Some thoughts on nationalism this Pentecost

As it so happens, Pentecost Sunday this year falls right before Memorial Day. Whenever a high Holy Day in the Catholic Church occurs around the same time as an American patriotic holiday, I am often faced with the choice of whether I should select a patriotic hymn as the closing hymn for Mass or keep all the music selections in line with the theme of the Holy Day. And whenever I’m faced with that choice, I must confess, much to the possible disappointment of our most patriotic parishioners, that I lean more toward serving the liturgical theme. I suppose part of that may be owed to the fact that I’m Filipino and thus have no particular affinity for American nationalism. That said, since some members of the Adult Choir have expressed a strong desire for a patriotic hymn, we will be concluding the 11:00 AM Mass with Eternal Father, Strong to Save.

 

On the subject of nationalism, I recall a passage from the autobiography of the prominent Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, entitled The Seven Storey Mountain, which I started reading recently, upon the very thoughtful recommendation of our Pastor. Merton writes the following about France, his place of birth:

 

And yet it was France that grew the finest flowers of delicacy and grace and intelligence and wit and understanding and proportion and taste... She has possessed all the skills, from cooking to logic and theology, from bridge-building to contemplation, from vine-growing to sculpture, from cattle-breeding to prayer: and possessed them more perfectly, separately and together, than any other nation... Why is it that the songs of little French children are more graceful, their speech more intelligent and sober, their eyes calmer and more profound than those of the children of other nations? Who can explain these things? France, I am glad I was born in your land, and I am glad God brought me back to you, for a time, before it was too late.
 - Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

 

Interestingly enough, before diving into Merton, my previous reading was C.S. Lewis’ book, The Four Loves, which compares and contrasts the different types of human love with God’s love. At one point, Lewis touches on one’s love for country, and he had this to say:

 

I once ventured to say to an old clergyman who was voicing this sort of patriotism, “But, sir, aren't we told that every people thinks its own men the bravest and its own women the fairest in the world?” He replied with total gravity—he could not have been graver if he had been saying the Creed at the altar—"Yes, but in England it's true.”
 - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

 

Although Lewis and Merton, both among the most prominent Christian thinkers of the 20th century, held each other’s writings in high esteem, they never had the good fortune of crossing paths. I wonder, if they had met, would they perhaps have had a friendly debate as to whose country possessed every skill more perfectly than any other nation? On my end, I can think of a few things about my home country, the Philippines, which I might declare as superior, that is, if I had no sense of caution about making such grand statements haha. But for now, I wish you all a lovely Pentecost Sunday and a happy Memorial Day!

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director 

May 2026

The month of May certainly looks to be a very busy month! This past Friday, the 1st of May, the St. Joe’s School celebrated its annual Grandparents’ Day, which is arguably THE biggest school event each year. Then this Sunday, May 3rd, we have a First Communion Mass at the 11am, and then two Confirmation Masses at 2pm and 5pm. On May 10th, the 6th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day, we’ll have our traditional crowning of Mary in Mary’s Garden, right after the 9:30am Mass. On May 14th, we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, and on May 24th, we celebrate Pentecost (special music plans for that!). Finally, at the end of the month, on May 31st, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and on that very same day there will be two more Confirmation Masses at 2pm and 5pm. So, loooootsa stuff this month!

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about another part of my job that may not be as visible within the parish. In addition to my role as music director of the parish, I also direct the St. Joe’s School choir, which sings for the All-School Masses that typically take place on the first Friday of each month, as you may have noticed if you’re one of the regulars at daily Mass. And then there’s the non-religious part of my work at the school that occupies a very fulfilling chunk of my time – playing piano for the St. Joe’s School musicals. The school does three musical productions each school year: one in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the spring. For this year’s spring musical, our 5th graders will be performing DreamWorks’ Madagascar Jr. on May 7th and 8th, at 7:00 PM at the school’s Kennedy Center. So yes, that’s another thing on my radar this busy month of May. If you’re in the area and you’d like to see some talented 5th graders doing a school musical, please consider coming to our production of Madagascar Jr.

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director 

Good Shepherd Sunday

The 4th Sunday of Easter has been nicknamed “Good Shepherd Sunday,” due to the Gospel reading about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Before Vatican II, Good Shepherd Sunday used to fall on the 3rd Sunday of Easter, until the Church decided to push it back by a week, so that we could hear more about Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, such as the one on the road to Emmaus last Sunday. Doesn’t that just make you glad that the Church revised the Lectionary that way? I mean, who doesn’t love hearing about the risen Christ appearing to the disheartened disciples on the road to Emmaus, right?

 

This Sunday, as you might expect, the Responsorial Psalm is the very well-known Psalm 23. If one were to ask me, “could you guys sing The Lord is My Shepherd?”, my first thought would be, “umm, which one?” ‘Tis a text that has been put to music in so many ways by so many composers from so many different times and places. If you’re a regular at the 11:00 AM Mass, you may have heard our Adult Choir sing the setting by Thomas Matthews. In terms of settings which are in our hymnal, the most familiar one is Marty Haugen’s Shepherd Me, O God. There’s also The King of Love My Shepherd Is and Christopher Walker’s Because the Lord is My Shepherd, both inspired by Psalm 23.

 

As far as more modern settings go, I recently encountered this moving song entitled Still Waters by Christian artist Leanna Crawford, based on Psalm 23. In addition to it’s beautiful, soaring refrain, I was drawn to it by a particular lyric that goes, “Write Scripture on your heart for when you need it, ‘cause anxiety hates Psalm 23…” If you’d like to hear this song, our Worship Band’s very own Emmeline Fritz will be singing it at the 5:00 PM Mass this Sunday.

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director 

Nearly Evening

This 3rd Sunday of Easter, I am reminded of a motet (i.e. a sacred composition for voices) by one of my favorite 19th-century German composers, Josef Rheinberger, entitled Abendlied (German for “Evening song”). At first glance, one might not immediately sense that it is a sacred composition, since the text, taken in isolation, does not explicitly make any reference to God, Jesus, or even anything in the vicinity of the spiritual. Of course, if you know your Bible and/or if you are a regular churchgoer, you’d immediately recognize where the words come from. The words are Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, und der Tag hat sich geneiget, i.e. “Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent,” the direct translation of the words as they appear in Martin Luther’s German version of the Bible, which Rheinberger used as his source. In the New American Bible Revised Edition (the translation used in our missals at St. Joe’s), that would be: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” (Luke 24:29) These are the words that the disciples said to the risen Christ, whom they did not initially recognize, when he gave the impression that he was walking further than their destination along the road to Emmaus.

 

I first encountered Rheinberger’s beautiful composition during my college choir days when I used to attend Jesuit university back home in the Philippines. College choir was where I had the most formative experiences in my journey as a choir director. As it happens, next Sunday, April 26th, that very same college choir will be celebrating its 105th anniversary with a grand homecoming concert featuring alumni of the choir from the many, many years of its existence. And while I’ve never been much of a “community person,” I must admit that I feel just a little bit envious that most of my old choir friends will be there, most likely singing some of our favorite choral pieces to sing from back in the day, while I am unable to travel due to… ahem… immigration-related circumstances. But hey, I am told that when God closes a door, He opens a window, right? I imagine I’ll be waiting with bated breath for what wonderful things might lie behind the proverbial window next week!

 

With my peace,

Carlo Serrano, Music Director

Post-Holy Week 2026

I’d like to take this time to share a few updates about our music ministry which you may have already noticed. Firstly, our Children’s Choir has welcomed several new members, whose names you’ll see on the right side of this page. Secondly, sometime last July, our Worship Band welcomed an exceptionally talented new member, Tessa Jones, who used to sing with the St. Bart’s Children’s Choir. And thirdly, due to schedule-related challenges, Danielle Coles, who used to sing with our Worship Band, has opted to shift her service to cantoring for the 9:30 AM Family Mass. Danielle has proven to be a huge help at the 9:30, not just with the cantoring, but also with helping me adjust microphone placement for the kids in real-time and serving as an additional adult presence at rehearsals with the Children’s Choir (I tell ya, it’s not easy managing them kids!).

 

This Sunday, I’ve given the Adult Choir and Children’s Choir time off in light of their very hard work during Holy Week. Our Worship Band, however, will still be present at the 5:00 PM Mass, and we’ve prepared a special lineup for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. If you happen to be at that Mass, we hope you’ll join us in singing one of our favorite songs that we only do around this time of year: the Easter Hallelujah based on Leonard Cohen’s tune, with alternate lyrics by Kelly Mooney. See you there!

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director 

"Nakikiramay ako"

Once, someone very dear to me had a dog whom she so loved. When the day came that her dog passed away, she told me that, among the many feelings that arose alongside her grief, there was also this sense of anger toward the world. It wasn’t that the world was responsible in any way for her dog’s death; it was more of a perceived apathy – “How dare the world keep on spinning when my dog has died?” And since this woman was very dear to me, I wished I could somehow put the world on pause, that I could enforce some kind of planetary ordinance that would halt all activities and enjoin the whole world into mourning the loss of this one dog. I suppose you could say I wanted to damay the world in her grief. What is damay, you ask?

 

Allow me to share a little something about Tagalog, my native tongue. In the Philippines, at funerals, you may hear people saying, “nakikiramay ako.” I suppose you could say it’s how we offer condolences, but the etymology is much deeper. The root word of nakikiramay is damay, which roughly means “to be unwillingly affected or involved an unfortunate situation.” Say, when two people are having an argument and they try to pull in a third party who’d rather not be involved, the third party might say, “Huwag mo akong idamay,” which means “Don’t involve me in that” or “Don’t pull me into that.” Or, to use a more pointed example, when innocent bystanders are injured as collateral damage in a battle that should otherwise not involve them, we’d say “Nadamay sila, which means, “They were unwillingly affected.” The beautiful thing about saying “nakikiramay ako” is that it reverses the unwillingness of the original root word and turns it into voluntary willingness. When we say “nakikiramay ako,” we are essentially saying “I am involving myself in your sorrow,” or “I volunteer to be affected by your grief,” that is, “I willingly damay myself in your suffering.”

 

I propose this as a helpful way to think about fasting and abstinence. In addition to cultivating spiritual discipline, it is also a way to damay oneself in the suffering of Christ. And of course, the music we sing at Mass on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion will be markedly more somber (with the exception of the opening hymn). Even at the 5:00 PM Mass, where I’ve heard people describe the music as “joyful” and “uplifting,” we will deliberately employ a more mournful tone, and we hope that you take this as an opportunity to enjoin yourself in the sorrow of the man of sorrows. And if I may gently suggest… no applause, please and thank you!

 

I wonder if the disciples, before Christ’s resurrection, ever felt as my dear friend did. Did they perhaps see everyone else going about their daily lives and think, “How dare the world keep on spinning when our Lord has died?” Well, here’s another bit of linguistic trivia. There’s a rabbinic argumentative principle called qal vahomer in Hebrew, which literally translates to “light and heavy,” and it takes the form: If principle X applies in lesser situation Y, then how much more should it apply in greater situation Z. (In logic, this is called argumentum a fortiori) One of Jesus’ most famous uses of qal vahomer is when he says, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:11) So, allow me to borrow this mode of argument and propose: If a man can put his world on pause to mourn the loss of his dear friend’s dog, how much more should Christians put their world on pause to mourn the death of Love incarnate? Can we sit with the grieving Mary, the Mater dolorosa, and say “nakikiramay ako?”

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director 

The Parable of the University

Yes, I made a parable haha! Consider the following scenario: You just started college and you’re filled with that youthful, idealistic hope that you will one day land your dream job. You pursue your studies seriously, and along the way, you make friends with other students who are just as passionate and committed to their studies. Now as is so often the case in college life, despite the many freedoms given to college students, not everything goes smoothly. You have the freedom to major in your field of choice, to choose course electives that match your interests, to enlist in those classes taught by your preferred professors, and to join all kinds of fun extracurricular activities, but sometimes you don’t always get what you want. It could be that your desired major only accepts a limited number of applicants (as was the case when I had to audition to major in Choral Conducting), or the course electives you really want aren’t offered during those semesters where you get free electives, or perhaps the professor you want is so popular that his class got fully booked and you’re forced to take the same class under a different professor whom you dislike (again, also speaking from experience…). But hey, why stop there? Allow me to really exaggerate this scenario. Suppose you just happen to be sooooooo unlucky that you aren’t able to land your desired major and you have to settle for a closely related field, you only ever get the sucky electives, you’re always stuck with the professors whom nobody wants, and to top it all off, you’re not very financially blessed, so all you can afford is the lamest food in the cafeteria. Suddenly, college isn’t looking as fun as you envisioned it would be, and you start to wonder if it’s even worth it…

 

Now suppose that one day, the HR person from your dream job approaches you and gives you a written guarantee, signed by the boss himself, stating that IF you graduate, you will definitely be hired at your dream job. I imagine that would change your entire college experience. Your sights would be so set on graduating that you’d just persevere through all the annoying professors, the late nights of working on your dissertation, the envy of seeing other students enjoying the good fortune of getting all the fun classes and being able to purchase all the yummiest food in the cafeteria – none of it bothers you as much anymore, because at the end of the day you’ve got this signed letter that lets you go to bed at night thinking, “Imma get my dream job!”

 

You can probably guess what analogy I’m drawing here. The university is your earthly life, and your dream job is the eternal Happiness with God in Heaven. The parable of the university is meant to illustrate the Christian view of one’s temporal, earthly life in relation to the eternal Happiness of Heaven. If you’ve ever been a college student, you know how easy it is to get fixated on the anxieties of college life, and the uncertainty of the future can be overwhelming. But when you have a sense of certainty that the thing you hope for will not disappoint, suddenly you can face just about anything.

 

I once met a woman who struggled with severe mental health challenges, who had nightmares every time she slept, and she told me that she felt like the man at the pool of Bethesda, particularly how he was portrayed in the hit TV series The Chosen. I will never forget how she said to me, “That’s how I feel, except that I know Jesus isn’t coming to rescue me.” Later, I read a reflection from St. Augustine about Jesus’ healing at the pool of Bethesda. Augustine was grappling with the question that I imagine Jesus’ disciples also grappled with, and The Chosen isn’t shy about bringing it to the fore: Why does Jesus heal some people but not others? Augustine says:

 

There lay so many there, and yet only one was healed, while He could by a word have raised them all up. What, then, must we understand but that the power and the goodness was doing what souls might, by His deeds, understand for their everlasting salvation, than what bodies might gain for temporal health? For that which is the real health of bodies, and which is looked for from the Lord, will be at the end, in the resurrection of the dead.

- St. Augustine, Tractate 17 on the Gospel of John

 

In plainer English, Augustine is essentially saying here that Jesus’ act of bodily healing is meant to point toward the hope in the resurrection, that is, these miracles serve to secure that hope which I’ve tried my best to describe in the parable of the university. I do wish that the woman who told me that she felt like the man at the pool of Bethesda may find in her soul that very same hope.

 

This 5th Sunday of Lent, as we hear about the raising of Lazarus, our music ministry has prepared a lineup of songs that are meant to strengthen that hope in the promise Jesus said He Will fulfill. We look forward to seeing you at Mass!

 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director