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Life is a Prayer.com

Life is a Prayer.com is the personal website of Jeff Geerling, a web designer and technology consultant from Saint Louis, owner of Midwestern Mac, LLC, and maintainer of LOLSaints.com and the more serious Open Source Catholic and Catholic News Live.

Saint Peter's Basilica
Sunset - cloudy skies and beautiful orange color
Downtown Chicago at Night
Light behind the Eucharist - procession and adoration
Stained Glass Saint Louis
Sparrow on a Flower Basket
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Tower
Saint Louis XIV overlooking Art Hill in Forest Park
The inside of a Pink Tulip
Tiger laying down
January 26, 2010

Silent Monks Singing Hallelujah

 
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  • 1 comment
January 26, 2010

404 - Jeff Geerling not found.

404 - Jeff Geerling not found.

Seen recently on the office door...

 
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January 16, 2010

Thoughts on Avatar...

Not Real - Move on with your Life
Image from Geekologie

From a friend's blog post on Avatar:

People applauded at the end of the film, which I found a bit disturbing. Visually, it was awesome. But we just saw humanity slaughtered on an alien planet. We just saw the greed of humanity at its worst. We just saw a terrible spirituality exalted as ideal. And, finally, we just saw the remnant of the humans sent back “to their dying planet,” and we cheered.

No wonder people feel depressed after stepping out of the theater and back into reality. We are scum. We are parasites. We deserve to die on this rotting planet for our sins against Mother Earth.

Yet people applauded. Was it just the visuals that they were applauding? Was it the predictable love story or battle scenes? I hope so, but doubt it. Many people are not seeking the transcendent God of reality, the one whose beauty and perfection we see reflected in that awesome beauty of the real planet Earth and in the cosmos. People are not seeking the transcendent God whose truth and wisdom is reflected in our own intellect and the sciences. Instead, they are stuck with a smallness of vision and are, even if they don’t realize it, turning to the religions of environmentalism and animism. Do not weep if a tree is felled in the forest. Yes, use the forest responsibly as a precious resource given to humanity by God. But don’t worship it. Worship its Creator!

I felt the same way at the end of this film: are we so far removed from the truth that we can't see how truly good is humankind? We have dignity, and we are a beautiful creation. Pandora is a substitute reality for the divine reality, and a lot of people in our culture, who have rejected God completely, find solace in Pandora, or in an idea of 'mother nature' and the interconnectedness of beings.

Little do these people know: they can experience this oneness with creation, and this ecstatic union with the divine, simply by conversion of heart and receiving Jesus Christ!

 
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  • 4 comments

Signal to Noise

... or, Liturgical Music: Finding Hymnody to Enlighten the Mind and Lift the Soul

Having been a Seminarian for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis—an Archdiocese with great diversity in liturgical music, priestly ministry, and culture—I have had a great variety of liturgical experiences. Also, being a young adult with twenty-four years of musical listening habits under my belt, I've listened to a wide variety of genres, most especially alternative, classical, and pop music (with a bit of country music thrown in on the side). My most consistent favorite is soundtrack music (which can incorporate many of these styles in a single album).

Priestie Boyz - Lost in Ecstasy

A project on which I am proud to have worked is the recording and mastering of an album (pictured above) for a Seminarian rock band—I helped with everything besides the musical talent. (You can buy the album, Lost in Ecstasy, by the Priestie Boyz, on CDBaby or iTunes). I also had the privilege to work in radio engineering for five radio stations over the course of five years—two pop stations, one soft rock, and two AM/talk radio stations.

These experiences recently came to my mind simultaneously as I attended a youth-oriented Mass, at which many liturgical hymns (published in OCP) were sung with the accompaniment of two guitars, a drum set, and some percussion instruments.

In my analytical mind, I was using my mind's waveform analyzer (didn't know I had one of those until now!) to 'see' the music. What I saw made me think quite a bit about the different genres of music, and different purposes of music—especially liturgical music. In particular, I thought about the efficacy of different styles of music in worship, and how fitting (or unfitting) are different styles, especially for different audiences. Continue Reading »

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