Third Annual Advent and Christmas Concert

For our readers in the area, we'd like to invite you to our third annual Advent and Christmas Concert. Scheduled for Friday, December 7th at 7pm, it will be held at St. Paul's Church (Main St., Rte. 67) in Warren, Massachusetts. We will also be serving refreshments after the concert.

Admission is FREE, although a good-will donation to help offset costs is always appreciated if you're able!

Please help spread the word, and we hope to see you there!

New on the Web Page - Catholic World News Editor Phil Lawler's Speech to Friends of Magnificat

With apologies for not adding a news item for this sooner, we're happy to finally be able to point our readers to a September speech made by Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News, to the Friends of Magnificat Academy. If you didn't hear it in person, please do take a moment to read the speech, as it is an excellent, wide-ranging look at how education - as offered at schools like Magnificat - shapes our children both morally and intellectually.

Some highlights from the speech:

Practical education trains students to discriminate, to recognize and apply first principles, in whatever field they find themselves in later in life. We teach our students to make distinctions; if they make distinctions well, they are well educated. The scholastic tradition had a slogan: “Always distinguish, never deny.” By making distinctions we clarify points and refine arguments. That is the effect of a practical education. So it turns out, I believe, that the most “practical” education we can find for our children will be education in the classic Catholic tradition.

Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Augustine. Each time one reads these works, one draws new insights from them. These books are always relevant, because they address – and sometimes answer – the questions that people always ask themselves: questions about the meaning of life, about truth and goodness, about love and honor. These works have stood the test of time. We know that they have lasting value, because they have proved so useful to so many generations before us...

Students who grapple with these great works will find that the exercise brings lasting rewards. They draw something special out of these books, and they learn something that will serve them for their entire lives. Beyond that, in fact, they are introduced into a great conversation. If they study the great texts seriously, they become a party to the conversation that Plato had with Aristotle, the conversation that Albertus Magnus had with Thomas Aquinas. We can all join in that great conversation, through the works that these great thinkers left behind them... To be a party to the great conversation is a wonderful privilege: a priceless benefit of real education. Most of the time, for most of us, our role in that conversation will be as passive listeners. Most of us don’t pretend to be great thinkers. When Aristotle and Shakespeare are talking, it makes sense of us to be quiet and listen. To be involved in the conversation is enough. Perhaps we realize that we can’t grasp everything that they are saying, but just as children learn by hearing the grown-ups talk at the dinner table, we learn – bit by bit, gaining a bit more each year – by listening in on the conversations among the great philosophers...

To preserve the Christian tradition, and to advance the Christian tradition, one must live the Christian tradition. It isn’t enough to read books about the spiritual life; we must have an active life of prayer. To gain a really accurate understanding of the Catholic faith, one must live the faith: making use of the sacraments, participating in that special ‘great conversation’ of the saints down through the centuries...

Since the early days of Christianity, this is what Christian parents have done: Raise their children to understand the faith, to promote the faith, to practice the faith. This is what is happening today at Magnificat. And this is why it is so very important for us all to support the outstanding work this school is doing.

To read the full text of the speech, click here.

A New Generation Discovers Latin

An interesting and at times amusing article by Elias Crim over at Catholic Exchange discusses an upswing in the number of students studying Latin (amongst private, homeschooled and public school students), as well as the use of Latin in the liturgy of the Church. From the article:

All of which leads me to conclude: While some liturgically progressive friends of mine seem to associate a study of Latin with a longing for Generalissimo Franco and the advent of theological firing squads, I personally associate the subject with the rise of evangelical Catholicism — a liberating force if there ever was such a thing.

Third, Latin is the language of one of the Church's greatest treasures: the psalmody of Gregorian chant. If you have never tried to read one of the great Psalms in Latin, you may be surprised to discover that the language of the Vulgate Bible is not only not difficult but quite beautiful. Try C.S. Lewis' favorite, Psalm 19, Coeli enarrant ("The heavens declare the glory of God"), or Psalm 137, Super flumina ("By the waters of Babylon"). Then perhaps you will agree with Chesterton: "Latin is not dead: it is immortal."

Read the whole article, as well as some interesting reader comments following it here at Catholic Exchange.

Magnificat Chorale Tapes Christmas 2007 Program

Last Thursday, members of Magnificat Academy's Chorale spent the day at Comcast Studios in Springfield to tape our 2007 Christmas Program. The performance included traditional fare such as What Child is This?, O Holy Night, and Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming, songs from around the world with Sankta Lucia (traditional Swedish, in honor of St. Lucy, whose feast we celebrate mid-Advent), Gamano N'Etam (Senegalese), and Il Est Ne (traditional French), as well as some lovely sacred music and chant, including Mozart's Ave Verum, Psalm 110 (Behold the Lord Will Come) and Rorate Coeli.

We hope to announce details soon about when the program can be seen. In the meantime, here are some images from the taping:

Music News from Rome

From Zenit.org, an article discussing sacred music and the tradition of the Church.

The article highlights excerpts from a speech by Msgr. Valentin Miserachs Grau, director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, in which he discuss the need to safeguard the sacred music of the Church's liturgy. According to the Monsignor:

"the liturgy, even in the music, should educate all people -- including youth and children...Due to general ignorance, especially in certain sectors of the clergy," certain media act as loudspeakers for "products that, devoid of the indispensable characteristics of sacred music -- sanctity, true art, universality -- can never procure the authentic good of the Church."

On keeping contact with traditional forms of sacred music, he goes on to say that this contact:

"should become again the living song of the assembly that finds in it that which calms their deepest spiritual tensions, and which makes them feel that they are truly the people of God."

Read the rest of the article here at Zenit.org.

Magnificat Students' Work on Display at Local Library

The Merriam-Gilbert Public Library in W. Brookfield is currently exhibiting some of our students' history-related projects.

The Grammar students made Native American crafts and models for their display. Included were housing models: tipi, pueblo, and hogan; examples of clothing and jewelry: moccasins and necklaces; a carved totem pole; a dreamcatcher; a clay pipe, and other handicrafts.

The Logic group recreated several of the California missions, including Mission Santa Ines, Mission San Juan Bautista, and Mission San Juan Capistrano.





The exhibit is currently located on the second floor of the library. Great job to all the students who contributed their work!