“Sing for your supper … songbirds always eat”. This lyric from the Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical, “The Boys from Syracuse” borrows from the ‘Little Tommy Tucker’ nursery rhyme first published in 1744. Its association with singing and children brings to mind a fund recently established at NCCF.
The Cantemus Fund has been set up to support and endow the mission of the American Federation Pueri Cantores, a chapter of the International Federation Pueri Cantores. Though not as old as Little Tommy Tucker the International Federation traces its roots to Les Petits Chanteurs a la Boix, a group of child singers organized in the early 1900s in France and inspired by the writings of St. Pius X. This musical mustard seed grew through the war-torn countries of Europe and was officially recognized by the Vatican in 1951 as an evangelical apostolate. From Gregorian chant to modern polyphonic and contemporary music the American Federation promotes liturgical singing among young Americans between the ages of eight and eighteen. Once trained these choristers gather in local, regional and national “festivals” where through their participation in the liturgy they praise God and cultivate fraternity among their peers. Every five years the choirs assemble in Rome with their international counterparts to perform at a papal Mass. As readers might imagine for these youngsters (and their parents and grandparents) this shared exposure to Beauty and to the Sacred is a life-transformative experience.
For those of us who are blind to the green shoots of ‘the new springtime’ which Pope John Paul II foresaw we would do well to click on www.pcchoirs.org. Go there and visit the YouTube recordings of young people around the globe performing uplifting music under the batons of Pueri Cantores conductors. Even the most jaded among us will be moved by the power of sacred song raised with such authentic zeal and joy. Indeed, we may rediscover our ability to ‘give reason for our hope’ as we are exhorted to do by St. Peter in that first letter attributed to him.
Operating on a shoe-string budget and relying heavily on volunteer commitment the American Federation now arranges a dozen or so “festival” Masses in cities around the country each year. In total approximately two thousand youngsters participate. Pueri Cantores aspires to increase the numbers of festivals and of participants over the course of the next few years with an ultimate goal of including ten thousand kids each year. Furthermore, Pueri Cantores hopes to attain greater involvement of kids from poor rural areas and from Hispanic communities. The Cantemus Fund at NCCF has been created to provide interested donors a means by which they can help effect and sustain this dream for our nation’s and our Church’s youngsters.
Les Petits Chanteurs a la Boix and its offshoots were empowered by faith to revive the Christian spirit in a war-weary Europe. Our nation today suffers a similar weariness, one not due to warring nations but to warring ideas. As the Christian ethos fades in our increasingly nihilist society the ‘Way’ to the ‘Truth’ and ‘Life’ is vitiated. Confusion fills the void and becomes the new and uncontested dogma of the unchurched. Will we consequently become a remnant Church? Will the persecution now experienced in other lands become commonplace here? Will the sacraments go underground and the Lord’s supper outlawed?
Or, like Old Testament incense rising to perfume the heavens will the pure chant of young choristers cajole Providence into shedding sufficient grace upon us to re-awaken our sense of the sacred, re-evangelize our clouded minds, and re-kindle our cold hearts? If so, at that time as more of us gather around the ‘Source and Summit” of our faith we will be indebted to these fledgling disciples who sang for our Supper.