There will be some construction work going on in the choir loft next Monday and Tuesday. The cabinet maker will be here to install the organ pipes and their new cabinet against the back wall in the choir loft.
The work should only take two days, but will add to the finished look of the church and hide the relatively unsightly organ speakers flanking the Holy Cross Window.
Crafstmen are about to begin work on the church organ pipes and cabinets for installation in the choir loft. We have received beautiful designs and reasonable estimates.
We are still in need of financial donors for this beautiful addition to the church. Please call the office if you are willing to memorialize a gift.
Well, it's "Be Happy" Sunday or officially "Laetare " or REJOICE Sunday. So get ready to sing!
Part A
Part B
Please note corrected date!
Take a musical retreat during Lent! On April 2d at 3:00 PM at Holy Cross Church we will host a performance of Fauré's Requiem.
The choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin, composed between 1887 - 1890, is the best-known of his large works. Its focus is on eternal rest and consolation. The composer himself noted that
Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."
In place of the somber nature of many requiems that had gone before, Fauré’s is noted for its calm, serene and peaceful outlook. Anyone looking for morose themes is searching in the wrong place. Instead, here we find musical solace in a work that focuses not on the morbid, but on the supposedly restful and fear-free nature of death.(1) He described death as “a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than a painful experience”, and the Requiem encapsulates this feeling in a way that continues to hold audiences spellbound.(2)
Thank you to all our talented musicians, choir members and soloists and especially our Music Director, Don Carolina for another spectacular performance of Handel's Messiah.
Our new digital organ is but one of the many steps we have taken to strengthen our music program at Holy Cross Church...all for the purpose of singing a joyful song to the Lord at our weekly masses and other liturgies.
The patient, skillful direction of our music director, Don Carolina, has begun to bear fruit by invigorating our adult choir and attracting a chorus of enthusiastic and youthful voices for our children’s choir.
The purchase of Worship hymnals will not only strengthen our musical repertoire, but the permanent binding of the new volume will both save money on paperback missalettes and indicate the importance of the hymnal at mass.
The new digital organ and sound system will be trouble-free, flexible and come equipped with recording and playback capability and a digital camera to monitor the gathering space during bridal processions and other liturgies.
We have retained the pipes from our old church organ, which will be incorporated into the voice of our new organ if finances permit.
Please help us reach our goal by subscribing to one or more hymnals and pledging a donation of any amount for the church organ.
It was great seeing and hearing the Children's Choir back after a summer break. They have learned some new hymns and their membership has doubled! Let's hope more young girls and boys are encouraged to join them. Just call our Music Director, "Mr. Don" Carolina in the Parish Office for more information.
We hope the children's choir can make an important contribution to the musical voices not only at our weekend liturgies, but at the Dedication of the new church in January as well.
Thank you to all who have donated a hymnal in honor of loved ones. We have almost 300 hymnals donated so far. Our initial goal is 500, but we may be able to increase our purchase.
Please use either the online form, or complete the printed forms and send them to the parish office.
Please take our survey if you have not already done so. It will help us decide how many and what kind of in-pew worship aids to buy.
Some encouraging news regarding donations to the music program of the new church: we have our first donation toward the cost of a new organ, a $10 K. Nine more are needed in order for us to afford a new digital organ. Meantime, we are assessing the repair costs for the used organ we have had in the gym for the past months and will install this one in the church if we have no alternative. The sound system to which it will be attached will be new.
Donations of hymnals are starting. Now that we've finalized the template for the bookplates, we'll be printing them and ordering the hymnals. Look for a display of materials (and hopefully some donor evnvelopes from the hymnal company) by the weekend.
We did a little more work on the bookplate template, since we realized we had more freedom to edit the publisher's template.
This is the new version which will adorn the inside front cover of our hymnals for years to come. All donor information will be personalized in either of three formats we have available: 1) Given by; 2) Given by, In Memory of; 3) In Memory of
Holy Cross hopes to acquire a new organ for our enlarged church. The costs of refurbishing and reinstalling our present organ are higher than a new digital organ and would still leave us with the rather limited capabilities of our existing ogan.
Many churches in the area have been quite happy with digital organs. The sound sampling technology has improved greatly in recent years and the flexibility and repetoire of a digital organ are important factors to consider as well. Digital vs. pipe organ is a touchy subject for many organists but prices for pipe organs have escalated to levels which place them out of reach for the average sized church and congregation. We recently visited three local Catholic Churches to hear our Music Director play their digital organs and we were both surprised and delighted at what we heard.
Our hope is to raise additional funds for an Allen Protege 3 manual, 50 stop digital organ. The installer will work closely with the construction manager and architect to achieve the best sound quality possible.
Here is the psalm we will be singing this Sunday
The Responsorial Psalms we are using are published on Corpus Christi Watershed project's webpage.
Here is the link to this Sunday's Responsorial Psalm.
It is a pleasure to announce that Don H. Carolina will be joining us here at Holy Cross as our new Director of Music. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, Don comes to us from Princeton University’s Aquinas Institute where he has been the Organist and Choirmaster since 1997. Mr. Carolina has extensive background in church music and conducting and training church choirs in New Jersey, New York and Virginia. His professional, yet easy going manner, his affable personality and his eagerness to help create beautiful music for worship will be wonderful assets to our parish community. Not only does he play Bach but he also plays tennis…Welcome!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, it is necessary to curtail the remaining Children’s Choir practices and singing at masses until such time as a new parish Music Director is with us. We hope to have an experienced and talented director very soon, so it may be possible to reschedule the choir in May or June. We have been busy interviewing and auditioning candidates for the position and hope to be able to announce a decision in the next weeks. I am sure our present disappointment will soon be turned to joy, when once again we raise our voices in praise to our God.
As you may know, Holy Cross parish is searching for a new Music Director. Luckily, we have many qualified individuals interested in discovering our parish. Over the next several weeks, the organists you see and hear at our masses are among those who are being considered for this very important responsibility. Accordingly, please be patient if our liturgical music seems a little off pace, or not "the way we're used to." This seemed to be the best way to enable many people to hear potential directors, asess their skills during real liturgies and permit interviews to proceed without formal auditions.
Let us know your reactions to the musical accompaniment at any particular mass.
Catholic music is so important a part of our Sunday worship that we will invite the best director we possibly can to join us.