Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation. Sponsored by Briefcase Marketing--check them out at https://www.Briefcase.marketing
Question of Faith
What was the Cathedrals Tour?
Sponsored by: Briefcase Marketing
What if cathedrals could become the perfect stage for modern worship music? During the Cathedrals Tour with Matt Maher and Sarah Kroger, we experienced just that, attending an awe-inspiring evening in Cleveland.
Check out one highlight from the event on Instagram (@dmproductionshq)
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, with its breathtaking Gothic architecture was enhanced by amazing lighting to set a stunning backdrop for a unique musical journey that embraced the spirit of Advent.
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Readings for Gaudete Sunday
Next week's Episode: Bishop Malesic's upcoming pastoral letter.
On today's Question of Faith. What was the Cathedral's Tour? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I am Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of Young Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Father Damian Ference:And I'm Father Damian FerenczF, the Vicar for Evangelization.
Christy Cabiniss:And I'm Christy Cabaniss, Director for Missionary Discipleship.
Father Damian Ference:Hey, welcome back, Christy.
Christy Cabiniss:Thanks for having me Absolutely.
Father Damian Ference:I saw a lot of you this weekend yeah.
Deacon Mike Hayes:I will have to live vicariously through both of you, because I was commanded literally to be at my wife's family Christmas gathering, which they do the second week of December almost always, and we have not been there in almost six years. Oh wow, it's where you needed to be yes, and so the cathedrals tour. What was it? Why don't you fill me in?
Christy Cabiniss:Well, honestly, you were in New York so you could have been part of it. It was Matt Maher and Sarah Kroger put together this tour where they were doing Advent music in cathedrals across what Father Damian?
Father Damian Ference:Mostly the Great Lakes region, with the exception of Brooklyn ,right.
Deacon Mike Hayes:where all good things come from.
Father Damian Ference:They started out in Chicago, but they actually didn't play Holy Name Cathedral there, they played St Clement Church, which kind of acts as a cathedral, especially with young adult ministry and music. Then they went to Detroit, then to Toledo, day off Brooklyn, then drove to Cleveland and then Sunday they arrived here. Christy, I think you met him off the bus.
Christy Cabiniss:Yeah, 10 am.
Father Damian Ference:And then took him to brunch, set up the cathedral between masses and then we had probably over 700 people.
Christy Cabiniss:We definitely. We had close to 800 folks here it looked great.
Deacon Mike Hayes:I saw a few videos along the way. It was amazing it was wonderful.
Father Damian Ference:The lighting took me most. I mean the music and the presence and the people. But I noticed parts of the cathedral that I hadn't paid attention to before the arches, and there were. I mean Liz Hanna, who I met back in 2015 or 2016 through Tole Legge. She's probably in her mid-20s now. She took a shot four different shots of what the cathedral looked like with lighting and she posted it looked like a war hall.
Christy Cabiniss:Yes, I'll show you guys. It was beautiful, beautiful I saw it on your Instas this morning.
Christy Cabiniss:I would say to folks definitely check out Matt Maher Music on Instagram and our own local shout out to DM Productions here in Cleveland. They also had some video clips and whatnot. Father Damian, that's exactly what struck me too. The music is always amazing. Matt Maher, if you guys are unfamiliar and Sarah Kroger are tremendous musicians and play the most beautiful worship music but the lighting. I already appreciate the architecture of our cathedral so very much. It's gorgeous in there, but the lighting. I already appreciate the architecture of our cathedral so very much. It's gorgeous in there, but the lighting had you looking at the structures in such a different way and it added so much ambiance to that experience of worship through music.
Father Damian Ference:I was able to chat with Matt and Sarah earlier on Sunday and they told me the origin of this cathedral's tour was this Sarah's manager was in St Louis and I've been to their cathedral once. It's gorgeous.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yes, it is.
Father Damian Ference:And he said this would be the natural place for praise and worship music. And oftentimes praise and worship leaders come from the Protestant tradition and the Protestant tradition is intentionally simpler, important and the statues and the vaulted ceilings and the liturgical furniture and the marble and the apses and the transepts, all that works in to make a space where God is worshipped and encountered, particularly through liturgical prayer, which some of our Protestant brothers and sisters don't share in common with us. So the idea of taking this music and playing it in its natural habitat was surprisingly something new. And they said well, let's try it. And there were a couple musicians in Matt's band. There were a couple musicians in Matt's band One was the mandolin player and the other one was the fiddle player who were not Catholic.
Father Damian Ference:But they said I have not seen such beautiful churches in my life. This has been glorious to play in there and as a musician, those buildings are made to carry sound, the human voice, but also instrumental and organ, although there was no organ that night or percussion really, but it was. It was beautiful and my favorite parts, I think, were when they pulled back and they said let's hear the church sing and at one point.
Father Damian Ference:Matt said this building's been around forever, for you know it's 175 years. Right, and we'll continue to be here after we're gone. So I want your voice now to be planting seeds for the future generations who will come here and pray and worship. I was like yeeeah.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yeah, do it. Yeah, it was wonderful. That's great. Our colleague, Logan Feldkamp, posted the other day. He said I never thought I'd hear jingle bells in the cathedral, so he was playing all different kinds of things.
Christy Cabiniss:Well, we had a couple of the secular Christmas tunes that were at the very end as part of the encore Nice.
Father Damian Ference:And he said we're only going to play this verse, and they kept playing it over and over, but it was a lot of fun. Yeah, one of the seminarians came up to me I don't know about that Jingle Bells. I'm like just relax, cool it, it was fine. It was fine. It was fine. Oh, really, Father. Yeah, it was fine, don't worry about it.
Christy Cabiniss:I just read somewhere, though, that Jingle Bells is actually supposed to be a Thanksgiving song. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that it's more about. It was like getting the family together to go to, and when you listen to the words, it makes a little bit more sense that way?
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yeah, very appropriate, right, yes, yes, but.
Christy Cabiniss:I think everybody was really excited to be there. It was. We had folks of all ages and different demographics, and so it was a gorgeous moment. I got to be at the very back of the church and experience the congregation in worship, and it was really just, uh, an an amazing Holy Spirit moment. Um, for us.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yeah, that's great.
Father Damian Ference:I I absolutely love showing off Cleveland as a city and our diocese and our cathedral, and it was wonderful to be able to have people in our cathedral and some of whom hadn't been there before. We did ask some of our Eucharistic delegates to bring people who, uh, may not have been active or active in a while, and I thought the bishop did a really wonderful job at the beginning?
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yes, he did. I agree with you People there. So I was just going to say that. A second ago I watched a small little video and he just said if you've never been here before, welcome welcome, welcome.
Father Damian Ference:I was like okay, more of that.
Father Damian Ference:That's great, yeah, and we also had donors with a little event beforehand because we used the evangelization money to pay for this event. And what was wonderful was that some of those donors were able to see the young church in action. There were a lot of young people there and one told Bishop after you know you talk about this young church all the time. This is the first time me seeing the young church with my own eyes, because it's one thing to have a, you know, a slideshow and say this is an event we did, or let me tell you some story, but to actually see young people praying. And the bishop said after he said no, he saw that, but look over there and there were about 10 kids right around the tabernacle just praying. At the end of the event he goes and there's your young church still at prayer.
Deacon Mike Hayes:So very cool stuff Very, very cool. So I thank you for letting me live vicariously through you at least, and again my humble apologies for not being there. I mean, things happen right. Yeah, Now I got Christy Karma'd, just so you know, because I really did want to help you at this event, and so I was serving at the Immaculate Conception Mass at St Paul the Apostle in New York.
Christy Cabiniss:All right.
Deacon Mike Hayes:And I'm helping Father Chris Lawton, who's a good friend, and I'm pouring water and wine at the offertory and I put the water cruet down and I go to hand him the chalice and the large dalmatic that I have hooked the water cruet knocked it to the floor.
Christy Cabiniss:It didn't break.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Oh, thank goodness it kind of bounced, which was good, but water, water everywhere. Oh yes, so clumsy deacon, it's okay, I was thinking, chris, this is Christy mad at me for not helping her out.
Father Damian Ference:I was going to say your Dalmatic looked sharp. I was going to comment on your Insta post. Yeah, that was theirs, but now it was too much material and things got caught up in there.
Deacon Mike Hayes:The other thing is they are having a large concert at St Paul the Apostle this Thursday, in fact for Christmas and so it was sort of a makeshift altar because they were moving things around to create space for the choir, so it was not their usual altar, so I didn't have enough room to put things back further. That's my excuse. So Church Search will be the cathedral this week. Let's go. Let's go.
Father Damian Ference:So, if you're not aware, our cathedral is 175 years old. Now the transepts have been added on the side and other things, but the original structure is old and it's beautiful. It's French Gothic in style. Um windows, I think, are Marian themed, although there's some apostles in there too. I don't want to misspeak. Nice statuary, nice transepts. There's actually a what do they call it? A necrarium or a reliquarium. It's where our bishops are buried yeah.
Father Damian Ference:And also the bones of St Christine not the the St Christine, but a young female martyr known as Christian. So Christina is there. Her bones were actually stolen at one point and then returned, which is a strange story. And again, some of the musicians in Matt's band. I took them back there and they're like this is sick man, you Catholics are weird.
Deacon Mike Hayes:But in a good way. I said we are. It's a strange way though, but it's good, Exactly so. Cathedral of St John the Evangelist on East 9th Street and Superior here in Cleveland. Reminder that we are sponsored by Briefcase Marketing. You know what they do, Christy. Do you know what they?
Christy Cabiniss:do?
Christy Cabiniss:I don't know what they do,
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Deacon Mike Hayes:Gaudete Rejoice. Third Sunday of Advent.
Father Damian Ference:It's a really important day in the Diocese of Cleveland because also this Sunday, Bishop Molesik is releasing his very first pastoral letter called A Flourishing Apostolic Church. So you'll be able to get that this Sunday. I don't know what time, maybe 6 am. It's being released, but check it out.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yeah, so check that out. We'll have Bishop Molesik on next week to talk about this. And so the third Sunday of Advent reading. I really liked the gospel. It's Luke's gospel now in year C, and the thing that stood out to me stop collecting more than what is prescribed. There are times where we want to do that to others, but then there's times we do that to ourselves.
Deacon Mike Hayes:I think about my friend, bj, whose wife one day had a big meeting and he wanted to go. She wanted to stay home because one of her kids was sick and BJ was getting ready to go to work. And she was like, oh, I got this big meeting and now I'm going to have to cancel it because I have to stay home because the kid is sick. And finally he just said, well, I could stay home. And he said that he realized that what he would allow someone else to do and give an excuse for he wasn't allowing himself to take advantage of. And he said, yeah, I was basically doing, you know, expecting more than what was prescribed for me to do. Everybody would understand if I had to stay home because my kid was sick and so I should extend that mercy to others. Amazing, Easy enough.
Christy Cabiniss:Yeah, good stuff.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Try to make it practical.
Father Damian Ference:How about you, Christy?
Christy Cabiniss:I like the first reading. I like all of the readings on these joyous days that we have in the church, and especially because that sense that the Lord is going to save us from all the things. But the reading says the Lord has removed the judgment against you and has turned away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You have no further misfortune to fear. I love that Like. It's just so redeeming, exciting and it's a great way to enter into celebration.
Father Damian Ference:Yeah, and trusting that the Lord's going to come through and do his work. You took gospel, you took first, I'll take second. Just a really nice formula have no anxiety at all, which is hard to do. But how do you do it? But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. So anxiety comes from the unknown and having to face something that's scary and unknown. But if you're trusting that God is providing for you and you're talking to him, you're petitioning him and thanking him for what he's already done and will do in your life, then the anxiety can dissipate in that way. So that's nice. I think it's a nice little formula there. Amen For peace and joy For gaudete.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Yeah, love this Sunday.
Christy Cabiniss:Wearing the rose right. Not pink kids not pink, I don't care. Do you have rose vestments?
Father Damian Ference:I don't, but I also well they do at the cathedral and I help out at a bunch of different parishes. Most of them these days do have a rose vestment.
Deacon Mike Hayes:My sister gave me a rose dalmatic. So she said this way, every time you wear it, you can think of me and rejoice. That's nice. I thought it was very nice.
Father Damian Ference:The hard thing is, when you get a vestment, like as a deacon, that you want it to match what the priest has, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but you do your best. As you say, you do what you can, not what you can't.
Deacon Mike Hayes:That's right, exactly, and we really did what we could with Matt Maher this past week. And, Christy, thank you for all of your hard work, oh my pleasure Always great to work with you. We'll have this and a whole lot more next time here on Question of Faith Outro Music.
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