The Power of the Ministry of Music

When Randy Russell met Carmen Ortiz in 1999, he was a practicing Methodist and a member of Roswell United Methodist Church.  Carmen was a practicing Catholic who faithfully worshiped at St. Thomas Aquinas and who, for years, sang with the 10:30 choir.  At the beginning of their courtship,  when Carmen’s work schedule prevented her from singing with the Sunday morning choir, Randy and Carmen went to the 5:30pm Sunday Mass at St. Thomas.  Though his Methodist ties were strong, Randy says he felt something stir deep inside during those early experiences of the Catholic liturgy, “The Spirit would grab me by the time we had heard the gospel.  I would be all tingly with energy and I knew then that this is where I needed to be.” 

  

After about five months of dating, Carmen rejoined the choir and brought Randy with her.   The love between Carmen and Randy grew stronger and eventually they married.  Because both Randy and Carmen had had previous marriages which were not annulled, the two could not receive communion, nor could Randy be received into the Catholic Church.  Yet the two remained faithful, immersing themselves in the music ministry week after week.

Last year, Carmen received a terminal diagnosis.  The week before Carmen died, as fellow choir members came to visit her, she made them promise that they would see to it that Randy became Catholic.   Carmen’s death came all too soon.   Randy was devastated and so was the choir.  Ironically, her death brought new life.  Carmen’s death freed Randy to pursue the process of becoming Catholic. Choir members and friends made good on their promise to Carmen.  And so Randy went through the RCIA process and in April at the Easter Vigil, he was received into the Catholic Church, was confirmed and received the Eucharist for the first time.  Randy credits the choir with being “the mortar that holds my bricks together,” and he says that the choir has been instrumental in blessing his life with love and with hope.