Chapel Choir Sets the Tone for Advent Season
As Advent transitions into Christmas, the music of the Chapel Choir sets the tone for the spirituality of the season. Senior Brendan Barker, choir member and a music education major, shares how the season’s music enables him to enjoy peacefulness amid a busy season.
The Chapel Choir has been one of the most important elements of my faith experience at Duquesne. Since the first Liturgical Arts Retreat I attended as a freshman, the choir has been a source of friendship, encouragement, relaxation and, more than anything, spiritual inspiration. Whether rehearsing in the chapel or spending time together at the Spiritan Center in Bethel Park, I have always felt nourished by the strong bonds in this group, which is more like a family than an ensemble.
Regardless of the stress my academic work causes, there has never been a moment spent with this group that could have been spent better elsewhere. No moments have been more precious than those formed at Advent Midnight Mass each year.
Though every Mass is made special through the dedication of the liturgical ministers, this Mass is particularly uplifting, meditative and joyful. Occurring at the end of the semester, it stands as a shining beacon of hope over the tribulations of final projects and exams.
Offering our anxieties and concerns unto the Lord, students, family and alumni gather for a spiritual feast as candles flicker, incense rises and Christmas carols resound off the vaulted ceiling.
It is an opportunity to remind us that Advent is not a time of waiting–waiting to finish assignments, waiting to take exams, waiting to receive grades or waiting to return home. It is a time to prepare for our Savior and to welcome the coming of the Counsellor, who can ease so much more than our fears of a poor test grade.
I have felt that comfort through the Midnight Mass, through the weekly Masses, and most specifically, through the Chapel Choir. I believe this presence can be found by any who seek it there; by any who join us in song.