On Friday, Nov. 22, music ministers, choir members and liturgists from across the diocese gathered at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Fayetteville for a Mass of Thanksgiving for Pastoral Musicians.
The Mass was organized by the Raleigh chapter of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM), a professional organization of Catholic music ministers, liturgists and clergy dedicated to fostering the art of music in the service of the liturgy.
“We had this idea of doing a concert of music that was either composed by diocesan musicians or was written for a diocesan parish (i.e., a commissioned work),” explained Jeff Rice, director of liturgy and music at Holy Infant Catholic Church in Durham who helped organize the event. “We knew that the centennial anniversary of the diocese was approaching, and with the feast of St. Cecilia falling on the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving, we quickly came up with the idea of having a Mass for musicians featuring music sourced from the diocese."
Sing, O Sing, Cecilia was a prelude sung that honored St. Cecilia and reflected diocesan history. It was composed by Barbara Gallagher for the Diocese of Raleigh in 2014 for a St. Cecilia celebration at St. Mark in Wilmington.
NPM chapter board member Anne Rogers is the music director at St. Patrick. Her pastor, Father Greg Lowchy, agreed to host the event at St. Patrick, which is an ideal space for music and has incredible historic significance in the diocese. With a congregation composed mostly of music ministers, there was no need for a separate choir during the Mass of Thanksgiving; the congregation essentially was the choir for the Mass and was provided choral parts to perform during Mass.
During his homily, Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama noted the importance of music in the celebration of each Mass.
“Before the priest starts the Mass, you prepare everyone for the celebration with a song,” he explained. “What a beautiful responsibility that you have in your hands. Preparing the people for what is the beautiful celebration of the mystery of our faith. You move the hearts to be involved in the celebration.”
Bishop Luis went on to reference the importance of music, noting that in one of the readings form the Mass people were singing in the temple with the ark of the covenant. He also noted that Jesus and his disciples sing a song at the end of the last supper.
“Music is part of the celebration,” Bishop Luis said. “Music is part of life.”
“I’ve been lucky to interact with Bishop Luis a lot over the years,” Rice said, “and I know how much he appreciates the work of lay ministers, both paid and volunteer, and especially musicians. So it was important to me to give him the opportunity to express that word of thanks directly to his music ministers and to send them off with an encouraging message, which he always has done. It was wonderful just to see him greeting everyone after Mass personally.”
Rice also noted that there were more people than expected whose work was acknowledged by Bishop Luis.
“We asked folks to register so we had some idea of how many to expect, and we ended up with about 240 registrants, but we think there ended up being around 400 in attendance, which was great,” he explained. “I don’t know how many different parishes were represented, but folks were definitely there from all corners of the diocese, and I really appreciated how many spent several hours in the car to get there!”
Watch the Mass and hear the music
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