Letter from the Pastor
-
November 10, 2024Yesterday at St. Joseph’s Seminary, one of our parishioners, Michael Coleman was ordained a Transitional Deacon along with 7 of his classmates. Michael attended our PREP Program. Please God, Michael will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in May. Congratulations to Mike’s parents and family as well. Michael has joined the long list of vocations from St. Margaret’s. Please pray for vocations among our young people.
We welcome today at the 9:00 AM Mass, our coaches and players from our CYO Basketball program. We have 24 teams, about 249 players from Grades 3 - 8, plus a clinic for First and Second graders who want to learn the game. It is quite a large program and we couldn’t do it without the help of so many dedicated fathers and mothers, who volunteer their time and talent for our children. I would like to thank Kevin, Nikki and the entire CYO Board for their dedication and hard work, the coaches, and the moms and dads. The games began Saturday night with the season ending in March, maybe with a few championships.
Socrates was correct, music expands the soul. When words fail to express an emotion, there is always music. Music has a more immediate effect than the written word. Both Plato and Aristotle saw music as making present something of the reality it imitates. Sad music makes one sad, joyful music makes you happy, despairing music really has something of despair in it, whereas fight songs and marches lead to courage. You can feel it. Music also comforts and consoles the soul. It is no surprise the ancients saw music as a gift from the gods—a gift that can be used for great good, or even evil. Great music can expand and deepen our experience of beauty and approach the sacred.
In that wonderful scene from the movie, Shawshank Redemption, when the prisoner, ‘Andy’ locks the warden’s office door and plays over the prison loudspeaker the duet from The Marriage of Figaro the inmates stopped whatever they were doing; they were simply stunned. The other main character in the movie, ‘Red’ comments:
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. I would like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man at Shawshank felt free.
Today at 3:00PM, our Director of Music, Mark LaRosa presents along with our conductor Mr. Skyler Klein, and the chorus QARA with string quartet and organ, will offer a concert of comfort and consolation during this Month of Remembrance. November is the month dedicated to our beloved dead. The music chosen is particularly beautiful and comforting: a selection from Mozart’s Requiem, the “Intermezzo” from Cavalleria Rusticana (you will know this piece of music), Gustav Holst, and other classical and modern selections.
Come later today and bring the children, they need to hear good music, music that will make them soar and be free. As the Greek philosophers taught, music should be part of our education, which is the formation of the soul.
There is a suggested donation of $20 for adults.
