We are in Thessaloniki, Greece, for a GoAhead tour called “In the footsteps of St. Paul,” described as: In the first century A.D., Paul the Apostle journeyed through modern-day Greece on a mission to bring Christianity to the country’s people. On this sweeping tour through the Mediterranean country, you’ll retrace his historic route. Highlights include… Read More Footsteps of St. Paul in Greece
Most tourists visiting Barcelona wouldn’t think to visit a pipe organ factory but that’s what we did today! What a treat Bill Potter and I experienced this morning when we visited the factory of Gerhard Grenzing Orgelbau, who has been building pipe organs since 1963. This morning we were picked up by Natalie, his daughter,… Read More Organ factory in El Papiol
As I was doing research for this trip to Barcelona, I read somewhere that there were three churches which had notable organs. Today we attended masses in those three churches, including the Barcelona Cathedral at 10:30 am, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi at 12:00 pm and the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar… Read More Three churches and more
Thursday, the day we left Honolulu, was an incredibly busy day, and as usual, I crammed as much in as possible, starting in the early morning with an eye injection for my macular degeneration (which requires me to put drops in my eyes every 30 minutes for most of the day), having my housekeeper coming… Read More 22 hours to Barcelona
The Sunday after Easter is sometimes referred to as Low Sunday. One website described it this way: The word “low” may serve to contrast it with the “high” festival of Easter on the preceding Sunday. Or, the word “low” may be a corruption of the Latin word laudes, the first word of a sequence used in… Read More The week after Easter
This actually was a new word for me, although the concept is not. Pedilavium is defined as “The ceremony of footwashing performed on Maundy Thursday in memory of Christ’s action before the Last Supper.” It is the practice of many congregations to choose 12 people, representing the 12 disciples, to have their feet washed. At… Read More Pedilavium
At Christmas time I stayed two nights on the island of Kauai, where I played a concert with the Kauai Chorale, under the leadership of Shane Morris Wise. I told you about my rude awakening at 3 am in the morning when roosters began crowing. Go back and read my post, “No paltry amount of… Read More As if on cue …
Yesterday was St. Joseph’s Day (March 19), and as I told my compañeras in my Spanish conversation club, I was going to be sitting at the organ at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, playing a Solemn Mass for St. Joseph. Most often, St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) falls in the season of Lent, and this year… Read More Full organ for St. Joseph’s Day!
On Saturday, we received a text message from choirmaster Mike Dupre: Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday! Anyone want to wear Rose/pink tomorrow? According to Wikipedia, Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets… Read More Laetare Sunday pink
“Masterful.” That was my reaction at Sunday afternoon’s organ recital by James Kealey, the winner of the 2022 American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Playing. James exploited the colors of the organ, and while sometimes the registrations were a bit boisterous, his playing kept me on the edge of my seat!… Read More “Masterful”