Art, Experience, and the Mind of God

Here’s a word that might be new to some: quale (plural: qualia). What is a quale? Think about all the feelings you get from experiencing the things of this world – the beauty of a sunset, the uplifting boost from that first cup of coffee in the morning, the cuteness overload when a dog comes up to you for a belly rub, or perhaps the sheer awesomeness of hearing Morgan Freeman’s voice narrating your daily routine. Feels great to be alive, right? In the philosophy of mind, qualia are the sensations of our personal, subjective experience – you could think of a quale as a super specific type of feeling that can’t quite be put into words.

Now, permit me to get very personal and emotional… There’s a reason I prefer to distinguish between feelings and qualia. We all know the taste of chocolate; it’s different from the taste of, say, pizza. We also know that there are many kinds of chocolate, each with its own unique taste – Hershey’s is different from Cadbury, which is different from Lindt, which is different from Ghirardelli, and so on. Likewise, we’re all familiar with a wide range of feelings: joy, sorrow, hope, fear, excitement, disappointment, etc. And anyone who has dealt in romance, unless they’re absurdly lucky, must have experienced the pain of breaking up. Most of us will be able to tell that teenager going through their first heartbreak, “It’s ok. I’ve been there. It’ll get better.” But none of us can ever completely relate to the specific quale of another person’s heartbreak, the quale that emerges from every unique bit of that person’s experience – the way she called him “bunny,” the wetness of his shirt having soaked up her tears, the change in her tone of voice and the cold of the winter air when she spoke the words “we need to breakup…” There are only two entities that know the full spectrum of that quale: the person experiencing the breakup, and… God.

As the well-known Psalm goes, “You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” (Psalm 139:1-3) Had the Psalmist been a contemporary philosopher of mind, he may have just as easily said, “Lord, you know every quale of my experience!” Take comfort, therefore, in the knowledge that there is one other Entity out there who completely understands.

And although we humans might never fully know another’s quale, one of the most valuable contributions of art is the power to shed just a bit more light on these qualia. For example, we all know the general feeling of assurance when we read a message of inclusivity. But there is a unique quale attached to the image of a mighty woman with a torch, declaring: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Likewise, we all know the feeling of yearning for our dreams. But there is a unique quale attached to a melody leaping up an octave and turning the other way, supported by a I-iii chord progression, setting the words: “Somewhere over the rainbow…” Art’s power to evoke qualia reminds us of each person’s uniqueness, such that a daughter mourning for her father is not reduced to “just another griever in an ocean of grievers.” For God does not see “just another griever…” In that sense, we can rightly say that art serves as a tiny window to the mind of God, of whom St. Augustine wrote: “O Thou Good Omnipotent, who so carest for every one of us as if You cared for him only, and so for all of us as if they were but one!” (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book III, Ch. 11, Art. 19, emphasis mine).

This is one more reason why we have music in church! As we embark on another year of joyful worship, it is my hope that our music ministry may spark the warmest and brightest qualia in your sacred experience of the Holy Mass.

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

Onward to Possibility

New Year's Post, 2024

A wish I have for our music ministry is that each year, our groups may accomplish something that they hadn’t done before. A sure sign of growth is consistently having “new firsts.” Of the music ministry’s new firsts in the year 2023, my favorites include: 

1. The first time to participate in a joint concert with the choir of St. Bartholomew Parish.
   
   
2. New members for each of our groups.
   Adult Choir: Lois Kelly (re-joining)
   Worship Band: Michelle Sroussi, Cassandra Desir, and Emmeline Fritz
   Youth Choir: Eloise Mascitti, our first youth cantor!
   
   
3. On Christmas Day, the first time our Youth Choir sang all the hymns at Mass. Our usual practice has been for the kids to sing only the Communion Hymn, but since Christmas songs have a special kind of familiarity, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let them sing all the hymns. As our Youth Choir gradually builds a standard repertoire of hymns, I hope to gradually increase their involvement in the Family Mass, from one hymn, to two, and eventually to all the Mass music. 

By now I’m sure our music groups are aware of my tendency to keep pushing them out of their comfort zones and into the unfamiliar. I think the same principle can apply to one’s own church life. We all know how the experience of coming to Mass can very easily feel ritualistic, repetitive, and formulaic – the same three cycles of Scripture readings every three years, the same prayers, the same motions every Sunday. Such is the very essence of Tradition. But within the constant ritual, there are many possibilities for novelty – the sharing of a Priest’s recent experience in his homily, a new hymn, or even the surprise of hearing a familiar hymn in a fresh new way. Our very selves, too, are made new by virtue of the experiences we accumulate between one Sunday and the next. 

Recently I’ve been exploring the work of the English mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead. One key insight of his that stuck with me is this: At every moment, I have a choice between 1) Conformation – to continue exactly as I’ve been doing, 2) Alternation – to return to what I was doing before and to switch back again, and 3) Novelty – to do something entirely new. I’m sure our music ministry, growing as it is, has only scratched the surface of what is possible. In my own personal life, in the times when I feel as though my ship has sunk, my best friend Kathy has always been an expert rescuer, pulling me out of the water and back to the port of possibility. So, I’d like to leave you with these words from the Christian philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard:
 

For possibility is the only power to save. When one swoons people shout for water, Eau-de-Cologne, Hoffman’s drops; but when one is about to despair the cry is, procure me possibility, procure possibility! Possibility is the only saving remedy; given a possibility, the desperate man breathes once more… So to pray is to breathe, and possibility is for the self what oxygen is for breathing… for God is that all things are possible, and that all things are possible is God; and only the man whose being has been so shaken that he became spirit by understanding that all things are possible, only he has dealings with God. The fact that God’s will is the possible makes it possible for me to pray; if God’s will is only the necessary, man is essentially as speechless as the brutes.

- Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death 

As we start the year 2024, I invite you to stand with me in this port, before the horizons of conformation, alternation, and novelty. Which ship looks fun to board? Say with me – onward to possibility! 

With my peace, 
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

Gift Exchange

November 19, 2023                    33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jerome: He that had received five talents, that is, having received his bodily senses, he doubled his knowledge of heavenly things, from the creature understanding the Creator, from earthly unearthly, from temporal the eternal.
[...] Origen: Or, They that have their senses exercised by healthy conversation, both raising themselves to higher knowledge and zealous in teaching others, these have gained other five; because no one can easily have increase of any virtues that are not his own, and without he teaches others what he himself knows, and no more.
- St. Jerome and Origen in Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea 

This Sunday's Gospel reading is the well-known parable of the talents. We often associate talent with being skilled in a certain profession. Some imagine God as a robed old man in the sky, looking down at every infant and thinking, "I'll make this one a musician, and this one a tennis player, and this one an exceptional public speaker." He then sprinkles some holy dust on the babies and poof, you've got a musical genius! Under that view, if I fail to develop my muiscal skill or choose a path other than music, I'd be wasting the gift and messing up God's plan. I tend to be critical of this view. My own opinion is that God's gifts are much more subtle.

If you asked me, I would not claim to have the gift of music. Allow me to explain. I've always had a pesky penchant for asking "Why???" As a kid, I was most fascinated by science, math, psychology, philosophical questions (e.g. is it selfish to do good because you want to feel good about yourself for doing good?) and theological questions (e.g. why are there different religions and how do I know if I'm in the right one?). My specific musical discipline is music theory, which is that field concerned with all the "why's" in music: Why do some combinations of notes sound more pleasant than others? Why does that part of a song make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Why are some melodies harder to sing than others? If God had ever given me a gift, I think it was the gift (and burden...) of a questioning heart, one that scrutinizes everything -- yes, even the faith (Sorry!!!). Under this view, my current profession indicates the path I chose out of my human free will, i.e. the path of music instead of science or philosophy; but the steps I took along that path were those of one given a love of questions. "The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps." (Proverbs 16:9) 

That may explain why I can teach music, but I cannot make people inquisitive. Speaking of teaching, this past week saw the conclusion of our parish musicianship training class, as well as the Meeting Christ in Prayer class. My friend Kathy and I exchanged thoughts about our respective programs and explored areas for improvement, should we decide to offer them again next year. Her gift, I speculate, is a listening heart (1 Kings 3:9) -- a heart that listens to God, to people, the sick, the poor, the confused, the faithful, and yes, the questioners. I see it in how she talks to servers at restaurants, how she parents her kids, in her profession as a women's health coach, in her contemplations of the Holy Spirit's whispers -- everything about her screams a listening heart. Had she made different choices, I imagine she would have made an excellent therapist, HR manager, or spiritual director. But I'm glad she made the choices that led her here, otherwise I'd have never experienced the grace of her listening heart, and we'd have never exchanged gifts.
 

Now it is a greater perfection for a thing to be good in itself and also the cause of goodness in others, than only to be good in itself. Therefore, God so governs things that He makes some of them to be causes of others in government; as a master, who not only imparts knowledge to his pupils, but gives also the faculty of teaching others.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia q103 a6

 What special gift do you hold? If you are unsure, perhaps it is one of those very subtle gifts just waiting to be unlocked.

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

Hero and Anti-Hero

November 5, 2023                    31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

"The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
- Matthew 23:11-12

In my college days, altruism was a concept I had difficulty fathoming. By its common definition -- the will to serve another without expecting anything in return -- I felt that it was just plain impossible. My argument was that there's always "something" we get out of it, even if it's just that sweet satisfaction of knowing you did a good deed, and at least in my experience, it was impossible to completely separate the desire for that satisfaction from the will to do good. Simply put, it feels good to enjoy one's own goodness! Now if you've had similar thoughts, and if you're an overthinker like me, you may have heard that annoying voice in your head saying "See, you're still selfish deep down. You just happen to be selfish in disguise." If you're a teenager grappling with these thoughts, you may perhaps relate to that part in Taylor Swift's song Anti-Hero, which goes "Did you see my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?" And if you're in that space, then let me tell you as someone who's been there: it's ok to enjoy your good deed. In fact, that "good deed joy" might just be God's way of giving you a Divine pat on the back. If you don't take my word for it, take St. Augustine's:
 

When we take pity upon a man and care for him, it is for his advantage that we do so; but somehow or other our own advantage follows by a sort of natural consequence, for God does not leave the mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward.

- St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, Book I, Ch. 32, Art. 35 

Church musicians may also find themselves in that space. When the music sounds good, the congregation applauds, the Priest thanks you for the beautiful music, and parishioners approach you to say you did a good job, you may wonder "Am I still doing this for the glory of God, or for my own glory?" And you might hear that voice again accusing you of "covert narcissism disguised as altruism like a congressman." When you find yourself wondering if you're a congressman, I invite you to try this little thought experiment: Imagine you're a homeless person on the street, starving but unable to afford a meal, and then some random good Samaritan walks up to you and gives you a free sandwich. You don't know that person's intentions -- maybe they're like the Pharisees in the Gospel just doing it for show, or maybe they're just doing it for that inner "good deed joy." All you know is that you got a free sandwich and now you're not so hungry anymore. The sandwich has made you incredibly happy, regardless of the giver's motives. Now imagine you're the giver. The more you can focus on how happy the receiver becomes (instead of your own motives), the closer you get to genuine selflessness. 

As if it were an antithesis to Anti-Hero, Mariah Carey's song Hero opens with the lines: "There's a hero if you look inside your heart; you don't have to be afraid of what you are." Literally just a few days ago, my best friend had to remind me that I wasn't the only person benefiting from our friendship like a parasite -- that she was benefiting from it too. Find friends like that who bring you closer to genuine selflessness and genuine self-love. 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

A New Parameter

October 29, 2023                    30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

History has no shortage of attestations to the incredible power of love, from Christians and non-Christians alike. Victor Hugo wrote, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” Mahatma Gandhi said, “Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet it is the humblest imaginable.” The pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote, “Hatred is increased by being reciprocated and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.” A song by the Beatles is literally titled “All you need is love.” 

I once asked my best friend (one of our parishioners) for advice. There was a retreat I was invited to, but I was hesitant to attend. I told her the reason for my reluctance, and after giving me some very sound advice, she posed to me the question, “what if you let love instead of fear guide your decision?” So I deliberated under that premise – what if I decide out of love? And guess what? ………. I still did not attend. But! Fast-forward to a few days later: A Clergyman asked me a question which, again, I was very hesitant to answer. I thought about it over the days that followed, and once more I called to mind my best friend’s words: “what if you let love instead of fear guide your decision?” Then out of love, I emailed the Clergyman my answer. I was pleasantly surprised to find that things didn’t go south after that. I then texted my friend: “…that whole advice about ‘love instead of fear’ is a thing for me now. It’s like you’ve introduced a new parameter into my decision-making algorithm.” 

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus gives the Pharisees a new parameter, which we know as the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Now I was once having tea with this best friend whom I clearly can’t seem to stop talking about, and I asked her, “how do you deal with all those ‘dark passages’ in the Bible?” She told me that she tries as much as possible to read them through the lens of love. Did you know that St. Augustine said pretty much the same thing? De Doctrina Christiana (DDC) can be thought of as Augustine’s manual for the interpretation of Scripture. In DDC, Augustine writes:
 

Whatever there is in the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, you may set down as figurative. Purity of life has reference to the love of God and one’s neighbor; soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one’s neighbor. Every man, moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love and knowledge of God and his neighbor.

- Augustine of Hippo, DDC, Book III, Ch. 10, Art. 14 

Augustine held so firmly to the primacy of love that he took a very understanding attitude toward mistaken interpretations of Scripture if they were borne out of love:
 

Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer intended goes astray, but not through any falsehood in Scripture. Nevertheless… if his mistaken interpretation tends to build up love, which is the end of the commandment, he goes astray in much the same way as a man who by mistake quits the high road, but yet reaches through the fields the same place to which the road leads.

- DDC, Book I, Ch. 36, Art. 41 

The good Bishop of Hippo thus assures us that, although not everyone possesses the expertise necessary for Biblical scholarship, everyone nonetheless has the capacity for love. This Sunday, our Masses will be filled with songs about love. My hope is that if you ever find yourself grappling with a tough call, perhaps you might consider my friend’s question: “What if you let love guide your decision?” 

With my love,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

In Saecula Saeculorum

 October 22, 2023                    29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God."
- Matthew 22:21

In this Sunday's Gospel, the Pharisees present Jesus with the false dichotomy between earthly and Heavenly responsibilities. There are many false dichotomies which, if unrecognized, create unnecessary divisions between the faithful and the world (surely our world is polarized enough as it is!). Such false dichotomies include faith vs. reason, evangelization vs. tolerance, and one in particular which I hope to address here: sacred vs. secular.

Etymologically speaking, the word secular derives from the Latin word saeculum, which means generation/age. The Latin phrase in saecula saeculorum appears at the end of several doxologies and literally translates to "in the age of ages" (modern English translations have this as "forever and ever"). Now, you may have encountered generational nicknames such as Baby Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z, each marked by distinctive cultural features indicative of the "spirit of the times," or Zeitgeist, if you wanna be all fancy. The German word Zeitgeist derives from the 19th-century philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, sometimes nicknamed "the Protestant Aquinas," who pondered a great deal about this idea of a spirit of the times. Each of us is a product of our time, our cultural history, and our interactions with others. We've no doubt observed that people who grew up in a different generation (a different saeculum) may have a very different way of thinking from ours.

Yet despite generational differences, we also observe that the collective values of human civilization over the centuries has tended toward convergence, harmonious coexistence, "peace on earth and good will toward men." Martin Luther King said, "...the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Orthodox philosophical theologian Richard Swinburne writes, "...there is no reason to suppose that the moral views of most of us would not converge over time, given exposure to each other's life experiences and each other's arguments." Even atheist scientist Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, shares with Christians the commitment to objective moral values and notes a forward-moving arrow of moral progress. As Pope St. John Paul II wrote: "Although times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole... It is as if we had come upon an implicit philosophy, as a result of which all feel that they possess these principles, albeit in a general and unreflective way." (Fides et Ratio, Art. 4)

I invite you to consider that the cultural practices of our respective generations -- our saecula -- need not compromise our spiritual goals any more than "rendering unto Caesar" ought to compromise "rendering unto God." To use the case of music as just one example: despite some older generations' aversion to contemporary worship music due to its "secular sound," a large part of the development of church music over the centuries, from Gregorian chant to the many varied types of sacred music today, owes to the influence of secular music. Vatican II states: "The Church also acknowledges new forms of art which are adapted to our age and are in keeping with the characteristics of various nations and regions. They may be brought to the sanctuary since they raise the mind to God, once the manner of expression is adapted and they are conformed to liturgical requirements." (Gaudium et Spes, Art. 13)

My favorite expression of the marriage between the worldly and the spiritual comes from Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, in his account of the ideal religious person, which he calls the Knight of Faith:

He takes delight in everything, and whenever one sees him taking part in a particular pleasure, he does it with the persistence which is the mark of the earthly man whose soul is absorbed in such things. He tends to his work. So when one looks at him one might suppose that he was a clerk who had lost his soul in an intricate system of book-keeping... And yet, and yet, the whole earthly form he exhibits is a new creation by virtue of the absurd [i.e. mysteries of faith]. He resigned everything infinitely, and then he grasped everything again by virtue of the absurd.
- Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Kierkegaard's Knight of Faith reminds me of a homily given by our former parochial vicar, Fr. Joseph Kim, who shared how he would always invite Jesus to spend TV time with him. I think Fr. Joseph's homily is a pleasant reminder that God is never lost in the earthly business of our saeculum; it is we who sometimes forget that He's there. To see beyond our age is simply to recognize the constant hand of God in ages past, in the age of present, in ages to come, in saecula saeculorum.

 With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

Inviting Without Exception

October 15, 2023                28th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

“The servants went out into the streets, and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests."
- Matthew 22:10

There are a number of songs in our hymnal about the Church adopting a welcoming attitude toward everyone (as in everyone, no exceptions!). We’ve got #421 All Are Welcome, #311 Table of Plenty, #305 You Are Welcome Here, and specifically the sixth verse of #492 Where Charity and Love Prevail, which goes: “No race nor creed can love exclude, if honored be God’s name; our family embraces all, whose Father is the same.” I like to think of these as “the inclusivity hymns,” and my favorite in that category is #310 The House That Love is Building. If you’re a regular at the 5:00 PM Mass, you may have heard that one a few times. This Sunday’s Gospel has prompted me to pick out some of those inclusivity hymns – see if you can spot them at the Mass you attend. 

Speaking of inviting everyone, those of you who attend the 5:00 PM Mass may have noticed that our Worship Band has a new member. Her name is Michelle, whom I met under some wonderfully unexpected circumstances. See, I was shopping at Walgreens one morning, and it was very early so there was no one else in the store, or so I thought. Then I heard an absolutely gorgeous voice singing I Just Can’t Wait to Be King from Disney’s The Lion King. I looked around the store to find out where this voice was coming from. Lo and behold, it was Michelle, singing to herself, unaware that I was listening to her and enjoying every bit of it. Now in that song, there’s a part that goes, “Everybody look left, everybody look right, everywhere you look I’m standing spotlight,” and then the character Zazu responds with an emphatic “Nnnnooot yyeeet!” So as Michelle sang that part, I chimed in with Zazu’s response, and she was surprised to find that I had been happily eavesdropping the whole time. From there, one thing led to another, and I invited her to sing with us at St. Joe’s. She seemed very surprised about the invitation, like I might be joking or something, but I was dead serious! She asked, “would it be a problem if I’m Jewish?” I said, “If it’s not a problem for you, then it’s not a problem for me.” And now here she is, singing Christian songs with us, while also contributing her Jewish heritage to our music ministry – if you were at the 5pm two Sundays ago, you may recall her exquisite rendering of Amazing Grace in Hebrew. 

Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized that everyone is welcome in the Church. Vatican II makes it clear that “The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion.” (Nostra Aetate, Art. 5) It is my hope that in these times when humanity is so divided, we may hold ever more firmly to the love that embraces all, welcoming everyone to the house that love is building. 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director

A Peak Into the Music Selection Process

October 8, 2023         27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ever wondered how the hymns for each Sunday are chosen? Believe it or not, I don’t just pick hymns on a whim, or just cause I feel like they “sound pretty.” There is in fact a systematic process to music selection which considers four factors: 

1. The overarching theme of the liturgy for the day. Is it about faith? Forgiveness? Truth? Salvation? Social Justice? Are there specific passages from Scripture that are quoted in the hymn selections? I’ll let you in on a little secret… “Judgement-themed” liturgies (like this Sunday’s) are the ones I find most difficult to pick music for!
   
   
2. The musical style of each Sunday Mass. 9:30 AM should be family friendly/child appropriate. 11:00 AM should be more formal; I dare say conservative. 5:00 PM should be modern and teen friendly.
   
   
3. The capabilities of each ensemble – the Youth Choir (9:30), Adult Choir (11:00), and Worship Band (5:00). The musical product I envision must be achievable within the rehearsal time allotted to it.
   
   
4. The familiarity of hymns to the congregation. Debbie Geary was especially helpful in informing me of which hymns the congregation already knows and which ones are unfamiliar, out of every single hymn in our hymnal. That’s a lot of hymns!

Furthermore, when considering the themes of the liturgy, I follow a “hierarchy of matching.” There are three levels of specificity when matching music to Scripture: Scriptural matching, topical matching, and seasonal matching. 

• Scriptural matching. When passages from Scripture are directly quoted in a hymn, that’s a Scriptural match. For instance, the passage “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4) is quoted/paraphrased in the following songs in our hymnal: Seek Ye First (#445, Verse 3), Shepherd of Souls (#362, Verse 2), Led by the Spirit (#126, Verse 2). Scriptural matching is always my first choice.
  
  
• Topical matching. As mentioned earlier, liturgies tend to fall under a specific “topic.” Examples of topics are light, faith, water, resurrection, mercy, justice, Mary, discipleship, etc. So, if for whatever reason I’m unable to pick a Scriptural match (perhaps because the song is unfamiliar to the congregation or possibly too difficult for my choirs), I resort to Plan B: topical matching. A song may not quote Scripture directly, but it may still fit with the general topic of the liturgy.
  
  
• Seasonal matching. This is the least specific type of matching. To match according to season simply means choosing hymns that very loosely fit with the spirit of the liturgical season – Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. So seasonal matching during Easter could mean something as simple as picking songs that have “Hallelujah” or “He is risen” in them. This is my last resort, only when I’m unable to pick either a Scriptural or topical match. 

This Sunday, if you find yourself in an observant mood, see if you can spot any Scriptural and/or topical matches in the songs at the Mass you attend.

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director