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One of our privileges in ministry is to gather, for a week each summer, with teenagers from throughout the Albany Diocese for "Music and Liturgy at Pyramid Lake," a retreat program on musical and liturgical leadership.

Begun by Richard Putorti, director of music at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Rotterdam, "Music and Liturgy at Pyramid Lake" has helped hundreds of teens discover how their gifts can energize parish liturgies and the larger Church as singers, cantors, instrumentalists, accompanists and ensemble leaders.

Co-sponsored by the diocesan Offices of Prayer and Worship and of Evangelization, Catechesis and Family Life, the program is led by a team of diocesan liturgical musicians and youth ministers.

The week includes jam sessions and prayer experiences, sessions on liturgy and sessions on music - all in the beautiful environment of Pyramid Life Center in Paradox, in the Adirondack Mountains.

With the support of their home parishes' pastoral leadership, liturgical musicians and youth ministers, teens have returned to their parishes with confidence as singers and instrumentalists, commitment to parish music ministries - and, sometimes, big plans.

For Eric Lebel, a 2008 participant who plans to attend again this year, the "strong community feel" inspired him to start an intergenerational contemporary music group at his parish, Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury.

He continues to work on his skills as an organist and pianist. He said a highlight of the program was "seeing teenagers from all over the Diocese come together to worship God through music."

Jenny Gorman, a participant in the program throughout high school who is now a music education major at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, noted that before her first retreat, she was a choir member at St. Vincent de Paul parish in Albany, but "playing piano in church was like some distant dream."

Now, she regularly ministers at three liturgies each weekend as both a piano accompanist and singer, and substitutes as the music ministry leader at Mass once a month.

Fellow participant Justine Crevatas, a freshman at Schen-ectady County Community College majoring in music performance, serves as both music director of the contemporary choir at Christ Our Light parish in Loudonville and music director for the campus ministry Mass at The University at Albany.

She hopes to someday receive her master's degree in liturgical music and "come back to the Albany Diocese, where I was given such great encouragement to begin a profession which brought me closer to God and into something I truly love to do."

In "Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship," the U.S. bishops challenge Catholics to recognize how "God dwells within each human person, in the place where music takes its source."

God is living and active in our young people's singing and playing. "Music and Liturgy at Pyramid Lake" is one way of supporting these young people as they discover their gifts, God's song bursting forth in the young Church.

(Marie and Dan Bernadett are music ministers at St. Vincent's parish in Albany. Justin Huyck, an Albany native, is director of liturgy and faith formation at Our Lady of the Brook parish in Northbrook, IL.)

(02/25/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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