Christian Music Online

Exalt Mass is celebrated on Wednesday’s at St. Peter Catholic Church

October 30, 2007 – 12:24 pm

The ministry of Jesus begins and ends with wine.

And that is how I remember my Wednesday night at St. Peter Catholic Church.

Father Don Finney’s sermon began with Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine and ended with the Last Supper.

And surrounding the stories and the thoughts those stories evoked, was the music.

XLT (or Exalt) occurs on various Wednesdays and at various Catholic churches. It travels the diocese from parish to parish.

St. Peter’s XLT Mass was divided into three parts: exaltation with music, adoration with Father Don, and pizza and sweets outside.

As always, I arrived early and practice was underway; thus, as I walked in from the parking lot, the sounds of contemporary Christian music filtered through the huge doors.

The church stood strangely empty, and I paused a moment to take in the view as well as the sound.

My friend Tom nodded to me as I worked my way to a seat near the band (a mistake).

He bent back over his music, reading glasses low on his nose, and went back to work on his bass.

The sound from the speakers was horrible in this corner, the guitars blended and the vocals mushy and awash with distortion.

And yet, when I stood closer, I could tell that the band was in sync and the vocals were both clear and on pitch.

The gaping church reminded me of the huge Baptist Church I attended in Columbus, Ohio. The open spaces and arching ceiling took my eyes up into the angles above.

A huge crucifix seemed to float behind the elevated altar. And when I walked out into this space, the sound was clear and floating and perfect under a ceiling that floated above me.

But the sound was gospel.

This was not the Catholic Church my high school girlfriend took me to, and it was not the Catholic Church my wife was raised in.

This sounded like the Baptist Church I sang in while the congregants swayed and sang along.

But the Catholic Church adds incense to the mix. And soon after that sweet smell filled the air, parishioners walked in, many small groups talking to each other and smiling.

As musicians, both Tom Russo and Rick Carrano noted that playing Christian music allows them, as Christians, to reflect on their own beliefs while they reinforce those beliefs in others.

Russo said contemporary Christian music allows him, “a venue to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ therefore reinforcing my own personal beliefs.”

For Carrano, playing Christian music forced him, as a pianist, to focus more on the lyrics and to receive the spiritual message from the songs.

And of course the performers hoped to have a specific effect on the parishioners: Carrano wanted people to come to the church to be, “lifted by the music … and to leave at the end of Mass as a more spiritual and happy individual.”

The audience happily jumped right in on the first song. They continued to swing and sway and sing along through multiple songs, and their appreciation of the band and the band’s message was obvious and sincerely expressed.

Raeann Wallace, a band member, said, “When I see people swaying, singing and clapping, then I know that I am doing my part in the entire Christian community.”

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