LOPEZ: A day of renewal for music ministers

Parish music ministers and members of their parish music programs on Saturday, Sept. 10 attended a day of prayer, preparation and renewal for their new year of music ministry.

The day of renewal, with music preparation and spiritual reflection, culminated in an afternoon celebration of vespers with Daniel Cardinal DiNardo as the celebrant.

Held at the University of St. Thomas’ Jerabeck Center, the bilingual event was an opportunity for revitalization and fellowship for all Catholic music ministers from the 145 parishes in our Archdiocesan community. We came together post-COVID-19 to embrace the art that touches our spirits and rekindles our love of God through sacred music and music ministry.

The guest music director for the day was a very well-known author, composer and lecturer Dr. Steven Janco, the director of the program for Music and Liturgy at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The program offers summer and online Master of Arts in music and Liturgy, as well as workshops, webinars and other training and enrichment opportunities for liturgical planners, ministers and musicians.

The greatest problem we face both inside and outside the Church is the loss of the sense of the sacred. In a busy and distracted society, people from all walks of life hunger for deep meaning, for the timeless, for the transcendent. They hunger for the presence of God. We follow the call of Pope Francis, “This is still the commitment that I ask of you today: to help ...ministers, cantors, artists musicians to cooperate so that the Liturgy may be the ‘font and the summit of the vitality of the Church.’”

We join with Pope Francis the vision of opening the door of beauty to God through the arts and, in particular, the gift of sacred music as he said in his address to the Scholae Cantorum of the Italian Santa Cecilia Association in September 2019: “Not just any music, but holy music, because rituals are holy; endowed with the nobility of art, because God must be given the best; universal, so that everyone can understand and celebrate. Above all, clearly distinct and different from that used for other purposes.”

Perhaps most important of all is this reminder from Pope Francis: “Your dedication to the Liturgy and its music represents a way of evangelization at all levels, from children to adults. In fact, the Liturgy is the first ‘teacher’ of catechism. Do not forget this: the Liturgy is the first ‘teacher’ of catechism.”

Dr. Rick Lopez is an associate director for the Office of Worship and director of the Archdiocesan Choir.

(Photo by David Beale/Unsplash)