My family and I, along with several other families from our church, went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra today.

It was a wonderful experience on many levels and I would like to just note a few here:

Our Parish supports its children and young people:

The fact is, children pay for nothing in our parish. The Parent-Teacher organization provides for all the religious education needs for our School of Christian Living. There are no book fees, material fees, teaching fees, or any other kind of fees. Rich or poor, nothing hinders our children or their parents from approaching the Lord.

The PTO paid for the tickets for all the children today. It was a great Christmas gift for them. I am grateful for the PTO’s support. The PTO also assists with the annual youth retreat and the youth Valentine’s Day Holy Mass and party.

The men’s organization, the Young Men’s Society of the Resurrection (YMS of R), along with our fraternal organization, the Polish National Union of America (Spójnia) provides for an annual after Christmas bowling party. The YMS of R also covers the full freight for our children’s Church summer camp (KURS) attendance and for attendance at the biennial PNCC Youth Convocation.

God bless these dedicated men and women for their support.

The children’s reaction:

It was wonderful to see the children’s reaction to the TSO’s stage show, lighting, pyrotechnics, and music. My 4 year old daughter was a little scared at the beginning, but once the initial razzzle-dazzle was done, she settled right in. My 6 year old son just though everything was great. He be-bopped right along.

My children love the arts. It was great to see their wide-eyed reaction to everything.

TSO:

What can I say? I was surprised! My wife researched the group in advance, I did not. I was expecting a secular Christmas experience. Instead I got theology —“ and pretty good at that.

The group told the —Christmas Eve & Other Stories— tale. What I found in this story was an affirmation of God’s abiding presence with us. Christ is real and present. God is not a disinterested, distant observer, but actively engages man where he is. Christ’s action continues to inspire man to act.

The other amazing thing is that they did not slip into secular humanism or equating all religions on an equal plane. This was, in a sense, a rediscovery of Christianity and the Arts working together to better humanity.

Once when asked what Trans-Siberian Orchestra was about, Paul O’Neill replied, “It’s about creating great art. When asked to define what great art was, Paul said, “The purpose of art is to create an emotional response in the person that is exposed to that art. And there are three categories of art; bad art, good art and great art. Bad art will elicit no emotional response in the person that is exposed to it, i.e.; a song you hear in an elevator and it does nothing to you, a picture on a wall that gives you the same emotional response as if the wall had been blank, a movie that chews up time. Good art will make you feel an emotion that you have felt before; you see a picture of a forest and you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, you hear a song about love and you remember the last time you were in love. Great art will make you feel an emotion you have never felt before; seeing the pieta, the world famous sculpture by Michelangelo, can cause someone to feel the pain of losing a child even if they’ve never had one. And when you’re trying for these emotions the easiest one to trigger is anger. Anyone can do it. Go into the street, throw a rock at someone, you will make them angry. The emotions of love, empathy and laughter are much harder to trigger, but since they operate on a deeper level, they bring a much greater reward.

Having read this I recall the great patrimony held in our churches, the very same ones our ancestors built with love and which, it would seem, we are so bent of closing and selling. These buildings are not only property and assets; rather they are about lifting our eyes and hearts to God and the magnificence of His love for us. Our ancestors, in their poverty, recognized the need to glorify and magnify the Lord. If only we, blessed by riches, would support these churches. At the same time, wouldn’t it be great if the new churches being built would reflect God rather than the mall.