sin? Giving up chocolate will sound like a lame defense on judgment day.

So this was all I needed to hear before deciding not to give up chocolate. Rather, it will be my incentive to treat the children with more kindness, patience and respect. Every time I lose my cool with one of them they have my permission to mark a check on the white board. If at the end of the day I have no checks a little square of organic dark chocolate will be my dessert. Maybe with a Brazil nut too for thyroid-supporting selenium.

I like to be calm and cool and collected. And I would be if kids didn't have the ability to find the end of even the longest fuse! Sometimes I feel like lightening really might start shooting from the ends of my fingertips. Honestly, I know I need to model better behavior when I see my children acting the same way I do with one another. Yuck. It's time for a change. One area at a time. Oh, there are ever so many more. Pride, gluttony, sloth, envy, old grudges. I will have to depend on God's grace and the Sacraments to transform much of that.

That and some spiritual reading. I am open to last minute suggestions here as I am really struggling with the selections already on my bookshelf. I feel the need for something very practical and current. The Domestic Church Room by Room? Some Alice von Hildebrand?

Having listed out all of these plans I can see that I might be approaching Lent with a to-do list to merely check off. I hope it will be much more personal and heartfelt than that for me and my whole family. Sometimes when planning for the family I focus too much on the externals, but the intent of course is for the external activities to affect an inner change. Growth. Metanioa. Daily!