For the International Jubilee of Consecrated Life, the Vatican Dicastery called us to provide entertainment for the closing vigil in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. We looked at each other with some concern.
But we soon realised that there was a lot of enthusiasm and desire to give it a try. Among us there are choir singers and soloists, as well as instrumentalists. Many of us read music, and some already have experience in parish or community choirs…
And so, in just a few days, the four-part songs for the closing vigil in the basilica were ready, sung by a large, joyful, multilingual and intergenerational choir.
The transition to the International Choir took place through collaboration with the Thouret Foundation: why not offer a Christmas meditation with poems and songs from various parts of the world?
Thus, the Missionary Markets in the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Carcere and in the Parish of St. Prisca on the Aventine provided an opportunity to offer Christmas songs and poems.
Finally, the Augustinian Fathers made a proposal: Christmas carols from various traditions around the world, in front of the famous nativity scene in Piazza Navona, Rome, on Christmas Eve, together with the Augustinian friars and Romans and parishioners from the Augustinian parishes in the city. The square was crowded and many people stopped to listen to us: some were simply curious about the friars and nuns who were singing, while many others joined in with conviction and joy in the Christmas carols in various languages.
On 26 December, travelling by train or car, practically the entire community of the Generalate celebrated with our dear elderly sisters in Civitavecchia. We sang together and listened to some very tasty ‘crumbs’ from their long and precious lives as Sisters of Charity.
Now we are busy with our own liturgies: Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the upcoming First Profession… But the Bicentennial is undoubtedly the right occasion to continue rehearsing with patience and perseverance.
This is how the unforgettable theologian and poet, David Maria Turoldo, spoke of the choir:

“There is nothing more noble than singing, the saving virtue of humanity.

That is why when a people sings, there is still hope.

Nothing unites souls and characters as much as a choir, when it is a true choir;
when we feel ourselves to be members of a choir, then the appointment, the gathering and the feeling of being necessary to sing, is like a meeting of lovers.
Then sacrifice becomes spontaneous joy and appreciation for life!
Singing shows us a reality that deserves to be desired, it shows us ourselves as we should be if we were worthy of the world.
The human voice, elevated in song, creates the opportunity to unlock the chains of the universe for a moment, allowing us to glimpse a fragment of what they hide: a flash of the ineffable”.
Sister Paola Arosio
General House’s Community, Rome