Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted
not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals.
Charles M. Crowe
The Music of My World
Tony Mussari & Kitch Loftus-Mussari
From my earliest childhood years, I loved music. That love remains today.
For me music is the portal to places of peace and serenity. Music clears the mind and it lifts the soul. Music reminds us of the best places we have visited, and the best days of our lives.
In the 1940’s it was the music of the second Great War. I could sing every song, and frequently I did that to the approving eyes of my mother. Anchors Away was a personal favorite, and Over There, a World War 1 creation, was another.
George M. Cohan was very popular on Columbus Avenue.
Perched atop the yellow brick steps of our small, rented home on Columbus Avenue, I sat and dreamed and sang and amused myself for hours. In those years we had nothing, so we made the most of our imagination.
When my uncles returned from the war, I sang these songs for them. They loved it.
In the 1950’s my brother, Ken, introduced me to the popular music of the time. Patti Page was one of his favorites. If he said she was good, I agreed. Ken was my hero then and he remains my hero today.
In the mid 50’s, I discovered Rock and Roll. Life was never the same. Elvis, the Everley Brothers, The Platters, Little Richard and many others filled my bedroom with the sounds of indulgence, energy, rebellion and escape.
I loved it.
My parents did not.
Oh, the difficulties of being a teenager.
In college I sang in the glee club, and that experience was one of the best I ever had. Music and singing shaped some of my most beautiful memories.
Almost 50 years later, I still love music, but today my tastes are more serene.
Several weeks ago Kitch and I placed our camera in the middle aisle of St. Ignatius Church to record a Lenten 
concert entitled Come Journey With A Savior.
It was a wonderful moment. The sights and sounds took me back to a time when the church was the center of my universe…A time when I lost myself in the Latin words and the reverential expressions of faith, love, goodness, salvation, hope and resurrection.
As I recorded the smiling faces of the enthusiastic members of the Children’s Choir, 
and the beautiful voices of the Contemporary Ensemble, I thought back to a packed Holy Thursday service at St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception.
It was a Solemn High Mass, with three priests dressed in golden vestments, and a packed church listening intently to the music of the choir whose voices filled the cavernous building with words of glory, praise and adoration.
I would give anything to experience that moment one more time before I close my eyes.
Like my childhood experience at St. Mary’s Church, the March 4, 2007, concert at St. Ignatius was a precious moment…. a beautiful moment…a moment of faith and 
devotion…a moment of belief and hope…a moment that made us forget about the alienation and hatred that brings such pain and suffering to our world in so many places today.
If only we could give life to some of the words of the songs I heard that evening. Words of peace, healing, respect, discipline and faith. Beautiful words written with the best intentions by writers who cared about ideals and values. Words like these:
Love isn’t just for a day, All that I have, Gary Ault
I am God, who comforts you; Turn To Me , John Foley
When I am down and oh, my soul’s so weary,
When troubles come and my heart burdened be,
Then I am still and wait here in the silence until you come and sit
awhile with me. You Raise Me Up , Brendan Graham, Rolf Lovland
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me above all,Above All, Paul Baloche, Lenny Lebanc
In the Now Playing section of the Windsor Park Theater you can hear these words as they were sung in St. Ignatius Church on a cold March evening. They are presented in one of our very favorite episodes of The New Windsor Park Stories.
They affirm the children and adults who sang them.
They express thanks to Elaine Blessing for her kindness to our beloved Rose.
The words of these songs will bring peace and hope to your day.
Kitch and I still believe in these words and what they represent.
We believe they will give you inspiration, hope and a feeling of comfort in an increasingly impersonal and scary world.
You will find these words, sung so beautifully by the voices of the men, women and children of St. Ingatius,in our theater because of a sign Kitch and I saw at the Princeton Alliance Church on 
Palm Sunday.
It is a sign that records the message of Easter...a message of hope.
It is a sign sign that records everything we would like Windsor Park and The New Windsor Park Stories to be.
Go out with joy and be led forth by peace.
Kitch Loftus-Mussari & Tony Mussari
kitch152@aol.com, tmussari@aol.com
