As the Pope processes out on to the sunny steps of St Peter’s Square, our choir’s singing is momentarily drowned by a crescendo of cheering. Lifting his head to the enthusiastic eruption of youthful energy, the view must have been spectacularly uplifting: crowded into the piazza is an 80,000-strong congregation of adolescents and young adults.
Grinning schoolchildren in a global pick-and-mix of uniforms jump, yell, whistle and hug, while invigorated pilgrims, in matching novelty sunglasses and coordinated T-shirts, wave fanatically for the cameras. Above this humming mass of ragazzi flutter bright scarves, flags from around the world, and hand-painted banners inscribed messages of love, solidarity and peace.
This was the Jubilee Mass for Boys and Girls and, as the Pope speaks, it is clear that his insightful homily message mirrors his congregation’s sentiments unerringly: a masterclass in hope, unity, strength and love.
Unusually, today there are two choirs watching from the screens underneath St Peter’s Basilica loggia: one, all-male, in scarlet and cream cassocks, is the resident Sistine Chapel Choir; the other is Worth Abbey Choir.
Personally invited by the pre-eminent choral director, Maestro Palombella, Worth – the choral alma mater for one of the Sistine’s number, Mark Spyropoulos, also the Chapel Choir’s first English member – is itself .
Between settings, the children’s eyes flicker around in anticipation – the Mass being celebrated almost exclusively in Italian – before settling intensely on their choral director, waiting for cues, wanting to sing.
Divorced from the pragmatic linguistic element of the service, one might assume the children’s attention might wander, or that their religious intentions were diminished, but I had never seen them more enraptured.
Mass anywhere in the world is greater than the sum of its parts; its music, ceremony, tastes and smells – it is a celebration of the whole. Mass is St Peter’s is greater still, electrified by an overwhelmingly palpable spirit of global unity.
While Mass itself is, regardless of language, familiar and never-changing, the music is immediate, fresh and unpredictable. This marriage of the eternal and the fleeting, the internalised knowledge and the new experience, goes beyond symbolism to affect all who share the celebration. Especially for the choir, who contribute to this “whole” as a Catholic community of singers, and have the task of vocalising the spirituality silently felt by all, this was both a deeply intimate and unifying experience.
The warm expression, animation and focus with which each musical note was produced was proof enough of their heightened spirituality. Now, in the afterglow of such a blessed experience, each child came away with a deepened faith, full of love, calm and hope.
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