Our Work Is Our Prayer

Rothschild Book of Hours: Commas, Words, and ART!

Some prayers are meticulously crafted - poetic in their delivery of each comma and carefully weighted words.

Other prayers are extemporaneous “help-me-Jesus!” pleas for aid.

Some prayers are works of devotion.

It’s this last category that is best known to church musicians.  Rehearsing is the labor of love that allows us to lead, or contribute to, the church’s song.  When we gather for choir rehearsal, our simple act of coming together is a prayer. 

Warming up is part of our gathering rite.  It’s a signal that we’ve met to set aside our individual voices and sing together our Soli Deo Gloria songs - to unify our voices as a metaphor of Christian unity.  We listen to each other, matching pitches, tone, and breathing.

The lion's share of our congregational song comes from ELW.

Then we tackle the music – liturgy and hymns being first.  As we sing, the words that we sing on Sunday begin to take hold in our hearts.  Choir members have reported waking up in the middle of the night with an intertwined text and melody from choir rehearsal stuck in their heads, becoming their prayer in the night watches.  The music of the assembly is formational and we are blessed to get a double dose of it – the first dose on Wednesday and the second on Sunday.

Sunday morning warm-up with the Festival Choir

Finally, we rehearse the music that we will sing alone on Sunday morning.  This piece of music, sung only by the choir, goes by different names in different churches - choir anthem, special music, and offertory to name a few.  I love that St. Mark’s calls this piece the “musical offering,” a gift of praise to God.  But we don’t just offer ourselves on Sunday morning, we offer ourselves from the moment we begin rehearsing a new piece. 

There’s a lot going on at any choir practice including fun, fellowship, rehearsing, planning, and more - but the entire process is a prayer of love and devotion.

Choir practice is prayer - but it's also fun!

All singers are invited to participate in the Festival Choir at St. Mark’s!  We especially need sopranos and altos, but we’re always willing to take on new tenors and basses.  We rehearse in the music suite on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00, and again on Sunday morning at 9:00.  Talk to any choir member if you are interested!  Tony Cruz, St. Mark’s Cantor, is always happy to answer your questions about singing in the choir and ringing handbells.

Come sing with us.  

Come pray with us.

Acknowledgement for Rotxschild Book of Hours Photo:

By E2v - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29488291

Photo of ELW (from out 2007 dedication) by Bill Daugherty