"Faciendi et Credendi" means, in Latin, "Believing and doing." For the Christian, this should evoke the Letter of James: "What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works?" (2:14). It also evokes the idea that the study of religion involves both the beliefs and practices of a religious community. Finally, it recalls that students of theology and religious studies are engaged in both classroom learning and active participation in volunteer service, ministry, etc.

Faciendi et Credendi is the blog for the Religious Studies/Theology Program at Loras College. It is an ongoing, public account of student progress that the program requires of all its majors. The blog provides an electronic “space” for students to reflect on their experiences as a major and on the relationship of those experiences to other facets of their life at Loras.

In order to post to the blog, first find the appropriate topic by clicking on the Blog Prompts tab. Find the prompt based on how long it has been since you declared your religious studies/theology major. Then, return to the Home tab and click on New Post in the top right corner of the page. This will open an html editor where you can type your post.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Semester 2 week 6


I just recently took History of Sacred Music. In this class we focused on the history of music within the Catholic Church as well as other denominations. This course helped me to understand the importance of music within our liturgy. It made really think about church weddings the most. I have sung at a couple of weddings that were held in my home parish and I sang popular wedding songs, not songs sung within a church. Dr. Kotowich really opened my eyes to how wrong it was that these pop songs were being sung in the church! Those songs can be kept for the reception and the songs for the ceremony need to be focused on God and the sacredness of the unity of two people. I even read the most recent document from the Vatican that focuses on music: Sing to the Lord. In this document, I was shocked by what the Vatican was asking and how my own home parish wasn't doing barely any of it! It really opened my eyes to the need of parishes reading these documents!
What could I change…? I am not sure what I would change. I would maybe have wanted to talk more about what was happening with the sacred music today and if it’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ as well as comparing it to how the music was when Catholicism was first starting. I feel as if the significance of music within the liturgy today has drastically changed to what it used to be.
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