You are invited, SLM parishioners! Join new and veteran members of the music ministry for a convocation about why music at Mass is a full expression of faith. This event is a follow-up to the Ministry Fair held Sunday, February 2.
Music at Mass fosters the full, active, and conscious participation in the liturgy called by Vatican II. In singing, one’s body is involved. One’s heartbeat is involved. One’s breath is involved. One’s mind is involved. One’s spirit is involved. One’s emotions are involved. One’s gestures are involved. One’s ears are involved. One’s sense of belonging is involved. Every cell in a person’s body is involved with the soul’s outward expression of beauty and worship. Music at Mass helps us to express in words and sounds what our souls pray for.
When we understand fully why we sing at Mass then we will have a better appreciation for and look forward to the sung liturgy.
Music at Mass is prescribed in the scriptures: … be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart… (Ephesians 5:18-19). Where else can we sing our prayers out loud than when we are together at Mass? Where else can we join with the angels and saints and our loved ones in the past and present and future to pray together in song?
This is why the music we sing at SLM is stellar, profound, and inspiring--not mediocre or superficial or banal. The Music Ministry works hard at this as individuals and as a choral team. Because when it really boils down to it, the primary choir at every Mass is the not the Adult Choir or Children’s Choir or Youth Choir: it is the assembly gathered.