A beautiful Ministry

This past Saturday I was contacted by our church organist via email. The subject of the email was "favor?". I just assumed it was for the Duke, asking him to play organ in her absence or some sort. I opened it and it was addressed to me. Hmmmmmm.....

Church organist's sister's MIL had passed away and the funeral was set for Monday. It turns out that S's MIL (Martha) was also a church organist before she became very ill with kidney disease. Music was at the heart and soul of this family. In fact, the day before, the BIL had asked if church organist could round up a few musicians to do the Brahms "Requiem" at the service. She laughed and asked him if he had about $8K, cause that is what it would take....oh and about 8 months. It takes about a choir of a hundred and a ginormous orchestra!

Since that wasn't an option she offered him a few soloists. One of them was me! I sing at church all the time, mostly in duets, or small chamber groups, but have never done something like this. I was singing at some one's Requiem. People were counting on me to give them beautiful music to grieve, remember, hope and then send their loved one off to the care of God. What a HUGE task. What if I messed up? And they remembered that for ever??? That AWFUL soloist, man she just ruined our mother's Memorial.

So what did I say?
Absolutely. I would be honored. And then I freaked out about it for the next 24 hours.

They asked me to sing "Pie Jesu" from the Faure Requiem. It is a very beautiful piece for soprano. We ran through it once on Sunday, and once again Monday morning and that was the only times I had ever really looked at it. Thank goodness for sight reading!!!! Also, I was getting sick. My throat was so sore I was drinking hot coffee, using throat spray and lozenges the whole time. It felt like razor blades when I sang.

*A side note here....I am blessed with singing in the most acoustically perfect space in Texas for a voice like mine. My church has no carpet, and is all brick. The sound carries well and comes back to you. This space I sang in on Monday was like singing into a pillow. It was hard to make the sound carry.*

The BIL and CO's sister, along with their family, came to meet us before the service. They were very appreciative to me for doing this on such short notice.
The service started and was quite beautiful until the Priest said "The Lord be with you" and like all good Episcopalians we screamed from the choir loft "And also with you". We got a glare from CO's husband, who is also an E. Priest. Duh, they were using Rite I. Who uses that anymore? I guess the correct answer would have been "And with thy spirit". Oh well.

After the extremely short Homily it was my turn. I started singing, but wasn't nervous like I usually am. Something was different. I had read over the English translation of the lyrics during the homily and looked at the picture of her in the bulletin. It was as if I were singing to her some sort of lullaby, like I would sing to my own kids. Everyone else in the church disappeared, and I just looked at her casket and sang her to peace. It was an incredibly moving and spiritual moment.

As I was leaving church choir on Wednesday night, CO handed me an envelope. Inside was a thank you note from the family, and $150. I never really expected to be paid. I had never been paid for singing before. It was only a 3 minute song. That's $50 a minute! I was glad to do it.
I guess now I am technically a semi-professional musician since I was paid. LOL
But what a great feeling, money aside, to be able to give to people in their grief and to Martha in her Heaven! May light perpetual shine upon her.

Here are the translated words of the piece:

Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest, rest everlasting.