Getting to Know Sacred Choir

I recently joined Cathy Avila, a sophomore at Marian. We sat and drank our Starbucks coffees while she told me how at home she felt at our university. After asking her why she said much of her happiness is because of Sacred Choir. She joined Sacred Choir a year ago and still feels very at home there. To promote its Catholic identity on campus, Marian provides Sacred Choir to give students time to worship and focus on the spiritual side of their education.

“It’s like a safe place for all of us to come together with our beliefs, we’re all religious,”  Avila said about Sacred Choir. “At the end of every rehearsal, we close in prayer. We’re like a support group, a little family.”

This sentiment is shared throughout the group, showing the sense of community built within Sacred Choir.

The purpose of Sacred Choir is to praise God through song, said Nicholas Rivelli, senior.  Sacred Choir is a group on campus that performs at Mass and has concerts. “We focus around sacred liturgy including masses and prayer services throughout the semester and since that’s our main focus, the sacred parts just stuck with the choir,” said senior Andréa Stanley.

Rivelli describes the Sacred Choir repertoire as “spiritually focused, specifically and explicitly through the Catholic tradition while dipping into elements of gospel.” They sing everything from “Great are You Lord” to “Go Out to the World.” Sacred Choir also has instruments, such as piano, handbells, cellos, and guitar. Using instruments allows other students to take part in this group.
In Sacred choir, they perform music with a variety of themes and genres.

“They range from traditional church hymns to gospel music to praise and worship music,” said senior Andrew Wilson.

Stanley shared one of her favorite aspects of the group.  “Everyone’s in different majors, and it’s a fun place to escape reality… It’s really cool to have all these different types of people coming together, and just praise God through music.”

Wilson talked about the purpose of the group, saying it is “to use the gifts and talents we have been given by God to provide music for different events around and off campus.”

These include Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation Masses, semester prayer services, the Marian Thrive Gala, and service events around the community—like singing at nursing homes or with community churches. They also sing for people in poverty. To see what Marian University’s Sacred Choir is all about, you can check out their prayer service on November 25 at 7:30 PM
Sacred Choir has a prayer service on November 25 at 7pm and also have a holiday show called Christmas at Marian, on December 7th and 8th at 7:30 pm.