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The schedule of organ and carillon recitals is here. Guest artists are featured most every weekend, most of them from the Washington Metro area, some from abroad. Some of the standard repertoire is being repeated by a few of the artists but what the hey – they probably get one chance to play at the Shrine – they may as well play what they like. I attended the recital this past Sunday and took some pictures beforehand. The program was great – but I can’t remember any of it now. I’ll have to find it and post it.

Here are some reductions of the photos I took.

This is the canopy above the altar. It was taken just beneath the stunning mosaic called “Christ in Majesty” that scares Emily Stimpson, small children, and hardened sinners.

I’d be happy to email some of the good ones to readers but they are huge – almost 1 MB a piece. You’d have to have a fast connection to the net or it would take all day to get them. Please email me if interested. The originals make good desktop wallpaper for pious pilgrims!

From Jonah Goldberg:
For all I know, saying gesundheit — or anything else in German — is still the best way to get a table at a French restaurant.

Haugen is getting more column inches in this blog than the cooked-up Bush/Cheney business ethics stories in the Washington Post. Can we agree this needs to stop?
I will get the last word though: If you need to give a hymn-text writer the benefit of the doubt when it comes to interpreting the text then it’s obviously not clear enough. And how can you pray when the text lacks clarity?

This from the reader who initially wrote to take issue with some of Haugen’s lyrics.

In common American English parlance, to say “not in some ….” is to cast doubt upon the truth of whatever word comes next. This appears to be disparagement of the concept of heaven. “Now is the kingdom, now is the day” is not a problem in itself, as we are told that we as the Church really are the body of Christ. However, since it follows right on the heels of a statement questioning the concept of heaven, it appears to be saying that we will make our version of heaven now, here.
Mr. Shirley indicates that you need to read the first sentence in the context of the second, and his concept of different versions of heaven is unnecessarily convoluted in order to make that work. Logic usually supports the simplest explanation, and the simplest explanation is that the first sentence sets the context.
I also believe that Mr. Haugen probably did not mean to denigrate heaven or support atheism or humanism. But his PC theology is sloppy here, and at the very least he allowed something questionable to stay in his work. It’s understandable, given that he is non-Catholic, that his emphasis is on community, brotherhood, etc. As Catholics, we do need more of that. However, all too often people seem to feel that this is all that is necessary; that if you have love and brotherhood (or should that be siblinghood?) that’s all you need. You don’t need all those niggly details that are so hard to remember and even harder to practice, like respecting the life of unborn children, obeying God’s commandments on chastity, clothing the poor, etc. Just enjoy that good, warm fuzzy feeling, and that will get you to heaven.

Michael Shirley writes:

The reader who comments on “Gather Us In” says this:
“Not in ‘some’ heaven? This sounds like the anthem of an atheist – we’ll
make heaven here, now, don’t need some god to do it for us. That’s the
definition of humanism, isn’t it? I know that’s not what he’s really trying
to say, but that’s how it comes out, and apparently no one cares.”
Actually, that’s not how it comes out to me, nor, I suspect, to most people.
“Now is the kingdom, now is the day” says to me that we are to be God’s
children now, to be like Jesus now, and not wait until we get to heaven to
love our fellows. As to “some heaven,” have you noticed how many
different visions of heaven there are among Christians? “Some heaven” makes
perfect sense in context, and is entirely Christian. There’s nothing
atheist about it.
Now, let’s talk about another song: “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”
Opinions?

Anyone else got their hymn book handy? Mine is out in the car but I can’t go get it now. I have this thing called a “job” that has nothing to do with restoring truly sacred music to its rightful place in the liturgy. Maybe I will have time over lunch.