On the Birthday of Our Blessed Mother

Sung by the Mater Dei Seminary and Men's Choir, with our sons, Dominic (Br Pius at that time), Jonathan (Br. Philip), and Kevin (the Magnificent ;0) participating.  This slideshow created by Theresa.

(*Sorry!  This is posted one day late...)

On the Feast of Our Lady's Glorious Assumption

Dominic made this slide show to honor the feast day today!  The arrangement of "Who Is She Ascends So High" was performed by the Mater Dei Seminary and Men's Choir.  Dominic, his brothers Kevin and Br. Philip (Jon), and many of our dear family friends provide the God-gifted voices.

The Boys are Home

With a little background music.

Practicing King of Love for the pre-wedding "concert."

Left to Right: Good friend, Justin, sons Jon and Dominic, and good friend, Carlos,

Live at Red Rocks!

William "Yuyum" Davis, singing a selection from his Favorite Hits album:
the ever-popular Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!

(Recorded from several rows up, so, though the acoustics at Red Rocks is world famous, you, um, might need to turn the volume up a little to get the full effect...)

More shots from beautiful Red Rocks Park/Amphitheater:

Looking Down:

Looking back up:

Lists and lists of more Mostly Wordless

Wednesday posts at Ordinary and Awesome.

We had a hankering...

Theresa and I had the media player on random just now and heard the Irish folk song,  Dúlamán, come around from one of the cds the boys have collected.  We both decided the boys sing it better, and had a hankering to hear their version.  Since we had it out, we thought we'd share it...  We get the biggest kick out of their enthusiasm!

(l-r: Jon, good friend Justin, Kevin, and Dominic, last spring)

Music for Sunday

Here's our children's full choir, the five boys (our three and two great friends), and five girls (including our Michelle (12). We think they're wonderful for a high school choir! (And, we're not at all biased. Surely not!)

And here (below), they're up in the choir loft (with I think one of the Sisters joining in), singing

O Magnum Mysterium:

Da Pacem and The Magnificat

Dominic arrived home with his Dad and a couple friends last night, and with them came the camera used to record the weekend's events at the children's school in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm so sorry I missed the School-end program, but glad they did record a good deal of it. Mostly, I'm glad all the children will be home soon.

The rest of the gang are on their way, apparently just having crossed the Colorado border at about 5 pm, mountain time.

We may get to have that spaghetti dinner all together tonight! Maybe I'll make 'em sing for their supper! Above: Good Friends, Tim and Carlos on the ends, with our boys, Dominic, Kevin and Jon in the middle, singing at the school program on Sunday. I'm not sure what they were singing here, but the sound quality of almost everything at the program was off. I need to go through it again to see what's post-worthy. (The boys would not be happy with me if I aired something they thought didn't turn out well!)

After the official "to-do," the choir members gathered in the choir loft at Church to sing for their own enjoyment. My husband snuck in and recorded them, of course. He also caught a couple hymns at the end of Mass. (I told him if he missed a thing, I'd kill him be so upset!)

Below are the same boys pictured above singing Da Pacem, and The Magnificat. I can't get enough of The Magnificat! I know I played a video of the boys singing it once before; I hope you don't mind hearing it again.

The Feast of the Annunciation

The boys (Jon, Tim, Dominic, and Kevin) singing The Magnificat

(You can find the translation of The Magnificat, the words of Our Lady to St. Elizabeth at the Visitation here).

(The beautiful statues and stained glass are in Mary Immaculate Queen Church, Omaha, NE.)

The Boys Sing...

A tidbit of a cheerful, spring-like song for our late March enjoyment...

Not an Irish Tune, But in the General Vicinity, Anyway

Sons Kevin, Jon, and Dominic, with buddy Tim, singing Loch Lomond.

The boys humored me by singing "just one more" before I left for home at my last visit. Tim didn't know that the boys had agreed while he was out of the room to skip the two middle verses ~ that's why there's a little "low spot" in the middle there, where he's trying to figure out what happened. And Kevvy had a cold, too, but I think it still turned out pretty well.

I'm Home

Made it back from Nebraska. Had a nice visit with our boys and all their friends. Cut the hair of half the boarders at the boys' home-away-from-home. Got Michelle all settled in. Got to know her teacher. Met all her new best friends. Hugged. Sniffed. Hugged some more. Drove home in record time. Came back to a house, not only in one piece, but better than when I left it!

While I was gone, my wonderful husband: changed out our two broken refrigerators with one unbroken refrigerator, totally cleaned out the mudroom in preparation of new four-footed friend(s), and fixed the door on the medicine cabinet. All this while taking care of our youngest five children and nursing a bit of a stomach bug himself. IS he superman, or what?

While in Omaha, I got the chance to record some of the boys' singing. I hope you don't mind if I share some with you. I'm very proud of them. It's a blessing I can't even begin to appreciate I think, that our children so joyfully lift their voices to God. Because, let me tell you, they love to sing! They sing at the drop of a hat, at the slightest hint, anywhere, any time. But, here's where I love to hear them best:



The Stabat Mater at the end of early Mass the Second Sunday of Lent.
(First Mass attendance was really light Sunday, but second Mass was so crowded, I had to squeeze into a corner of the choir loft!)

Breakfast after Saturday morning Mass with a great group of kids, the members of the Boys' Choir ~ plus Michelle: (L-R) son Dominic, son Jon, friend Julian, son Kevin, friend Isaac (in place of his brother Caleb, a seminarian, who's in the choir, but couldn't come to breakfast with us), daughter Michelle, and friend Tim.

Translation of the Stabat Mater
(first four stanzas)

English: At the cross her station keeping, Mary stood in sorrow weeping When her Son was crucified. While she waited in her anguish, Seeing Christ in torment languish, Bitter sorrow pierced her heart. With what pain and desolation, With what noble resignation, Mary watched her dying Son. Ever-patient in her yearning Though her tear-filled eyes were burning, Mary gazed upon her Son.

Latin: Stabat Mater dolorósa Juxta Crucem lacrimósa, Dum pendébat Filius. Cujus ánimam geméntem, Contristátam et doléntem, Pertransivit gladius. O quam tristis et afflicta Fuit illa benedicta Mater Unigéniti! Quae maerébat, et dolébat, Pia Mater, dum vidébat Nati poenas inclyti.

Hosting a Singalong

We finally found a day that could accomodate everyone's schedule to have a singalong. It was just family this time, but next time the boys are home, we'd like to invite some more of our friends, as they are a very tuneful lot. Frankly, though, with all the comings and goings at this time of year, it was hard enough just to get all the children here at the same time.

It worked out very nicely, though, to have the singalong on Saturday, which was our Theresa Philomena's 9th birthday (See tribute and pics below). We had her hotdog and enchilada lunch, then presents, cake and ice cream, followed by the singalong, with all the brothers and sisters, all the grandparents and almost all the aunts and uncles in voice.

It was a wonderful time, though cut a little short so we could take a contingent to a hockey game at our alma mater, the University of Denver (We won!).



Things we will keep in mind when we host our next singalong:

1) Provide for the different levels of ability that you expect to attend. We had sheet music in four parts to accomodate our many choir members, but wish we had printed out some sheets with just the words on it for the little ones who were confused by the many lines of notes.

2) Print out enough music to go around and staple it, or put it in folders in the order you expect to sing it. We wasted a lot of time shuffling through sheet music!

3) Provide plenty of pitchers of just plain, cool water to drink, with plenty of cups available. We ended up thirsty and had to keep sending the little ones after water.

4) Try to avoid singing right after a heavy meal, and especially right after sweets! We all felt a bit sluggish and very thirsty after Theresa's birthday lunch and goodies. It might have been better, if the circumstances had been different to provide some plates of crudites and light munchies, along with plenty to drink.

5) It's good to have plenty of seating, in close proximity, as your voices blend better when you can arrange yourselves properly. We were a little disjointed in our seating, as this house is hard to fit everyone in together properly, but we all still thought it sounded nice, so it's not absolutely necessary. You can especially tell the difference when you record it, though, when everyone's not seated together.

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The Singers

Here are a couple videos of the day. We were too busy singing to get the best songs; everyone preferred to sing than to be the one to record... But, this is "Hark How the Bells," followed by the boys' arrangement of Loreena McKennitt's The King. Kevin rewrote the words to have a Catholic spin, and Jon changed the arrangement for their voices. We are all in love with it, though the boys are disappointed with how the recording came out (You just can't please some people!).
Click below to hear some of our day:

The boys serenading us after Thanksgiving dinner

This is the song I am a Fine Musician in German.

The boys in the choir at the Academy in Omaha use this song as a warm-up. They began our sing-along for us by entertaining us with this one. What a hoot! I wish I'd gotten the whole thing, but I'm afraid, as it is, this video may slow people's computers down.

Please let me know if that happens, and I'll delete it. If it isn't a problem, though, I'll try to add the family rendition of Ave Maria. (Hopefully that one will turn out with brighter picture quality!)

* Just in case you wondered, "doodlesack" means bagpipes.