Rally and Great Music

Last Saturday I was blessed to have had the opportunity to assist with the Taize prayer experience as part of the Junior High Rally, held at Archbishop Murphy High School, which gathered hundreds of grade school children from around the Archdiocese. We were expecting only about 40 of them at Taize, but that number quickly doubled at the last minute when the Stations of the Cross prayer experience was cancelled. We also had a San Damiano cross, a number of icons, and tons more tea lights and candles of all sizes that I didn't take a picture of.

 

Before the kids came into the theater, I asked for volunteers to say the intercessions. We had prayers for the Pope, the clergy, all gathered at Rally, youth ministers, all who teach and pass along the Catholic Faith, etc. which they just said from their place, and after each prayer when they said "We pray to the Lord" we all sang "O Lord Hear our Prayer". After we went through the prepared list of intercessions and we invited others to name the prayers they wished to pray for, the kids started raising their hands as if they were back in the classroom, instead of simply saying their petition they would like to pray for. I forgot that these were grade school children. They did find the repetitive chanting prayerful.

Mass followed. After making sure folks had everything they needed and such, I had to leave for Seattle.

John Michael and I went to St. James Cathedral for "Great Music for Great Cathedrals". For lack of a better word, it was a great experience of sound and color.

And just for fun, here's what happened at Rally during a break before lunch. I quickly took a picture before the stack of U-Haul boxes came tumbling down.