Beethoven, his 250^th birthday, a Tribute. Catholic Music Tradition

Beethoven: Beset, besieged, but never beaten...

This year celebrates the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven -17^th November 1770. I have an admiration for him because he composed creatively through personal trials, self-doubt and the dawning reality of his gradual hearing loss that would lead to total deafness.

His deafness did not doom him as a composer. It energised him!  He would sit at the piano, put a pencil in his mouth and then by touching the other end of it to the soundboard of the instrument, he felt the vibration of the note. Imagine if Beethovan lived in today’s world of instagram, youtube and blogging - where he could promote, publish and perform instantly!!  Yet, he listened intently with an inner hearing mechanism - which for him then and for us today has a relevant message, as this is also the heart of all prayer.    

Beethoven was baptised into the Catholic Church. His Missa Solemnis is saturated with a distinctive Catholic faith. He called it ‘his crowning glory.’ At a recent concert to celebrate his birth, I read on the programme notes that it was time to ‘de-catholicise’ Beethoven. Such crass statements should not go unchallenged. What is it about tawdry revisionism today? Beethoven wrote at the top of his Missa Solemnis in 1824: FROM THE HEART - MAY IT RETURN TO THE HEART. It echoes the motto of Saint John Henry Newman( 1801-1890), HEART SPEAKS TO HEART - Cor ad cor loquitur. For Beethovan - his soulful music was his heartfelt prayer to God.

Beethovan died in 1827. His best known work, apart from Moonlight Sonata, is a melody that comes from his Ninth Symphony. This music was set to the 1785 lyrics - Ode to Joy - composed by the German poet, Friedrich von Schiller.                                                                                                                                                                                           

In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted Beethovan’s Ode to Joy as its anthem. In these Brexit days the melody is not heard in the United Kingdom - except in Scotland!  I will leave the last word to Beethovan:

“To play a wrong note is insignificant;  to play without passion is inexcusable.

Fr John Cullen, Diocese of Sligo, Ireland

A Letter in The Age

From The Age, Melbourne, Saturday, November 14, 2020.

“Though the evening of the Trump presidency is not playing out as fast as many would like, I suggest the president-elect and his supporters keep on singing, aBiden With Me, Fast Falls the Eventide.”

Paul Castley,

Kew.                

(And the sub- editor placed the heading, Keep Faith, Mr Biden)

The hymn which President-elect Joe Biden quoted in his address to the nation, November 7, was the Michael Joncas’ version of Eagles’ Wings, a favourite of his and of his family:

And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand

NAIDOC Week, 2020. A Tiwi Islands, MSC, culture story, John Fallon MSC

The rise of "no religion" as the most popular religious identifier in the 2016 Australian census attracted so much attention that few noticed Australia's most religious postcodes.

They were Yarrabah, the Tiwi Islands and Palm Island - each Aboriginal communities and former Christian missions - where over 90% of respondents claimed Christianity.

In some ways, the stories of how these communities converted are well known. The Tiwi Islands lie just off the coast to the north of Darwin and the Catholic mission to the Tiwi is famous for its "Bishop with 150 wives." Francis Xavier Gsell, the founder of the mission and self-styled polygamist priest, told of his dealings with the Tiwi people in his memoir of that name.

After landing on Bathurst Island in 1911, Gsell's strategy to win the Tiwi, he claimed, was to buy the rights to marry Tiwi girls. He paid their fiancees and fathers in cloth, flour and tobacco, bringing girls into the dormitory and later marrying them to a baptised Tiwi man of their choice. In doing so, the mission educated a generation of Tiwi women in the Catholic faith, a faith still held by Tiwi today.

But the Aboriginal side of the story is less known outside these communities. As an historian of missions, I went to the Tiwi wanting to learn their history of Christianity. I expected to hear that, despite the cultural arrogance of missionaries, they creatively fused their culture with the new faith.

Instead, Tiwi people insisted that the Church converted to embrace them.

Mutual Conversion

"You Catholic or you pagan?" The old Tiwi woman's question came as a shock to me, a white woman made uncomfortable by language loaded with what, to me, are colonial overtones. The categories of "Catholic" and "pagan" are important for an older generation of Tiwi people, raised on the mission. The old women are decidedly not pagan. As many explained, when missionary priests denigrated Tiwi ceremony, calling it pagan, they were mistaken.

Whenever I asked how Christianity and Tiwi culture fit together I was given a history lesson. It was a story of Father John Fallon, who worked on Bathurst Island from 1958 until 1970. "He said that this ceremony is a pagan ceremony, he said. But that's not true, that was in Tiwi, Tiwi law." The priest "thought we were all pagans, but we were baptised, we were Catholics." To explain their relationship to the church, Tiwi people told me of his dramatic conversion after a supernatural encounter at their Pukumani ceremony.

Some have claimed Aboriginal cosmology and Christian doctrine are such that Aboriginal people are unlikely ever to become Christians. But Aboriginal theologians have articulated ways their Dreaming fits in dynamic relationship with Christian ideas. Aboriginal people have created ways of being Christian and upholding their spiritual insights about time and place.

Anthropologists and historians are pointing to continuities with longstanding traditions embedded in Aboriginal Christian practices. Noel Loos describes Aboriginal people who were both "profoundly Christian" and believed "as profoundly in [their] Aboriginal belief system." Many Aboriginal people evangelised their kin, and some even sought to convert whites. In the 1920s, David Unaipon set out to explain his culture to whites, even as he preached Christianity. Later, Djiniyini Gondarra wrote of sharing the Aboriginal experience of revival: "Black preachers and evangelists have preached many years to convert the white church ... we want them to be free."

Meanwhile, missionaries around the world have long made accommodations to Indigenous cultures - sometimes deliberately, sometimes less so and often on a limited scale - translating their message into local forms in the hope that the gospel would be well received. Historians and anthropologists subsequently pointed out that Indigenous people creatively wove Christian ideas into their own traditions, translating the gospel for themselves, resulting in a "mutual conversion" of missionaries and Indigenous people alike.

Though the nature of this Indigenous "creative accommodation" of Christianity varied and sometimes even disturbed missionaries, it was, in fact, just what many missionaries hoped would happen through their efforts to cross cultures.

The author, Laura Rademaker is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, and author of Found in Translation: Many Meanings on a North Australian Mission.

Advent

Christmas

Ordinary Time

Lent

Peter Hearn, OLSH Randwick, Bulletin: 'The Back Page with Fr Peter'  (his last)

After 12 years, this is my final back page for our marvellous Parish Magazine. First up, a sincere word of thanks on behalf of all of us to Tony McNamara our editor, and Debbie Laurence for the professional lay out.

I have asked to have the photo on this page included here: it is taken at one of our Easter Vigils. It says so much to me of my life at OLSH. Every year to see 16-22 adults come through the RCIA is a huge achievement on the part of the parish and team. Our Mission Statement says that we are a parish gathered and nurtured by the Eucharist, and sent on mission ‘To Be on Earth the Heart of Jesus’. That we have so many desiring to be Catholics is a testament to the vitality of our parish. Thanks to all of you for your joy in being Catholics - no mean achievement in our sometimes torrid environment within and outside the Church - and especially your exceptional generosity to so many good causes and collections, petitions and so on. Generosity, joy and hospitality are central to the Heart of Jesus.

I am deeply indebted to the various, and too numerous to mention, committees and groups within the parish - all voluntary. Of central importance are the PPC and Finance Committees. They have achieved so much. As you know, I do have a particular love of music, and so the groups and, especially, the combined choirs, the AV producers that come together for our High Holy Days, have given me great happiness and uplifted our liturgies. Our liturgies are, after all, where not just ourselves, but non-Catholics or intermittent Catholics will mainly  interface with us.

Hence, we priests have also taken care in the preparation of Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals. Our teachers and catechists give of their very best to make our schools places of encounter with the values and life of Christ. They have been very welcoming of me and the priests and so easy to work with. Covid has clipped our wings dramatically, of course.

One would need to spend a day in the Parish Office to know the sheer variety of interactions that occur. I have greatly appreciated the dedication of Trish and Anita, Phyllis and other volunteers in the Office who keep the place from descending into chaos. A sense of humour is absolutely necessary for the office ministry – and it is a ministry where the sorrowful and the joyful mysteries, and sometimes the simply mysterious are encountered daily. THANKS!

Finally, to my MSC brethren: I could not live happily on my own. (I need others, if only to annoy them!) So many MSC have come and gone, some to their eternal reward. In particular the young priests from Vietnam, India and Indonesia have brought vibrancy, good humour and dedication to the life of the parish. I love our MSC life and pray vocations will continue to come from our parish. Blessings to you all and my thanks to the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and St Joseph for their kindly care of me and all.

With thanks, as always, to Tony McNamara and Debbie Laurence for the articles and photos

Jim Littleton’s latest contribution to the history of the Province:

Love Seeking Truth, MSC Ministry at Daramalan College, 1962-2020

In his introduction, Jim writes:

Love Seeking Truth incorporates the basis for all MSC ministry which is love, while at the same time recognising that education is a search for truth and some styles of behaviour must be challenged in the search for truth.

 He adds:

 I was initially rather hesitant to compose a booklet on MSC ministry at Daramalan because much of the ministry there has been carried out by laypeople, particularly in the last 30 years. So I wish to acknowledge that, and state that the family atmosphere of the school and its strong pastoral care system of support for one another owes much to the splendid efforts of lay staff, while acknowledging that it was begun by professional MSC.

In composing this booklet I have approached the topic historically and have used aspects of the history of the College to structure the story. To enhance the narrative I have written small “Recollections” of some deceased MSC who worked at Daramalan for many years. I have also included “Memories” provided by a few volunteers.

3 Stories:  Kensington, Tapini, Henley Beach.

Kensington

After John O'Connor MSC made a speech for John Kelliher

On November 1^st, there was a handing over ceremony.  John Kelliher was farewelled as Community Leader of the Kensington campus. He will be parish priest in Nightcliff, NT. Steve Dives will complete his term as Deputy Provincial and will become Community leader in Kensington.

Tapini

A message from Brian Cahill from Tapini, PNG.

Casmiro with Tapini community

“With sadness I am advising that Fr Casmiro Kito msc passed away at the POM General Hospital.   Casmiro is known to many Australian MSC, and has been resident at Kensington Monastery in recent years while undergoing medical treatment in Australia.

Casmiro is from Tapini and joined the MSC in 1998 as a candidate at Channel College in Rabaul.  He was ordained by Bishop Rochus Tatamai mac at Tapini in 2011, and he was my assistant in the parish and chaplain to SHSS till the end of 2018, when health issues required him to transfer to POM.  

Casmiro had been in declining health over the last year following a second stroke which was brought on by failing kidneys and a heart condition.  At the end he died peacefully, with myself, Sr Gabriella OLSH and Sr Rosemary OLSH present.    

A much loved son, brother, MSC confrere and priest - a friend to many.   The People of Tapini and Goilala, in particular, are in mourning at the loss of this wonderful man, as are a great many others who knew him.   Funeral details are yet to be finalised by the MSC provincialate.”

Henley Beach

Pat Lo Presti

Noel Mansfield MSC has sent news of the ordination of Pasquale (Pat) Lo Presti for the archdiocese of Adelaide. He was brought up here and attended Star of the Sea School and Blackfriars College. When he moved to Sydney, he attended mass at Randwick. Fr Pat celebrated his Mass of thanksgiving here at Henley. Paul Cashen and I concelebrated with him.

Pat Lo Presti concelebration, Noel and Paul

Reception into the Novitiate, Vincent and Anh,  Photos.

Vincent and Anh completed their pre-Novitiate in Blackburn, Cuskelly House

A small ceremony with the Douglas Park community

Welcomed by Provincial Superior, Chris McPhee 

With our Novice Master, Peter Harvey Jackson

And hospitality afterwards

Published today: New Book by Michael Fallon MSC 

Jesus as Portrayed in the New Testament.

Divine Love in a Human Heart.

Purchase here: Link

But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15)

Jesus' question to Peter and the others is one that every disciple needs to consider, a question that is as old as the Christian tradition.  And behind the question an even deeper and challenging one: Who is God?

Michael Fallon argues that the response to both questions must be informed by how we read the New Testament.  There, we find the portrait of a man who lived and died in our world, a human being like ourselves, someone recognised by his followers as free from the fear of God or other people - someone who taught us to respond to the divine, someone in whom they acknowledged the human expression (the incarnation) of God.

The author gladly accepts that eh historical Jesus has been distorted in many ways through the centuries, with the consequence that often the Jesus presented by Christians has failed to connect with people's life-questions, as if he had lived in a world unlike our own, without doubt or struggle, without insecurity or uncertainty.  A life so unlike our own as to make him inaccessible and unreal.

He argues to the contrary.  The Jesus portrayed in the New Testament lived in a real world.  He was concerned with real people, naming and opposing anything that made it difficult for people to live.  In so doing, he incurred opposition and rejection; hence his death.  But he also won the confidence of the oppressed.  They trusted him, and so learned to trust God, and to believe in themselves, in their world and their future.   This was because Jesus revealed the powerful love of the redeemer God.

This is the challenge to us, his followers.  Our world has so much idolatry, false religion and even false Jesus.  If we have the faith enough to present Jesus as the answer to our modern ills, we need to make sure that it is the real Jesus of Nazareth that we present.

Such is the purpose of this book.

________________________________________________________

Father Michael Fallon is a Missionary of the Sacred Heart (MSC). Ordained in 1961, his ministry has been largely devoted to teaching and writing in the discipline of adult biblical literacy, with published introductory commentaries on all the books of the Old and New Testament. Michael is currently with the Retreat Team at Douglas Park NSW.

Visiting St Mary’s Towers

On the occasion of Vincent and Anh beginning their novitiate at Douglas Park, a sign of life in the Province, we can all visit St Mary’s Towers with photos, courtesy of John Walker MSC.