Catholic Roundup

With a name like Sean McGaughey and being a musician, it is no surprise that I was asked to play a few tunes at my parish’s St. Patrick’s Day social next week.  As I was rehearsing my set of favorite traditional Irish songs, I had an idea.   (Hey where did we go? Days when the rains came.  Down in a holler…”)   For fun, why not have a Catholic Musician’s Ceili  (ceidleigh?  coeli?) using both live streaming performances and spinning videos by Catholic musicians.  The music will not exactly be limited to celtic music because on St. Patrick’s Day, everybody is Irish.

From around 3-5 pm EST on March 17, head on over to catholicroundup.com . I’ll have a link there to my live stream.  I’m planning to play my St. Patrick’s day set live, and then put on my VJ hat, showing videos from some wonderful Cathoic artists.  There may also be live ustream performances by other Catholic musicians to be announced.  Join us live on March 17 at catholicroundup.com .  If you are a Catholic musician who would like to participate in the festivities by streaming a performance, or sending along some videos, drop me a line at catholicroundup@gmail.com.

For years I have said that it’s not what I give up or take on for lent that defines my lenten journey. Rather, lent seems to happen to me.  That certainly seems to be the case for me this year.  I have been having a very busy time both personally and professionally which has druagged me so thoroughly into the desert of lent, that I haven’t had time to contemplate on what will be my lenten sacrifice this year.  However, it seems this week a 3 day retreat for my family and I will happen.  First up on Thursday night, our parish and several neighbouring parishes are combining their Lenten penitential services.   My daughter has asked me to help her memorize the act of contrition– something I’ll be happy to help her with because I have never actually memorized it myself.  On Friday evening, our parish is having Stations of the Cross followed by mass and a talk by a visiting lay evangelist.  Saturday, my wife and I are planning to attend a one day retreat on the Theology of the Body, entitled God, Sex and the Meaning of Life at a parish about an hour from here.  Combine that with our daily Morning Prayer along with the fine folks at divineoffice.org, family rosary in the evenings and a kind of fast from both food and Internet, and we have the makings of a family retreat right in the comfort of our home.

How about you?  What are ways that you can take time for a bit of a retreat this lenten season, either at home or away from home?