Music: 2 priests of the Emmanuel Community in the Vocation Music Award Contest

This year, 2 German priests from the Emmanuel Community are participating in the Vocation Music Award, a prize created in 2019 around the theme of God’s call on our lives. Below, you can discover the compositions of these priests and vote for them.

“The Vocation Music Award wants to bring the theme of vocation to young people creatively and innovatively. Vocation means: I am called by God, in a specific vocation to marriage or the consecrated life, but also in general at every moment of our lives.”

Halte mich fest (Tiens-moi fermement) – Père Martin Sinnhuber

History of the song :
This song, written some years ago, is about the fact that God’s call is not something that happens at a particular moment in life, I answer it, and then everything is clear. My experience of 22 years of the priesthood is that the vocation is realized little by little. And especially in the phases when I would like to throw everything away when I don’t see how things can go on when I blindly cling to the path that I have recognized as mine. It is precisely in these phases that I have been able to experience that God calls again and again: when something attracts me stronger than my own will; when I realize that I am not only holding on but that I am being held back; when I can experience that God faithfully accompanies my path.

Translation of refrain :

I hold you tight even when I can’t see.
I hold you tight, even if I don’t understand you.
With all my strength, for you are worth giving everything.
Hold me tight!

I vote for this song

Ich möchte dir dienen, und ich finde den Weg nicht – Père Markus Wittal

History of the song :

Vocation has a lot to do with longing, with the question of what is essential and being touched by Jesus Christ. This idea is expressed very succinctly in the thoughts of Philip Neri. He is one of my favorite saints because he spread the joy of Christ. Many “shock prayers” – short Twitter messages to God, so to speak – are known from him. Philip Neri was a seeker of God throughout his life, a person who strongly radiated the closeness of God.

And yet, these texts express the paradox of the search: Closeness and distance, vocation is a journey. In this song, such words are combined with a scriptural word that became my primatial motto. It expresses that Jesus’ decision for his disciples is more important than what the disciples can do for him. The idea of submitting a song to the Vocation Music Award came very late, in May to be precise, when I was studying Saint Philip Neri. Perhaps his thoughts will inspire you too: Longing becomes a search, which becomes determination in the encounter with Christ.

Translation of the refrain :

I want to serve you and I cannot find the way.
I want to do good, and I cannot find the way.
I want to love you, and I cannot find the way.
I do not yet know you, my Jesus, because I do not seek you.

I vote for this song

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