{"id":5944,"date":"2012-05-29T06:46:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T10:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=5944"},"modified":"2012-05-29T12:23:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T16:23:27","slug":"father-of-liturgy-spirituality-and-the-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=5944","title":{"rendered":"Father of Liturgy, Spirituality and the Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FrMaddenMrBlue\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em>One year ago today, Father Larry Madden, probably one of the most beloved priests at our parish church, departed to meet his Maker, taking everyone by surprise. When he didn\u2019t show up to serve at Mass, a search revealed him sitting peacefully in a chair in his room, with a book in his lap. It\u2019s probably one of the top three best ways to depart this earth, but it was a shock for everyone else. At age 78, he was still energetic, youthful, and sharp as a tack.<\/p>\n

Father Madden taught theology at Georgetown University and was priest and pastor at nearby Holy Trinity Church during an especially boisterous period of disagreement over [as yet unresolved] issues about the Catholic church\u2019s teachings on women, homosexuality, and liturgical language. With the help of his sense of humor, sensitivity, and wisdom\u2014and perhaps his Jesuit training\u2014he managed to keep conversations going and minds open and moving along the road toward that hoped-for mutual understanding.\u00a0His homilies (sometimes with the participation of hand-puppet Mr. Blue) were remarkable in conveying messages of multi-level significance that reached listeners of all ages. At Holy Trinity he married hundreds of couples, baptized countless babies, and in times of trouble and joy was both an attentive listener and a thoughtful counselor. He presided at my mother-in-law\u2019s funeral (and, my husband said, \u201cI was hoping he\u2019d be around long enough to do mine.\u201d).<\/p>\n

In 1981, Father Madden was chosen to lead the new Georgetown Center for Liturgy, Spirituality and the Arts, established to explore the intersections of these realms. It was an ideal setting for his intense interest in the arts as both a path to and instrument of spirituality.\u00a0A primary concern of his supervision of renovations of the parish\u2019s aging facilities was in creating the environment to facilitate such connections.\u00a0As a parishioner I can testify that his after-Mass Adult Ed lectures on symbol and ritual were passionate and profound (at Woodstock College he was co-creator of the documentary film \u201cRitual Makers\u201d), yet his fascinating observations were inevitably interspersed with funny good old Irish storytelling.<\/p>\n

And besides all this, he sailed (including a race from California to Hawaii), sang with enthusiasm, and played piano (once, so the story goes, with Tony Bennett). I can\u2019t sing \u201cLights of the City\u201d without hearing Larry Madden\u2019s Irish tenor leading the congregation.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s playing piano for the angels. How we miss him.<\/p>\n

\"Yahrzeit3\"<\/a><\/em>Father Larry Madden<\/p>\n

\"CakeMusic\"<\/a>Emily<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year ago today, Father Larry Madden, probably one of the most beloved priests at our parish church, departed to meet his Maker, taking everyone by surprise. When he didn\u2019t show up to serve at Mass, a search revealed him sitting peacefully in a chair in his room, with a book in his lap. It\u2019sRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[62,47,17,3],"class_list":["post-5944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketchbook","tag-catholic","tag-dc","tag-penink","tag-watercolor"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5944"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5955,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions\/5955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}