Wonderful article as always!
One small portion really hit home, “but I have no doubt that its having even more of an impact than its organizers know…” Isn’t this true for every minute each of us spends in public?

Without a doubt, the highest art of music exalts the spirit while it delights the senses. The trend to modernize/trivialize religious music as well as theology has lost congregations members in the thousands nationwide. I contend that high art which addresses theological themes is among the answers to faltering attendance as well as that all important fact of donations to support such congregations. Drivel begets drivel, attracts those who seek such while repelling those who respond with their hearts as well as their wallets. Bravo to you for the concert, and invitation to your neighbors and the support of our wondrous Judeo-Christian culture which has given us such as Mozart’s amazing work.

Something important happens at every Catholic Mass!

Thanks, Jennifer for this article.  I so agree that we need beauty at Mass because God is beautiful. I feel it draws me closer to God.  I know the Mass is about the Eucharist but beauty puts you in the realm of sacredness.  I’m always like to check out new parishes that offer beauty. I live in Central Texas so I’ll have to make a trip to St. William’s.  From the picture, I can see the beauty of the church, too.)

It is indeed a beautiful parish.

“it felt like something important was happening.”
Your feelings and $5.95 will get you something good at you know where.
“how many divine truths jumped off of the page”
Name one.
“to answer the judgment”
Seems like someone said “there will be some of you still living when the day of judgement comes”.  That was 2000 years ago.  You’re still waiting.
“A book will be brought forth, in which all will be written, by which the world will be judged.”
Please don’t hold your breath until this happens.
“I think we all felt like this concert was feeding a deep hunger we didn’t even know we had.”
Humans are like that.  So what?
“what a powerful—and underutilized—form of evangelization this is.”
Nope.  This performance has nothing to do with the tenants of your faith.
“rigorous apologetics”
Oxymoron.
“In order for a people to hear the truth, they first have to be listening.”
And the so-called “new atheists” are getting their attention.
“a small stirring within his or her soul”
There is no evidence for a “soul”.  Use the word “brain” instead?
“few things will get people to open their minds to God than an experience of true beauty.”
Non sequitur.  Humans see “beauty” all around them.  Also pain and hunger and suffering and death.  These are not reasons to jump to a conclusion about a “god”.  But lack of evidence is a good reason.

Appears JD Hughes has much on his mind and no where else to let loose.

Oh, I do so wish I could have gone to hear that wonderful concert.  My parish has lost its long time music minister and now we get for some masses just a few songs from a boom box and two men singing badly in the choir area.  Other masses we have the “LifeTeen” music people using pop songs for everything.  Very sad.

JD Hughes-Bless your heart, I will pray a rosary for you: Christ suffer much to have your love if you would just open your heart.

Jennifer, wish i could have been there.  A strange kind of conversation can happen between the soul and the sublime when there is music.  Good music taps both the primal and the divine, ties the universe together, and lays it bare for us to witness.

Wondering why the church chose to do this as a concert??  This music is even more powerful in its beauty when used as the setting for a Traditional Latin Requiem (Extraordinary Form). Talk about a great evangelization tool since you would also could have a great sermon on the four last things.  The Church’s muscial tradition is awesome but it would be ashame to let it all turn into museum / concert pieces.
Matthew

Art for art’s sake, money for God’s sake! How much were the tickets?

True Democrat: I attended the concert too as I live near this parish. It was free, open to the public. It was beautiful music, magnificently performed, and all completely free. It was wonderful.

Here in Trenton, NJ we will be celebrating a Solumn Requium Mass for the Feast of All Souls (Friday, 2 November, 2012) at the Church of Saint Anthony on South Olden Avenue, in Hamilton, NJ.
We recently were given a full set of Black vestments for the occasion…including a pall for the casket.  The best part is that it will be a full Mass…not just a concert : )
We have a TLM every Sunday and my daughters are learning to sing in the Scola.  There is something magnificent in the Extraordinary Form. We will be celebrating a Solumn High Pontifical Mass with the Bishop of Trenton on the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (11-27-12).

@Matthew—Amen! Why on Earth would a parish do Mozart’s Requiem (a Mass Setting) as a concert, instead of as a Mass? Maybe this will lead to a greater hunger for sacred music in the liturgy, or maybe it will lead to the impression that sacred music is just another form of entertainment and the difference between Mozart’s Requiem (or Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass) and a “Praise and Worship” or “LifeTeen” Mass setting is just a matter of personal taste and preference, which would be a tragedy. Let’s pray for the former.

While I appreciate sacred music very much, I am confused that so many people seem to think that “teen music” has no place in worship.  In our parish, a group of teens started doing the music at our Wednesday evening mass (which previously had no music at all), using their voices, guitars and piano music, and even a drum at times.  They sing traditional hymns as well as more modern christian music.  Since they started I’ve seen attendance at this mass almost double.  Didn’t Jesus himself speak the language of the people at the time?  If we want to draw people into the liturgy, we have to be prepared to “speak” their language.

The goal of art is to communicate truth. It is, at its core, a complement to evangelization.  This is why it is so IMPORTANT to do what this church is doing - to fill our churches with art so that people are confronted with and reminded of the stunning beauty of truth.  We all hunger for it, we all desire it, we all seek it out, and it is proper, good, and right to have it found inside the Church.

Actually, JD, all the people that have died have had their judgment.  You and I will face ours sooner than we think.  Just because you don’t believe something doesn’t mean it’s not true.

@Matthew and Nathan. Agreed that good liturgical music used in the liturgy is wonderful, but the Mozart Requiem was never meant to be used at Mass; it was always conceived as a concert piece.  In the Renaissance, composers wrote Masses and Requiems for liturgical use (like Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass), but as early as the Baroque era—and certainly by the time we get to Mozart—writing Masses became a way for composers to showcase their abilities.  J.S. Bach was not Catholic, but his Mass in B minor is one of the great musical achievements of the time. Of course, just because some sacred music is not intended for liturgy does not mean that it doesn’t have spiritual depth and that it shouldn’t be performed in a church: it should, but a concert setting is more appropriate.  For one thing, if you did the Mozart Requiem (or Verdi, or Berlioz) as part of Mass,the music would totally eclipse the sacrifice of the Eucharist.  For another thing, people would be at church all day.  And for another, unless you were doing a true Requiem Mass for someone who had died, you’d have to cut the Dies Irae sequence, which is, like, the best part. 

@Beatriz (and Jennifer).  Please keep in mind that just because this concert was “free to the public” doesn’t mean that it was actually free.  It probably cost around $30,000 to put this on(trust me, orchestras are not cheap). So I hope that you and Jennifer were able to donate a little bit.  Even $20 helps.  That’s the way these things are funded—by people just like you who attended a performance and were so moved that they wanted to help continue this tradition.  With orchestras failing all over the country, it’s important to support our musicians and arts organizations, so that we may continue to see sacred music performed so beautifully in sacred spaces.

I second the donation request! Even $5 helps us do our work.  I am a SAHM who sings and plays violin with a financially struggling community music group.  We want nothing more than to make beauty while living out our primary vocations, but we need help.  Many of us have music degrees too.  Most of us do not get paid; we do it for love! 

On a different note… My poor kids are so unmoved by classical music… Mommy wails all day long!

Actually, I did give a donation, more than the suggested amount. I was just emphasizing how it was open to the public and not done for money, but for love of music and God. I think a lot of people were generous (or at least I hope people were!). It was well worth it and I look forward to hearing it again on the CD I bought.

I read the Dies Irae (which you quoted) with most of my elementary Latin students. It is beautiful. It’s heartening to read this story.

“Actually, JD, all the people that have died have had their judgment.  You and I will face ours sooner than we think.  Just because you don’t believe something doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
Hilarious.  Just because you believe something, doesn’t mean that it is true.  Wait.  A “scientist” has seen “heaven” while he was in a coma!
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/this-must-be-heaven
He will soon be a millionaire.  As PT Barnum said - “There’s a [religious] sucker born every minute.”
Sam Harris:  “this issue of Newsweek is best viewed as an archaeological artifact that is certain to embarrass us in the eyes of future generations.”  :-)

I see JD Hughes is now using a new name.  Either that or there are two trolls who love to use the word “hilarious”.

Hello, there, JD Hughes!  You don’t seriously think you’re going to persuade anyone here to your way of thinking by posting these sarcastic, condescending comments about beliefs and ideas of which you haven’t the foggiest meaningful understanding, do you?  Oh, sorry, this is merely for entertainment purposes and you do it only for fun, right?  I guess all we can do is pray for you (whether you like it or not) that your eyes and heart and mind are opened one day to the beauty and spiritual fulfillment that Catholic teachings offer to one and all.  Please do stick around, then - you might just pick up something revelatory and invaluable—and perhaps life-changing—one of these days!

“You don’t seriously think you’re going to persuade anyone here”
Nope.  Of course I don’t.  I’m just here to irritate you and have a little fun doing it.
“you do it only for fun, right?”
Right.  Even the extended “income tax season” is now over, so I have a lot of time on my hands.
“I guess all we can do is pray for you”
Hilarious.  Prayer is useless.
“beauty and spiritual fulfillment that Catholic teachings offer to one and all”
Catholic teachings simply offer a mindless conformity to centuries of religious control of thoughts and actions.  (And maybe an excuse to convict scientists of failing to predict the future?)
“pick up something revelatory”
Hilarious.  “Revelations” are simply delusions.
“invaluable”
I don’t think you know what that word means.
“perhaps life-changing”
Hilarious.  You stand as much chance of changing my opinions as I do of changing yours.
My former identity was “blacklisted”, so I now have a new identity.

From WEIT:  “A new short paper in Current Biology reports a pretty amazing phenomenon: a beluga whale has begun to imitate human speech.”
Wait.  Humans are soooo special.  But only other apes actually understand emotions.  And maybe dogs.  Dogs have lived with humans for many thousands of years.
“Italian scientists sentenced to jail for failing to predict earthquake
This is unbelievable. According to yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor, an Italian court sentenced six scientists and a bureaucrat to six years in jail for failing to predict a 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, a small city in the center of the country. That quake toppled ancient buildings and killed 309 people.”
Oops.  Scientists failed to predict the future!  Sentence them to six years in prison.  Then they can reflect on the error of their ways!  And the fact that the “bureaucrat” failed to warn them to emigrate before the earthquake happened.
“The seven, all members of the “National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks,” were convicted after an apparently emotional trial in which the testimony of people who had lost loved ones was allowed, as if it was relevant to the question of whether current science can predict earthquakes.”
“I don’t often tell readers about articles that they simply have to read, but this pair qualifies. Together they’re not terribly short (about 7000 words in toto), but I like to think that my readers have decent attention spans—and the interest in science and politics that makes this Scientific American essay, “Antiscience beliefs jeopardize U.S. democracy” by Shawn Lawrence Otto, mandatory reading.”

Jennifer, I recently had the pleasure to attend a Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form in Detroit. It had both an orchestra and choir that was very beautiful. It was well attended. Your essay took the words out of my mouth. Thanks for your writing.

Isn’t it sad that some people have so little fun in their lives?  And that they can’t think of constructive ways to use their ample free time?  And that he is so desperate to post here after his former “identity” was blocked?  And that a retired man hasn’t outgrown the childish pasttime of having fun by irritating people?  I guess it’s a symptom of an empty and meaningless life…

To JD Hughes/Earl Thompson/whatever you wish to call yourself now here: You say that prayers are ‘useless’.  Believe what you will, but it is also curious that you choose to spend a bit of time monitoring, reading and posting responses to ideas and beliefs that you yourself find silly and a waste of time. Why, exactly, pray tell?  Especially if you do not wish to persuade us to your side?  A lot of us look at your posts with pity and not so much irritation, as one would look upon an unenlightened person making a lot of noise to get attention. Anyway, good and faithful Catholics will still say prayers for you and for all sinners (including themselves), and there is no one—no one!—beyond hope, including you.
.
This is so apropos, from http://www.dominicanablog.com/2012/10/22/transitional-atheism/:
.
QUOTE:  “Our challenge to atheists in this Year of Faith, then, is the following: have you rejected God, or only your own inadequate notion of God? Perhaps—it is just possible—you have rejected God as you thought He was, not as He is. Perhaps, if you study more deeply who God is, under the tutelage of St. Thomas Aquinas, you will find that He makes a lot more sense than you thought. Perhaps you will find that atheism, after all, was only a stage of transition.”  END QUOTE.

Claire - couldn’t agree with you more.  Pretty pitifully infantile pastime to indulge in.

And to address the article itself: Thank you, Jennifer, for another beautiful post. I only wish more of such wondrous liturgical music were incorporated in our often musically dull and uninspiring Novus Ordo masses! To think that the Catholic Church has such a treasure trove of works to choose from, too!  The extraordinary form of the Mass (Latin/Tridentine) actually has music as worship itself, and not just an accessory to the ritual. Thus the Gregorian chant that priests do when they celebrate the Latin Mass.

“Isn’t it sad that some people have so little fun in their lives?  And that they can’t think of constructive ways to use their ample free time?  And that he is so desperate to post here after his former “identity” was blocked?  And that a retired man hasn’t outgrown the childish pasttime of having fun by irritating people?  I guess it’s a symptom of an empty and meaningless life…”
Isn’t it sad that you wasted 2 minutes writing something so silly.

“A lot of us look at your posts with pity”
Thanks for your condescension.  :-)

“only your own inadequate notion of God?”
Hilarious.  There are a thousand religions and a thousand notions of a “god”.  They are all contradictory and I have rejected them all.
“under the tutelage of St. Thomas Aquinas”

From Wikipedia:
“Thomas viewed theology, or the sacred doctrine, as a science,[51] the raw material data of which consists of written scripture and the tradition of the Catholic Church. These sources of data were produced by the self-revelation of God to individuals and groups of people throughout history.”
Riiiight.  Self-revelation.  How convincing!!!!
“In Thomas’s thought, the goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God.”
Hilarious.  Why are you writing silly comments instead of pursuing that goal?  :-)
“Heresy was a capital offense against the secular law of most European countries of the 13th century”
I’m glad I do not live in Europe in the 13th century for a lot of reasons.  :-)
Bertrand Russell:
“Before he begins to philosophize, he already knows the truth; it is declared in the Catholic faith. If he can find apparently rational arguments for some parts of the faith, so much the better; if he cannot, he need only fall back on revelation. The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading. I cannot, therefore, feel that he deserves to be put on a level with the best philosophers either of Greece or of modern times.[116]”
So, he was simply another failed apologist!!!

My dear sad Earl. I understand or at least a wee bit, for I am married to someone who too has read Bertrand Russell. Are you so smart that there is no room inside your heart for that silly emotion call love? Please not the horney love that is plastered everywhere as normal, the kind of love that reaches out to care for someone you don’t know and may never see again. And yet for that moment you cared and it was good. Like listening to something beautiful like music. Why carry your frustration with God out on others? Yes it is sad, because I left my faith filled with frustration and anger. I didn’t need God or anyone for what it was worth and it made much of what I did meaningless. So you can poke at people and make them respond to you, so what? What now? What is the purpose? Nothing, nothing at all for if we are to think like you all this life, music is nothing going no where, but I can still remember the beautiful music and kind person who cared. So for you too I will pray a rosary.

Earl, you forgot this part from the earthquake article you quoted “Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz.

But according to the BBC, a modern Italian secular institution is now the one struggling to grapple with science. The sev

This was not a religious court at all. HILARIOUS!!

Earl, you forgot this part from the earthquake article you quoted “Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz.

But according to the BBC, a modern Italian secular institution is now the one struggling to grapple with science.”

This was not a religious court at all. HILARIOUS!!

Seriously, don’t feed the trolls. 
It’s like what your mom told you about obnoxious kids; they’ll stop if they don’t get a reaction.

“Are you so smart that there is no room inside your heart for that silly emotion call love?”
Hilarious.  Of course not.  That would be stupid, not smart.
“Like listening to something beautiful like music.”
Which has nothing to do with any religion.  KMFA WCPE Try them.
“it made much of what I did meaningless.”
That’s your problem, not mine.
“if we are to think like you all this life, music is nothing going nowhere”
Quite true and quite irrelevant.  Cling to your religious promises.  They are eventually worthless.  But being part of that social group could be quite valuable.  I have different social groups.
“But according to the BBC, a modern Italian secular institution is now the one struggling to grapple with science.”
Yes.  And failing in its struggle.  Is science to be held to a “perfect” standard when predicting the future?  Why is there denial of “global warming”?  Will those scientists be convicted in another 20 years after it’s too late?
“the testimony of people who had lost loved ones was allowed”
How stupid.  The testimony of those injured may be allowed after guilt is determined to influence the length of sentence.  But as part of the trial???  Insane.

It is of interest to me why Atheists seem to lack a sense of Humour maybe science can investigate if the organ that produces it is missing? We have many like Earl, thou less and less as time goes on. Who would want to break bread with this man. The Czech Academy of Science is always interested in finding out if the lecturer is a believer. That is always a question thrown up by the professors. It holds great interest, more then the work presented, it seems at times.
People like Earl claim scientific truth when he has not done the empirical research, so he actually knows, not what he believes, to be true.

“It is of interest to me why Atheists seem to lack a sense of Humor”
Hilarious!  You religious cult members are sooo funny.
“We have many like Earl, thou less and less as time goes on.”
Citation please!  US “nones” are now 20%?
“That is always a question thrown up by the professors.”
That is forbidden in most US universities.  Anti-discrimination laws.
“he has not done the empirical research”
What on Earth does that mean?  The Scientific Revolution has been ongoing for a few centuries.  Why do I have to do “empirical research”?

You don’t “have to do” anything.  If you want to spend your retirement acting like an immature teenager, go ahead.  It’s probably a lot easier than trying to formulate real relationships and pursuing meaningful activities.