| Something to sing about
After my mom’s funeral, I returned to my parish raw and confused. I
had always found consolation within my praying community, but upon my return
I did not want to sing at Mass. I needed people who understood my grief
and were willing to wait with me for something better. I handed over my
silence to my worshiping community and the off-key voices who love me.
My parish waited with me to discover how God heals from the inside out,
revealing my grief so healing and consolation could find a home in me.
The silence I am referring to is not the silence we attempt during Mass
to control the banging of doors, people’s sneezes during flu season, or
the falling of broken kneelers. It is also not the silence that hovers
over assemblies who never sing or seldom verbally respond to anything during
Mass. No, I am referring to the deep, human silence that we all bring to
prayer so to entrust our lives to one another. This is the silence in which
I find my desire for God. In this silence, God breaks through to heal pain,
to offer forgiveness, and to unite fragile friendships. This is the place
where the dying and rising of Jesus caresses our humanity. This silence
is deeply and profoundly sacred.
We need to listen to the silence of our congregations if we are to open
people to the healing power of song. Ministry with our voices rises out
of our need for God and our common longing for a new life. This is the
beginning of communion using our human voices. As music makers, we are
also the caretakers of the treasury of silence. Our music begins in the
assurance that God is moving our sorrow, our joys, and our concerns into
one human voice of praise.
Ministry calls all musicians to begin with their own need for God. To
attempt to encourage our people to sing without a lifestyle of silence
is to be only a cymbal clashing. As musicians, our practice of daily silent
prayer is no less important than our daily rehearsal of psalms and hymns.
We are then called to enter into the real lives of those we serve. We
should be in touch with those who just cannot, for various reasons, bring
themselves to throw their voices into the mix of worship. We should listen
to the silence of those who are trying to make ends meet and never succeed.
We can call people to song when we listen to the silence of people who
are afraid of their lives and worry about the decisions they make. We need
to listen to those who sit so quietly in dark depression, all-consuming
anger, or their doubt about whether or not they belong in the church in
the first place.
Creating an environment of silence in your community is part of the
music ministry. People need to feel their silence is recognized and honored.
Create an authentic environment by preparing the sanctuary and music area
before the community arrives for Mass. Your invitation for silence to the
congregation lets them feel comfortable before common prayer. Remember
that people may be exhausted from the week’s work or job search, lonely,
or weary from family life. When people find a moment to rest their thoughts
and prayers in silence, we create the place where they will feel affirmed
and cared for as well.
One way to reflect on these issues is to use these summer months to
focus on your music program. Enjoy some retreat time to gather your musicians
and reflect on the heart of your ministry. Allow time to brainstorm on
how silence serves your community. Practice together various models of
contemplative prayer. Discuss how silence and song serve everyone in your
music ministry. Examine how silence can change negative attitudes that
emerge among musicians in the forms of unrealistic performance goals, inflated
egos, or destructive jealousy. Openly discussing and resolving these issues
creates a new attitude among ministers, freeing them to better respect
the lives of each member of your assembly.
I discovered in my parish that singing comes from where all prayer is
born: silence. We can all find communion when we honor the lives that wait
for God’s mercy and love. New voices are raised up when we all respect
the deep silence of one another and give each other something to sing about.
ML
Rev. Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC, serves as an associate pastor at the
Downtown Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Portland, Ore. He hosts
the radio program On the Margins, a weekly Gospel reflection that
can be heard online at KBVM.com. His email address is raab@downtownchapel.org
What do YOU
Think?
Send an e-mail
to ML Editor or post an entry
on the ML Current Issue Discussion Board. (All
submissions become the property of RPI and may be edited for length.) |
