Rend Collective and The Art of Celebration

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One of my favourite Christian bands (Bangor, N. Ireland's Rend Collective) released their new album, The Art Of Celebration, on Monday and it got straight into the iTunes Top 10 album. I had pre-ordered the cd so it came on the Monday itself. On first listen I fell madly in love with one track in particular, to the point where I sang it with 2 other musicians during communion at a vocations event Mass on Sat. (5 days after release) = "Living Joyfully", at St. Anne’s Parish, Liverpool (see here). I think I will also be singing it in school at our forthcoming Reconciliation services.

Here's the lyric video for the track: Strength Of My Heart


This song got me through a couple of very tough days due to a tragic past event being shared with me by someone, the reverberations of which are going to be felt for sometime to come, I fear. I've really made this song my own since then and sung the words with total conviction during the Mass on Sat. Judging by the reactions afterwards I think the song touched other people too. 

Here's a member of the band quite wonderfully explaining the concept behind the new album as a whole. It's one of the most inspiring things that I've seen or heard in a very long while.


"Seriousness is not a fruit of the Spirit, but joy is... God is the ultimate artist of celebration, the inventor of the party, the healer of the broken... How do we remind ourselves as a wounded Church family that we still have a reason to sing?... We have to open our hearts to wonder and beauty... to always find a reason to rejoice, even if we are in the darkest circumstances... We come with a Gospel worth celebrating before a celebrating King... The joy of the Lord is our strength, and after all, heaven's going to be the greatest party of all time and we need to start practicing NOW!... You are forgiven and you are free and you are worth more to God than you could ever imagine. So... with a childlike heart and wide-eyed wonder, let's rediscover the art of celebration."

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