Children's schola class: Blessings

Hi, everyone,

I just wanted share what we've been doing in our chant class.
Last few weeks have been especially rewarding for me to see what they've learned in the class.

Some of the highlights;
My youngest student who joined the class this year with a special permission :-), Faith (61/2 years old) on Monday class sang Ave Maria perfectly from memory and most beautifully with everything I taught for the proper singing, good singing posture, deep breathing, creating space inside the mouth and beautiful pure vowels. (It was so beautiful, I had to blink my eyes quickly to stop tears.)

Anna N. on Thursday class who used to be one of my youngest until last year , memorized Veni Creator and lead the class in singing it.

Peter, who think singing chant is actually fun and always full of energy, calmly explained the different bows on Jesus name and Holy Trinity, especially when we sing chants.

The high school students, like Emma (Monday) and Madeline (Thursday) are excellent in explaining the meaning of the chant.

Gregorian Hymns, such as Adoro te Devote by St. Thomas Aquinas, are truly uplifting. They are of course more than 'safe hymns' to sing because they are accepted by the Church and the tradition. As you might have noticed there are many modern hymns with questionable texts and musical styles to be used in Holy Mass and have not gone through the test of the time. Music can be a powerful tool, and we need to be careful about 'what and how' we sing.

We started to read notes ("reading notes' in music means be able to sing the notes ) in solfege from the music in the chant book and compare modern notation and chant notation. They are catching up very quickly, and I am very pleased with their progress.

I won't go though the progress of each student here, but all the children in the class are truly working hard, and I feel very blessed.

Thank you so much for all your support.

Mia