The eagerly awaited
Our Lady of Fatima Choir website is online!
Here is a website that will allow us to have a virtual
hangout on the internet. Practices, events, new music, announcements,
etc. can all happen here - this can be whatever we need it to be. You
decide!
For now the sections on this page will be About Us,News, Announcements,
and Contacts - but of course there's lots of room here for whatever you like.
About Us
Our Lady of Fatima Choir is a small group of
sixteen people who
make up the 10 AM Mass Choir at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in
Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Singing is our way to reaching out and sharing God's love with our
community.
We always welcome new members - and we particularly need a few
more tenors and basses! Come join us in traditional hymns, adapted spirituals,
contemporary interpretations of well-known Christian music, popular modern worship music,
and new interpretations of the common Catholic hymnal.
Our Lady of FatimaRoman Catholic Church in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, is made up of a strong community of Portuguese
immigrants and a large and rapidly growing number of non-Portuguese members as
well. We retain the strength of our roots while reaching out to newcomers.
All are welcome - Sunday morning Masses are 10 AM in English, 8 AM and 11:30 AM
in Portuguese. Please join us for Sunday Mass - come celebrate, worship and sing with us!
News
Sept 18, 2005 - Welcome to several new members!
Well, it has been a while since we've had an
update on our website - but there is much to mention and I've been a little
remiss not doing it before now.
First, welcome home to all who were away for
summer holidays - hopefully you're well and also well-rested!
As most of you know, our Ashley had her great
Canadian Idol adventure this summer (Congratulations Ashley!), and we've had
a recent addition of George Costa to our group.
Just today we got another brand new member -
Laura. Laura has a great love for music and is sure to bring her charisma
and joy to our group. Welcome!
Feb 14, 2004 - Happy St. Valentine's Day Everyone!
Happy St. Valentine's Day everyone! May God's love
find you healthy and happy!
Our practice last
night Feb. 13 was a great success. We got our new binders mostly organized and
practiced a few of our Ash Wednesday songs as well as the beginning of our
Lenten music for this year. We are in Cycle C this year so there's a little
bit of a different music selection through Lent, corresponding to the Gospel of
Luke. Stay tuned for some subtle changes coming from this!
We are also delighted to welcome two more new members
to our choir! That brings our numbers up to 17! Remember new members are always welcome - and we
particularly need some more male voices so if any of
you know any men or young men who you think would be good additions, how about
getting them to come up after Mass and talk for a minute or two?
Since we remember love on St. Valentine's day
maybe it's a good time for a little personal note on the great love and joy
that singing with our choir has brought to me (your humble OLF choir webpage
editor...)
I feel really blessed and privileged to belong to our choir for the
last few years. Music,
singing and the prayer this experience has brought into my life are a great nourishment for me.
I'm quite happy to be a bit of an agitator for our choral program, happy to send emails, find music, and generally just keep stirring in our choral group. The music, prayer and
fellowship has been and continues to be a gracious blessing to me. This is one way I can give back a small fraction of the goodness you
have all helped bring to me - and I'm just
one of thousands of people that your goodness has touched!
God willing, we may be touching the hearts of our congregation in the same way, enabling something
similar for them. Despite our many imperfections, the music is a ministry. A
ministry - not just a tremendous opportunity for us to enjoy and have fun together, pray together and make something beautiful together
- but also much more - a touching, healing, life-giving
outreach. God really is in the music, and our love for it and for Him can help make his presence that much more tangible and real for our community.
We really can't know what
our music might be doing for the members of our community -
and we don't know what kind of grace God may use us to deliver to them. It's only for us to keep faith in
our souls, love in our hearts and song on our voices - and know that God will do the rest to weave us and our efforts into His awesome and beautiful plan.
Enjoy! and see you Sunday,
Aaron
January 1, 2004 - Happy New Year Everyone!
May God's great, gracious goodness flow on every
one of you, fill you to overflowing and infuse you with his life-giving Spirit
and his wonderful mercy... Happy New Year everyone - may it bring you every
blessing - and may you be filled with song!
Dec 26, 2003 - Merry Christmas Everyone!
The Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning services at
Our Lady of Fatima were beautiful this year, and it was a wonderful blessing for
us to able to be a part of them. One new hanging choir mic system seems to be
working well and we can look forward for that to get even better as it is
further tuned in. St. Nicholas was also very good to us this year, so keep your
eyes open this coming Sunday for a look at the beautiful gift we have been
given!
Remember new members are always welcome - and we
particularly need some more male voices so if any of
you know any men or young men who you think would be good additions, how about
getting them to come up after Mass and talk for a minute or two?
Dec 14, 2003 - OLF Choir practice was a great success!
Our Saturday Dec. 14th practice was a great success -
it was nice to work a little more on our "Alleluia" and "Thy
Word" acclamation, Christmas music, etc. Our new Christmas song
"Welcome to our World" looks like it will be a beautiful addition to
our Christmas services - and something we can use through Epiphany. We also
worked a little more on "Compassion", "Spirit",
"Shout", etc. - lyrics have been printed and emailed - so watch your
inboxes!
Remember we need some more male voices so if any of
you know any men or young men who you think would be good additions how about
getting them to come up after Mass and talk for a minute or two?
Nov 11, 2003 - We Remember
From a conversation with one of our OLF choir
members: "Today I was thinking of the young men (some boys just 16 years
old!) who fought and gave their lives in the first world war, "The War to
End All Wars". I was thinking that our privilege of freedom was won by
their sacrifice. In a similar way Jesus also paid for our privilege of freedom
with his sacrifice. Thinking of our daily and eternal lives in this way kind
of makes our little troubles fade in comparison! If only it were easier to
live every moment with great joy in our freedom and a gracious awareness of
the sacrifice made to win it for us. "
Nov 8, 2003 - OLF Choir Open-Invitation
practice was a great success!
Our Friday Nov. 7 open-invitation practice was a great
success - and introduced two new members to our choir. Welcome!
Practice
was great too - due in most part to the energy, conviction, love and *life* in
all of you guys. Tea and brownies afterwards at the Bread Garden was also a
hit!
We put some polish on our "Alleluia" and new "Thy
Word" Gospel acclamation. We also picked up a few new songs for the coming
weeks and Advent, practiced the Christmas Gloria, etc. We picked up an old
favorite "For You are My God". New music includes
"Compassion Poured Out", "Spirit Alive", "Shout to
the Lord" and "Thy Word" as well as some pieces from our
binders that haven't been dusted off for a few years! We got some sampler CDs
and lyrics together for these and few other new pieces - check your email for
lyrics and be sure to get a CD on Sunday...
Remember we need some more male voices so if any of
you know any men or young men who you think would be good additions how about
getting them to come up after Mass and talk for a minute or two?
Oct 27, 2003 - OLF Choir website
receives over 150 hits in its' first day online!
The Our Lady of Fatima Choir website has received over 150 hits in its'
first day online! This is unexpected, but welcome news! Tell all your friends!
The internet address for this site is http://www.anthus.net/OLFchoir.
Due to intense interest the morning of Oct. 26, 2003 this website was
launched the same evening! The internet address for this site is http://www.anthus.net/OLFchoir.
Announcements
Tuesday February 24, 2003 - OLF Choir Practice @ 7pm
- this is Shrove Tuesday evening
We'll be having and extraordinary practice Tuesday
February 24 at OLF at 7pm. We can use this to finish creating our new binder set
as well as practice a little for Ash Wednesday (the next day) and beginning of
Lent. This will be a great practice - don't miss it!
February 13, 2003 - OLF Choir Practice @ 7pm
We'll prepare for Ash Wednesday and beginning of
Lent as well as fix up our new binders - get some of our old favorite music out
again maybe... Look forward to a terrific surprise in our PA system!
Monthly Practices moved to the 2nd Friday of every month at OLF
Just a quick reminder to all that we've decided on our monthly practice on the
2nd Friday of every month at OLF, 7 pm. We'll have to have some flexibility about
the timing of this from time to time but it's important for us to have a set
time and place. Usually a coffee/dessert social afterwards too, so keep the 2nd
Friday evening of every month free!
January 9, 2003 - OLF Choir Practice @ 7pm
Hi everyone, by popular demand we're now committed
to at least one monthly regular scheduled practice. December's we had to move around a little to accommodate Christmas parties, Tony's schedule,
etc. We'll move January's as well - to January 9, 2003. Common feeling seems to
suggest that the 2nd Friday of every month is better than the 1st, so if that's
the consensus maybe we can move to that schedule on a more permanent basis. What
do you think?
Monthly Practices the 1st Friday of every month at OLF
Just a quick reminder to all that we've decided on a monthly practice on the 1st
Friday of every month at OLF, 7 pm. We'll have to have some flexibility about
the timing of this from time to time but it's important for us to have a set
time and place. January 2004 might have to be the 2nd Friday (January 9) because
of many Christmas commitments, etc.
December 14, 2003 - OLF Choir practice @ 3pm (probably until
5 pm)
Hi everyone, by popular demand we're now committed
to at least one monthly regular scheduled practice. (This month we had to move
this around a little to accommodate Christmas parties, Tony's schedule, etc.) Mark your calendars with the
the first Friday of every month! What a great way to start our new Liturgical
Year... We'll quickly go over some of the parts of the Mass that we sing on a regular basis,
reprise our new Gospel Acclamation and take a further look ahead to the Advent and Christmas seasons.
November 8, 2003 - New Gospel Acclamation for the new
(2004) Liturgical Year:
Our new gospel acclamation is adapted from M. W.
Smith's song "Thy Word", transposed into the key of F, the key of our existing
"Alleluia".
Press the "stop" button on your web browser's main button bar to get
the background music to stop, then click here for an advance sample in mp3
format: "Thy Word" - sample 1or you can click here for a more choral-sounding version:
"Thy Word" - sample 2...what do you think?
November 7, 2003 - OLF
"Open-Invitation" Choir practice @ 7pm (probably until 8:30 or 9
pm)
This
practice will be our first open-invitation meeting and practice. It will provide
an opportunity for anyone not belonging to the choir but who would like to join
(or just find out more) to come and see what it's all about. Hopefully we'll get
to quickly go over some of the parts of the Mass that we sing on a regular basis
as well as look ahead to the Advent and Christmas seasons.
Advent also
marks the beginning of the new liturgical year so we'll try to have a look at some
potential new material including a possible new
gospel acclamation, etc.
November 1, 2003 -
New Members are always welcome!
If you or someone you know is interested in singing with us please come
up and visit in the choir room any Sunday right after Mass. Come see what
it's all about, talk for a few minutes... we're always happy to meet new
people and you are all welcome!
