MAUREEN “MO” BRIARE starts most of her nursing classes seated at her Celtic harp. As students enter the room and take their seats, she pulls the instrument close to her heart, lays her fingers on the strings, and plays. Sometimes a recognizable melody emerges—a Beatles tune, some Bill Withers, a hymn—and sometimes the music is her own original composition. She likes to change it up. Read More.
The music has a notable effect on the room. Scattered conversations wrap up, replaced by a still attention. She asks the students to take some deep breaths, she finishes the final song, and then, with everyone a bit calmer, Mo and the students in purple scrubs get down to business.
Mo wants her students—and everyone, really—to know that music is good for your health and well-being. It’s good for your mind, it’s good for your heart, it’s good for your spirit—the whole shebang.
Today scientists—neuroscientists in particular— are aiming to figure out the why and the how. How exactly is it that music can assist in the movement of someone who has Parkinson’s disease? How does music lower blood pressure, help with pain management, and memory? How might scientists harness these findings for, say, the treatment of those who have Alzheimer’s disease?
When the discussion turned to our sense of hearing, how it develops before we’re born, what part of the brain it’s connected with, how it can be tied to memory, how to conduct an ear exam, it wasn’t surprising that the nurse-harpist-instructor also mentioned that “music can be a powerful tool of healing.
Take a moment, take a break, and listen to some of Mo’s compositions on her album Peaceful Prayer: Sacred Melodies of Comfort and Hope
New Release by Maureen Briare - GIA Publications
"To the Ends of the Earth"
The hymn name and musical inspiration for To the Ends of the earth emerged from the stunningly beautiful illumination of the earth and cosmos contained in the hand-wrought pages of The Saint John’s Bible. (Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN).
To the Ends of the Earth was composed with hope and gratitude for graduates from the University of Portland, on the occasion of their Baccalaureate Mass, and to celebrate the generosity of Allen and Kathleen Lund, who gifted the University with a Heritage Edition of
The Saint John’s Bible , currently on continual display to offer the entire community a visual artistic feast of sacred imagination and calligraphed scriptural text. With a text that echoes the universal call to holiness, mercy, and discipleship, and serves as a majestic and graspable hymn for the assembly... For more information or to purchase - Click here.
