1967

Sister Rosemary Ryan has sent this recollection of a concert performed by the Medical Mission Sisters at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1967.  It shows how singing is a part of healing.  

She writes:

“Joy is Like the Rain” had just been released in the United States, the first album by Sister Miriam Therese Winter and the Medical Mission Sisters.  It brought Scripture-based folk music in English to worshipping Catholic communities, just beginning to pray in their own language in the early years after the close of the Second Vatican Council. The music was eagerly taken in and the word spread, with the music travelling around the world.  Within months, Sister Miriam Therese was invited to be a key part of a program at Carnegie Hall in New York City during its Diamond Jubilee in 1967. “Praise the Lord in Many Voices” was to bring together sacred music speaking to our times in different styles and accents representative of the cultural realities of the USA - music for God’s people and for praise of God.

In preparation for the concert, Sister Miriam Therese invited the Paulist Folk Singers (16 in number) to join 8 Medical Mission Sisters in presenting her “Mass of a Pilgrim People” and several additional songs. I was delighted to be part of the group, though I was a novice at the time. Though we had not previously known each other, the women and men met and practiced over 3 weekends, travelling back and forth between Philadelphia and Washington, DC, where the Paulist seminarians were based. The day of the concert, February 5, 1967, we journeyed to New York, had some time for practice at the famous hall and enjoyed some time together for supper before the event. As the curtain opened, we were awed by the beautiful concert hall packed with people eager for the evening.  “Mass of a Pilgrim People” was the opening presentation, a lively rendition, accompanied by guitar and drums, which was well-received by attendees.

Following us were: Selections from Community Mass by Jesuit Father Bruno Markaitis SJ; Mass for the Secular City by John Ylvisaker; Praise the Lord by pianist Mary Lou Williams; Selections from Mass for the Young in Spirit by Mr. Paul Quinlan SJ; and Shir L’erev Shabbat, A Sacred Service by David Amram. Each was contemporary and representative of some of the worshipping communities across the country. All of the concert presentations were recorded and later released as three albums.

It was an exciting experience, joyful and actually exhilarating, joining our voices in praise. Our singing group ended the day packed into one of the hotel rooms, joined by a few additional guests (like my seminarian brother), for a late evening of folk songs representing that time in our nation.

Thank you, Sister Rosemary!

You can listen to the Mass of a Pilgrim People in the album of Songs of Promise opposite.  By pressing the small arrow, which appears at the top of the Songs of Promise screen, you can select songs from the playlist.