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<\/a><\/div>\nOne of the four or five happiest moments of my life came at Easter Vigil 2008. My dad<\/a> was there, the only time he would ever be present at my new church, a proud \u201cEpiscopal observer\u201d from his home in Connecticut. Of course Katie<\/a> was there, along with my brother David<\/a> and Cesareo<\/a>, who had inspired me to go Catholic in the first place.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t being with loved ones, particularly, or even the whole night that was the moment I\u2019m talking about. The moment was when\u2014after the salvation history had been read really well by Ferde<\/a>, his wife Heidi, and four others, and after the lights in the church came up with sudden amazement\u2014the whole congregation, backed by our fabulous choir, with Fred McArthur on the organ and someone banging away on the tympani, sang the Gloria.<\/p>\n I had learned the \u201cHeritage Gloria\u201d pretty well in my six months as a Catholic-in-Training, but I had come to expect it after the Kyrie, not after 45 minutes of reading in the dark and a sudden blaze of light. I was shocked to my core, and boy, did I belt it out!<\/p>\n A year and a half later, I have an opportunity to sing that traditional Gloria with the choir every Sunday, from where the above picture was taken, in the top left corner of our old-timey choir loft. I met Nancy, an alto, this past summer; I got talking about how I love to sing; and Nancy invited me. I\u2019ve been singing with the choir since then.<\/p>\n