Organ Concert – Piotr Rachoń
September 28, 2011
Organ Concert – Piotr Rachoń – September 25
August 31, 2011
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St. Florian Parish presents
Piotr Rachoń – Principal Organist
Cathedral-Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Warsaw, Poland
Performing works by composers:
- Bach
- Walther
- Vivaldi
- Brahms
- Sawa
- Rączkowski
Sunday, September 25, 2011 – 3:00 p.m.
Free Admission
Is a graduate of the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw where he earned two master degrees in music (cum laude), one from the academy’s Piano, Harpsichord and Organ Department in 1994, and the other from the school’s Church Music Division in 2004. Thanks to a grant from the Italian Government and the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art, he underwent training at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna in 1994. He is also a 1999 alumnus of the Papal Theological Department’s Institute of Professional Organ Training in Warsaw. Postgraduate studies in organ performance took place with Prof. Andrzej Chorosiński at Warsaw’s Academy of Music in 2006.
Rachoń leads an active concert life performing as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist both in Poland and abroad (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, Spain and Turkey). Among his artistic achievements are CD recordings made in Poland and Germany. At 2008 together with Michele Croese organized master classes in Italy (Perinaldo) during which young students from Warsaw had opportunity to play on original Italian historical organs and study Italian music. Since 2002, Rachoń has been an organist at the Warsaw Archdiocesan Cathedral-Basilica of St. John the Baptist, and since 2006, he has been the cathedral’s principal organist. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Cardinal Wyszyński University. He has also been a member of the Archdiocese of Warsaw’s Church Music Commission since 2004.
In August 2008, Piotr Rachoń, a grantee of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, begins his doctoral studies as a scholarship student and teaching assistant at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. In Texas he will pursue studies in music performance under the tutelage of the internationally famous organist Robert Bates.
You are Invited
June 2, 2011
I have always felt that there should never be an obstacle which prevents a person from going to church to pray. I have asked myself, “Is it right that stores and bars are open all day and the doors of the church, where people go to pray, are kept locked?”
It is unfortunate, because of circumstances we cannot control, that the doors must be locked during the day. But there is one day a week, Friday, during which we keep these doors open to allow everyone a chance to respond to the invitation of Jesus to come and be with him. However, this brings up another issue: can we have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament when the church is empty? This was addressed by Redemptoris Sacramentum. The document is clear, in No. 138: “Still, the Most Holy Sacrament, when exposed, must never be left unattended even for the briefest space of time. It should therefore, be arranged that at least some of the faithful always be present at fixed times, even if they take alternating turns.”
Therefore what can we do in order to answer Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28)? The solution is to take the opportunity to commit and sign up for a specific adoration time. The sign-up sheet can be found in the vestibule of the church. Please consider a serious commitment to this ministry of prayer.
Pierwsza Komunia Święta
May 21, 2011
W ubiegłą niedzielę 15 maja czternaścioro dzieci z naszej parafii przystąpiło do Pierwszej Komunii Świętej. Wszystkim dzieciom i rodzicom serdecznie gratulujemy, jednocześnie składamy gorące podziękowania dla ks. Mirosława Frankowskiego za przygotowanie dzieci do tego sakramentu. Szczęść Wam Boże!
A Bold Choice
May 10, 2011
Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken” is studied in many English classes. Countless school children have memorized and recited back the four stanzas that constitute the work. The 1920 composition is remembered most for its final three lines: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” Taking the road less traveled has become synonymous with making bold choices in life that are in some ways counter-cultural. More than thirty years ago, M. Scott Peck even turned that image into an attempt to merge psychoanalysis and spirituality (along with a host of other things) into what would become a best-selling book. So successful was Peck’s book, that the actual title of the Frost poem is now confused in Internet searches and Web pages with the bestseller.
Thomas and Philip were also a bit confused in today’s Gospel. Jesus had to make plain to them that he is the way and the truth and the life that leads to the Father. Jesus clarified his interaction with the Father when he said to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). But the ultimate promise that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel is about the power that resides in the Christian. Jesus says that whoever believes in him will do greater works because Jesus is returning to the Father.
When John wrote his Gospel he was not shy about the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus handed over to believers. That Spirit of God dwells in each of the baptized and empowers us to do the works of Christ. Those who were baptized at the Easter vigil just a few weeks ago, now share in that same out-pouring of the Holy Spirit that is within all of us who renewed our baptismal promises. God is there ready to work within us. Let’s take that
road!
