Transcript of CS#110: Sr. Anne Flannigan Daughters of St Paul

Transcript of Interview with Sr. Anne Flannigan from the Daughters of St Paul about In Paradisum Chant and other music from the Daughters of St. Paul. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com

Listen Now to the audio version of the show.

In Paradisum Chant – Ever Ancient Ever New (CD) at The Catholic Company.

http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/5003284/Paradisum-Chant-Ever-Ancient-Ever-New-CD/

———————————

Chris Cash: Welcome to Catholic Spotlight. This is the Catholic Spotlight, the show where we talk about what’s new, cool and exciting in the Catholic marketplace. I’m your host Chris Cash, director of E-Commerce for catholiccompany.com, your source for all your Catholic needs.

Today in the Spotlight, we have Sister Anne Flanagan from the Daughters of Saint Paul, famous for their book stores and with their awesome *choir* [00:47]. Welcome Sister Anne.

Anne Flanagan: Oh, thank you, Chris. Thank you.

Chris Cash: You know Sister Anne I think this is the first time that I’ve interviewed someone who could be considered a competitor. *** [00:58]

Anne Flanagan: No, no we consider this a collaboration, profound collaboration. The people who helped to distribute the productions of daughters of Saint Paul are important collaborators in your mission, because you make us present where we cannot be or where we’re just not as adept at meeting the needs. So, thank you very much, keep it up.

Chris Cash: Well and I always tell people if – when someone asks me where they should go to get something, I say patronize your local stores, because you know…

Anne Flanagan: Isn’t that the truth? Oh.

Chris Cash: We all, every one of us out there in the Catholic book business, we have to feed our families. And certainly I want to feed my family but the local stores have to be able to feed their families too and it would be a tragedy I think for any of us you know to go out of business. Every single store is much needed and we need more out there to really meet the needs of the individual communities that we cater to. You know I cater to the online community; you cater to the community of downtown Chicago, which – you know you guys have a wonderful store down there. I have visited it several times when I used to live in Chicago area, and it was always a great treat to go in.

Anne Flanagan: And now that they’ve you know opened Millennium Park just on the next corner, that’s been very helpful in bringing people at least by our store friends. And they see the list of the cities where we’re located. Maybe they are coming in from Germany and they’ll come in and say, I know your sisters in *** [02:29] for *** [02:30] and there were people from Korea. Oh, we know this is sisters from Seoul or from Italy and even Moscow. You know people come by and recognize that the daughters of Saint Paul are present in their own home. You know so that’s a really unique thing about our location here downtown.

Chris Cash: Now, can you talk just a little to start with about what is the Daughters of Saint Paul? What is it that they do? What’s their charism? ‘Cause you know I involve, every time I see the Daughters of Saint Paul I just get excited?

Anne Flanagan: Oh, well, our founder said that the mission of the Pauline Family, because we are actually part of a multitude of congregations founded by Blessed James Alberione. And he called it the Pauline Family, a family that takes its inspiration from Saint Paul. And so, the mission of the Pauline Family is to be Paul present in the world today. So, what Paul would do in the world to make Jesus Christ and him crucified known, loved and intimately lived by people to spread the gospel through all the means that are available. And of course, in the past 10 years those means have you know quintupled right before our eyes and they is – you know by the time this conversation is over, there will be new means available which just blows my mind. We’re not just to use these means, but we’re to *consequent* [03:52] them through using them for the gospel. We’re to pray for the professional media people and technicians, you know computer technologist who are developing new program. We have a responsibility to support them spiritually, so that they’ll use their talents for the greater good. Something that’s extremely important, that were highlighted in the Holy Fathers New Social Encyclical. You know that all of these great means of development belong to everybody, not everybody right now has access or you know any kind of access to them and yet, you know these are our patrimony. So, you know to pray that these means will used wisely and well and made available, it’s all part of our charisms and he put it all under a Eucharistic spirituality. Because he said Jesus is the way, the truth and life. Now he is the one we need to follow, he is the one we need to believe and learn from, he is the teacher, but he is actually our life.

And so, in our mission to, it’s bringing people so that they hear the teachings of Jesus. They conform in their lives to the teachings of Jesus and they live by the grace of god, and that’s summed up in his Eucharistic presence. So, Jesus is always teaching us, always bringing us into closer conformity to his own choices, his own thought patters, you can even say. His own value system, which is to give yourself away as a gift of love. So, that’s our charism.

Chris Cash: And that was quite a mouthful, but you know it is – you’re such a visible present in me, and I just love that you know. Now, you’re involved in New Media quite a bit, that we have met previously on Facebook and Twitter, but we recently got together at the Catholic New Media celebration down in San Antonio. Yes.

Anne Flanagan: And met in person.

Chris Cash: I know, it so interesting to actually get to see all the people in person who you listen to and tweet with on a regular basis online, so.

Anne Flanagan: Exactly. It’s amazing, yes.

Chris Cash: Now, what got you involved with new media?

Anne Flanagan: Actually – wait, back when e-mail first started *** [06:18] comments. You know like we’re talking like 1995 when pretty much everybody was starting to get online. And it was like 1997, *** [06:28]…

Chris Cash: Those of you who were slow.

Anne Flanagan: Well, yes. But the year the Vatican started their Website, we started our Website. And I was on the team for that just because I was just fascinated by technology. And I sort picked up HTML in trying to see what could we do with this or how could we do it. And in 1998, I was chosen to participate in an international course on charism in Rome, and at the same time the Vatican approached our community and said we need some sisters to help create a Website for the jubilee here. And so, I was part of that team working for the Vatican’s Website. They had a special website just for the jubilee, and so I was part of that team for two and a half years. And so, it was while working right there down the streets were saying Peters *** [07:18] over my left shoulder there outside of the window. Then I just spend lot of time online seeing how does this work, what are people doing with it. I started a blog, I started a Website back then in 1999. Then I started blogging and you know kind of moved into you know these other forms of communication as they developed, and it just seems like I’m really not in the great shakes but I am watching. I’m seeing what people are doing and learning how this works. And then, I kind of share that with my sisters and give them a leg up, because we need to be there, we need to be part of the scene and we need to know what we are bringing about. So, that’s kind of the history of my involvement with new media.

Chris Cash: So, have you gotten many of your sisters online with Facebook or…?

Anne Flanagan: Oh, yes there is – oh, we’ve got – there is about maybe half a dozen of us on Twitter. *** [06:15] is on Twitter. That’s always you know a nice thing. And 40 or so of us on Facebook, about – I would say maybe two dozen blog, its depending on the sisters you know talent, time. You know time is a big factor, because it’s all you know pretty much done in spare moments. And we’re – we all have maybe three or five jobs that we are doing. So, but I’m just pleased that how many people we’ve been able to meet ‘em. And I’m pretty sure that you know within a year or two we’ll be having our first you know Twitter vocations coming in, which is really nice. We keep in touch with a lot of young women who are in *discernment* [09:05] through Facebook through the Ustream, different things that we carry out. So…

Chris Cash: That is just incredible. You know it is always so amazing to see how we can use these new technologies to foster things like vocations too. So…

Anne Flanagan: Well, that’s where people look first. Now they – their first thing is they go around lurking on YouTube looking for vocation videos. You know so, very, very interesting. I used to stay in the past a model for evangelization and you can say this to for vocational with a *** [09:44], back then was you know you cast out a net and you bring in the *** [09:47] you know, but now the fish are casting in the net. They are looking actively. People who are interested in the Catholic faith, they don’t wait for the church to come to them, they go online and they look for a Catholic who is ready to answer their questions. You know so, they are going in search and young people who are thinking about vocation, they are going in search of a community that matches who they are interiorly. That matches their interior charism, because you know that’s essential to vocation of the *** [10:16]. If they’re a spiritual match and so they are going looking for that match, and kind of interesting.

Chris Cash: And I would imagine that anybody who is lurking around YouTube is probably going to be perfect match from the Daughters of Saint Paul.

Anne Flanagan: I don’t know. I think everybody is there now. I don’t think it’s – I would not be surprised if people looking on YouTube for information on *** [10:43] or communities, not at all.

Chris Cash: Oh, this is true, but just from the standpoint of the people who are interested in technology.

Anne Flanagan: It would be a sign of a match, yes.

Chris Cash: A good indicator. Well, rather than just talking about vocations and such, we did want to talk today about some of Sister Anne’s personal accomplishments and publications, you know since we do usually talk about that on our show. So, we’re going to talk briefly here about the online Theology of the Body Study group is going on. Which this isn’t something you’re going to find in a bookstore, but it’s definitely something that’s very interesting going on with the Daughters. And then, Sister Anne is also an author of some children’s books as well as a renowned recording artist. So, well, we’re going to do that in a minute. Can – why don’t we start by talking about the theology of the body study group?

Anne Flanagan: Oh, sure. That came out of part of me lurking on online looking at what the people in the Star Quest production network were doing. And seeing you know how they were using You String. And I was like wow; I think we can do something like that. A few years ago a friend of mine actually donated a camcorder and another benefactor *** [12:12] Max. And so, we put the two together and invited Father Thomas Loya over to meet with the group and take that big book of Pope John Paul II, so the original talks that he gave that new translation that’s out. And so, well, this book is intimidating. And yet, the theology of the body is the best message we have for the world today. I mean, saving people’s lives and their souls. So, let’s use this You String capacity to help people who are beyond the Chicago where you can’t come to our bookstore for a class or you know study group. Let’s put it online.

And so, every month now and we’re having a little summer break, we’ll start up again in second week of August. People get together here, we set up the camera and we go live with just a chapter by chapter study of the theology of the body. And people all over the country are – even in Europe can join us live. As if they are in the room hearing Father Loya explain some of these passages or what’s behind this expression or what’s the theology behind this. And so, you have like a – almost like a book that comes with a free teacher. Just joining up on this Ustream Channel that we set. Its ustream.tv/channel/theology-of-the-body. And in fact if people go there now, they’ll see the archives of some of those previous classes that we had last year. Sometimes we had technical difficultly in only part of you know – this happens. Part of the class got recorded or somebody was engaging Sister Helena too much in the chat room and the computer kept crashing. You know we don’t how we’ve managed to get it archived, but we – you know when we realized something goes wrong, oops start it up again. And let’s get it going.

We get about 10 or 20 people here and then another 20 or 30 usually join us online for that. I think…

Chris Cash: Which is quite a group for any single Bible study.

Anne Flanagan: That’s a study the theology of the body. You know ‘cause once people understand, once they’re – well, let’s say catch the Theology of the Body book, you know you can’t stop but share with other people. Its like this extraordinary messages, do you know what the Catholic Church really teaches? Nobody does. That’s why people can you know shrug it off or reject it’s, ‘cause they not a clue. The honest meaning, all this beauty of – all this you know Trinitarians spirituality. It’s like all comes together in the theology of the body. Can you tell ‘em I really, really believe in the theology of the body?

Chris Cash: And you know what I think is just really incredible about what you’re doing with like Ustream and YouTube is you know you are engaging the culture in places that are popular hangout spot already. So, you know someone going in and doing a search for vocations on YouTube is going to find you or someone who is going and just browsing around on Ustream saying hey, what’s recording now. They might end up in the theology of the body class and not even know what they’re getting into.

Anne Flanagan: And then we get them.

Chris Cash: Absolutely, you know…

Anne Flanagan: It’s like oh, – ‘cause I remember the – when Pope John Paul started giving those talks, I had just made my vow. And we would read the Pope’s talks out loud after a meal. And I was just so struck, its like wow. Nobody has ever said anything like this before. And it – and it was so for me as a woman, it was so woman for me. It was so opposite what the culture was saying woman ought to be, or ought to pursue, and so much more meaningful and fulfilling. It just struck me profoundly you know then and there right after first vow, so I’m just so delighted to have found a way that I can share this with innumerable other people. You know pay attention, hey folks, guess what, we’ve got some really extraordinary news for you. You know and then once people hear it, they are just blown away.

Chris Cash: Right, so those of you who are interested be sure to go on and check that out sometime this August. August 17th you said first *** [16:42] up?

Anne Flanagan: I think its going to start again this 2nd Saturday at 10:00 in the morning, Chicago time, so 10:00 central time.

Chris Cash: And then, it will be at your Ustreams channel based on that.

Anne Flanagan: It will on the channel, yes.

Chris Cash: All right, so we’ll make sure there is a link to that in the show notes as well.

Anne Flanagan: Oh, wonderful. *** [17:04].

Chris Cash: Moving on, let’s talk a little about your children’s book. You know you’ve written several children’s books. What got you involved in doing that in particular? Do you just write the text? You write the text and draw the pictures; you know tell us about it?

Anne Flanagan: Oh, well, the children’s writing started really 1987; I was appointed editor of our children magazine My Friend, which now has morphed into kind of a book fair program called JClub. And anyway I was editor of My Friend Magazine for 10 years, and so that was 10 issues a year of trying to come up with content. And so, many of the books that we put out there as coloring books, activity books, things like that, those originally were written for My Friend Magazine. And I would write story and give indications to the artist. I can’t draw to save my life. So, I would tell the artist what we needed you know. But the children’s adoration book, that came out during the – I was writing that during the year of the Eucharist, and I had gone to an event that was promoted as adoration for teens. And it turned out to be very disappointing; it was just a young priest preaching an internally long sermon. And it was in *** [18:26] with Decades of the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. All before it was a sacrament exposed on the alter. And I was like oh my goodness, poor people. If this is young people’s introduction to adoration, I don’t think you’re going to get too many of them making that a way of life and prayer. But since I am more trained now right for younger children, I said well, what I can do is provide a book for younger children. Introduce them to your Christian adoration. And actually use our spirituality, the way our founder gave us kind of a structure for adoration. Oh, it’s kind of a Skelton that you can work with, an outline.

And so, I created the book called Come to Jesus, a kid’s book for Eucharist Adoration, which has three complete outlines in this what we call Pauline methodology of way truth and life approach to Eucharistic prayer. Which includes the whole scripture passage, each of these outlines is complete for a whole hour of Adoration, based on one scripture, one gospel story. And so, it presents to the child to the gospel to Jesus teaching in the gospel. He is still teaching you don’t have to give long sermons. It’s Jesus who is teaching. And then, kind of going back and forth with this gospel story then applying it to life and using the child’s imagination to enter into the scene Jesus need you. How do you respond in your everyday lives when you’re simply there in school?

And then, teaching them this you know mind, will and heart going to Jesus and the Eucharist. Giving yourself mind, will and heart to Jesus who gives himself to you as way truth and life. And all within a kind of an overarching structure based on the mass with the Liturgy of the word, where we receive the word of god and respond to it. And the Liturgy of the Eucharist where we give the lord thanks and praise. And we look forward to our next Holy Communion, because the church has said Eucharist Adoration has to always be re-directed towards participation in the mass. So that we are always clear that Eucharist *** [20:37] comes from mass and our adoration propels us back to the mass, so we live a Eucharistic life. So, that’s what I attempted to do in that book. I still think there is something needed for teens that does something like that too.

Chris Cash: And you know I know there is a lot more than we can talk about on the books, but unfortunately we are running short on time. And if we don’t take a break now for our sponsor, we’re going to end up missing everything about the music. So, we’re going to take a break now, we’ll be back in just a minute to speak more with Sister Anne Flanagan from the Daughters of Saint Paul. This is the Catholic Spotlight.

[Break]

[MUSIC]

Chris Cash: And we’re back on the Catholic Spotlight with Sister Anne Flanagan. And what you are hearing now is some of the beautiful tones of the Daughters of Saint Paul in their singing. How many Daughters are involved in your singing group?

Anne Flanagan: There is kind of a pool of about 15 sisters, so depending on you know availability for a particular recording project. There is usually 10 or 12 sisters that are involved in any one recording, but about 15 of us that are a part of that group.

Chris Cash: So, tell me how this recording group thing got started?

Anne Flanagan: Well, back in 1983, we put a new building up at our Motherhouse and included underground a beautiful state of the art sound studio. And began looking to see who can help us make this – use of this magnificent space. And we across a pair of professional producers who agreed to kind of tutor us, and that gave us the opportunity a few years down the line to put out an album, which we call Handmaiden of the Lord. We wanted to start off this mission in honoring our Lady. And it was the Marian year, 1987, so we started our first big time album, Handmaiden of the Lord. And just every year or so, put out a new album. Favorite Catholic Hymns. Most recently we’ve been doing Catholic favorite, there’s two volumes of that so for. Lots of Christmas albums, because we do a Christmas concert series, so we get – we have a large repertory of Christmas music. And we just started doing the kind of a new approach; the first album in this new approach is called In Paradisum. After the song of Go Forth to Paradise that is sung at funerals, we took that beautiful title In Paradisum. And chose some of our favorite chants pieces and a few other hymns, and gave it a bit of a contemporary sort of edge. So, its sort of, I would say, “Enya meets Gregorian Chant” sound. In order to – you know if you want straight chants that’s available amongst – all over the world are putting out chant albums, but this is taking chant. It’s the way we would pray the chant kind of in a more spontaneous or freer way. Meditating on certain themes that get repeated you know in the – in an instrument base, which *** [26:49] are on instruments of chant.

And this is delightful to work on. Sister Julia Darrenkamp and I chose the hymn for that album In Paradisum and then gave the ranger some instructions. Take this musical phrase and weave it into instruments in someway, so that throughout the song you know this whole phrase is coming back *** [27:11]. I just think it’s a fabulous, fabulous album. So, we’re going to do two more like that this summer, god wiling and more it’s more Christmas pieces, so I’m getting ready. I’m trying to keep in voice for that project. I’m one of the *** [27:27] on that group.

Chris Cash: And of course the music that we played a minute ago is from In Paradisum, so.

Anne Flanagan: It is, it’s from In Paradisum, yes.

Chris Cash: So…

Anne Flanagan: And that’s Sister Julia and I singing – I don’t if you‘ve heard that just a little lead in, but that was Sister Julia and I.

Chris Cash: Excellent. Now, you guys have done a quite a few different things also including being involved in a movie project with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Well, tell us a little about how that came to happen and what kind of interesting things happened during that *movie* [28:10]?

Anne Flanagan: Sure. That actually – it was the movie Noel. It was a Christmas film that came up – came out a couple of years ago. It was directed by Chazz Palminteri, the actor who usually plays kind of *** [28:21] heavy, even in commercials. He is actually a very sweet person. Well, Chazz is the honorary chair person of our New York Christmas concert. And so, when he decided to do a Christmas movie, he was looking for a way to involve the Daughters of St. Paul, just out of the goodness of his heart. And so, he incorporated one of our songs, our version of Angels we’ve heard on *** [28:48]. He got to number the sisters on the screen and in the opening and closing shots. And then, he had Menken and Schwartz write some original music for the credit. And they flew us to New York; we had to join the Screen Actors Guild for a day to be able to do this. And then, if *** [29:04] to New York to the little studio, actually Big Studio in a little building. And so, we were singing this while they actually played the tracks right on to the movie, and the movie was playing in the control room. Well, it was kind of fun for us, the professionals there were worried since they are getting these nuns and they were not sure if were going to be able to manage, to you know really get the job done.

And we learned the music and we got in, well you just *** [29:34] you know. We got in we did a run through and Schwartz looks up at me and he goes, this is going to rock, this is really going to rock. And we played this tracks and I don’t know in maybe two takes, had to correct some of their Latin pronunciations, but you know we did that. And so, it was kind of a little bit of a triumph, you know feeling there. You know we – they were expecting to stay there until midnight and we were out there by 6:00, 6:30 in the afternoon, we got there at 5:00. So, it was quicker than it was anticipated, but that was really fun. And it was fun going to actually see the movie in the theaters and see our names come up in the credit afterwards.

Chris Cash: Well, that’s what those credit for, right?

Anne Flanagan: That’s what – that’s exactly what they are for, but you know since one of the Daughters of Saint Paul and you know. So, that’s happened a few times.

Chris Cash: That – have you gotten…

Anne Flanagan: We’ve been – we’ve had our music used for a few movies. *** [30:29] with Susan Sarandon. They used our little drummer boy, and oh, actually a *** [30:36]. That was how we got connected with Chazz Palminteri, because he used our Ave Maria in a funeral scene of the *** [30:44]. And that was our – how we began this connection with him. So, that’s our – kind of our movie history.

Chris Cash: And obviously, you haven’t let it go to your head you know.

Anne Flanagan: Oh, goodness. I don’t know maybe if he movie had done a little better, maybe we would have been tempted. Yes, no loss Chris for us, yes.

Chris Cash: But and there’s more – the only movie I can think of – block buster I can of think of recently with that type of music would probably have fit in you know. Anything else you want to share with our listeners about what’s going in with the music group or anything else that’s going on with the sisters?

Anne Flanagan: Well, this – yes, we’d hope that you all will keep in touch with us, especially if you are in the east coast. Our Christmas concert series is a lot of fun. We usually sing in Staten Island and sometimes in Brooklyn and maybe New Jersey, sometimes and which parishes have been able to arrange with us. And then Philadelphia and then Boston. So, there is a chance for you to attend you know those concerts. You’ll find the information on the Daughters of Saint Paul Website, which currently is renovated. On a Facebook, you can look us up on Facebook – our choir has a Facebook fan page and you’ll be able to be in touch with us through that.

Chris Cash: And your Twitter is your *A nun* [32:11] blogger on Twitter.

Anne Flanagan: A nunblogger on Twitter, yes, nunblogger.

Chris Cash: So, any number of ways you can get a hold of Sister Anne, especially if you are movie producers out there who want to actually…

Anne Flanagan: That’s right. All you big time movie producers, we got ideas for you. Just give us a call. If you – you know and we’ve got Sister Helena who I lived with in community here, she’s a screen writer. And has just gotten to go ahead to create a documentary on our founder, Father James Alberione. So, any movie makers out there who want to collaborate with us on that project or support it in anyway, you just get in touch with us. That’ll be great.

Chris Cash: Absolutely. You know that sounds so much fun. Well, Sister Anne it is been a real pleasure to get to talk to you again. And we will let people know where they can get your CD’s, and book and all that in the show notes. All you fans of the Catholic Spotlight out there, be sure to go on over to Podcast Alley and vote for the show and help us get in front of new people, you can also join fan page over on Facebook or very recently we have started our own Twitter feed and that is at catholicsplight – couldn’t quite get the Spot in there, it was too long. Catholicsplight@Twitter. One of these I’m going to get organized and also that maybe we will be able to do some of these interviews on Ustream and be able to have a live audience. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Anne Flanagan: Well, thank you, Chris.

Chris Cash: But you are very welcome. You have a great day, god bless.

Anne Flanagan: God bless, bye, bye.

———————————
Transcript of Interview with Sr. Anne Flannigan from the Daughters of St Paul about In Paradisum Chant and other music from the Daughters of St. Paul. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com

Listen Now to the audio version of the show.

In Paradisum Chant – Ever Ancient Ever New (CD) at The Catholic Company.

http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/5003284/Paradisum-Chant-Ever-Ancient-Ever-New-CD/