Faith in a time of grief

 This is my homily for yesterday, the 5th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A.  Yesterday's readings are here.

National Shrine Dedicates Outdoor Stations of the Cross

Betty watches the noon Mass at the Basilica of National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception every Sunday. This is after we watch the Saint Cecilia Mass from Boston at 9:30. I usually listen to the music from my office. Both the music and the photography appeal to Betty. The Shrine has been an important part of my life. In childhood we visited D.C. regularly (The shrine was just the crypt church then) I lived in D.C. for a year during the Carter administration when I did my postdoctoral residency in program evaluation at Saint Elizabeth Hospital (then a part of NIMH) I used to go there for Saturday evening Mass.

Today at the end of the Mass, they dedicated a new outdoor Way of the Cross

Fake Gregorian Chant YouTube Channels Produced by AI

Paul Rose produces SING THE HOURS which each day posts Morning and Evening Prayer from the LITURGY OF THE HOURS. It is one of the choices on my website. 

Paul is currently producing a series which he calls OFFICE HOURS to describe how he does this, all the technology behind it. He does this just by going on line and talking to some of his regular listeners. He does this in very disorganized fashion.

He and some of his listeners have concern about the AI generated "Gregorian Chant" channels that in the last two years have been taking over the real market for Gregorian Chant on YouTube. Listening to whole two hours would be quite a chore, however I hope you have enough interest in AI to do the 30 to 40 minutes that I have marked in Red below. It is captioned!

 

00:00 Welcome, my lords, to Isengard. 

Brief Discussion of His Reluctance to talk about AI

It's too early in the development

Analogy to the early criticisms of the printing press.

Risks looking silly when viewed in the future

01:30 Obligatory Beverage Tasting - A Sparkling Water Taste Test

10:21 Soda Stream Product Placement (not an official sponsor)

11:01 Bubble ASMR

12:32 Too many bubbles

13:50 San Pellegrino in a plastic bottle is like Mass with bad music

Part 2: California Pilgrimage

14:53 California Pilgrimage

16:16 Do you want to schedule a group, staff, or business pilgrimage? Reach out to Charlie. 

17:18 Pilgrimage Route

24:20 Stays and Liturgies on the Pilgrimage (some are open to the public!)

40:56 Why go on this pilgrimage?

Presents his case for singing the Hours

Vatican II Decree on Liturgy

83. Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise

Part 3: Chant Bot or Not?

51:16 Why AI Bot Music is not real liturgy

52:07 What do you think? Are these chant channels real chant or bot made?

55:05 Brief intermission on the new canticle translations

YOU CAN SKIPE THIS

PAUL IS A STRICT LITURGICAL INTERPRETER

HE ALSO ASSUMES THAT WHEN THE NEW BREVIARY COMES OUT

WE WILL INSTANTALY CHANGE TO IT LIKE WHEN THE MISSAL 

CAME OUT. I WOULD SUSPECT THAT THE CURRENT BREVIARIES WILL

CONTINUE TO BE USED IN PERSONAL RECITATION

1:01:23 Back to it: Bot or Not?

1:02:40 Everything that's wrong with this AI chant

1:13:37 Check out these bot channels

1:16:58 Watch Paul make AI Slop

1:24:02 AI voice replication is so problematic (the commodification of the human person)

1:25:24 What should we listen to then? Floriani, Neums and Tunes, Sing the Hours

I FOUND THE ABOVE 25 MINUTES AN EXCELLENT TUTORIAL ON HOW ALL THESE AI GENERATED "GREGORIAN " CHANNELS ARE PRODUCING SOMETHING THAT HAS ALMOST NONE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORIAN CHANT EXCEPT FOR A LATIN TEXT WHICH IS RENDERED IN VERY GOOD LATIN 

THESE CHANNELS ARE GETTING FAR MORE TRAFFIC THAN REAL GREGORIAN CHANT CHANNELS AND THEY ARE DECEIVING VIEWERS THAT THERE ARE REAL PEOPLE SINGING THEM AND PRAYING FOR THEM  

YOU CAN SKIP THE PART BELOW

1:25:51 Another Channel: Bot or Not?

1:32:33 One way to check if it's AI

1:33:35 Another Channel: Bot or Not?

1:36:11 AI is incapable of praying real Catholic prayer

1:37:05 The Collect Prayer from Mass

1:38:12 AI is blinding us

1:39:13 Another Channel: Bot or Not?

1:44:35 Effects of Baptism. You can't baptize AI.

1:47:15 Can you bless AI?

1:49:25 Support real Catholic musicians

1:50:15 Scandal: The State of Music in the American Catholic Church

1:51:35 Non-Catholics and Catholic Music

1:53:57 Let's Sing Scripture: Entrance Antiphon

 1:57:29 Scandal 2: Hymn Factories Funding Controversial Agendas

 1:59:35 The Actual, Musical Prescription for the Mass (USCCB Citation)

Ask

My contributions to our parish's OCIA program

The discussion following Katherine's post about the historical causes of Vatican II has branched into discussion about what is covered in OCIA (the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, known as RCIA until 2021).  

I don't think I mention it very often, but I'm one of the contributors, or presenters, or facilitators, or whatever the appropriate term is, for our parish's OCIA program.  In case it's of interest, I'm going to describe what I do, and what I've observed of RCIA / OCIA in our parish.

The Precursors to St. John XXIII Calling Vatican II

 Michael Sean Winters had an interesting article in NCR (March 2, 2026) on the lead-up to St. John XXIII calling Vatican II:

What led St. Pope John XXIII to call Vatican II? | National Catholic Reporter

"Vatican II did not drop out of the sky. There were three essential precursors to St. John XXIII's decision in 1959 to announce he was calling an ecumenical council: The first was spiritual and theological; the second was pastoral and existential and the third was personal and historical."

The Relaxation Response

 Anne (and Jean) in a recent post started a discussion of the

 The Relaxation Response Updated and Expanded

The original book was published in 1975, the updated version published in 2000 gives some of the background to Herbert Benson's interest. As a cardiologist he was concerned that his medications were lowering his patient's blood pressure too much causing them to complain of faithing and dizziness. He also noticed that their blood pressures were higher in his office than at home.  The notion that mental stress rather than some physical condition was the cause of high blood pressure was not widely accepted at the time. Bensen turned to basic research to with monkeys to begin to establish they could control their blood pressure if given rewards which were signaled by colored lights. 

The Transcendent Meditation (TM) people claimed to be able to reduce their blood pressure. Initially he was reluctant to study them because of their countercultural status. Finally, he quietly with another researcher on the West coast began to study them. Interesting, their reductions in blood pressure in each individual session were relatively small, but that was because their repeated practice of TM had lowered their resting blood pressures.  

Much of his research then focused on the minimal conditions that are necessary to elicit the response and how these were met by a variety of procedures in addition to TM. They are summarized well in this one- page handout

One Page Relaxation Response Instructions

In a 1985 book Bensons takes the offensive by placing the Relaxation Response in the context of self-help and faith traditions rather than just proposing it as an adjunct to medical care. 

Beyond the Relaxation Response

"I've come to understand that this simple technique combined with the person's deepest beliefs can create other internal environments which that can help individuals to reach enhanced states of health and well-being."

Gregory Norbet and Weston Priory

I got introduced to Weston Priory's music in May of 1980 when I went on a personal directed retreat at a retreat house in Connecticut with some women religious. There was a large room which housed a record player with some of the Weston Priory records. I felt in love with them and began collecting their music first as records, then tapes, and finally CDs. I think I have all of their music, but now most of it is on YouTube. 

I suspect they have about only a dozen monks left. You will find much of their recent history since 2018 here on their blog

The Priory Chronicles

There is not a lot but their most recent five-minute drone view of their monastery with music but no narration gives you a good idea of the setting

 

I have several posts on one of my blogs which has embedded much of their music according to the liturgical year

ADVENT MUSIC FROM WESTON PRIORY

CHRISTMAS SEASON MUSIC FROM WESTON PRIORY

LENT MUSIC FROM WESTON PRIORY

WESTON ORDINARY TIME I

WESTON ORDINARY TIME II

GREGORY NORBET YOUTUBE SITE

GREGORY NORBET WEBSITE

Gregory is married to artist Kathryn Carrington. Her gold-leaf icon paintings hang in many churches and may be seen on her website: 

CARRINGTON SACRED ART.com - Gold-leaf sacred Icons by Kathryn Carrington

See her watercolors, handmade paper, and other paintings, some inspired by the Hubble images on her website: 

Home | Kathryn Carrington Fine Art

 

Gregory Norbet is a respected composer, singer and spiritual leader. His specialty is group spiritual development and renewal, using song, Scripture and the spoken word.