I had a moment on Saturday, and I just want to briefly document. I love music ministry. Singing mass is one of the best ways to pray and worship. Sometimes it can be stressful, and at certain times of the year, I catch myself complaining about it more than I should. It can be hard to sing four weekends in a row -- to go from cantoring to leading one ensemble to singing challenging music with another. Getting to rehearsal is always questionable in my schedule, it seems. I'm a busy girl, and my church is about 10 miles away from campus where I spend most of my life. Regardless, the reward is worth it in the end.
Saturday, I had quite the day waiting for me. Lead a workshop at 9, get ready, judge Forensic Fiesta at 1, church at 3:30, New Member Dance. I took the time while I was getting ready to plan out a good rehearsal schedule to implement before mass, sent out a text to the people who were singing/playing with me that afternoon, and made sure I knew all the harmonies that I needed to know. 3:30 came around, and that all went to the dogs when my pianist got there and was confused and he thought we were just rehearsing on a random Saturday afternoon and Confirmation was actually on Sunday. Of course, my stress level went from 0 to 100 in 5 seconds flat. Thank goodness for Dana who is a lifesaver under any circumstance and came to the rescue. This did not calm my nerves, however, because it was Confirmation mass, so there were an extra 200 people in the Hall & the Bishop was there to celebrate mass. Once we finally got the sound working, practiced a little, and came back, Father Jerry grabbed the wireless mic, did a welcome spill and walked off with the mic. Adam ran to get it while realizing that it was about to die, grabbed batteries, and at that moment, Dana started playing because the Procession was ready to go. I nonchalantly switched mics with Allie (who by the way, had NO voice which totally screwed every single plan I had made earlier that day), sang, and took deep breaths as Adam got the mic in the stand right as we started singing.
My brain was racing still and my nerves were killing me. I was praying HARD for peace and tranquility because it's really hard to sing when you're worked up. So we get to the Psalm -- the third song in -- and I was singing it. I went up to the ambo and looked out at the hall busting at the seams, and I took a deep breath and sang -- still quite a bit worked up. As soon as the assembly repeated the refrain back to me, I remembered why I was there and it almost put me in tears. It is so insanely rewarding to have a congregation of all different ages and stories looking up at you and singing along to worship, creating such a beautiful sound. It's something you don't hear in the pews when you're participating. It reverberates through the space and you just know that God is smiling at the time you're taking out of your day to be engaged in worshipping Him. That was the best moment of my day...maybe one of the best in my "career" so far. I believe this was the 9th Confirmation that I've participated in, and this may have been my favorite one. It immediately made me think about the people who were being confirmed and how Confirmation helped me to realize where my place was in the church...obviously where I am now. I started reflecting on how I chose to take that path and how happy it has made me so far, and I was praying that the Confirmandi were taking it seriously because ministry is awesome. The end. Music ministry at Holy Spirit is perhaps my favorite thing on Earth.
