Music is a very important form of human expression, connecting us across time and space, uniting very different cultures and ways of seeing life, because it appeals to what we have in common: our humanity, and our bond with God.
Harmony and connection with the Lord was what was experienced on October 25 in the parish of St. Alphonsus Liguori, in the neighborhood of Aluche, Madrid, where Ain Karem held its most recent prayer meeting.
Ain Karem is a project of evangelization through music carried out by several of our Sisters, together with other lay companions. Since its foundation in 2000, it has published 8 CDs, and one of its most special proposals are these prayer meetings, which consist of prayer spaces through music. The center of everything is the Word of God, which is sung, recreated, updated and shared through music.
For us, music is a privileged language for the proclamation of the Gospel, because it connects with something that is deep within each human being. It is a way of connecting with God: that is how the people who attend the prayer meetings feel it, and that is how we experience it too.
Before forming Ain Karem, we had already felt the joy of singing to God and the desire to announce what we experienced within us. By forming this project, we discovered (or confirmed) the possibilities that music has as a means for pastoral action, as a privileged language to announce Jesus.
Ain Karem
Each of these prayer meetings is an intense and moving experience of coming closer to God in community.
The most recent meeting, in Madrid, was no less. The church, with its particular spatial distribution, was spacious and intimate at the same time. All the pews were filled with people facing the altar, behind which rose an impressive stained glass window of brilliant colors. There stood the seven members of Ain Karem who made their music available to God and the audience.
Throughout these years we have met with many people: Christian communities, parish groups, dioceses, other congregations, with whom we have been able to share the Word made music. In these encounters, we not only announce the Good News: we also receive it from the people who participate, and in this way we renew this beautiful vocation of singing to God.
Ain Karem
The autumn night was illuminated by their voices and instruments: through the musicians, God became present among all the people of the parish. For more than two hours, they were united in the Word, in dance, in melody. They shared comments and reflections aloud. And they prayed, prayed a lot.
Listening to Ain Karem is always a space of peace. It is a joint prayer that is built among all the voices, the most erudite and those of us who are not so erudite. Music allows us to connect with the God of beauty, the God who through it leads us to harmony, to the right word, to the necessary silence. You realize that God touches us through singing because from this prayer you come out transformed, consoled and serene.
Yasury Romero, attendee of the October 25, 2024 prayer meeting.
We celebrate with Ain Karem the day of music, in honor of St. Cecilia, which is celebrated today, November 22.
Sometimes people write to us from very remote places, places we never imagined our music could reach, and they tell us what their experience has been when they prayed or listened to one of our songs.
For us it is very surprising that there are people who, in very complicated moments of life, find in one of our songs a way to experience the presence, rest, comfort and love of God. That is very big for us.
Long live music, and together with Saint Cecilia, the woman who sang to God, we continue to wish to sing with our voices and our lives to God, who makes everything possible.
Ain Karem
We invite you to listen to Ain Karem’s music through her channels:
