Alex Schindler realized the importance of music in her life during the COVID-19 pandemic — as she missed “doing music every other day and working with parishes to lead music.” She realized imprinted in her is “that desire to worship and just give praise to the Lord through song.”
Music is “life giving” to her, Schindler said. As she discerned what the Lord created her to be in this world, she said it became “very evident” that music was one of the “gifts or charisms that the Lord gave me, and that it’s really a fundamental part of who I am, and how I connect with him actually is through music.”
Schindler recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to discuss how to use music to help the faithful enter more fully into times of worship. She recently transitioned to “essentially full-time working” for herself as a local musician, doing “Masses, special liturgies,” co-directing a school choir in south Minneapolis and working with parishes and other organizations “for their needs and particular events that they’re hosting.”
Music has a way to speak to people and their soul, “their whole being in a way that oftentimes words can’t,” Schindler said. “There’s a language that music gives us that’s universal, where it doesn’t matter if I’m here, if I’m in a foreign country, if I’m in the sky (or) underwater,” she said. “Music touches people in the same way, and it brings us into something bigger than ourselves, even just if you’re listening.” And it can even be “a beautiful way to be transported into the heavenly realm,” she said.
To learn more about Schindler, with links to her social media accounts, visit her website, alexschindlermusic.com. She said she also will be adding more professional recordings on Spotify and some streaming platforms. To hear more of her thoughts on music, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Nov. 10 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Nov. 11 and 2 p.m. Nov. 12.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Susanna Parent, a wife, mother and freelance writer for publications including Radiant magazine and Blessed Is She, a long-running Catholic women’s ministry, who discusses the importance of “slowing down” and tips for doing so; and Mike Rios-Keating, director of culture and belonging at Catholic Charities, who describes the work of Catholic Charities and ways to get involved.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at https://anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
