Still We Sing Alleluia*

PAULO K. TIROL

In March 2020, a few weeks into Lent, the direction came to cancel in-person Masses,  and soon the decision to cancel the Holy Week Triduum and Easter celebrations came too. We were all stuck at home, anxious and isolated, and afraid. I wondered, how do we celebrate Easter at a time like this?

And I realized: it is in times like this when our Easter faith is most necessary and most alive. Easter is the triumph of life over death, of light over darkness, of hope over despair. And in times like these, our Easter “Alleluia” is not so much an explosion of joy and dancing as it is a whisper of the deepest convictions in our hearts. It is the affirmation of our belief in the empty tomb: that death does not have the final say.

I composed the song “Still We Sing Alleluia” in an attempt to capture this. I’m extremely grateful that Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), the largest publisher of Catholic music in the United States, chose to publish it immediately after sharing it with them — first as a solo and later in a choral edition. It brings me such joy that a song I wrote has given so many people the words and music with which to pray.

I pray with “Still We Sing Alleluia” whenever I need to remind myself to trust in God’s love and goodness… both in view of the COVID-19 pandemic that draws on and in the uncertainty, anxiety, and sadness that is a part of life. I hope that you, reader, may find solace in the song as well.

*Paulo K Tiról is a composer, lyricist, and arranger of musical theatre and liturgical music, originally from Manila and currently living and working in the New York City area. He was an active member of Hangad, a music ministry with roots in Ateneo de Manila University, for over 17 years before moving to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music, and later New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

*More about Paulo at

www.youtube.com/liturgicalmusic

www.youtube.com/paulophonic