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We are back from a brief Easter hiatus, and while we are happy to be back, our hearts are heavy here in the NPM National Office at the passing of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. I recently read his autobiography, “Hope,” and it gave me the chance to learn more about Pope Francis and his life as Jorge Bergoglio as well. If you haven’t read it, I strongly encourage that you do, especially in this Jubilee Year of Hope.
As we collectively mourn the loss of Pope Francis, our Holy Father, NPM has offered a compilation of resources for personal and ministerial use. They can be found at www.npm.org, and they will be linked int the show notes of this episode. We pray that they provide solace, comfort, and hope in the Resurrection.
Today we continue the topic of sequences. Fr. Michael Joncas began our examination of the Church’s current use of sequences before we journeyed through Holy Week, and today Fr. Roc O’Connor continues this conversation. Roc O’Connor, SJ has been a member the Society of Jesus for over fifty years. He served in pastoral settings for most of his ministerial life – parishes, college and universities, and Jesuit formation. He is a founding member of the St. Louis Jesuits, a group that has shaped pastoral music for all of us today and has earned worldwide recognition.
Roc helps us with a primer of sorts on the sequences for Easter Sunday, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi. This particular episode is very beneficial when viewed as a video episode. You can find it in the show notes of this episode, as well as on NPM’s youtube channel, youtube.com/NPMlivestream. If you can’t access the video version of this episode, keep in mind that Roc allows us to flow between the Latin text, the ICEL translation, and the Roman Missal translation freely, examining how they work together and help to bring forth the sacred in some of the holiest days in our Church calendar.
SHOW NOTES
Bio: Bio: Roc O’ Connor, SJ
Roc O’Connor, SJ has been a member the Society of Jesus for over fifty years. He served in pastoral settings for most of his ministerial life – parishes, college and universities, and Jesuit formation. This includes thirteen years as Adjunct Professor of Theology at Creighton University (2000-2013).
He earned an MDiv and STM from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley (1983), an STL from the Weston School of Theology, Cambridge (1993), and an MA in Liturgical Studies from The Catholic University of America (2003).
As a founding member of the St. Louis Jesuits, he contributed songs to six recordings and has produced three solo recordings. The SLJs have been recognized with honorary doctorates at the University of Scranton (1978), Creighton University (2006), and St. Louis University (August, 2022).
In October 2021, his provincial assigned him to address serve on the staff at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington, IL.
His work include over a dozen articles plus:
– In the Midst of Our Storms (LTP, 2015). Here, Roc proposes a way to pray with and from our resistance to the intrusion of God in our lives whom we meet in liturgical Word, gesture, & symbol. Exploring our resistance opens up depths we previously disregarded.
– I Want to See (23rd publications, 2017) Roc offers an intense study of the Bartimaeus story with three basic points: a) we follow Jesus as blind disciples; b) the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, elders, disciples, & the Twelve mirror for us what we don’t want to see in ourselves; c) whatever we avoid can, through the working of the Holy Spirit, become our Best Friends Forever on our walk with Christ. The Association of Catholic Publishers recognized I Want to See with the 2018 Excellence in Publishing Award – Prayer and Spirituality Second Place.
– All Shall Be Well: The Hand of God (OCP, 2020) His collection of eight new songs was released in June, 2020. Six of the eight pieces explore very slow tempos as a help make room for breathing and presence. Another collection of fifteen songs based in gospel and blues awaits completion.
– Long Division Ever Divisive: A Lament was published in Worship July 2021.
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