Choir Break

Around the summertime, our music groups get a much-deserved summer break. This year, that break starts after June 9th – the tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. So, if you come to the Sunday morning Masses after the 9th and find yourself wondering, “Hey, where’d the Adult Choir/Youth Choir go,” the answer is: they’re on summer vacation!

Now, there is one St. Joe’s music group that, for some reason, never goes on summer break. That’s the 5:00 PM Worship Band. Yup, contemporary Christian worship music will continue throughout the 5pm Masses over the summer! “But Carlo, why doesn’t the Worship Band go on break?” you might ask. I actually don’t know hahaha! (Maaaan I wish this website builder had emojis!) I think it’s just one of those grand mysteries of life, like “Who built Stonehenge?” or “How do we reconcile Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics?” or “Is there extraterrestrial intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and if so, would such a species also be stained by Original Sin, and would Jesus’ salvation include them, or is it limited to the salvation of homo sapiens?” When the day comes that you find yourself face to face with God, enjoying the Happiness (yes, Happiness with a capital H) of the Beatific Vision, please ask God if He’d be willing to share the answers to all my questions…

One of the goals that Worship Band strives toward is what I like to call “constant freshness.” That means always having something new each year, which the congregation “hasn’t heard before.” This could take the form of a new hymn (like The House that Love is Building by Sarah Hart), a new anthem (like Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher), a new way of doing an already familiar hymn (like our upbeat version of In Christ Alone), or a new project (like the Christmas Eve singalong). That way, although the liturgical seasons repeat every year and liturgical cycles repeat every three years, there will always be something new as far as music is concerned. In other words, Worship Band actively avoids the convenient common practice of doing things exactly the same way each year. This is in line with our commitment to make it such that the experience of coming to Mass is always fresh. And lemme tell you, having to constantly learn new stuff is hard work, especially when you’re a volunteer who isn’t retired and who takes care of 2 or 3 kids! “Carlo… you’re telling me they do all that AND don’t go on break?” Yep! How do they do it??? That’s another one of those grand mysteries of life – please add that to my list of questions to ask God! 

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director