The following comes from a Dec. 10 email from Thomas Aquinas College.
Bringing the joy of Advent and the promise of Christmas into the marketplace, more than 100 Thomas Aquinas College students descended on Ventura’s Pacific View Mall on Saturday for a choral “flash mob.”
After stealthily gathering around the mall’s Christmas central lobby — by the Santa Claus photo center and a Nativity display — the students simultaneously burst into song. They began with “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night,” and then concluded with “O Holy Night.” The mall’s surprised customers and employees seemed to delight in the performance, stopping whatever they were doing to take in the music, to sing along, and to cheer wildly afterward.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
To view and hear the YouTube video, click here.
We need more of this! We need to remind people that this is the Advent Season and not the gift buying season. How can one wait for the joyful hope of the Christ Child when we are all out shopping day and night?
Thanks to the college students for this flash mob!
Bob One writes: “We need more of this.”
That’s right Bob, we sure do! Take a survey about Communion rails and kneelers. What environment fostered this type of love and fidelity to Christ that these young people would go out in the mall to bring Christ into the pagan world? Bob One, Didn’t you once cavalierly write that it was the bishop’s pleasure to place a Tabernacle wherever he wanted to? Where is the tabernacle located in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity? Bob did you ever take a survey to notice that there is a Communion rail and kneelers for these students to kneel down and show their profound gratefulness, loyalty and humility when receiving Our Lord? They are not seeking validation from the community, they are seeking salvation from Almighty God.
These rich traditions teach profoundly and they have been removed from many of our churches. You cannot just admire the flash mob showing up at the mall without first reflecting on the many teaching traditions that have been thrown away or tossed aside as if they had no merited value in imbuing and then sharing the rich depths of our Catholic Faith. These beautiful but discarded traditions are what inspire and help Catholic college students to look past themselves and bring the Light of Christ to the world.
What a nasty response to Bob One, who wrote a very nice comment. Not sure what is in the heart of this one.
Mr. Anonymous, are you sure you don’t post on this web-site using another name? Your comment (“What a nasty response to Bob One, who wrote a very nice comment. Not sure what is in the heart of this one.”) certainly fits the sentence structure and word usage of a few others we know oh so well on this web-site.
Catherine, thank you for pointing this out! St. Thomas Aquinas students also have the Mass in the EF on their campus and a newly built “bowling lane” chapel! I cry for the children of today who do not understand their faith, not only because of what is or isn’t taught in religious ed classes, but mostly because of what they are erroneously being taught simply by attending Mass each Sunday. (Think about the child who has never experienced kneeling to receive our Lord and Savior!)
Tracy, You are right. “(Think about the child who has never experienced kneeling to receive our Lord and Savior!)”
Romans 14:11 For it is written: As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Douay-Rheims
Ephesians 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Douay-Rheims
Philippians 2:10 That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Douay-Rheims
sup·pli·ca·tion
ˌsəpliˈkāSHən – noun
1. the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.
“he fell to his knees in supplication”
2 Chronicles 7:14 (Douay-Rheims)
14 And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.
I love it! Brings more joy to the season….
Thomas Aquinas College students are truly the best!! Thank you, TAC students, for sharing your wonderful Christmas spirit with people throughout Ventura County and far beyond – a beautiful gift to the world!
Thomas Aquinas College teaching by example in Southern California. Wonderful Catholics.
My parents told me, many years ago when I was a baby, and had to be in the hospital, that carolers, including Les Brown came by to sing Christmas hymns to the patients, both young and old.. When I was in high school, our class went to nursing homes, and the local hospital where we sang Christmas carols. Once in a while groups of singers would parade down our street, singing Christmas carols.This practice has sadly died away, but thank goodness Thomas Aquinas College went to a mall in order to try and put Christ back into Christmas. The ACLU and other atheistic terrorists will never succeed in totally destroying our Catholic heritage, even though at times it looks like they are winning. May God reward the students and faculty of Thomas Aquinas College for this beautiful gift they gave the people of Ventura.
Father,
This weekend, I attended a MIles Christi retreat at which I had the pleasure of sharing a room with a young man from JPII College. He like those at St. Thomas Aquinas College are the future of His Church!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Very beautiful. Beauty is a wonderful way to inspire people to be good.
Wonderful.
Would these beautiful students please go to the nearest abortion mill next time?
100 Flash mob young people surrounding an abortion mill would stop the killing for that day—and Joy to the World could really be sung!
Please consider this.
Jesse good of you to encourage these youth to try what you asked. The birth of Jesus…..a true joy and now saving an unborn too would add more to that precious Nativity scene with whom the whole world looks forward to.
Well I’m sure they also do that at well, pray for the unborn, now them singing Christmas hymn’s at Malls sure adds more to the peace and joy we all need to be reminded of….Jesus birthday.
I was visiting a very busy Mall over the weekend and there were no Christmas carolers there…so this news is a positive one and joy to read about…..Thanks CCD for reporting on it.
Jesse, these students do go to the abortion mill! Please consider, however, that their presence in the mall may have had the same effect in saving lives from abortion. Abortion exist because our culture has lost its sense of the sacred.
Actually, a number of us did go to the abortion clinic right afterwards to sing many more carols!
Cheer up, Jesse, it is CHRISTmas!!
TAC has been a great college for 40 years – it was even a great college prior to 2009 – when the new chapel, kneelers and all, was constructed.
I hope it encourages Jesse to know that TAC students regularly post vigil at abortion mills, but I hope he doesn’t expect us to account to him for the minute-by-minute use of our time. If so, it is likely the minutes spent posting to California Catholic Daily would have better uses.