The ‘singing nuns’ have a Christmas message to intone

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald


The nine sisters who comprise the Daughters of St. Paul Choir know first-hand the far-reaching impact of their 27th annual Christmas concert, “Come to Bethlehem.”

The sisters’ Christmas concert will be Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Jesuit High School Auditorium, 4133 Banks St. in New Orleans.  
                 
This year, nine nuns will sing, two sisters will handle the technical video aspects and an audio technician will collaborate to create the light-spirited concert celebrating Jesus’ birth.

“It’s one of our biggest fundraisers,” Sister Mary Martha Moss said. “This is part of our music ministry of evangelization and reaching people.”


The sisters have performed as many as nine shows a year.  They have sung at venues such as Christ Cathedral (the former Crystal Cathedral) in Garden Grove, California, which is now the Catholic cathedral for the Diocese of Orange.

Their first concert took place in 1994 in Snug Harbor, New York, and performances remained on the East Coast for many years. In 2017, the concert went national – with New Orleans among the sites where the singing nuns perform. Other 2023 concerts are in Boston; Mascoutah, Illinois; and St. Louis, Missouri.             

Work on the concert begins months in advance. A team selects the songs appropriate for what is especially meaningful for that particular year.

“There are some contemporary Christmas songs, some fun songs that kids recognize and families like to sing along with,” said Sister Martha, one of the local Daughters of St. Paul in the choir along with St. Paul Sister Anne Flanagan. 

One song, “Angels Among Us,” by the group Alabama, is a standard that concert goers look forward to hearing, Sister Martha said, although they love everything else, too.

In advance of the Daughters of St. Paul’s annual eight-day retreat in August in Boston, a music arranger takes the selected songs and optimizes them to complement the sisters’ voices.

“It has a lot of pop and beauty, because he has really tailored it to where our best voices are,” Sister Martha said.

The vocalists in that year’s concert learn the songs and choreography during the retreat.

Boston is where the whole show comes together, and the site where the nuns’ concert is recorded with a live orchestra for a CD sold at the concert.

Sister Martha said the 90-minute concert (with one intermission) is aimed to reach families and soothe any challenges they may be experiencing.
                 
“Whatever their struggles, concerns and whatever is going on in the world, we hope to reaffirm how much we can trust God in our lives,” she said. “Coming home to Bethlehem is a safe place where we can most fully flourish.

The “singing nuns” pray for everyone during the concert.

“It’s a big part of it and what people experience – God working among us and with us all there and with their families,” Sister Martha said. “And, the fun. They feel God in the fun.”

Tickets are $35 for adults and $20 for students (age 17 and younger). Go online at connect.pauline.org/concert. Proceeds help the nuns in their life and mission. 

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