Over the past three weeks I've shared the interview I conducted with Bishop Zarama on the subject of music. If you missed any of the articles, you can find them on our website, www.saintraphael.org/source-summit-blog.

As many of you know, in July the Diocese of Raleigh hosted the annual convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) which included the celebration of Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral with Bishop Zarama and about 1500 pastoral musicians. The presence of the Holy Spirit at that Mass, especially in everyone's singing together, was powerful to experience, something Bishop Zarama noted in his homily. Hearing him speak about music at that Mass made me curious to learn more. I thought others might be interested, so I contacted his office and he graciously agreed to an interview.

My goal was twofold: 1) Get to know the person who is our bishop better and share it with others, especially his personal experience with music, and 2) Learn and share what our bishop, who is our shepherd and spiritual leader as Catholics in eastern North Carolina, desires for music ministry.

I have a few reflections on this experience, both as a member of the diocese and a pastoral musician working in ministry in the church.

First, as has been the experience of everyone else I know of, I found Bishop Zarama to be warm and very easy to speak with. He listens carefully, and then very clearly and directly tells you what he thinks. Besides faithfulness, I think these two characteristics, empathy and clarity, are probably the most important for serving as a bishop.

Second, I found Bishop Zarama's memories of church music from growing up in Colombia very interesting. As we observe in many parts of the world, even in cultures that place a high level of import on music-making and have strong musical traditions, often music has not found its way into worship, for many different historical and social reasons. I think especially of Ireland, which has such a great tradition of secular song, but where for the most part no one sings at Mass, if there is any music at all. Contrast that with a typical Mass in Uganda where almost nothing happens without music and dancing. It is worthwhile to understand the differences and the "why" of the status quo in different cultures before developing strategies for moving assemblies to embrace the way that the church now sees music as being integral to worship.

Third, I especially appreciated Bishop Zarama's focus on the engagement and participation of the entire assembly. As the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy makes clear in paragraph 14, "In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else." At St. Raphael, this remains at the forefront of all discussions we have when preparing our liturgies. Our communal worship is not just one in a list of things we do as Catholics. As the title of this bulletin column suggests, "Source and Summit", the liturgy is where/what/who we come from and where/what/who we return to. Engagement in the music is a vital element in the pursuit of full and active participation.

Finally, I was touched by the exchange about culture and language. I have long had an intellectual understanding that one's first language usually remains the language of prayer. However, Bishop Zarama elevated my thinking on the matter. He called the first language we learn our "mother tongue" which is the language we were first immersed in, that we learned not through taking classes, but absorbed as a child from our families and friends. Except for the few who are truly multilingual (who can actually think internally in different languages), this remains the language through which we dialogue with God. It is how we can express ourselves and God to us, without the filter of a translation. Our mother tongue is the language of our hearts, and I believe God speaks to us most powerfully through our hearts.

Some of us who are musicians might be alarmed by Bishop Zarama's focus more on the spirituality of the minister over the quality of the music-making. I think some of the difference in focus is just coming from a different cultural perspective, but more importantly, for me he is trying to set our priorities as ministers in the correct order. We all know that it is easy to become focused on getting a specific task done, forgetting the context in which we are working, and the good of the people we are working with. I think Bishop Zarama's call is to focus first on God and the people we serve, and then on the job at hand, and I'm grateful for that reminder.