A weeklong Sacred Art and Music Camp culminated with a Friday evening Mass on Aug. 1 at Gahanna St. Matthew the Apostle Church.
The votive Mass to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on the first Friday was chanted from the opening prayer to the final blessing, including the Psalm by the choir, the first reading by seminarian Jacob Wilson and the Gospel by Deacon Joe Meyer.
There was no organ accompaniment at the Mass and all of the text was sung whenever possible.
The camp was based on the Chant Camp format designed by Canticle.org, a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops-approved apostolate based in southern California. The art portion was added to provide diversity of interest for students who participated.
“It just felt that art and music go together too,” said Dawn Shininger, the camp organizer and director of music at St. Matthew.
A maximum 50 students registered and each day an average of 42-44 campers were in attendance. Six diocesan parishes were represented: St. Matthew, New Albany Church of the Resurrection, Columbus St. Patrick, Delaware St. Mary and Columbus St. Catharine churches and Columbus St. Leo the Great Oratory. Student ages ranged from third grade to recent high school graduates.
The day camp ran from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday with sessions on sacred music, which was prepared for Mass celebrated at the end of the week.
The sacred art created by the campers was blessed at the end of Friday’s Mass for them to take home. Students wrote an icon of the Face of Jesus, which was a process developed as a homeschool project and found online.
Students also received blessed religious articles to take home to place in their home altar or sacred space area. Included were Theophany water from the Melkite tradition (holy water from the Eastern rite church), tealight beeswax candles blessed in February at Candlemas, blessed/exorcised salt, a blessed/exorcised St. Benedict medal, and prayer cards/booklets that contained a picture of all articles in the album.
Sessions were interspersed with recreation and lunch. The Angelus was prayed at noon.
Each day began with a brief talk from the parish pastor or staff about the topics incorporated into the camp. Father Ted Sill, the parish pastor, spoke about the spirituality of icons; Shininger discussed sung prayer and active silence in the Mass and in personal prayer time; and Rob Saley, the parish director of evangelization, talked about liturgical living at home.
At the end of each day, midday prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours were led by one of the parish priests. Students learned how to recite the psalms in common while alternating sides.
Shininger said she received positive feedback from parents and parishioners, who look forward to next year’s camp slated for the first week of August with a Marian theme in art and music.
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