All Saints Catholic Church in Des Moines is seeking a part-time (average 20 hours per week) Liturgical Music Director to develop, lead and direct appropriate music for weekend liturgies, holy days, and other parish celebrations. Candidate should possess a four-year degree in Music, and experience in choral conducting is required. Able to supervise direct reports and volunteers. Compensation is based on candidate’s experience and educational background. Resumes can be sent to Fr. Robert Harris, Pastor at the parish no later than November 1, 2022.
Early on in our marriage, my husband would joke that I could take even the most unrelated job or activity, such as sitting on the front step as neighborhood kids are coming home from school or starting a picture framing business, and find a way to make it a “ministry” in my own head.
As I write this, we are a little less than half way through our Youth Summer Mission week for 2017. This year has been beyond fantastic as our relationships with Benedictine College Youth Outreach and the Nashville Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia have continued, along with the addition of Fr. Simon and Brother Levin from St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas. All in all, our program served about 150 youth ages 0-18.
Whenever I felt powerless in front of my small children, I would remember Dr. Ray and the Wonder Woman costume. Sometimes I really needed it. In fact, I remember a particularly difficult time when one of my children had grown so stubborn that it was actually hurting her. She had become an extremely picky eater, and I felt that this required every ounce of my own "Wonder Woman" powers to overcome.
I have to admit it. I've never done a pull-up in my life. I know that doing one pull-up was a requirement in school for getting the Presidential Fitness Award, but I never got one. I even played Division I sports. I did power cleans and I used the bench press regularly for years. I could hit a volleyball pretty darned hard. But never, not once, did I manage to do a pull-up. I wasn't even trying because it didn't seem possible. Most girls I know can't do them, and presidential fitness awards aside, I got it in my head that pull-ups are pretty much impossible and only ridiculously fit women (who make doing pull-ups their day job) can do them. Cue my baby sister...
Have you ever had a hobby or an activity that was so exciting and interesting that it encompassed most of your free time and then you wanted to continue to commit and develop yourself? To be honest, my answer up until this past year was “No, not really.”
While on mission, she met a woman living in Haiti who had previously lived in Georgia and served as a Director of Religious Education there. The woman brought her family (5 children) to Haiti, with the desire to serve as a missionary. She showed Maggie some of her CGS materials that she had been working on to help begin an atrium in Haiti. She thought that maybe these materials would help her to evangelize in a way that simply talking and teaching couldn't do. Maggie, filled with excitement, encouraged her new friend, "Let's do it! Really. Let's just try it and see what happens!"
We began our foray into the world of Infant-Toddler Catechesis this past fall. A catechist took a couple of videos this past week. The profound concentration and silence as all of the children chose a work is nothing new to a CGS catechist, but it is always amazing. Finding the same wonder among the youngest children is even more so.
The pain and worry behind her questions tore me from whatever I was doing and brought my focus on my sweet 9 year old. Probably the most surprising thing about raising up my children almost literally in the Church is the fact that 7 years of religious formation (by the time this particular child was 9) didn't help avoid these questions and doubts. In fact, I wondered if the focus on faith didn't bring these doubts on sooner. For children, faith comes first. Understanding comes later.
One of my favorite parts of seminal family gatherings is running into my cousin, Matt. Matt's a few years younger than I am, and while we didn't exactly grow up together, it is awesome that he's in Des Moines now, currently working toward his degree at Drake University. Since the birth of his daughter a little over a year ago, we've had some really amazing conversations about children, education, and life in general. This Super Bowl Party at my parents' house last week was no exception.
Thank God, we don't have to be perfect people to make family life work. Maybe you've heard the proverb that "God writes straight with crooked lines." Well, since my children play instruments and sing in choir, it is easier for them to understand the idea of how God can still make a beautiful symphony even when we are playing wrong notes.
Maria Montessori was a Catholic scientist, doctor, and ultimately, educator, whose discoveries about what she called "the true nature of the child" have had a profound effect upon parents, educators, catechists, and children around the world. One of the key tenants of Dr. Montessori's understanding of the child is the silent plea to the adult: "Help me do it by myself."
A parent from our CGS program mentioned to me as an aside this week: "I meant to talk to you about something that happened to my son. One day after Wednesday CGS last year, he came home and insisted we pray together. He has kept it up each night for a year now. I don't know what happened that prompted that. Do you?"
I had a plan. Knowing that my husband would be gone for more than two weeks this December, I had lists and ideas and great hopes for the gift I would give my husband for Christmas: a clean house.
To celebrate the beginning of Advent, our Level III (4th-6th grade) children studied the Prophecy of the Shoot of Jesse and the Peaceable Kingdom last week. You would be amazed at the quality of theologians we have in this parish. This was the passage we focused on: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them..."
Our van was acting very weird after coming 90% of the way through our mountain vacation. My husband had just asked who we should pray to for intercession. I replied, "I think Our Lady has this one." Immediately, the van lost power. "I think our Lady wants us to go to Mass."