Musical Instruments to Praise the Lord

Our voices united together are the greatest instrument to praise God - in prayer and especially and in song! Yet from ancient times God’s people have used other instruments to accompany our voices in praise and lift our spirits with artistic beauty.  

“When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the LORD, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments to ‘Praise the LORD, who is so good, whose love endures forever,’ the cloud [the glory of the LORD] filled the house of the LORD.” (2 Chron 5:13)

At St. Mary church there had been a growing need to improve the instruments we use during the sacred liturgy. In particular, the piano that had served the parish so well for years had broken down in such a way that it was constantly falling out of tune. Anne DiSanto from St. Martha’s music ministries had to tweak the tuning almost every time she came to St. Mary to play the 5pm Mass! Long before we hired a new director of music ministries for St. Mary, I knew that we would need to purchase a new primary instrument. At my request, the new director, A.J. Hoy, helped us find a replacement piano that we have had for a few months now. The piano is a beautiful and versatile instrument for a variety of styles of liturgical music, and was well worth the $8,500 it cost to purchase this
“lightly used” instrument. We are grateful to the parishioners who have contributed $5,530 toward this important investment in St. Mary Parish, and I encourage others to join us in donating to cover the remaining $2,970 to pay it off.

Meanwhile, St. Mary parish has been blessed with multiple offers from generous Catholics offering to donate another important instrument of the Church: an organ! One parishioner even offered to provide the funding to purchase an organ of our choosing. The small organ in the choir loft was purchased when the parish debt was over two million dollars (now down to a third of that), but it is really too small for the size and shape of the church, so it will be exchanged for credit.

To be able to obtain a more appropriately sized organ at no cost to the parish is an uncommon blessing, so with the assistance of a few knowledgeable advisors, we have selected another “lightly used” instrument that is presently being refurbished and prepared for installation.

We will also have to prepare the music ministry space to accommodate the organ console, so the person playing can be with the other music ministers and switch between organ and piano depending on which is most appropriate for each music selection. My hope is that the organ can be installed in time for the choir returning to full force this September, but we may have to be flexible.  

We know that music ministry at Mass is an attractive aspect of “the Sunday experience”, one of our top priorities as we move forward. May the investment of these generous donors help us to attract more people to our parishes and praise the Lord in song!