Little Things (St. Therese), off of "Be Not Afraid" by Benjamin Brekke is about how St. Therese, the little flower, has inspired me in my faith journey and invites us to follow her wisdom and do little things with great love.  Doing these little things, are like flowers in God's garden and can truly change the world.

If you enjoy this song, you can check my other songs or purchase this song on iTunes or CDBaby.

www.benjaminbrekke.com

Video • “Three Approaches To A Catholic Hymn”

Published 10 June 2015 by Jeff Ostrowski

The following video shows three (3) ways hymns are sung by our choir:

Jeff Ostrowski at Corpus Christi Watershed has made available a PDF copy of “A Manual For Church Musicians” (1964) — 130 pages.

Jeff writes:

You know that we are always interested in trying to figure out how the Mass changed during the 1960s.

This book is important:

PDF Download • “A Manual For Church Musicians” (1964)

It is extremely well-produced, but I would suggest to you that the content is quite poor. But it's interesting from a historical point of view.

- Jeff Ostrowski

Nick Alexander posted this article on his blog today. He includes links to three very timely articles for my parish! We are in the throes of discussion of this very thing!  – Richard Schletty, TCS editor

Three Must-Read Articles About Praise And Worship Music

http://www.nickalexander.com/2015/06/02/ccm_pandw/

"There are three fascinating, contradictory articles about contemporary worship that I ran across this past week. What’s interesting about these articles is that they conflict and complement each other, in interesting ways. The authors of these articles have very different conclusions as to the state of Christian Music today, and the effectiveness of both..."

Go to Nick's blog to see his commentary on these three articles:

10 Traits of Top CCLI Songs
http://worshipfuel.com/10-traits-of-top-ccli-songs-3/

Why They Don’t Sing on Sunday Anymore
http://holysoup.com/2014/05/21/why-they-dont-sing-on-sunday-anymore/

Who Killed the Contemporary Christian Music Industry?
http://theweek.com/articles/555603/who-killed-contemporary-christian-music-industry

In a follow-up email directly to me, Nick wrote:

"You may be inspiring me to create my first ever online course.  How to wade through these waters.  How to do 'New Evangelization Worship.' "

Stay tuned! 

Please make comments below after you have read the three articles. Is your parish doing any Contemporary Catholic Worship and Praise music? Share your experiences, whether positive or negative. Are you thinking about introducing this genre of music?

Nick Alexander here...

The Feast of Corpus Christi is taking place this coming Sunday, a week after Trinity Sunday. Since I am very much devoted to the Eucharist, I thought it fitting to share my favorite songs that incorporate the imagery of Jesus being present in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul and divinity.

Special thanks go to John Michael Talbot, who graces this list, including a memorable duet with Michael Card. Also included: Critical Mass, whose "Body and Blood" is one of my favorites. As goes for Bob Rice, whose I Shall Be Healed should be learned by every liturgical musician. Catholic standouts include Paul Harrigan, Matt Maher, Lynn Geyer, Bryan Murdaugh, and Gretchen Harris. There's even some great songs from Third Day, Kutless, Janet Paschal, the City on a Hill gang, and the late, great Rich Mullins. 

Traditional hymns on the solemnity of Corpus Christi include At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing, Soul of My Savior and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.

What are your favorite Corpus Christi/Body and Blood songs?

Edit by Richard Schletty:

These "Body of Christ" songs are not at iTunes but can be viewed at SoundCloud or CCLI Song Select:

One Love - Ed Becker
http://soundcloud.com/ed-becker-music-ministry/one-love

Abide in Me - Paul Hilts
http://us.songselect.com/songs/4196613/abide-in-me

Be Transformed - Greg Mailloux
http://us.songselect.com/songs/4078102/be-transformed

Everything is Ready - Greg Mailloux
http://us.songselect.com/songs/4472289/everything-is-ready

Come to the Banquet - Greg Mailloux
http://us.songselect.com/songs/4079046/come-to-the-banquet

Bread of Life - Christ Kids Worship
http://www.christmusickids.com/?section=music-32

Broken For Me - Colin & Janet Lunt
http://us.songselect.com/songs/39025/broken-for-me

Take Your Place At Table - Deby Dearman/Kirk Dearman/Nancy Gordon
http://us.songselect.com/songs/2489092/take-your-place-at-table

• Artist: Edewede O.
• Title: Kyrie Eleison
• Album: Forgiven
• Genre: Christian
• Year: 2015
• Composer: Edewede Oriwoh
• Copyright Info: 2015

Please, Mercy LORD and Grant Us Peace. Amen.

Agnus Dei
Artist: Edewede O.
Title: Agnus Dei
Album: Forgiven
Genre: Christian
Year: 2014
Composer: Edewede Oriwoh
Copyright Info: August 2014

'We Three Wise Men From The East', early (Christmas is about 6 months away :)).

• Artist: Edewede
• Title: We Three Wise Men From The East
• Genre: Christmas, Christian
• Year: 2014
• Composer: Edewede Oriwoh
• Notes: We Three Wise Men From The East

I received this email message from Jeff Ostrowski at Corpus Christi Watershed (www.ccwatershed.org) – R. Schletty

Stunning Hymn With 3-Voice Polypony You Will Want To Sing For Pentecost
published 11 May 2015 by Jeff Ostrowski

OVER THE YEARS, I have learned it's better to do something simple really well than to attempt something hard, only to crash & burn. Pope Pius XII said something similar in 1958: “In general it is better to do something well on a small scale than to attempt something elaborate without sufficient resources to do it properly.”

Here's a piece you might want to do for Pentecost:

PDF Dowload • HYMN FOR PENTECOST (with Polyphony by T. L. de Victoria)

To accompany the hymn sections, organists can use this.

Go here to download score and individual voice practice audio files: Pentecost Hymn with 3-Voice Polyphony (Victoria)

Kyrie Eleison!
 

• Artist: Wede O.
• Title: KYRIE ELEISON
• Genre: Gospel & Religious
• Year: 2015
• Composer: Wede O.

Kyrie Eleison. Please LORD.

• Artist: Wede O.
• Title: Kyrie II
• Genre: Gospel & Religious
• Year: 2015
• Composer: Wede O.
• Copyright Info: 2014
• Notes: LORD, HAVE MERCY

Halleluia!

• Artist: Wede O.
• Title: Halleluia (multiple)
• Genre: Gospel & Religious
• Year: 2015
• Composer: Wede O.
• Copyright Info: 2015

A Kyrie, for God, simple. An updated PDF has been attached.

To God, Glory; to man, none.

• Artist: Wede O.
• Title: Kyrie I
• Genre: Gospel & Religious
• Year: 2015
• Composer: Wede O.
• Copyright Info: Edewede Oriwoh 2015