Ministry Monday

NPM is blessed with a rich community of Asian/Pacific American pastoral musicians that support their parishes and the NPM community at large. Ariel Mayormita, Jose Gallardo and Maria Nieva are all pastoral musicians across the United States. They each demonstrate hospitality, kindness, and a deep Catholic faith in their lives. Today's episode highlights the deep faith and profound hospitality found in AAPI culture, from 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines to today. Our presenters to reflect on this topic today are Ariel Mayormita, Jose Gallardo and Maria Nieva, joining us from New Jersey, Texas, and the Philippines!

This is our 200th episode of the podcast! Today’s episode includes colleagues and clergy, leaders and laypersons, fellow pastoral ministers who are actively supporting the Church today. As this podcast is produced by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, I’ll admit that some of our topics are more NPM-centric today, but are no less centered on discussing the needs of pastoral music. In fact, I think this episode reveals some themes that we encounter today. Themes of the needs that exist; themes of the joys we find in our ministry; and themes of the need for associations like NPM to exist.

Featuring guests Jennifer Kluge, Dr. Gordon Truitt, J Michael Joncas, Msgr. Rick Hilgartner, Fr. Roc O'Connor, Andrea Ramos, Maria Nieva and Jose Gallardo.

Next week Ministry Monday will celebrate its 200th episode! As we prepare for that 200th episode, we look back at Ministry Monday's 100th episode. Released on April 19, 2020, the 100th episode was produced as we stepped newly into the pandemic. We were a month into a jarring Lenten and Easter season, with many of us not leading our parishes in music ministry in a “normal” way. Pastoral ministry had, in many ways, screeched to a halt, in the newest days of the pandemic. We celebrate the courage and faith we find in Episode #100, and look forward to celebrating Episode #200 with you next week!

Today’s episode focuses on an exploration of our Baptism. We may feel that our baptismal calling is fully expressed in pastoral ministry, and in many cases, it might. But what if the Holy Spirit has different plans for us? What if we feel our baptismal calling change? How can we reflect and truly listen to the calling of the Spirit?

Brother Louis Canter from the Diocese of Orlando, Florida, begins our conversation today. Brother E. Louis Canter, OEF serves as a Pastoral Assistant for two parishes in the Lakeland Florida area. In subsequent Ministry Monday episodes, Brother Louis has reflected on the role of lay leadership in today’s Church, and the spirituality of the saints and holiness among us. Today we speak about baptism and begin at a liturgy we all have experienced very recently: the Easter Vigil.

Ministry Monday has returned from its Holy Week and Easter break! We hope that your Triduum celebrations were prayerful and filled with song, prayer and the joy of the Resurrection. We also hope that you’ve found some rest after Holy Week as well!

Today we continue the topic of sequences. Fr. Michael Joncas began our examination of the Church’s current use of sequences before we journeyed through Holy Week, and today Fr. Roc O’Connor continues this conversation. Roc O’Connor, SJ has been a member the Society of Jesus for over fifty years. He served in pastoral settings for most of his ministerial life – parishes, college and universities, and Jesuit formation. He is a founding member of the St. Louis Jesuits, a group that has shaped pastoral music for all of us today and has earned worldwide recognition.

Roc helps us with a primer of sorts on the sequences for Easter Sunday, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi. This particular episode is very beneficial when viewed as a video episode. You can find it in the show notes of this episode, as well as on NPM’s youtube channel, youtube.com/NPMlivestream. If you can’t access the video version of this episode, keep in mind that Roc allows us to flow between the Latin text, the ICEL translation, and the Roman Missal translation freely, examining how they work together and help to bring forth the sacred in some of the holiest days in our Church calendar.

Today is the last episode Ministry Monday will be airing before a two-week Holy Week and Easter hiatus. We wanted to leave you with an episode that would provide a prayerful pause as you wrap up the last rehearsals, make the last binders, and write the last “thank you” notes to your Holy Week musicians. Today we begin a conversation focusing on the sequences and hear from Fr. J. Michael Joncas. What is the history of a sequence’s form? What terminology predates the sequences? How can we most effectively employ sequences in our parishes? It is a great episode from which to prepare the Sequence for Easter Sunday.

Today’s episode comes as a listener request, and a very appropriate one at that. Allow me to read a portion of an email I received from a listener:

Dear Ministry Monday, I hope this message finds you very well!  I am writing to you today as I feel you are the perfect person to receive this idea.  I wanted to suggest an inclusion of Dr. Lynn Eustis’s Ministry Monday presentation about voice care somewhere in the agenda. 

The reason I am forwarding this request is due to the hiatus several choirs have been on after Christmas.  The strain of Holy Week can be damaging if voices are not “in shape” to sing the repertoire.

While I am just a volunteer musician at the Basic NPM level who joined the organization last May, I believe this topic is relevant to all. 

We couldn’t agree with you more. Today’s episode is directed to all vocalists serving in the Church today: choir members, cantors and choir directors alike. We’ve been using our voices differently in the past two years, and our conversation with Dr. Lynn Eustis is a great reminder to re-condition our voices with care. For more information on this topic, check out the April edition of Pastoral Music Magazine, NPM’s quarterly magazine published for its members. Pastoral Music Magazine is available to all Standard and Premium members of NPM. Not a member of NPM, or are you a Basic member who would like to receive it? Check out npm.org/membership to join or upgrade your membership. Pastoral Music Magazine alone is a great reason to become a Standard or Premium member of NPM today.

And now to the episode at hand!

Well, I want to thank everyone for listening to the last 3 weeks in our Exsultet mini-series. It has been very well-received, and it was equally a treat to produce the episodes. It’s clear to us at NPM that there is a definite desire to learn more about the liturgical prayers and nuances that we experience in our faith today. Stay tuned for more episodes focusing on music, ministry and, of course, liturgy.

During the month of March NPM celebrates the women that shape us and love us into being. Those who fight against the injustices of our society today. Women in religious life who are our spiritual guides. And those among us who lead and serve the Church in lay ministry. We are honored to celebrate you! And today we offer a replay episode that celebrates some of the strong women in our Church’s history. We hope this episode inspires you, and maybe prompts you to learn more about these holy women- and more.

This week Tony Alonso (composer and Director of Catholic Studies at Emory University) reflects on the cultural and linguistic needs in a bilingual community: What is the best solution for the Exsultet when a parish speaks both English and Spanish? What are some of the things we need to consider? How do we truly include all who worship in our Church?