Your Diocese

LISLE—The foundation for peace casts a shadow over the heart of Jerusalem, where the desire for peace between Israel and Palestine wages war against political realities. Here lies the Dormition Abbey, which is built on the slopes of Mount Zion—a holy place where Christianity, Judaism and Islam coalesce. In Christian and Jewish traditions, the towering 2,381-foot-tall mound of rock is revered because the Room of the Last Supper lies just outside the Dormition Abbey, also known as the Benedictine Basilica of the Dormition, and behind the Franciscan house on Sion. It’s the place of King David’s tomb; it’s the place where the apostles received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost—the Upper Room; it’s the site of the Blessed Mother’s final moments on earth.

The rich biblical traditions of Judaism and Christianity abound at the site, while Muslim believers hail the same spot where the Twin Gates—the Gate of Mercy and the Gate of Repentance—were constructed and where Allah is said to have offered his final judgment.

With so much culture, faith, hope and dreams flourishing in the midst of death and destruction, Abbot Dismas Kalcic of St. Procopious Abbey in Lisle said he was not surprised by a cry for peace from Israeli and Palestinian youth at a 2003 conference at Dormition Abbey. Having realized a shared human experience, which worked to tear down the walls of hate and political differences, the teens petitioned the monks for a peace academy, for a neutral zone, he said.

Thus began a campaign designed to encourage peaceful expressions of culture, prayer and faith. At the heart of the matter is a desire to pray for the sake of peace, which inspired a global movement as lyrical as the cherubs that sing in heaven to support a campaign to construct a peace academy called Beit Benedict Interfaith Peace Academy on the last available parcel of land on Mount Zion. The 4-year-old altruistic venture is aimed at attracting capital investors and private donors to provide the financial backing for a project charged with a mission of promoting peace within its walls. The architectural design calls for an auditorium, numerous classrooms and meeting rooms to meet the needs of peace-seeking visitors.

The commitment to peace and prayer attracted more than philanthropic-minded financial seeders; it motivated a musical articulation of the craving for peace at the place where it’s most needed: on the streets of Jerusalem, the center of mounting hostility and a mutual longing for the kind of peace only God can provide. What started as a handful of enthusiastic visitors to the Dormition Abbey, turned into a full-time project for fundraiser Helene Paharik, a pastoral associate in the Diocese of Greensburg, Pa. Having accepted responsibility in 2005 for energizing the capital campaign to make the dream of Beit Bendict Interfaith Peace Academy come true, she roused the enthusiasm of a liturgical minister in the Diocese of Greensburg, Tom Octave, a baritone soloist and vocal performer at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., and conductor.

Relying on his God-given talent in music, Octave said he embraced the peace project and sang its praises to friend and colleague, Nancy Galbraith, a world renowned composer out of Carnegie Mellon University. Aware of her history in sacred musical compositions, Octave said it wasn’t difficult to persuade her to join the movement, using her talent as a springboard to celebrate peace in the Middle East. A year ago, Octave commissioned Galbraith to compose a piece for the benefit of Beit. The result was “Novena,” an original oratorio that expresses the prayerful longing for peace among the three monotheistic religions for which Mount Zion serves as a holy place.

The 45-minute oratorio made its debut April 29 at St. Procopious Abbey. The monks have adopted the project to initiate peace in the region. The abbey serves as foundation headquarters for the project in the United States, said Abbot Kalcic.

The composer first conducted a mountain of research on the religious implications of Mount Zion, Octave said. She settled on the idea of reflecting the Catholic novena tradition, which is modeled after the nine days of prayer by the apostles in the Upper Room before the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Paharik said, “ ‘Novena’ is scored for a vocal quartet, three flutes, English horn, three clarinets, two percussionists, piano and strings.”

English horn aficionado and associate professor of music and chair of the department of music at Benedictine University, Alicia Cordoba Tait, was invited to perform in the world premier. Galbraith was aware of Tait’s reputation for range and expression as an oboist, which prompted her to pen several particular melodies for the specific purpose of accommodating Tait’s talent. Speaking of the sensation that came to mind during her performance, Tait said, “(Galbraith’s) writing for my instrument, for English horn, oboe, was not just mine. It exposed the instrument,” she said in the aftermath of the concert.

“It was the right instrument for the right melodies. And having the opportunity to perform it in the abbey, you could hear an extra reverberation. … It was amazing. It soared as if it were propelled on its own,” she said of the total combination of sounds emanated on the oboe.

Tait hailed the nine-part ‘Novena’ for its honesty in reflecting the Middle East conflict. “The combination of faith and all of them coming together as one, it really helped me musically. I take it as a gift from God and to be given such a significant role—it was like a prayer,” she said.

Speaking of the electro-acoustic sounds included in the piece, Octave said, it was “unique.” The composer enhanced the spiritual depth of the composition by infusing prayers recited in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic. And she didn’t stop there, he said, she peppered the piece with animal sounds, including whales and monkey chants. Meanwhile, percussion elements from Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America added to the symbolism surrounding the notion of peace. While the “staccato” tension was true to the current state of conflict, the instrumental interludes and prayers for peace in the fifth movement served as an entrée to stimulate God’s mercy as conveyed rhythmically in the sixth movement, said Octave.

Specifically, Octave said he was “impressed” with the eighth movement called Building For the Future, pointing out that the coordinating text are prayers that reflect the need for strength and the courage to pursue peace. “It’s a piece about peace,” he punned.

Considered as a whole—the press for building a peace academy in the lap of holiness and the resulting composition, which manages to reflect the emotional and spiritual cry for peace—it intended to echo a shared global existence. “It’s the human family looking at this part of the world, crying out from Mount Zion for peace,” said Octave.