BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT - Music Bob Kindred. Lyrics Anne Phillips & Henry Timm.

Posted on December 1, 2008
Filed Under Image of the Month, Podcasts, Song of the Month | 10 Comments

Aware that the child in each of us longs for a heart-felt Chrismas pageant each year, the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity feature a more than sentimental, truly spiritual song, Bending Towards the Light, music from Bob Kindred and lyrics from Anne Phillips and Henry Timm from Anne Phillips’ production Bending Towards the Light…A Jazz Nativity. Splendid stained glass windows from Fox Valley and Cudahy Catholic parishes in Wisconsin visualize the lyrics that retell the wondrous Christmas story of Jesus’ birth.

BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT has an interesting history. In 1985 the Rev John Garcia Gensel of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at CityCorp in New York asked me to write a jazz version of the traditional Christmas pageant. It was performed there that Christmas. The next year we moved the show to a larger space and began doing it annually at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Ave. Then, literally, one morning I woke up and said to my husband, tenor saxophonist Bob Kindred, “That song of yours, “Bending Towards the Light” THAT belongs in The Jazz Nativity!” He had written the song for a children’s show at a boy’s camp, Camp Dudley in the Adirondacks, The show was “Gamines” about the street children of Bogotá, Columbia and the song was sung by the Catholic priest who had formed a village for the homeless boys. The children were “Bending Towards the Light”. So, with the permission of the original lyricist I went to work on writing a Christmas lyric. We put it into the show that year and the minute we heard it in that context we knew that “Bending Towards the Light” was the title of the show. In the show it is sung by a boy soprano who plays the role of a shepherd boy and when he hits the high a flat on “the light” there’s not a dry eye in the house.

We have since performed The Jazz Nativity in many different locations from Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln center to the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. For the past three years we have been doing it at the famed jazz club, Birdland. This year we will have seven performances there from Dec. 21-25. Believe it or not, we do two shows a day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at 5 & 8 pm! Full houses! Only in New York! -Anne Phillips

Anne Phillips, singer, composer, arranger, conductor, producer, has been active in almost every area of the music business. She began her career as a sing/pianist in clubs such as No. 1 Fifth Avenue, on television with the Ray Charles Singers, and on hundreds of recording sessions with such artists as Burt Bacharach, Carole King and Mahalia Jackson. As a soloist, her classic album, Born to Be Blue, has recently been released to rave reviews. On her most recent CD, Ballet Time, she sings with such old friends as Dave Brubeck and Marian McPartland.

Anne is widely known in the industry as the writer/arranger/producer of many national commercials among them Taste That Beats The Others Cold for Pepsi Cola which she arranged and produced for such rock stars as the Four Tops and Martha and the Vandellas. Some of her memorable melodies won her Cleo, Pen and Ink and Cannes Film Festival awards. Her show Bending Towards the Light…A Jazz Nativity, the Christmas story told through the medium of jazz, has starred such greats as Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton and Tito Puente and has become a “a new New York Christmas tradition.” (New York Magazine)

Her musical Damn Everything But the Circus, book by Stephanie Braxton, music and lyrics by Anne Phillips is nearing a New York production. Her children’s musical, The Great Grey Ghost of Old Spook Lane, is performed around the country, her Easter Mass, Sing, For the Lord Has Risen, was given its debut performance at St. Patrick Cathedral; A Spark of Faith, a group of twelve songs connected by New Testament scripture, has played throughout the east coast, and another recent work What Are We Doing To Our World? had a showcase production at The Players Club this fall. In order to introduce inner-city children to the Great American Song, Anne and her husband, jazz saxophonist Bob Kindred, have begun Children’s Jazz Choirs through their not-for-profit organization, Kindred Spirits. Anne has been a National Trustee of NARAS, the Recording Academy, was on the faculty of the NYU Jazz Department and is a recipient of the Heart of Gold Award from the Best Friends Foundation for her work with her Children’s Jazz Choirs.

CD is available on CDBaby and sites www.jazznativity.com and http://www.annephillips.com/ Mark Kolter, Kolter Creative, Milwaukee, WI, artistically produced this podcast.

BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Music by Bob Kindred

Lyrics by Anne Phillips & Henry Timm

O’er the hills of Bethlehem

In the dark of night

Shimmering and glimmering

A shiny wond’rous light

All the grass and trees that grow

Everything in sight

Is shimmering and glimmering

And BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT

On the road to Bethlehem

Open to the sky we are

Open to the tender light

Of sun and moon and star

Look how it shines o’er the manger

Look how the darkness has waned

Replaced by the light,

The blessing, the miracle

And on this night in Bethlehem

On this holy night

We may see the world begin

A BENDING TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Franciscan Sister Present at Conference of the Life and Papacy of Pius XII

Posted on December 2, 2008
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 2 Comments

Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Marie Kolbe Zamora, OSF ,studying for her doctorate at the Gregorian in Rome, Italy, sent this message to her Sisters in the United States:

Here is a picture of my meeting the Pope that I thought that I would share with all of you. The fact that I was able to greet him personally was a total surprise, making the entire event all that much more of a gift…I participated in a three day Conference of the Life and Papacy of Pius XII (November 6-8, 2008). The last day was an audience with the Holy Father, who, in effect, closed the conference with his discourse…the Rector of our (Gregorian) University, Father Ghirlanda, chose me at the last moment to represent the students…Father Ghirlanda is the Jesuit presenting me to the Holy Father…the Pope asked me what I was working on. He was pleased when I said “Bonaventure,” given his own work in the same area. Know that I bring you all everywhere-including to this encounter! Pax.

Since all Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity include not only each other, but also all those whose lives they touch (including internet friends) when they pray, please be assured of remembrance to God at all times, in various places and in a variety of encounters.

Pope Pius XII and St. Bonaventure pray for us.

Franciscan Sisters Serving at West Point, NE

Posted on December 1, 2008
Filed Under Franciscanized World | 1 Comment

At the threshold of the Advent Season, the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity serving and living among the people of West Point, NE are ready to to begin this new church year. How shall they hear St. John the Baptist’s call to ‘prepare the way of the Lord?’

Mother Agna in a letter dated November 27, 1963 enfleshes further what a follower of St. Francis is called to do during Advent:

St. Paul admonishes us to ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’. In these concise words the Church has set up for us a program of religious deepening and spiritual renewal not only for Advent but for our entire lives. To ‘put on Christ’ according to the meaning of the Apostle is not merely something external like putting on a piece of clothing. To put on Christ means to make ourselves inwardly and outwardly so conformable to Him that Christ is actually reproduced in us. This living, real reproduction of Christ in us is the very kernel of Christian life and in particular Franciscan life…’lay aside the works of darkness, love of ease, attachment to our own will, uncharitableness toward our neighbor, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.’

Find here the Sisters’ own daily life Advent reflections.

Do you get paid?

Posted on November 20, 2008
Filed Under Franciscanized World, Vocations / Discernment | 4 Comments

This was one of the questions posed by St. Mary Central High School, Menasha, WI students to Father Thomas Long, Diocese of Green Bay vocation director and other women religious representing the Racine Dominicans, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Elm Grove, WI, and the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, Manitowoc, WI. on Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

Faculty member, Karen Fahley invited the guests to introduce themselves and answer the students’ prepared and spontaneous questions during religion classes. A music-PowerPoint prayer began each session. The song and images highlighted all of the vocations-marriage, single life, priesthood and religious life.

Here are a few more student sample questions. You are invited to answer these questions, add your own or just comment from your own heart based on your life experience. Notice most questions could be answered from any one of the vocation perspectives.

What was the experience in your life that you felt God’s presence with you the most?
What made you decide to become who you are?
Is it worth it?
Do you ever regret the life you chose because of what you had to give up?
How could you do that? Did you feel the vocation inside before the decision?
Do you get lonely?
What do you enjoy most?
What is the coolest place you have traveled?
How much money do you make?
Is there anything you feel you missed out on?
Why a priest instead of a deacon?
Is your faith in God ever swayed?
What other careers did you consider?
Did you ever want to be married?
Is it bad for you to have fun sometimes?
What freedoms do you wish you could have back?
What was the one thing that made your decision clear to follow Christ and the Church?

Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Rochelle Kerkof, OSF, is principal of St. Mary Central High School. Michael Sullivan is president of Twin Cities Catholic Educational System.