Within the first weeks of the pandemic, I recognized that I would be isolated for at least a year and likely more than two years. My pandemic project was clear from the beginning.
As a member of my parish e-mailed me said when she heard that there would be no more singing in church. "You don't have to worry; you have a fabulous collection of liturgical music!"
That collection had evolved over decades as background music to support the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.
In high school I realized that there were more options than one for the celebration of the Hours. I had first discovered the Short Breviary for women religious then the full four volume breviary for priests. In college during the Vatican Council, I had sung the Office upstairs with the monks in Latin and downstairs with brothers using Gelineau psalms.
An anthropology course at the University of Seattle in Washington taught by a professor who had studied the First Peoples of the Northwest revealed to me the secret of their great ritual creativity. From early childhood they were encouraged to sing and dance on the peripheries of the celebration so that by the time that they took center stage they could be very original and creative. So the way forward was clear. Collect as much liturgy as possible either personally or by recordings.
The pandemic project become obvious. Collect as much liturgy relevant to the Divine Office as possible on a website so that it would be available to everyone.
I named that project the Virtual Divine Office because I am convinced that the celebration of the Divine Office is every Christian's birth right not just the privilege of clergy and religious. The virtual world makes this possible at any time anywhere.
The Virtual Divine Office, subtitled Songs of the People of God, followed my home music collection of including Anglican, Eastern, and Evangelical music although it is organized around the Rome Rite celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. However, it is a big step for anyone to begin doing what I have been doing for my whole life. Only specialists are likely to be able to understand and use my personal site. Also. I have been using it a location for many creative liturgical endeavors. The anthropologist was right.
SAINT GABRIEL HOURS
is my newest blog, a subset of the VIRTUAL DIVINE OFFICE blog
It contains the YouTube version of Divine Office.org which has been around for more than a decade. It was started as podcasts by a voluntary ministry goup for use in RCIA classes. It is a good model of a recited office by a small household size group.
It contains the YouTube verson of Sing the Hours started by a very creative young guy with a background in music and production during the first year of the pandemic. A totally sung office, although one person does most of the singing
Finally in June Bishop Baron's organization Word on Fire has started to publish a monthly version of Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer that can be read straight through like a book, except for the hymns which are in the back of the book. While $7 a month seems in expensive over a year it becomes very expensive. I see it as training wheels either in how to use virtual offices or the ribbons of a breviary ..
While the really heavy lifting of the Virtual Divine Office has been done by amateurs, it thought it was good politics to include a bishop to give everything some ecclesiastical approval.
The real creative part of the website however is the collection of psalm videos for each of the hours of Morning and Evening Prayer for the Four Week Psalter. The abundant of different types of videos gives some idea of the future possibilities.
Saint Gabriel is my home parish. Its motto is "Being Christ, Every Day. Every Where." I modified that to Praying with Christ. Every Day. Every Where." Gabriel is also the patron of messages and media.
I have been working on this since June 1st. Think of this as the Beta version of the daily pages. These will be supplemented by addition pages that will constitute a user's guide which I intend to publish over the next four weeks. As I do each new page, I will publish a post here for your criticism.
While right now I would appreciate you feedback on the organization of the daily pages, your most valuable feedback will be on the two Psalm videos which appear each day. You can try them out without doing the whole fifteen-minute Hour of the post. In fact one of my suggestions to people will be to begin with the experience of the psalms at the rate of one per day so that over four months one experiences the whole Four Week Psalter.
You are welcome to give me feedback on the pages and the psalms anytime by sending me an email to jarakosky@gmail.com. where I am going to be collecting feedback from others. I hope within the next four weeks to suggest my pastor, the two assistant pastors, and three deacons and any members of pastor staff who are willing to spend a month exploring the site and giving me feedback.
To anticipate my next few posts, They will be something like
VISION STATEMENT (The potential for this new way of doing things)
DISCERTMENT (The purpose of the blog is for individual, group, organizational and parish discernment of the place the Hours in their lives under these new circumstances. I will argue that the best way to do that is through experience of the Four Week Psalter even if that is spread out over two or four months.)
HOW TO USE THE THREE MODELS
THE FOUR WEEK PSALTER
INTEGRATING THE OFFICE AND THE WEEKEND EUCHARIST IN A PARISH
USING LONGER READINGS AT EACH HOUR
As I post these additional user guide pages, it would be a good time to discuss any the Psalm videos that you might have experienced since the last post.
Well, you've put a lot of work into this, Jack, and I enjoyed yesterday's Psalm from Ancient Echoes, but I am probably not a good critic for this because anything that looks academic doesn't speak to my devotional sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteI have an array of items I might use as a focal point. Sometimes I pick up the rosary, sometimes I use the BCP, sometimes I use my Saint of the Day book, sometimes I pick up the parish bulletin and say a brief prayer for everyone on the prayer list, sometimes I feel the urge to text, call, or knit something, and sometimes I listen to Mahalia Jackson.
I wish I had the kind of focus that could find an anchor in a formal program like this, but I don't, alas.
Jean, you have what is most needed for this endeavor:
DeleteFirst: initiative, creativity, and some sense of order.
Second a desire to share with others.
Third: an ability to communicate in forums such as blogger.
I have an ability to deal with academic, church and other organizations. But I could profit from your bad experiences in those areas too.
You can be of great help to me in all these areas. So don't hesitate. As a writer I assume readers are right even if they contradict each other.
You are welcome to share your thoughts either here or by e-mail.
I found the Ancient Echoes comment helpful. I had hesitated to use it. Most of my psalm Hebrew videos contain the original Hebrew, a transliteration, and a translation into English. I will include enough in the Four Week Psalter to remind everyone the psalms were originally in Hebrew, to be challenging but not lose people. I am a little worried about losing people with this one.
I liked the shofar (assume that's what it was) call to prayer. I find that a bell, a shofar, a gong, a drone, or other sound (not words) clears your head.
DeleteI do yoga exercises for my back and lung capacity. The best ones start with a few sounds like that. I can breathe deeper quicker if I am not distracted with words and verbal messages.
The Unitarians had a four-tone chime they rang at the start of services. People settled for silent prayer to start the service for a few minutes before someone started blabbing or singing
Yoga is not a spiritual exercise for me, but the exercises are more effective if I am in a "zone" where I'm not thinking or distracted.
Possibly there is some crossover with spiritual exercises.
The shofar was the main reason for my inclusion when it failed to make the tests of text. I have no idea what constitutes a good shofar, but this seemed to be superior to what I have heard. I also got the impression that the group did well musically (and Betty my music expert agreed).
DeleteJack, you might want to check this out. Anglican chanted psalms. I need spoken versions of the Psalms to get the most out of them. My hearing is such that music slows comprehension. But this isn't bad: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCmreNdCZsKYI96Dk62lYxmA
ReplyDeleteInteresting find. She is a relative newcomer to YouTube.
DeleteMost of the Anglican chant that is done is multi-part by choirs without any text, not even in the footnotes. Therefore, it is very difficult to understand for those who are not familiar with the Anglican text. I think the entire psalter or close to it is out there but without text. Usually, I will not link to a song that does not have text unless it is something very familiar or sung very clearly.
Psalms done as a solo are sometimes sufficiently clear that a person does not need a text. For example, I regularly include John Michael Talbot because his singing is very clear and very close to the official text used in Roman Liturgy of the Hours. An added benefit is that his songs are well orchestrated in ways that make it easy to sing along.
The keyboard is a problem for me. It swallows the words.
Delete