Thanks for visiting Ephrem Hip Hop on tumblr.
I, Brother Mark Menegatti, OSA started this hybrid blog and digital scrapbook, and you might be wondering about me or what Ephrem Hip Hop is all about.

“OSA” = Order of Saint Augustine, I am heir to a 1600 year tradition of Augustinian Spirituality. Our canonical foundations date to the mid thirteenth century, but our spiritual foundations date to the man St. Augustine of Hippo himself. He is credited with writing the first psychoanalytical autobiography in history, which is also one of the most widely read books in the world, otherwise known as the Confessions. Augustine’s transmission of Greek Theology to the Latin Church would overtly have a lasting and gripping effect for the rest of history in Europe. He does get less recognition for his vision of Monastic Life, which predates St. Benedict and his rule, which is founded on the vision of a deep and passionate INTERIOR pursuit of Truth, a shared common life of brothers UNITED in one mind and heart, and SERVICE to the worldwide Church wherever we might be called.

“Mark Menegatti” = Born in 1983 in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in San Gabriel, California. I have nothing to brag about in my life, except that I nearly didn’t graduate the eighth grade, and almost dropped out of high school. I was that kid that the teachers knew was smart but didn’t care to prove it by doing homework. I liked getting in trouble, and that only continued with drugs and graffiti. Somehow, I believe God reached out to me through Hip Hop music, and challenged me to a higher standard and became a constant positive influence on me. I got involved in my home parish, the San Gabriel Mission for youth ministry, and found the more Catholic I became, the closer I got to truth. I soon found harmony in Augustine’s experience of God to my own adventure of faith, and I would be led to join the Order.

“Brother” = Since I am a member of the Order of St. Augustine, I have a designated title. I joined the Order in August of 2005, and spent a year in the Pre-Novitiate in San Diego, while taking some Philosophy undergrad courses at San Diego State University. The following year I went on to the novitiate in Racine, Wisconsin, an intense year of prayer and study in the Augustinian Life. On August 4, 2007 I completed my novitiate, and professed my first vows, simple vows that I would renew each successive year. I moved immediately to Chicago, IL to complete a final year of Philosophy at Saint Xavier University, and live with the new Augustinian Theologate for Students across from the St. Jude New Lenox, Illinois, where I fell in love with the awesome youth group there, KWEST. I am currently working full time at Saint Patrick Parish in North Park, San Diego, doing whatever needs to be done.

“Hip Hop” = Hip Hop shaped me in so many brilliant ways, and even turned me on to a relationship with God.  I try to reconcile those I encounter with the authentic and classic form of Hip Hop culture which is at variance if not a dichotomy to what the mainstream entertainment media personifies under that name.  Hip Hop started when DJs looped the breakbeat.  Suddenly a small 3 second loop from a song took on a life of its own, and initiated the the raps, the breakdancing, and the graffiti art.  Hip Hop brought me back to God, and to my vocation as an Augustinian Friar.

“Ephrem” = Ephrem was a Syrian Monk, Hermit, Deacon, Lyricist, and Theologian.  The Church renowns him as a Doctor because of his contribution to our faith.  He also had a creative way of taking profound Theological ideas to prose for musical compositions of recognizable melodies.  Ephrem becomes the patron saint of my music by that very fact, as I seek to transmit sacred tradition and spiritual edification over rhymes and rhythms as part of the New Evangelization.

If you are still interested with a more thorough detailed story of how I came to a relationship with Jesus the Christ, you can read it in a series beginning here.