In my experience, observing the feast of the woman most cited as a patron saint of music has been an on and off thing over the years.
In my last archdiocese, there were annual gatherings. I remember one on the half-year, May 22nd. That doesn’t seem too bad, given that every five, six, or eleven years, the observance falls on Thanksgiving. And just as often on the eve of that holiday.
Pre-pandemic, our parish’s music ministry was usually one of the longest-travelled groups–most of the gatherings were along the Seattle-Tacoma axis. Our parish was definitely off the path. The last time around, November two years ago, I offered to host, but I think the virus spared the NPM braintrust a difficult decision to let us host a much smaller edition, or to keep it where more of their active parishes had better “access.” (If you count interstate 5 an accessible thoroughfare.)
Our parish’s regular prayer time before Mass and at rehearsal always concluded with an invocation for the saint, and our response, “Pray for us.”
The feast seems to have snuck up on me this year. It’s the one thing I find I miss the most this week: those November 22nd gatherings with other musicians. I haven’t heard if they do this in my new metro area.
Image credit: By Guercino – WQHZBrhxayUygg at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22000140
Catholic Sensibility 