By Olek Stirrat
To sing is to pray twice said St. Augustine. This is the principal goal of the Corpus Christi seminary schola. Ultimately, we want to enable others to enter into a deeper relationship with God through our singing. This also coincides with what Palestrina said about music being the liturgy’s humble handmaid. The types of sacred music that we engage with are chant, polyphony, psalmody and hymnody. During our weekday masses we chant the propers and lead the hymn singing. On Sundays we also sing a motet and the responsorial psalm. As the leader of the schola, I am greatly encouraged by the schola member’s passion and zeal for singing liturgical music. Fundamentally, we want to give glory to God, by raising our hearts, minds and voices toward him in worship.
Olek Stirrat is a fourth-year seminarian at Corpus Christi College and is studying for the priesthood for the Adelaide Archdiocese. He is also the seminary's schola leader.
The seminary schola:
Back (left to right): Mark Hughes, Joseph Aung, Jean-Sebastien Gery, Chris Gery, Peter Nguyen and Matthias Kim.
Front (left to right): Tien Tran, Jaycee Napoles, Samuel Pearson, Olek Stirrat, Simeon Anthony, Andrew Choi and Allan Aclan.