Anita Draper
Catholic Herald staff

Inspiring parish musicians to “perceive the body and blood of Christ as an integral part of their lived experience and the experience of those around them” is the goal of the Diocese of Superior’s 2022 Music Ministry Retreat & Workshop, said Paul Birch, director of the Office of Worship.

“I hope and pray that our attendees will grow in their understanding that pastoral music always supports the concept that charity, justice and evangelization are normal consequences of liturgy,” he added.

Canceled in 2020 and reinstated as a virtual gathering in 2021, this year’s workshop will also be virtual, which Birch said was due to the presenters’ COVID concerns.

“I would always much rather offer live and in-person events, but I concede that – into the future – live and in-person events will always depend on circumstances,” he added. “Hopefully our 2023 event won’t have to be virtual.”

Titled, “We Are God’s People: Forming the Faithful in God’s Song of Charity and Justice,” the retreat is Saturday, July 30, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Presenter Danielle A. Noe will lead off with morning prayer, conduct two sessions and finish with a question-and-answer period. Liturgy Training Publications, the company that aided the diocese in setting up the event, will host it on their interactive platform.

Noe, who is an editor at Liturgy Training Publications, has a master of divinity from St. John’s University School of Theology and Seminary, in Collegeville, Minnesota, and a bachelor of arts degrees in English and theology from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She is co-host of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s radio show “Focus on the Liturgy,” and she has worked in music ministry for more than 20 years.

The intersection of liturgy and Catholic Social Teaching is of great interest to Noe, who plans to speak on how charity, justice and evangelization relate to liturgy.

Her presentation will also focus on how the liturgy calls everyone to “full, conscious and active participation in the life of the world,” and how music ministers can support those efforts.

Registration fee is $10 per computer. Participants must register by July 27. Registration information will be posted on the diocesan website as it becomes available, catholicdos.org/pastoral-musicians.

Danielle Noe