nunblog

Our season opener Christmas Concert went very well last night. The only glitch was that our audio equipment overloaded the circuits in the parish auditorium (an amazing number of parishes here have a fully equipped combination gym-auditorium, complete with stage lights, backdrops, etc). So every five minutes or so, the stage lights would darken. And when it was time for Sr. Bridget to play "O Holy Night" on the electric keyboard, nothing happened. So I did it a capella. Which was actually quite a nice effect.
This morning, all the singers slept in, so we shared a late and very enjoyable breakfast, going back over some of the special things that happened in the concert. I made part of my meditation, using the day's readings. Isaiah had foretold that "the Lord of Hosts will provide for all peoples... all nations..." and today we honor St. Francis Xavier, who was so effective in bringing the nourishment and consolation of the Gospel to the world. That sense of "all": all peoples, all nations, the "whole earth" is a dominant theme in Isaiah, and it is epitomized in Francis, who died at the gates of China, trying to reach one more nation, one more people.
Well, tonight we hope to bring that same message and consolation to the ends of the earth, even to the far corners of... Brooklyn!