FINDING MY RELIGION
Music leads pianist to a life of Catholicism
Classical pianist Jacqueline Chew rebelled against her Christian upbringing and became an atheist while attending the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the 1970s. But her love of music eventually led her back to a spiritual life.
Chew was so taken with the work of Olivier Messiaen, a pioneering French composer known for his sacred Catholic music, that after hearing his composition “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus” (“Twenty Contemplations of the Infant Jesus”), she began questioning her belief that God does not exist.
Next month, Chew, who released a CD of “Vingt Regards” last year, will take her interest in Catholicism to a new level. She will be received as an oblate, a layperson living outside a monastery who promises to follow the rules of St. Benedict in her private life, at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a community of monks in Big Sur.
Is this deja-vu or what! In 1973 I prepared a thesis at Smith College for the MFA degree…its title was “Time and Eternity in the Music of Olivier Messiaen”…..doing a thesis on a great composer (err…great Catholic composer) was not easy in those primitve days before the fax, the PC, the internet, CD’s etc. At the time I was an avid Unitarian on the verge of the seminary….but I became a Catholic and I owe a debt of gratitude to Messiaen and so many others.
Wow. The Lord DOES work in mysterious ways. Welcome home Peter… and I’m betting our Pope Benedict would especially love your story!