My name is Marci Wood, and I am a sophomore here at Saint Michael's! I am involved in campus ministry through some of the retreat programs that we offer, and am a member of the liturgical ensemble here on campus (I play the violin!).
Every year, the Saint Michael's Liturgical Ensemble (made up of the choir and instrumentalists) travels to different places to play at Catholic high schools and parishes. In the past, they have traveled to Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and many other states. This year, the trip was to Portland, Maine, and it was the first trip to Maine ever! It was also my first time going on the trip, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.
In preparation for the trip, we practiced A LOT. In addition to our weekly rehearsal, the weekend before the trip we played at 3 masses - one at a local church on Saturday and both masses at Saint Mike's on Sunday. All that practice payed off though, because we were prepared to play and sounded great! Here is a basic run down of the trip schedule:
Thursday: Left Saint Mike's at 4:45pm, had an approximately 4 hour bus trip to Maine (with a pit stop at Pizza Hut!!!!), set up at the high school we were playing at in the morning, and checked into the hotel around 11:30pm.
Friday: Play at 2 high schools in celebration of Catholic schools week, eat dinner at Courtney's (a member of the lit choir) house - her parents prepared dinner for all of us and it was SO GOOD! Seriously, the best mac and cheese I have ever had in my whole life.
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| Kayley with a lion statue outside one of the high schools! |
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| Priests play basketball? At SMC, you bet! |
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| Emma, Merrill, and Alex! |
Saturday: We had some free time in the morning (aka do homework), ate lunch at a really cool restaurant inside a boat, played at the 4:00pm mass at a local parish, and then set up at Courtney's parish where we would be playing the next morning.
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| Kayley and me! |
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| Kayley inside the restaurant! |
Sunday: Woke up early to load the bus and headed over to play at our final mass of the trip. Then, Courtney's family cooked us breakfast at the church - delicious pancakes and fruit salad! We departed Maine, and arrived back at SMC around 4:30pm.
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| One of the BEAUTIFUL churches we played in! |
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| The entire wind section and Matt, who plays percussion |
The trip was such a fun experience, and I am really glad I was able to go on it. Liturgical choir has been such a fun way to get involved at mass here at SMC - everyone is so friendly and nice!! If you like to sing or play an instrument, I would definitely recommend joining lit choir!
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| The Lit Choir!! |
I'll leave you with a few videos I took (just a warning - I took them on my phone and was located directly behind all the percussion, so that's why the sound quality isn't the best). Enjoy!!
If you have any questions about liturgical choir (or anything about SMC!) feel free to contact me! Hope to see you on campus in the future. :)
-Marci
