(OSV News) ─ Catholic faithful can now live -- or relive -- some of the experience of the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress with the release of live music recordings from the five-day gathering's revival sessions.
The online album called "Revival Worship," featuring mostly covers of contemporary praise music, went live for download on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 22.
"Revival Worship" was produced by Dave Moore. The album captures the opening night of the congress when the clear, soprano voice of his wife, Lauren Moore, pierced the silence and started a duet with the smooth-voiced Nico Cabrera, who sang in Spanish Hillsong Worship's "What a Beautiful Name" inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
While they sang, tens of thousands remained kneeling before the spotlighted Blessed Sacrament, encased in its shimmering gold sunburst of a monstrance, flanked by two candles on either side, at the center of the stadium floor.
Also on this opening night Dave Moore sang "Set a Fire," by Will Reagan and United Pursuit, belting out lyrics that express a burning longing for God.
"To set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you, God. I want more of you, God," he sang.
The album also includes two original songs penned by Moore, "Restored" and "Song of Victory."
Moore and his wife regularly lead music for online Mass with Bishop Edward J. Burns of Dallas. They founded the Dallas-based Catholic Music Initiative, or CMI, a nonprofit Catholic worship music resource that blends "tradition with melody to create a prayerful atmosphere in every Mass, engaging congregations and deepening the spiritual journey," according to their website. CMI released the album.
Dave Moore was music director for the National Eucharistic Congress. He called the NEC experience a treasure.
"We don't normally have an event of that magnitude and so we wanted to capture the full experience and participation of the church and to put something out on behalf of the church that shows that experience," he told OSV News. "It just helps people that attended and were blessed ... (to) go back and remember those moments. And for those who were unable to attend, but really maybe wanted to be there or maybe were curious, it gives them an opportunity to feel a part of those moments as well."
About 60,000 faithful attended the NEC in America's heartland, the first in 83 years, July 17-21, 2024. The conference focused on the Eucharist in sessions or "tracks" for families, clergy, young adults and others held every day. Each day ended with revival sessions of inspirational reflections from big-name Catholics, music and Eucharistic adoration. It closed with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis' envoy, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who serves in the Dicastery for Evangelization.
Moore, 36, said the NEC was "one of the greatest highlights of" his life. He said it was where he learned to "really surrender and trust in the Lord" as a music director.
"The most profound thing that I learned through the Eucharistic Congress was that God was calling me to this understanding that the bride of Christ should always supersede my artistic ambition," he said.
Moore said collaborative efforts between other musicians who each led music during various tracks were clearly led by the Holy Spirit during the revival music sessions. He said they worked together with a "common mission" to establish an atmosphere that would leave "hearts vulnerable to God through prayer and music." And he said he heard this clearly in the "Revival Worship" album.
He said, "When I go back and listen, for me, there's moments where I can see the ship steer in a different way. Like a chorus is repeated or a bridge of the song is repeated, and it's beautiful to me because it's not the structure of the song that you hear on contemporary radio. It's the structure of the song for the National Eucharistic Congress."
The album has so far been downloaded "hundreds of times" and is expected to have thousands more downloads, according to Stephanie Mahoney, director of marketing and communications for the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. Moore said proceeds are being split between the non-profit, which is organizing the 11th NEC for 2029, and CMI.
Moore said work on the album got underway in August last year and by January, heavy into the mixing of the tracks, his wife became paralyzed from the waist down, after contracting Guillain-Barre syndrome, which developed following a prolonged flu. He said the illness almost took Lauren's life, and the paralysis started to affect the vocal cords of his classically trained wife.
Moore said Lauren is much better now and can feed herself with a fork and is building up her strength and stamina after learning to walk again. But the couple were not able to participate in the closing Mass of this year's National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in Los Angeles on Corpus Christi Sunday. The Mass also marked the close of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival.
He said the music of the congress had an even deeper impact for him personally. He recalled one day, after being with Lauren in the intensive care unit, he listened again to "What a Beautiful Name."
"Sitting there, hearing that track and remembering the profound experience (of the NEC), and then thinking about the profound experience that I'm going through currently with my wife, who may not ever be able to sing like that again. It made that song in that moment so much more powerful for me," Moore said. "And the Lord really, really worked on my heart during that."
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Simone Orendain writes for OSV News from Chicago.
