You’re Invited! A Special Parish Weekend with Tom Kendzia
September 12–13 at St. Francis Parish
Join us for a joyful and inspiring parish event featuring renowned liturgical composer Tom Kendzia — a weekend of music, reflection, and renewal for our whole community.
Friday, September 12 – Concert at 6:30 PM
Come hear the music you know and love — and sing along! Tom will share some of his most beloved songs and will debut a brand-new hymn composed especially for St. Francis Parish. Don’t miss this exciting musical celebration!
Saturday, September 13 – Parish Morning Retreat
Theme: “With Burning Hearts: The Liturgy and the Road to Emmaus”
Start your morning with 9:00 AM Mass
Enjoy a light breakfast after Mass
The retreat begins at 10:30 AM, led by Tom Kendzia, and will reflect on how we encounter Christ through the liturgy, just as the disciples did on the road to Emmaus.
This is a powerful opportunity to come together as a parish family — to be renewed in faith, uplifted in song, and inspired in spirit.
All are welcome!
This is a free event; donations are appreciated!
About Tom Kendzia:
Tom Kendzia is a liturgical musician and performer who has been a published composer since 1980.
From his high school days, when he climbed into the choir loft at his parish church to surreptitiously play the church organ, through his college studies at the Pius X School of Liturgical Music at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, and in the ensuing years of parish work and collaborations with other liturgical musicians, Tom has developed a style of music that is contemporary, compelling, melodic, eminently singable, and distinctly his own.
Tom has over 30 recordings of liturgical and instrumental music, published by OCP, including By Our Love, Christ Within Me, Like a River, Endless Is Your Love, Lead Us to the Water, Clothed in Love, The Ships That Sailed, Make Us One, Get On Board, Canticle, and No Greater Love. In 2005, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of his first recording, Light of the World.
He is regularly featured at national conferences, diocesan workshops, and parish events throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Tom has performed regularly in Ireland since 2002 and has been the guest conductor of the Irish Church Music Association Summer School at Maynooth, as well as an instructor at this annual event for the past 12 years.
Currently the national liturgy and music consultant for William H. Sadlier, Inc., Tom also has been a consultant for several U.S. curriculum companies including Harcourt Religion, Our Sunday Visitor, and RCL. National events at which he has presented include the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, National Pastoral Musicians conference, National Catholic Educators Association, National Conference of Catechetical Leaders, Mid-Atlantic Congress, Federation of Diocesan Liturgy Committees, East Coast Conference for Religious Education, and New England Catechetical Conference. His articles have appeared in NPM magazine, Today’s Parish, and Modern Liturgy.
Tom has been a director of liturgical music in parishes throughout the US since 1977, and the director at of music at Christ the King, Kingston, RI since 1986. He lives with his wife, Mary Carol, in Rhode Island and has two adult children.
His published liturgical songs and hymns include: “I, the Lord,” “Pieta,” “The Eyes and Hands of Christ,” “Stand By Me,” “Now Is The Time,” “Create In Me,” “Lead Us To The Water,” “Out of Darkness,” “Endless Is Your Love,” “Taste and See,” “Like A River,” “Faithful Cross,” “May the Road Rise Up,” “Christ Within Me,” “By Our Love,” “As Christ To The World,” “There Is a Season,” as well as more than 100 other pieces. His song, “By Our Love,” was chosen as Liturgical Song of the Year in 2020 by the Association of Catholic Publishers.