“The Sacred has always been very important in our vocation, because, even, we are consecrated. The Sacred is the place where God dwells, it is what is set apart for God”, says Moysés Azevedo, founder of the Shalom Catholic Community.
In 2019, during the Listening Retreat, God spoke about the Sacred in the Shalom Vocation, highlighting, in a special way, a liturgy and a prayer, the consecrated, the spaces and the people, specially the little ones and the young.
From liturgical music, we will deepen the experience of the Sacred in the Shalom Vocation.
“In this new time, God is going to renew and deepen the whole sense of divine worship among us,” says Moysés.
The Sacred is Beautiful
For Moysés Azevedo, a celebration of the sacraments is something that cannot be equal to any other action in the Church, because it is through it that heaven meets earth. “Therefore, since the beginning of the Community, a liturgy has such a great value”, he says.
The founder, in Escuta 2019 Magazine, addresses the ministries of music about the preparation of the chants of Holy Mass and warns against improvisation. It also encourages musicians to show the beauty of the sacred in masses at Evangelization Centers and at Community events.
“The Sacred is beautiful and attracts the heart, the look, the life, touches the soul, touches and transforms, sanctifies” (Moysés Azevedo)
Liturgical music
In the 10 years of Vocation, for the first time, Ministries of Music come together to think of special songs to celebrate their anniversary. Since then, they have started to take steadier steps towards liturgical music in the Community. For 30 years, the Coral Shalom was organized to sing at the anniversary celebration. For the 35th anniversary of the Community, the musicians did a retreat to compose songs from the commemorative CD. The album “Divino Coração”, thinking about this occasion, was recorded in 5 different languages.
The musicalization of the psalms
From the beginning, as the melodies of the psalms were prayed and composed based on the intention of each song. “We were very careful not to take a leap of praise and put on a pleading melody,” shares Evacy Assunção. She still has the psalms marked as people who participate in the celebrations at Shalom da Paz, in Fortaleza – CE.
“I remember that a great businessman from Fortaleza approached the community and said: ‘the day you want to record the psalms, I will sponsor, because for me there is no moment stronger than when you go up to sing these psalms’ ”. This witness helped the ministers to realize how much God worked through the psalms in the people who attended Mass at the Evangelization Center.
“The psalmist must lend his voice to Christ” (Nicodemos Costa)