Upcoming Concert: A Choral Collage - Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 4:00pm

Can't view poster? Click here.

St. Louis Choir Trip

Last weekend, members of the St. Louis Choir traveled to Summit, New Jersey to combine forces with the Choir of St. Teresa of Avila Church. This collaboration began in April 2009 when the St. Teresa Choir visited St. Louis to sing for Mass and a concert (featuring Mozart's Coronation Mass). Later that year, the two choirs combined to sing the Mozart Mass at St. Teresa. In 2010, the two choirs combined to sing for a concert featuring the Schubert Mass in G at SS. Philip and James Church in Baltimore. All of this led to the trip this past weekend in which the two groups combined for a Veteran's Day Concert at St. Teresa.








It's always wonderful to put to the two choirs together, but this particular performance to a nice-sized crowd was especially welcome after all of the difficulty felt in the New Jersey area in the wake of the recent hurricane.

Stay tuned for information about future collaborations.

Hymn Festival at St. Louis

The new hymnals are here! As a preview we will have a Hymn Festival this Sunday, November 18 at 4:00pm. Members of the St. Louis Choir, Folk Group, Youth Band, and Children's Choir will be present to sing a variety of music - both familiar and new. If you have an hour free on Sunday, stop by to sing, stop by to listen, or simply

Some recent history: Now that the new English translation of the Roman Missal has begun, we are able to address our books by replacing our current annual Missalettes and Music Issues with permanent hymnals. The new hymnals include a set of two books – Worship, Fourth Edition from GIA Publications and the Saint Augustine Hymnal from International Liturgy Publications. The two books combine to provide hundreds of hymns – well-known hymns from our current Music Issue, well-known hymns currently unavailable to us, a whole variety of new music for use in the future, and all of the revised texts for Mass. In addition, Worship 4 includes all of the readings for each Sunday as well as an easy to follow Order of Mass.

Purchasing the hymnals is a significant capital expense, so we have started a sponsorship program. Over 300 parishioners have already sponsored hymnals. Have you sponsored yet? Please consider doing so. We are asking you to consider sponsoring a set of the two hymnals for $50.00. As you will see at the Hymn Festival the sponsored hymnals have a bookplate on the inside cover inscribed with the sponsor’s name, family name, or the name of a loved one. The sponsorship form is available on the St. Louis website: here. By making this purchase now through the support of this special sponsorship, we will be able to save substantially in the long term by not having to purchase the Missalettes and Music Issues each year.

Travel with the St. Louis Choir in November

Would you like to travel with the St. Louis Choir to New Jersey and New York in November? Seats are available on the bus as the choir travels to New Jersey and New York on Saturday-Sunday, November 10-11, 2012. Highlights of the trip: Saturday night in New York City with optional Broadway musical, overnight in Summit, NJ, Sunday morning Mass at St. Teresa of Avila Church, Summit with the combined choirs of St. Louis and St. Teresa and an afternoon concert featuring the two choirs. For more information, please contact Paul Carroll at 410-531-6040 or e-mail.

Taizé Ensemble

On the first Wednesday of each month - in addition to the regular weekly Sunday Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel - there is Eucharistic Adoration with Taizé Music in the church. The group contains several singers plus a few different instruments each month such as flute and cello. This ensemble at St. Louis is unique because - though small - it has members representing both the St. Louis Choir and Contemporary Group as well as those who sing solely with the Taizé Ensemble. New singers and instrumentalists are always welcome! The only monthly rehearsal occurs one hour before adoration.

Advent is upon us

As we begin the new church year, we notice several seasonal changes to
the liturgy. Last week at the celebration of Christ the King, we heard
festive sounds; we proclaimed Glory to God in the highest. This week
we notice that the color of the sanctuary has changed to the purple of
Advent. The Gloria is not proclaimed on Sundays during Advent. At St.
Louis we sing the Kyrie (Lord, have mercy) in the Penitential Rite
during the seasons of Advent and Lent. It does not replace the Gloria - the Kyrie is present throughout the whole year, but at St. Louis we
sing it during Advent as a means of giving greater emphasis to our
personal need to seek a closer relationship with God as we wait for
the coming of Christ.

St. Louis Choir
Yesterday for the 1st Sunday of Advent, the St. Louis Choir sang the following choral works. The Prelude was Now Let Every Tongue Adore Thee by J.S.Bach from Cantata No.140, Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme. "Therefore, stay awake!" from Matthew's gospel ready of the day. During the Preparation of the Gifts, the choir sang "And the Glory of the Lord" from the Advent portion of Messiah(G.F.Handel). The text is Isaiah 40:5 - "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." In Isaiah this follows the familiar preceeding passage -

"A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley." (Isaiah 40:3-4)

During Communion, the choir sang Psalm 84 "How lovely are Thy dwellings". The piece is a Hal Hopson arrangement of Gabriel Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine. Psalm 84 was the Communion Antiphon for the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Youth Band
The St. Louis Youth Band sang for the 9:30am Mass yesterday - they
sing at the 9:30am Mass on the 4th Sunday of the month during the
school year. One of the goals of the group is to experience a vast
variety of sacred music. Yesterday was an opportunity to explore that
goal. At all of the Masses this weekend, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel was the Gathering Hymn. This familiar chant and text (O Antiphons) has been present in the Church for hundreds of years. At the 9:30am Mass the Youth Band sang additional harmonies composed by David Willcocks. In addition they sang Ave Maria by Dan Kantor which incorporates a modern (1993) melody with the Ave Maria Chant. As the Closing Hymn, the Youth Band sang Emmanuel by Steve Angrisano, a modern (2004) setting of the O Antiphon text.