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Eleazar’s Commonplace Book, or Shine Like Lights {Finding Your Fiat talk notes}

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I am still processing the wonderful Finding Your Fiat Conference I attended last weekend here in central Illinois.  So many great memories and take-aways. Before I get to my promised talk notes, here are a few highlights of “Finding Your Fiat” from me:

*Friday night gathering: a mini-concert and then Karaoke with Marie Miller. I didn’t actually do Karaoke but I loved getting to sing and dance along. So many ladies ( Bonnie and Nell and so many others) did really funny and great songs. Now I want to somehow do karaoke with the family or friends. Is there an app or inexpensive way to get started with this?

*Saturday’s program: so many awesome women, so many adorable babies, praise and worship with Marie Miller, and more.  The coloring pages provided by Katie Bogner, were lovely and relaxing as we began the day.  Katie also hand-stamped sweet charms with the word “Fiat” on them.   I wrote down tons of quotes from Colleen Mitchell and Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Jenna Guizar.  I wish I could have heard the talks by Annie Tillberg and Laura Fanucci, but I was listening to a different talk during the former and giving my talk during the latter.  I was super grateful that Mary Lenaburg agreed to come up towards the end of my talk and share some of her wisdom about finding time for life-giving pursuits even while processing grief and life changes.

So without further ado, here are notes from my talk, entitled:

Eleazar’s Commonplace Book, or Shine Like Lights

“Finding Your Fiat”

Intercession of

Venerable Matt Talbot

Venerable Father Solanus Casey

Prayer:

“Shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life.” —Philippians 2:15-16

entire quote:

“So then, my beloved obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to dear and to work.

Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

definitions:

Eleazar:

Hebrew scribe, 90 years old, martyred in Maccabees persecution

“But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs that he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

“Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “for many of the young might suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year had gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.  Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”  –2 Maccabees 6:23-28

(worth reading the whole chapter and 2 Maccabees 7, the martyrdom of mother and seven sons, and she died after all her sons).

Commonplace book:

a notebook/scrapbook combination, a way for a learned person, scholar, or writer to keep random bits of information in one place.

have existed in that name since the 17th century, but even beforehand in works like the Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci.

Here is a link to a facsimile of John Milton’s Commonplace Book

Here is a link to John Locke’s A New Method of Making Commonplace Books.

So, Eleazar’s Commonplace Book: random quotes and pieces of books from one who wants to be “worthy of her years and gray hair”  to help you consider ways to “shine like lights” throughout life, and be able to persevere (“hold on to the word of life” and not “run in vain”).

Making Books–

Here is the hot dog booklet, and a link to the website with various other small book projects.

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD

St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Beatitudes

“Bodily health is a good thing, but what is truly blessed is not only to know how to keep one’s health but actually to be healthy. If someone praises health but then goes and eats food that makes him ill, what is the use to him, in his illness, of all his praise of health?
“We need to look at the text we are considering in just the same way. It does not say that it is blessed to know something about the Lord God, but that it is blessed to have God within oneself. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
I do not think that this is simply intended to promise a direct vision of God if one purifies one’s soul. On the other hand, perhaps the magnificence of this saying is hinting at the same thing that is said more clearly to another audience: The kingdom of God is within you. That is, we are to understand that when we have purged our souls of every illusion and every disordered affection, we will see our own beauty as an image of the divine nature.”

QUESTION: How is the Kingdom of God Within You?

BE A DECIDER

From City of Saints: A Pilgrimage to John Paul II’s Kraków by George Weigel.

“He was a moral reference point for his friends and did not hesitate to be a challenging counselor and confessor. But the pastoral stress … was always on personal responsibility. He was not the decider for his friends; they must be their own deciders, he insisted, if they were to be true to the moral dignity built into them as human persons and as Christians. “

later in the book:

“(Fr. Wojtyla was), according to one of his friends and penitents, uninterested in the ‘mass production of Christians’ in a confessional assembly line, but deeply committed to accompanying a fellow believer in his or her quest for the truth, including the truth of failure and the truth about making wise decisions. Yet Wojtyla, the confessor who gently prodded good decisions, never imposed decisions. ‘You must decide’ was his signature phrase in spiritual direction. One couldn’t opt out of the drama of life in the gap. One had to decide–and, with the grace of God and the support of the Church, wise and true decisions could be made.”

QUESTION: How can you be a decider? How can you be a good decider, filled with personal responsibility?

WIN HAPPINESS

 Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery (writer of the Anne of Green Gables books).  I dearly love all of the Anne books, and this is the last in the series about her family, and about Anne & Gilbert’s youngest child, darling, charming and growing-up Rilla (named after Marilla). Rilla of Ingleside is such a good book as a coming-of-age story, but also great historical fiction about WWI written close to the time. Noble and heartbreaking without being completely depressing, as a lot of fiction about WWI is, and rightfully so, since it’s the first modern war.

At one point, Rilla is bemoaning in a conversation with her brother Walter how the war is changing their whole community and family. Her brother Walter says:

“Now we won’t be sober any more. We’ll look beyond the years—to the time when the war will be over and Jem and Jerry and I will come marching home and we’ll all be happy again.”

“We won’t be—happy—in the same way,” said Rilla.

“No, not in the same way. Nobody whom this war has touched will ever be happy again in quite the same way. But it will be a better happiness, I think, little sister—a happiness we’ve earned. We were very happy before the war, weren’t we? With a home like Ingleside, and a father and mother like ours we couldn’t help being happy. But that happiness was a gift from life and love; it wasn’t really ours—life could take it back at any time. It can never take away the happiness we win for ourselves in the way of duty.”

QUESTION: What kind of happiness have you won in the way of duty?

MUSTER YOUR WITS


Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace

Set in early 20th century Minnesota, Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace, author of the iconic Betsy-Tacy books, is a coming-of-age story about a high school graduate, Emily, who can’t go away to college like her cousin and friends since she is taking care of the elderly grandfather who raised her. At first, she wallows in pity.

“Depression settled down upon her, and although she tried to brush it away it thickened like a fog. “Why, the kids will be home for Thanksgiving! That will be here in no time. I mustn’t get this way,” she thought. But she felt lonely and deserted and futile. “A mood like this has to be fought. It’s like an enemy with a gun,” she told herself. But she couldn’t seem to find a gun with which to fight.

Later, she learns to “muster her wits” and she starts a reading group, and goes out to dances, and becomes active in helping Syrian immigrants.  She discovers a quote in Shakespeare: 

“Muster your wits: stand in your own defense.” She had no idea in what sense he had used it, but it seemed to be a message aimed directly at her. “Muster your wits: stand in your own defense,” she kept repeating to herself on the long walk home. After dinner she sat down in her rocker, looked out at the snow and proceeded to muster her wits. “I’m going to fill my winter and I’m going to fill it with something worth while,” she resolved.

QUESTION: How Can you Muster Your Wits? What are your Resources for Doing that?  (friends, faith, outside help) 

EMBRACE YOUR GOOFY HOBBIES

C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters is a series of imaginary letters from a senior demon “(Screwtape) to his nephew about ways to ensnare a young man in WWII-era England.  It’s a classic on the spiritual life and growth in holiness, both funny and spiritually insightful. All the terms and suggestions are backward (the Enemy is God).

“The deepest likings and impulses of any man are the raw material, the starting-point, with which the Enemy has furnished him. To get him away from those is therefore always a point gained; even in things indifferent it is always desirable to substitute the standards of the World, or convention, or fashion, for a human’s own real likings and dislikings. I myself would carry this very far. I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for county cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. Such things, I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them; but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust. The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favour of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books. I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions.”

QUESTION: What is Your Tripe & Onions?

AIR YOUR ROOMS

Rumer Godden’s Autobiography: A House with Four Rooms.

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual . Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.” 

Question: How can you air out those four rooms each day, or even each week?  What can you do to be well-rounded?

RESOLUTION: How can you make time for something you “want” to do, not “have” to do?

My best example of a “want to”: The New York Times mini-crossword.

Some of mine:

Running

Daily Mass–more when kids were tiny, less when kids were busy

Adoration

Reading

QUESTION: What “want-tos” are you going to make intentional over the next few weeks? 

I would love to hear what want-tos are in your line-up the next few weeks.  If you attended “Finding Your Fiat,” I’d also love to hear your favorite parts and things you are pondering.

As a sharing of one of my “want-tos,” here is my completed New York Time mini-crossword for Wednesday (BTW, I didn’t do it in 35 seconds! I did it late last night, as I mentioned in my talk, and forgot to take a screen shot, so I did it again this morning. But many times I do get it in under a minute.):

IMG_5296

Dear Moms, Will You Go to a Movie with Me?

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True confession: I’m not the greatest at self-care.

Like many moms, I tend to take care of everyone else around me before me. The needs/wants/crises of kids, dogs, husband and house can seem so vital, and it’s easy to let those take over the majority of our days.

As I’ve gotten older, and my kids have gotten older, I have gotten better at self-care, but mostly in a solo way. I run, and I make the time to read a lot of books, and I make sure to get my daily quota of chocolate (especially now that Lent is over).

But I’m not very good at self-care of the “getting together with friends” variety.

As I get older, I realize how important that kind of self-care is: being intentional about fostering friendships that nourish us.

Earlier this month, I got the chance to see a screening of “Moms Night Out,” a movie coming out in a few weeks.

image1

I get invitations to a fair amount of movie screenings, usually family friendly ones, often by faith-based filmmakers. I wrote about “October Baby” here , and I loved that one (coincidentally— or not—“Moms Night Out” is made by the same filmmakers: the Erwin Brothers.) But I haven’t written about very many others.

Sometimes the movie, even if it’s pretty good, doesn’t seem like a good fit for a review here, or I run out of time. Sometimes it wasn’t a good fit for me—I tend not to like violence in films, or too slow-moving films. Sometimes the movie is good but not great, or it’s not very good at all.

“Moms Night Out” is a good, good movie. It’s a super-fun, going out with your friends, laugh-out-loud movie.

It’s not just a fun “faith-based movie”, or a fun “clean movie” It’s a fun movie, period.

If I haven’t convinced you already, I loved “Moms Night Out” so much that I’m not only going to see it again when it comes out on May 9 (Mother’s Day weekend, natch), but I’m organizing a group of moms to go see it.

This movie made me laugh out loud, smile a lot, and even tear up a few times.

(review portions removed until May 2, when I’m allowed to post specifics about the movie. Check back then!)

Some questions for you:

Are you good at self-care or not? What kind are you best at?

What do you plan for Mother’s Day for yourself and your family?

Will you go to Moms Night Out with me?

Here is the trailer, in case you’re not convinced:

A WinterJam Primer, or How to Keep Your Hearing, Your Faith, and Your Sanity, and Have a Good Time

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Note: In lieu of Worth a Listen (normally appearing here on Wednesday), I’m writing this after the WinterJam just occurred in our area with a concert in Peoria Sunday night.  When I posted occasional updates on Facebook & Twitter from the concert, there were a lot of questions (on FB) about how the concert, how it was, should people bring their small children, etc. This is to answer those questions as well as talk about this great  I’ll re-run this next year as WinterJam makes it way to our area again, so consider this a “primer” on how to encounter WinterJam successfully.

I’m a veteran, having just attended my third WinterJam.  I think I’ve got this “down” now and have a good strategy for attending and making the most of this great concert.

WinterJam, the largest Christian concert series in the world (and largest altogether if Wikipedia is to be believed) is a traveling concert series founded by NewSong and featuring more than a half-dozen Christian contemporary music (CCM) acts.

1.   Here’s your first word:  earplugs.

I mean this as no criticism at all, since I love virtually all the music played at the concert.  If you are not a teen (and maybe if you are), you will be grateful for a good pair of earplugs.  I bought a multi-pack of earplugs to share with fellow parents along with me for the concert.  Happily, WCIC-FM at their merch/swag table gave away free pairs as well.  That was a really sweet touch.

Note to self for next year:  I’m bringing some heavier duty earplugs, as these were not quite enough, especially during certain bands (more on that later).  But do plan on having some kind of ear protection.  Every single musician during the evening I could see was wearing ear protection.  If it’s good enough for TobyMac, it’s good enough for me.

2.  Here are two more  words:  go early.

WinterJam is an unbeatable value at $10 per person, but seating is first come, first serve.  The concert starts at 6 p.m., but doors open at 5 p.m. and you then choose your seats in the Civic Center arena.  There is a “Jam Nation” feature that allows concert-goers to get in early, but you must have a group of at least 10, and then it is $30 per ticket.  This is still an excellent value.  I would have loved to do this in 2013, but I started organizing the WinterJam-interested families I know too late.  After many back and forth e-mails, we couldn’t get to the 10 threshold before my deadline.

As it was, some of our group arrived about an hour and a half before the 5 p.m. doors opening.  We actually would have arrived much earlier, but it was freezing rain most of the day, and I thought we’d have to wait outside.  Turns out the Civic Center opened a large room for people to wait, and there were official looking WinterJam people lining us up and warning us not to jump lines, or we’d have to go to the back.

Around 4:45, they started to let us into the Civic Center arena, and because we had arrived pretty early, we obtained some pretty good seats.  We had not wanted to be on the floor, so our lower bowl seats near the stage were great for us.

Last year when we attended, the weather was much better (Peoria was the last stop on the tour), and we arrived early with a student council group.  What I loved about this was a pre-show concert by two acts not well-known at the time for those waiting in line.  We heard both Group 1 Crew and For King & Country, both vastly more well-known this year.  Here’s a photo from last year:

All around the arena, there are tons of “merch” tables for the various artists, as well as Christian ministries that are part of WinterJam. It’s worthwhile if you are there early to walk around and get to see everything.

3.  Don’t bring the whole family.  Or do.  This is really particular to your family.

The first year we attended WinterJam, our whole family attended, but we only stayed for about the first hour.  It was too much noise for the younger kids in our family (7 and 10 that year), and my husband said, like NewSong sings each year at WinterJam, “This world has nothing for me…” (He does like CCM music, to a point).  So we agreed that I would be the WinterJam designated person, and he would  teach our children to drive.  Fair trade.

A few people have asked about what age ranges would be good for WinterJam.  I’ve seen toddlers happily dancing at WinterJam (not a whole lot of them), but it seems to be best for tweens and teens, and their music-loving grown-ups.  You know your kids. And your grown-ups.

4.  Understand the rhythm of WinterJam.

After going to WinterJam for three years, I can share what is the formula for a WinterJam.  I think it is a good mix.

Pre-show: this would include the time outside, and any pre-show bands.  There was not a pre-show band concert, perhaps because of the weather.

First “half.”  This is like a warm-up for the bigger acts to come.  Each act plays for perhaps four to perhaps six songs.  It’s annoying both when an act you like plays too few songs, and also when a not-so-great band plays more than you’d like.  Either way, these pass quickly.

Sometime in this first half, NewSong plays.  NewSong is a more “mature” group than most of the other WinterJam acts, as I pointed out to a fellow parent along with our group, but those men can sing.  They play a few songs, talk about their vision of starting WinterJam, and promote World Vision, the charity sponsor of the evening.  Throughout the evening, concert-goers are encouraged to adopt a child in a third World country through World Vision.

A young pastor named Nick Hall gives a kind of sermon during this first half.  It’s basically a non-denominational talk about following Jesus.  More on that later…

Then there is an intermission, which is a good time to walk around and check out the merchandise tables, or get a snack.  Some practical matters:  food and drink is something to consider.  I had a big late lunch, and brought along an apple and a bottle of water to have during the intermission. That worked for me, since a concert for me, unlike, say a baseball game, is not a time I want to have arena-type food like nachos or hot dogs.

Second “half”:  After the intermission are the “big” acts–this year it was Matthew West and TobyMac.  They were both well worth the wait.

Sometime during the second half, there is a “love offering” collection taken up to support the ministry of putting on WinterJam. Worthwhile knowing that this takes place and considering what you might do when they pass the bucket.

Finally, be prepared for the night to end super late.

After the concert, there is a big crush as people try to leave.  We ended up staying around a little later because we kept running into people we knew, and chatting about the concert.  After that, we realized most of the “first half” acts were available for autographs, so we got a few autographs and photos.

Our 15-year-old was most excited to meet and say hello to Jamie Grace.  She truly loves (understatement) all of Jamie’s music and especially her sense of style:

We also met OBB, three attractive brothers with a “boy band.” OBB had announced during their concert, “like us on Facebook, because we were homeschooled, and we need all the friends we can get!”  The arena erupted in screams, as you can imagine.  When we met them, I introduced all the teen girls in our group as homeschoolers or former homeschoolers, and it was a fun discussion and an even funnier photo, with one of the girls nearly in tears.

By the time we got back to our minivan and then took several teens along with us back to their vehicles, and then drove home, it was just about midnight.  That is late for a Sunday night (and school the next day), but well worthwhile.  But if you go to a WinterJam, know that it will be a late night, and you won’t be super-productive the next day.

5.  Take the good, leave behind the bad.

Let me start by saying that I am hugely grateful there is a concert series like WinterJam.  The group behind it, NewSong, and the promoters, are sincere Christians truly desiring to put on a good show as well as encourage others to follow Christ.  Putting together this kind of entertaining, hours-long concert, and providing a good value, is no small feat, and I commend them and thank them for this ministry.

At the same time, and being real here, as a Catholic, you’re not going to get the fullness of the Faith at a WinterJam.  Plan to be okay with that.

You might even encounter weak or even truly goofy ideas, and I don’t have time to go into any of them here.  You can use your imagination.  But I consider those a learning opportunity for myself and those who attend with me, as we experience Christianity lived by others.

There is also an “altar call” type of experience where they ask people to turn over their lives to Jesus. 

As I told my teen, thought, I don’t want us to get all triumphalist about it and exhibit spiritual pride, but it’s okay to recognize where the WinterJam theology falls short.  We don’t have to accept it all uncritically, or think we need to become a non-denominational Christian just because they play the coolest music.  How can you leave behind Jesus in the Eucharist?  As St. Peter told Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

As I write this, the thought of a Catholic WinterJam is really intriguing.  Imagine if, instead of the pastor’s sermon in the middle of the concert, we had a short meditation and then a time of Eucharistic Adoration?  Wow.

6.  Don’t expect entirely live music, but do enjoy the live experience.

Now, a lot of this is above my pay grade and understanding of music, concerts and how these things work.  I didn’t follow along to the “controversy” about Beyoncé not singing the national anthem at the Inauguration earlier this month, and I have attended very few concerts in my grown-up days.

But as far as my untrained eyes and ear can tell, “live music” does not necessarily mean live everything.  I’m okay with that…to a point.

One of the reasons I was annoyed with last year’s WinterJam was that we did stay for the last act, which turned out to be a band called Skillet.

Now, Skillet’s music is decidedly not my kind of music, but that’s not what made me annoyed.  What did annoy me was this: I was pretty sure  they were lip-syncing, except for one slower song in which the lead singer talked and sang.  I am virtually certain the musicians were playing air guitar and violin and who knows what other instruments, I don’t even remember, I just recall thinking, “I could air violin better than that.”  (Apologies to all my loyal readers who are also loyal Skillet fans.  Just my take on it).

There were a lot of pyrotechnics along with this act, and I thought, they are probably not doing it live so they can dodge the fire and fireworks and so forth.  We could have easily left before Skillet and gotten home earlier, but we didn’t, and there goes 30 minutes I can’t ever get back.

So there was a little bit of trepidation about this year’s WinterJam.  Would there be truly live music?  I was just interested to watch closely, but also enjoy myself and the music.

Since I’m not an expert or in the music industry (nor do I have time to look this up),  I don’t know what the current standard is these sorts of things.  Is it okay to sing live before piped-in or canned music?  Is it okay to pretend you’re playing an instrument when you’re not?

I thought several of the acts struck a good balance. For instance, Jamie Grace, a great singer and great performer, sang all her songs live.  While she was backed up with music (with no visible musicians, so it was obvious it was piped in), she played a guitar along with her songs.  You could tell she was actually playing along because she made a few little mistakes, and at one point, the guitar was not properly hooked up, so she was fiddling with it.  I even tweeted to her later in the evening thanking her for singing live.

But there was one “hard rock” group, like Skillet last year, called “Red,” that “played” with a lot of pyrotechnics and so forth.  And they also appeared, to my untrained eye, to lip sync every song but one, and not to be actually playing their instruments, just like Skillet last year.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Perhaps the tour organizers required that they lip sync, in order to be sure they could dodge the fireworks?  Part of the contract?

It didn’t bother me that much.  Recall, I had earplugs, and I know nothing of “Red.”  Though, I must say, I began to be intrigued when I learned their last album was called “Until We Have Faces,” thinking they might have named it after C.S. Lewis’ greatest novel, Till We Have Faces, but it turns out the band goes to pains to say they didn’t name the album after that.  Okay, never mind, don’t need to find out any more about this group.

But what if I had been a Red superfan?  Would I have noticed the lip syncing?  Would I have cared? I do think this distracts from the overall experience to experience this kind of “live music.”  Just my middle-aged take on it, but you don’t have to listen to me.

(UPDATED: A dad who was along with our group turned out to really enjoy Red, and their family is listening to a lot of Red music this week.  So perhaps you shouldn’t take my musical opinion here–though I did respond to a Facebook post on this, “I am all astonishment.”)

What was amazing was Matthew West.  He sang every song absolutely live, and I didn’t even pay attention or care whether his back-up band and whether they were playing live or not.  He was riveting as a performer, talked beautifully between his music, showed several videos of the stories behind several of his newer songs.

That is one of the features of WinterJam I really enjoy, and why I tell you to “enjoy the live experience.”  There are various screens and screen-type stage “decorations” (I don’t know what else to call them) of various sizes,  for projecting the lead singer, as well as sometimes song lyrics, as well as other images. For instance, during Matthew West’s song, “Hello My Name Is…,” there was a curved bank of mini-screens above the stage that flashed the words.

I also cannot say enough about TobyMac.  That man can sing and perform like nobody’s business, and he pulls together a terrific assortment of singers and performers alongside him.  I did not hear the name of the female singer who sang next to him, but she was gorgeous as well as an amazing singer, as was Jamie Grace (again), who joined him for several songs.  The songs he sang alone would have been worth the wait, the price and everything else.

There were musicians along with TobyMac, and it was clear sometimes that instruments were being played live.  For instance, several of his songs featured performers walking with marching-band style drums, and you could hear the beat coming from them.  But at one point, one of his crew came up to a guitar player and “air-guitared” next to him, almost a wink-nod that he might not be really playing.  I’m not sure, but I don’t really care, because again, as I’ve said, the singers were all singing live, and performing beautifully.

Here’s one person I’d love to have a live/not live conversation with about WinterJam, and music in general: DJ Maj.  According to his Twitter account @MajPro (he actually followed me! Along with 6,000 other people, but still….): he’s a God Son / Hubby / DJ For Toby Mac / Rhymer / @wepoplive / @VidiMixShow.

At one point in the show, TobyMac announced DJ Maj, and he and the other band members left the stage.  DJ Maj was on a platform high above the stage, and did a “mix” of video and audio.  I have no knowledge of what was “live mixed” or not, but it was engaging and interesting, and worth watching.  No pyrotechnics, either.  Thank you, DJ Maj.

I shot some very grainy and unprofessional cell phone videos of some of my favorite songs.  If I get a chance to upload them, I will share them in future “Worth A Listen” posts.

Have you ever been to a WinterJam or similar concert?  What is your take on attending these kinds of concerts as a Catholic?