Ministry Monday

Today is week 3 of a 4-week mini-series, focusing on The Singing Priest. Last week we heard from Nicholas Will, a replay episode from January 2020 when he was the Director of Music for the North American Pontifical College in Rome. Today we hear from Fr. Michael Stumpf, Pastor of Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fr. Stumpf speaks to us today about the relationship between clergy and music minister: how can it be strengthened, and what can it do for the liturgy? Fr. Michael also discusses the daunting task of learning the Exsultet for Easter Vigil. This is a great episode to forward to your pastor, deacon or other clergy team member.

Last week on Ministry Monday we started a mini-series focusing on The Singing Priest. Last week we heard from Fr. Ricky Manalo on the first episode that inspired this mini-series! This week we’re hearing one more replay episode on this topic. In January 2020 I spoke to Nicholas Will, who was the Director of Music for the North American Pontifical College in Rome. Nick has great experience with developing the singing voice of clergy, and that’s where our conversation takes us today. Enjoy!

We hear from so many of you in the NPM national office about the things you need most in your ministry. One of the most popular requests we receive involve the relationship between a pastoral musician, a clergy member and the music itself. For example, we get questions such as: “How do I encourage my priest to sing during the Mass?” and “What can I do to foster the relationship between pastoral music and my priest/deacon?”

Well, starting this week we are introducing a multi-episode series focusing on this exact topic. For the next several weeks, Ministry Monday is offering a series on The Singing Priest: how to encourage singing with clergy; providing resources for clergy to develop confidence in their singing for things like the Exsultet at Easter Vigil; and, of course, developing the relationship between us as pastoral musicians, and the clergy that lead and guide us all.

We’re starting the Singing Priest series with an episode from the Ministry Monday archives. It was the most popular episode of 2018 here on the podcast, and it’s a great place to start. This episode was produced and recorded by former Ministry Monday host Matt Reichert. I am pleased to bring you episode 25: The Singing Priest, featuring Ricky Manalo. Enjoy!

Today’s episode is more NPM-focused than a typical episode, but for all the right reasons: NPM’s annual Members’ Meeting is next Monday, September 20. The annual Members’ Meeting is NPM’s State of the Union, if you will, celebrating the wins of the association from the last 12 months, including celebrating NPM’s biggest awards: the Pastoral Musician of the Year Award and Jubilate Deo award.

I asked to sit down with Jennifer Kluge, NPM’s Executive Director and my boss. I wanted to hear about her first year so far as Executive Director, including her first NPM convention. She was kind enough to oblige.  

At this point it goes without saying, but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to re-envision so much of what we do in ministry. While many of us are re-starting choirs to an extent and returning to the planning of normal music ministry life, the disruption of our normal habits and resources may allow a space to evaluate what our parish needs right now and for the next stage of ministry.

This was the mindset from which I started our episode today. Today I sat down with Adam Bartlett, the founder of Source & Summit, a Catholic technology company and liturgical publisher dedicated to helping parishes elevate the liturgy. To be honest, I didn’t know much at all about the company, and thought I’d reach out to see if they could share a bit about what their mission and their missal. Full disclosure: this is not a sponsored episode by Source and Summit! But they do go into depth about the context from which the missal was born, and what we, as pastoral musicians, can expect for this new resource on the market.

Last Thursday we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa, a venerated icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary found in the Polish town after which it was named. We thought it would be a perfect time to replay a previous episode that honored Our Lady of Częstochowa and the devotion to our Blessed Mother.

We hope you enjoy this week’s replay episode, and find a moment this week to pray for the intercession of the Blessed Mother this week. Mary, Our Lady of Częstochowa, pray for us!  

It continues to be a unique time for music ministry, and that conversation continues here on Ministry Monday. As a fellow pastoral musician, I’ve noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed for a re-evaluation of many of the things we use and depend upon in music ministry. Why not take this moment of pause and re-evaluation to grow and strengthen our musical and liturgical skills?

That is our focus this September. For the next two weeks you will hear about two learning and formation opportunities led by or partnered with NPM.

Last week we heard from Teresa Cobarrubia Yoder about the importance of music theory knowledge, even at its most foundational level. Today we talk to Michael Ruzicki about the importance of liturgical formation in our lives. Michael is the director of music ministry at St. John Berchmans Parish in Chicago and serves as the training and events manager at Liturgy Training Publications.

Michael’s reflections today are really aimed at the working pastoral musician, and I mean all pastoral musicians; cantors, choir members, ensemble members, and of course, directors of music. Those who actively engage and help to facilitate the sacred Liturgy so benefit from a consistent dedication to learning why we do, what we do, in the Mass. Michael joins us from his office at LTP in Chicago, Illinois.

It continues to be a unique time for music ministry, and that conversation continues here on Ministry Monday. As a fellow pastoral musician, I’ve noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed for a re-evaluation of many of the things we use and depend upon in music ministry. Why not take this moment of pause and re-evaluation to grow and strengthen our musical and liturgical skills?

That is our focus this September. For the next two weeks you will hear about two learning and formation opportunities led by or partnered with NPM.

This week we begin by speaking to Teresa Cobarrubia Yoder. Teresa is a recently retired Director of Music Ministries at Immaculate Conception Church in Hampton, Virginia, where there alone she served for 25 years. Teresa is also a former instructor of music theory, chorus and madrigals at Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her combination of knowledge skill in both disciplines makes her a perfect candidate to offer a 4-week class in the fundamental basics of music theory. As you will hear shortly, this 4-week class (offered this September) will be perfect for choir members and cantors who want to learn the basics of music theory, and we encourage you to send this episode over to anyone whom you’d think would benefit from it!

The ins and outs of copyright licensing can be difficult. How do we declare what music we are using, especially across print and streaming mediums? How do we report, how often do we report, and what do we report? These were just a few of the many questions I found myself scouring the internet for as I live streamed liturgies at my parish for the first time last year. And so I called Katie Deaver. Katie is the assistant manager of ONE LICENSE and was gracious enough to sit down and answer questions about copyright licensing that I hope will help many other pastoral musicians as well.  

It goes without saying that we, as pastoral musicians, have experienced a world of change in our ministries in the last year or so. The things that we never second-guessed, such as congregational singing, the incorporation of hymnals and choirs into our liturgies, became health risks. As we hopefully look towards a re-introduction of the elements that we so cherish in ministry, many of us are re-examining how we execute these elements. Now, we started this conversation 2 weeks ago when we spoke with Kelly Barth from Simply Liturgical Music. But today we shift the focus from technology to the physical, internal instrument so many of us value: the human voice.

As pastoral ministers, many of our cantors and choir members have not sung in over 15 months, at least not at the same level and frequency that they did pre-pandemic. How do we guide their voices with an even stronger sense of pastoral care?