When the saints go marching in

Cistercian schools are part of an ages-old tradition of learning truth, building character, and deepening knowledge. Where that happens successfully, the students' charisma speaks for itself and stretches far beyond campus.
At Cistercian Prep near Dallas, a group of senior boys called the Miracle Melodies give a few hours of their Monday mornings each week to worship and praise with the kids at Notre Dame School of Dallas. Notre Dame is for students with special needs.
These photos give an impression of the love being shared among kids formed by Catholic education and their joy in the Lord, celebrating the dignity of life and the power of hope.
Worship begins and ends with a Hail Mary ("because it's October"); inbetween the kids sing praise songs like "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "I'm Trading my Sorrows for the Joy of the Lord."

The Miracle Melodies with their form master

Here is one mesmerized listener...

Fist bumps at the end to say:
​have a great day!

Click here to see a short video about Miracle Melodies made in 2023.

Father Lebuin van Midden was a Dutch Cistercian stationed in Rome to help run the order's generalate house for roughly 50 years. In a wonderful moment of serendipity, a regional archive in North Brabant, where he was born and died, has put some of his personal photos online. This rare photographic material shows 20th-century monks in medieval tonsures in papal audiences, Cistercian abbots visiting for Vatican II and attending General Chapters, even smoking cigars: they are impressions of Cistercian life so near and yet so far away. 

Stundenbuch (Munich) - BSB Clm 28345

Medieval books of hours often include the Eight Verses of St. Bernard, a selection of psalm verses considered especially effective in banishing the devil and his tempations. Note that the Abbot of Clairvaux has the devil on a leash in this illustration. The psalm shown at right is the first in the sequence, beginning with "Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death." (Ps 12) There is a deep(er) dive about the Eight Verses here.