Fermata Apr 8, 2022: Where's God in Your Theme Song?
St. Pius V Catholic Church Youth Retreat 2022
Fermata is the weekly newsletter describing some of the past week’s highlights from Notes of Rest, which is my spiritual retreat ministry that interweaves text, music, and questions for the sake of cultivating stillness, introspection, and creativity in communities so that all may rest. I'd love to host a Notes of Rest for your church, seminary, or affinity group. Feel free to reply to this email to start the conversation!
St. Pius V Catholic Church Youth Retreat 2022, Jacksonville
A Gracious Friday to you all!
A few weeks ago I was in Jacksonville, FL at the youth ministry retreat of St. Pius V Catholic Church for a special Notes of Rest: Where’s God in Your Music? The focus was on helping these young people listen for God in their music, be it sacred or secular. Given my work as a music teacher, a Church service musician, and a non-religious jazz and electronic musician, I was thankful for this opportunity to explore a wide range of music through the lens of possible theological implications.
We sat with three different Old Testament passages about music: Exodus 15:20-21 (Miriam and the women celebrating the Exodus), 1 Samuel 16:15-19 (David playing the lyre to soothe King Saul), and Psalm 7:9-11 (a song to God pleading for deliverance from wickedness). Our time in Scripture showed us at least four ways God uses music: worship of God, healing from pain, prayer for help, and protest of evil. We then looked at how the young people hear these four nouns in their own music, and how God has been present in the sound of Black music throughout our history in these lands (Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock ‘n Roll, Gospel, Civil Rights Songs, Hip-Hop).
I loved how in-depth the kids got with their analysis. It was clear that they were tracking with the material when they said they hear God in Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon, or in an R&B song from St. Pius’ very own Kay C depicting a Black woman singing about healing from her pain. My hat goes off to Endya Freeman, one of the leaders of the youth ministry, because she saw this creative and critical way to engage these middle school and high schoolers. Endya brought me in to do this session because she recognized that music is all around us, constantly forming us and giving us visions of how to live. Therefore, engaging with the youth’s music is a means of helping them see how they can make good choices about their audio diets. Don’t we all need to be reminded of that!
One of the highlights of the time was our icebreaker: write your own theme song. (I used The Proud Family theme song by Destiny’s Child as an example, and their blank stares made me realize just how old I am.) The kids’ creations sounded the depths of their joys and pains. Some wrote lyrics about their trauma, about how they’ve been bullied and rejected. Some wrote lyrics about their self-worth, how they love themselves and are proud of their Blackness. Some wrote songs directly to God, asking to be where God is. One wrote an instrumental. (One of the adult leaders even wrote a theme song, about two family members who died tragically.) I was amazed at the power of seeing worship, healing, protest, and prayer in these brilliant offerings. It was a sacred time of exchanging notes of rest with one another.
So now I ask you: What’s your theme song? That is, when you wake up in the morning, what song is over your head? For inspiration, you might look to the Book of Psalms, for it is a compilation album of theme songs about our Creator and all of Creation. Feel free to respond to this email with your song. Let me know if I can help you play it.
abundantly,
Julian
