Tuesday, June 4, 2002

Clear Creek Monastery I got an email today that the website for the Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek is now online. This is a very traditional Benedictine monastery of French origin. 11:22:00 PM

The Gregorian Association This site has a lot of resources for Gregorian Chant, including an interesting history of Gregorian Chant and the status of its use in churches today. It argues that those who want a modernized liturgy should include Gregorian Chant since it has now become a part of the post-modern popular music culture. This next quote backs up the growing suspicion that I've had that our post-modern world is ripe for ancient liturgy. "Modernism" may have rejected the non-verbal, non-rational, in Christian tradition, but "modernism" itself is now an historical term, and in a "post-modern" world, the kinds of meaning the chant can offer are not so readily rejected.  It might therefore be suggested that the largely clerical rejection of the chant in recent years resulted from a premature judgement, stemming from a reductionist analysis of the possible range of meanings in the liturgy and its traditional music. Religions are not built solely upon the public expression of rational ideas, or the personalities of public religious figures, nor has the term "charismatic" always been associated exclusively with styles of Christian worship which exhibit outward liveliness, but also with a quieter, more contemplative spirituality. The chant functions at a level different from the merely rational or personal, and does not tend towards religious frenzy. 8:26:22 PM