Getting into the Lenten mood

The Lenten season is upon us. Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of the annual 40-day observance that leads to Easter Sunday and today is the first Friday of Lent. It is traditionally a time for sacrifice, although I believe religious devotion should never be reliant on the seasons. Faith should be a way of life.

That can be hard to do during these times. Admit it, you want to pray and meditate but it gets more and more difficult to shut out the world every day. This is when we can all use an extra nudge to spirituality. And this is how I think of albums like Only In God featuring Psalms For The Liturgy and To Love & Serve which is made up of Bukas Palad Chants from the Jesuit Music Ministry.

This Ministry was pioneered by Fr. Eduardo Hontiveros, S.J. when he started writing songs for the liturgy in Filipino back in the ‘60s. This came about after Vatican II said that it was OK to do the rites of the Catholic Church in the native languages instead of the usual Latin.

With that the much-loved Fr. Honti was off and going. He not only wrote a lot of songs, Papuri Sa Diyos and Pananagutan were among them, he also became mentor to a generation of composers of religious music in Filipino, like Manoling Francisco who composed Hindi Kita Malilimutan. And with so much creativity going on, something like the JMM was inevitable. The Jesuit Music Ministry now has its own roster of talents and regularly comes up with books, albums and other items.

The JMM is now an official ministry in the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus. As such it is now part of the centuries-old Jesuit musical heritage. This traces its roots back to the 16th century when the Jesuits founded the first school of music in Sao Vicente, Portugal in 1553. The music activities then were mostly composing songs for the liturgy of the church or teaching boys in school. But what the Jesuits initially saw as another way to extol the glory of God became one of its lasting legacies.

A lot happened to that early “ministry” in the ensuing years. Among the illustrious names that came to be associated with Jesuit music were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed an opera for the Jesuit College in Salzburg and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was Master of Music at the Jesuit Roman College in Rome.

There was also Domenico Zipoli, a great Italian Baroque composer and Jesuit priest whose contributions included the development of music talents from among the Guarani Indians in the Paraguay Reductions. This was made popular in recent times through the film The Mission, where the Guaranis are heard singing Zipoli’s songs.

So the singers, producers, arrangers and everybody involved with the creation of albums like Only In God and To Love And Serve are the latest in the long line of Jesuit musicians in this part of the world. I do not hear a Mozart or a Palestrina. What I hear though are some psalms rendered simpler and more accessible and music that soothes the heart and the mind even in the midst of the busy, noisy streets of the city.

Afraid that you are starting to develop symptoms of road rage? Then take copies of these CDs and play them while you are on the road. You will not only have a relaxing drive, you will also get to your destination, calm and serene and in the end more productive.

Only In God features various artists and is made up of songs inspired by psalms. It includes Psalm 78 Do Not Forget by Musica Chiesa and Canto Cinco; Psalm 23 The Lord Is My Shepherd by Hangad; Psalm 62 Only In God by Canto Cinco; Psalm 31 Rock Of Refuge by Himig Heswita; Psalm 146 Come Lord And Save Us by Bukas Palad; Psalm 85 Lord Let Us See Your Kindness by Musica Chiesa and Canto Cinco; Psalm 54 The Lord Upholds My Life by Hangad; and Psalm 98 Umawit Sa Poon by Canto Cinco and Musica Chiesa.

To Love & Serve has chants by the Bukas Palad group. These are First Companions; Doce Me Facere (Teach Me To Do Your Will); Draw Us To God’s Heart; Amare Et Servire (To Love & Serve); Iukit Ang ‘yong Batas; Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For The Greater Glory Of God); I Have A Plan; Malinis Na Puso; With Age Old Love; and Ibigin Ang Diyos.