Music is in my blood. My father and grandfather were both gifted musicians who would often be front and centre wherever there was an east coast kitchen party to be found. I inherited a love for good music from my dad whose guitar featured prominently at various special occasions, campouts, and the occasional Saturday night where he was simply on the couch with his guitar.
Though my parents tried to sign me up for guitar lessons when I was about twelve years old, it didn’t go well. I very quickly quit to join the jr high concert band at school. I bounced from instrument to instrument, settling on the trombone – but I wasn’t very good at it, and wound up quitting that as well. I was blessed to have an incredible music teacher through those years who helped further instil in me a love for good music.
It wasn’t until a few years later – after encountering an incredible music ministry called One Voice – that I felt inspired pick up the guitar again (much to my father’s delight.) That was more than twenty-seven years ago now, and I’ve had the privilege of playing music in Church, around the campfire, and on stage in Canada, the United States, and at a rally during the lead up to World Youth Day 2011 in Malaga, Spain.
Anaphora (from a Greek word meaning “an offering”) was a music ministry that I led, serving the Church in the Edmonton area from 2005-14. While we were blessed to serve at a variety of conferences, retreats, and youth rallies during that time, Anaphora’s raison d’etre centered on an event called Exalt which, at its peak, regularly drew 200+ young people to a bi-weekly evening of Eucharistic Adoration in North Edmonton. In the summer of 2013, we released an album entitled Anaphora Live, featuring songs recorded at that summer’s Catholic Family Life Conference at Lac Ste Anne, AB. In the spring of 2014, in response the demands of growing families and careers, Anaphora concluded our service to the Church as a collective group, though some of us did get together for the Family Life Conference in the ensuing years.But before going our own ways in 2014, we spent a weekend recording several of our favourite and best songs at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic High School in Spruce Grove – an album titled St. Peter Sessions that was produced and released in June 2019.
St. Peter Sessions features 11 tracks:
- You’re Worthy of My Praise
- Holy is the Lord
- Hosea
- Lead me to the Cross
- Here I am to Worship
- Lord, I Need You
- Surrender
- God of Wonders
- Tell the World
- You are the Lord
- Psalm 34 (featuring Rebecca Lucette)
If you’d like to listen to this album, it is available on iTunes & Apple Music.
I am still very active in music ministry, playing for Masses at my own parish, and it also plays a big part in my speaking and retreat ministry… hopefully doing justice to those talented musicians who’ve come before me.