May 6, 2025

Psalm 33, Newman Catholic community ‘make a joyful noise’

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Carolee McGrath

AMHERST – On a beautiful spring evening in Amherst, members of the Newman Catholic community from UMass met at the St. Brigid Parish center for a night of praise, prayer and reflection, Friday, May 2. The concert, “A Joyful Sound,” featured Psalm 33 music ministry and included inspiring talks.

“This is really great and awesome to see the students come together and to worship the Lord,” said Father Valentine Nworah, the director of the Newman Catholic Center at UMass in Amherst and the pastor of St. Brigid Parish in Amherst.

“This is great just to have a different experience of praising and worshipping the Lord to get together as young people. And we thank Psalm 33 for being here tonight with us,” said Father Nworah, who also gave a talk during the evening, along with Focus Missionaries, assigned to UMass. Focus Missionaries are on college campuses across the country, leading Bible studies, retreats and other events to help students grow in their faith.

“This is the first time doing this here at the Newman Center and we are hoping it will become part of our tradition here once every academic year, to have a joyful night of praise where we invite people from around the diocese to come together with the students to praise and worship the Lord,” Father Nworah continued.

Father Nworah, a singer himself, got the students up dancing and praising God as Psalm 33 played popular Christian songs including, “Praise,” “Oceans,” and “The Blessing.”

“We see this every time when have the kids go on the SEEK conference or Steubenville conference,” Father Nworah said of the students who followed his example in singing and dancing.

“It is always beautiful when the kids get up close, sing along, dance along and express that joy. It’s really great to see,” he said.

Sarah Moriarty, a UMass sophomore and member of both the Newman Catholic Center and Psalm 33, organized the event.

“I really wanted to see how we can combine the different communities I’m a part of,” said Moriarty who plays piano and the banjo. She is also one of the vocalists for Psalm 33.

“I really wanted to have an opportunity to bring people from my Catholic community to the Newman Center. We had played one Holy Hour and we got a lot of positive feedback from it, so we said we should do something bigger. It was definitely special. I was nervous about how many people would come, but seeing this made me say ‘wow, this is a really purposeful event,’” she said.

Psalm 33 Music Ministry plays at many events across the Diocese of Springfield including the recent youth rally held at Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield, retreats, and Faith on Fire each summer.

The Newman Catholic Center will host a similar event next spring.

A video version of this story will be on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.