By Christina Leslie, Correspondent
“I am still floating on a blanket of heaven,” declared Malena Towers, director of music ministry for St. Mary Parish, Middletown, as she reflected upon her choir’s pilgrimage to Rome Nov. 16-24 during the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Towers, along with about 50 others, travelled to the Holy City to participate in the Jubilee of Choirs Nov. 22-23, a major musical event held every 25 years where music ministers gather to sing at the Vatican for a special Mass celebrated by the Pope.
The timing was perfect: pastor Father Jeffrey Kegley had considered hosting a parish pilgrimage for the Holy Year and schedules were synced. Towers registered for the liturgical event and invited her fellow musicians to join her for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To prepare for the event, Church organizers in Rome sent the group sheet music to learn the official hymn in English and Italian, as well as Mass settings in Latin.
About half of the parish’s choir members made the journey, and the addition of family members, friends, and other parishioners supplemented the group to fill a 50-person bus bound for historic and spiritual sites.
Towers and the parish family of St. Mary experienced a spiritual booster shot as they toured Italy, walking where so many saints had trod. Highlights included visits to Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis and St. Clare; the Santuario Della Spogliazione, the site of St. Carlo Acutis’ tomb; Siena, the birthplace of St. Catherine and St. Bernardine; the Marian shrine of Loreto where Mary first prayed the Magnificat; San Giovanni Rotondo, where St. Pio of Pietrelcina lived for many years, and the Eternal City of Rome. At each church and basilica, Father Kegley celebrated Mass and delivered prayerful homilies (which were recorded and will soon be available on the parish website.)
“We played music from my keyboard, which I carried with me, or the church’s organ,” Towers recalled. “We sang the pilgrimage hymn every place we went, and it was so beautiful.”
The musical highlight of the trip was the Jubilee Choir liturgy. “There were people from all over the world,” Towers said with awe, noting the presence of musicians from Asia and Africa, as well as choirs from Florida and Boston. “The Holy Father gave such a beautiful speech and blessing; later, we got copies of the translated speech, but since my first language is Spanish, I was able to figure out what he was saying in Italian.”
A bit of Jersey moxie found its way into the encounter with the pontiff; Towers said with a chuckle, “We were able to give a new St. Mary’s Music Ministry Choir T-shirt to Pope Leo when he was driving around the choirs and blessing them.”
“My hope is that this will create a precedent, to strengthen sacred music in the tri-state area and the Diocese of Trenton, to show beauty and the story of God,” Towers said. “We understand our heritage from this experience, and it was a once in a lifetime transformative event for many people.”