Contact Information
Director:
Mike Bareham

Phone:
410-398-3244

Email Us

Important Links:
• National Association of Pastoral Musicians
• US Conference of Catholic Bishops
• Diocese of Wilmington Office of Worship

• OT(A) 19 -21 (August 6 - 21, 2011)
• MUSIC MINISTRY REGISTRATION FORM
• Pastoral Musician's Journal--Cantors and Assembly
• Pastoral Musician's Journal--Director of Music Ministries
• Pastoral Musician's Journal--Instrumentalists and Priests

Welcome to the Immaculate Conception Parish
Music Ministry

Our parish is blessed with a vibrant ministry of music which serves the assembly at worship. We offer opportunities for all ages and abilities to share their musical gifts, enabling the members of the body of Christ to give praise to their Lord and to assist in the proclamation of the Gospel and the celebration of the sacraments. For more information about our Music Ministry programs , contact Mike Bareham , Director of Music Ministry, at 410.398.3244 or musicministry@iccparish.org .

SUSTAIN OUR FAITH

We meet the Lord in the strangest places. Elijah spent the night listening to the wind, feeling the earthquake and surrounded with fire, but the Lord was not in any of these. He came in a gentle breeze. We would like great events for meeting our God, but most often he stirs our hearts and minds very gently. If we listen, we encounter the Lord. Like Peter, we walk toward the Lord. The Lord says, “Come!” We respond: “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, and sustain our faith!”

Text, Philip J. Sandstrom, STD © 2001, OCP. All rights reserved.
THE CANTOR'S CORNER

As you prepare for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 6 & 7, 2011)...

Read  Psalm 85:10, 11-12, 13-14.  Read the text aloud several times, giving meaning to each word.  Notice how you speak it--to which words do you give the emphasis?  Whisper it and see what syllables are stressed.  Now chant this text on a single tone in natural speech rhythm--but not too fast--paying close attention to the emphases you just discovered!

Psalm 85 was probably written at the time when the Israelites returned from their exile in Babylon and found their homeland devastated and their hearts unable to believe they could restor it.  In the second half of the psalm--the verses we sing this Sunday--the people listen to "what God proclaims" and begin to see that God will replenish their land and restore justice and peace to their nation.

In the first reading, 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a, Elijah must listen for God amid a great deal of clamor.  In the gospel, Matthew 14:22-23, the disciples must see Jesus through a fog of hesitant recognition and hesitant belief.  In the responsorial psalm we declare "[Lord, we] will hear" and beg "Lord, let us see..."  What is it that we hear and see?  We hear God's presence even when its manifestation seems insignificant.  We see God's redemption even when chaos and destruction have had their day and our own cloudy vision makes us slow to perceive who God is and what God is doing.  The psalm reminds us that we can hear and see God; we haveonly to listen and to look with faith.

In the psalm refrain the community begs God to show them kindness and grant them salvation.  In the verses you proclaim that what they pray for--peace, kindness, truth, justice--will be given to them.  As you prepare to sing these verses, you might use the refrain (Psalm 85:8) as part of your daily prayer.  Where do you (does the world) need to see God's kindness?  Where do you (does the wrold) need to see salvation being granted?