We do Penance quite well, don't we? As much as we love Christmas with its gaudy colors, and Easter with its pastel hues; in fact Catholics are very, very good at Penance.

The word ‘Lent’ is simply another English word for ‘Springtime.’ Perhaps it is not quite as apt here in the North East where the snow is very much still on the ground at the beginning of Lent - and a ‘White Easter’ is never inconceivable - but the word describes both the lengthening of days, and the emergence of life as winter recedes.

For us, we should notice as the days lengthen, the shadows get shorter. The sun regains her strength and we hear the chatter of busy birds making nests to brood. Perhaps we can by analogy accept a kind of spiritual lengthening - a stretching, not like being on a rack, but making ourselves supple and limber.

During Lent, we immediately notice a few physical changes in church too: the flowers are gone; the Gloria is not sung, and the Alleluia has already been dispensed with. But there is actually much more we can do, as part of our ‘ascesis,’ to enter the desert with the Lord these 40 days.

Did you know that it is still the Church’s rule that the organ may only be played to support congregational singing? It may not be played as a solo instrument - and, in fact, it would be preferable if all the singing were a cappella (that is, without accompaniment.)

You will find the applicable rules in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal at (313.) Moreover, flowers are, in fact, banned during Lent (305.) they must not be used, with the exception of Laetare Sunday, and any Solemnities that fall during Lent (usually only St. Joseph and the Annunciation.)

Ascesis is the spiritual process of detachment from the things of the world. Like magpies, human beings are instantly drawn to gaudy things, and rapid stimulation. But so often those quick fixes disappoint us - but pursuing them so insistently prevents us from truly enjoying the higher things of life, and ultimately, the presence of God Himself.

That is why we accompany the Lord in the desert during Lent, to train ourselves to look at our lives from the perspective of Easter, to lift our heads and look for our salvation. The liturgical changes are a daily reminder of the urgency of preparation - if everything stayed the same, we would never notice the difference.

But there is a certain beauty in all this Roman restraint. The darker hues, the unbleached candles, the veils: all of it speaks to an interior disposition of the heart. One whereby through the chiaroscuro of penitence, we find our hearts expand to new horizons.

So why not join us at the Oratory for our Lenten mission? In particular, experience the poignant recitation of Stations of the Cross (in English) by candlelight on Friday nights at 6 PM, followed by a Lenten supper of homemade soup and handbaked bread. Let your Lent be lengthened by the measure of your heart!

Sparge Me with Hyssop…

With Lent upon us, and the snow still falling, we turned to a Lenten theme for this week’s art project.  Psalm 51 offered us a perfect subject in the humble hyssop plant. Did you know that ‘hyssop’ is in fact a plant? Mentioned throughout Sacred Scripture, it has been used both physically and symbolically as an instrument of cleansing, and purification.   

Certain plants are able to hold liquid, so they become a kind of natural sprinkler to administer liquid. In Exodus 12:22, hyssop was the means by which the Israelites were to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on their lintels and doorposts at the Passover.

In Numbers 19:18 it was to be dipped into water to purify the people. It is also mentioned in Leviticus 14:49 and 52 and Hebrews 9:19 in reference to the act of cleansing.  And in the Gospel of John 19:28-30, it was a hyssop branch that was used to raise a sponge full of sour wine to Our Lord just before He died on the Cross.

Appropriately for us, hyssop blooms are also very beautiful, and their violets, purples and blues are also perfect for the season.  This week we tried a completely different medium than the past two weeks.  Instead of watercolors, we used liquid tempera paint.  Unlike watercolors, tempera paint requires almost no water at all. 

A common question this week was, “Where is my eraser?”  And the response was, much to their initial dismay, “You don’t need one!”  They drew the outlines of their flowers and leaves directly on blue backgrounds with white oil pastel.  Tempera paint is very forgiving and so any lines lines made by mistake easily disappear beneath the opaque paint. 

They first painted their blooms in a deep violet, and the leaves in a light shade of green.  Afterwards, the fun and challenge began as they were not to mix colors on their palettes, but instead double dip their “brushes” in two colors and let them mix directly on the paper.  The “brushes” we used for the flower blooms were actually Q-tips! 

Because the children’s instinct is naturally to use water, as we have done the past two weeks, the Q-tip both prevented them from dipping into water, and provided the perfect shape for their individual flowers made with hundreds of dots.  They built up their colors as they went, working from dark to light.  The opposite method was used for their leaves, painted with regular brushes, working light to dark.

We looked at many pictures of blooming hyssop and also, although hard to find, a few paintings and drawings of some of the Old Testament uses for the hyssop.  We looked at the Danish-French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro’s Peasants in the Field and his very different brush strokes and unblended colors.  Holding their work at a distance the children would squint to see if they needed to add any more layers of dark or light to their hyssop.

We had a bit of a technical difficulty this week.  As we were laying out the children’s palettes, we found that somehow the consistency of the normally thick tempera paint had turned quite liquid-y.  As the younger class pointed out, the tempera paint was being temperamental!  But they worked around it and still made beautiful paintings.

Our collage Holy Card this week was, of course, also from Psalm 51:7

Is Music ‘Math for Artists’?

Our Music Theory classes for the girl choristers are going really well. It takes a special effort to stay alert and focused at 5 PM on a Friday, particularly after a previous hour of singing! But our girls are learning how important it is to be able to read music, and not just learn it by rote.

Music Theory is the way we decode all the symbols and signs of musical notation. They can look a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphs at first! But, from the very beginning, the girls can see there is logic, and pattern, in music. Indeed, beauty depends upon it.

Music is the meeting place between science and art. It’s also somewhere that children of a more logical mindset can thrive alongside those of a more artistic disposition. They can help each other out as well - those who see the patterns straight off can help others who find numerical concepts more challenging.

The girls have to be able to read music, because learning the repertoire depends upon it. If you had to commit each piece to memory, it would take a very long time - and try everyone’s patience! However, when you can ‘read’ a piece of music fluently, you can ‘hear’ it in your head even before you have sung a note.

Music is beneficial then, both for little scientists, who benefit from exposure to the aesthetic, and budding artists, who benefit from a different way of looking at math. It makes sense when you can actually hear it!

We are using the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music curriculum (so the girls are truly international, knowing both what a ‘half-note’ and a ‘minim’ are - they’re actually the same!)

If you are wondering what the concertina cats are doing in the picture above - Father described the ligatures joining quavers and semiquavers: “like tying the tails of cats together” - to howls of shame and unanimous disquiet from the girls! Two of them, Gianna and Zelie, decided to illustrate the unfortunate felines in model form.

Pope Benedict XVI, in an off-the-cuff remark to clergy gathered in Brixen, in the north of Italy in 2009, said that music is the place where art and reason meet, and the soul can say “aha, it is true!” God is indeed both logical, and beautiful. Music Theory is the key to unlock the secret code through which all Creation resounds to the worship of God.