There are Sundays you attend. And then there are Sundays that attend to you – Sundays that reach deep into your chest, rearrange something inside you, and send you home different from how you came.
Divine Mercy Sunday, 12th April 2026, was one of those Sundays.
While the city was still quiet, while the morning mist still hung low and the birds were only beginning to stir, members of the Divine Mercy Choir were already gathering. There were no cameras rolling for that moment. No applause. Musicians and vocalists who understood that what they were about to do was not a performance.
By 7:00 AM, the first Mass was underway. The church, bathed in the soft golden light of early morning, filled with voices that seemed almost too beautiful for that hour. Worshippers who had risen early – some still rubbing sleep from their eyes – found themselves suddenly, unexpectedly, moved. The kind of moved where you stop thinking about your week, your worries, your to-do list, and you are simply… present. Present before God. Present in His mercy.
Rev. Fr. Kawooya Simon Peter stood at the altar, celebrating this sacred feast with the reverence it deserves. His words and the choir’s music wove together seamlessly – the homily speaking to the mind, the music speaking directly to the soul. A genuine encounter with the mercy of God.
The Second Mass – The Church Begins to Fill
By 8:30 AM, the parish was coming alive. Families arrived together. The elderly took their familiar seats. Young people filed in. Children, restless and curious, settled as the music began. And once again, Divine Mercy Choir stepped up, not coasting on the momentum of the earlier Mass, not going through the motions, but bringing fresh energy, fresh devotion, and fresh fire.
Rev. Fr. Kawooya Simon Peter celebrated this Mass too, and there was something powerful about witnessing the same priest, the same choir, the same spirit – sustained, undiminished, across two consecutive Masses. It spoke of people who were not there for convenience. People who were there because they believed in what they were doing.
The Gospel acclamation lifted the roof. And during the Offertory, voices rose in a way that made more than a few people in the pews close their eyes and simply breathe it in.
This is what music ministry looks like when it is done with whole hearts.
Bwanamukulu Takes the Altar
If the first two Masses were a flame, the 10:00 AM Mass was a bonfire.
The church was now full. The energy was palpable. And stepping to the altar was none other than the Parish Priest himself – the man the faithful affectionately and respectfully call Bwanamukulu – Rev. Fr. Paul Sekayala.
There is something about the parish priest celebrating on a major feast day that carries a special weight. It signals:
This day matters. This moment matters. We are all here, together, and we are not taking this lightly.
Divine Mercy Choir felt it. The congregation felt it. And what followed was nothing short of magnificent.
The choir poured everything they had into that final Mass – harmonies that soared, rhythms that moved feet and stirred hearts, worship that transcended the ordinary Sunday experience and planted itself firmly in the territory of the extraordinary.
Three Masses. One choir. One extraordinary day.
A Community That Gives Back
Here is something that must be said, and said plainly:
Divine Mercy Choir serves this parish every single week. They show up for Sunday morning Masses, for special occasions, for feast days, for funerals, for weddings, often without fanfare, often without recognition, always without complaint. Behind every beautiful Mass you have ever attended at this parish, behind every song that caught you off guard and brought a tear to your eye or a smile to your face, there is a choir that rehearsed, prepared, sacrificed personal time, and showed up.
Ministry of this kind has needs. Real, practical needs. Instruments require maintenance. Transport costs money. Formation and training take resources. And the people who give so generously of their time and talent deserve to be supported in return.
That is why, during each of the three Masses on Divine Mercy Sunday, a Second Basket was presented to the congregation – a special collection dedicated entirely to supporting the choir’s ministry and daily services.
And the response?
The faithful of this parish showed up for their choir the way the choir has always shown up for them.
Contribution after contribution. Envelope after envelope. Coin after coin and note after note, each one a small act of love, a quiet acknowledgment that music ministry matters, that the people behind it matter, and that the community is stronger when it takes care of its own.
To everyone who gave – whether you dropped in a thousand shillings or a hundred thousand – you did something meaningful on Sunday. You invested in the continued sound of worship in this parish. You made a statement: we value what you do, and we want you to keep doing it.
Thank you. From the bottom of every heart in that choir.
“Sing to the Lord a new song!“ – Psalm 96:1; Divine Mercy Choir answers that call every single week. Help us continue this sacred mission.
Your contribution supports our rehearsals, ministry needs, and daily service to this parish and the glory of God. Support our choir causes.
To the Choir -This Is Your Moment
To every soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. To every instrumentalist. To the choir director and the section leaders.
To those who arrived early and left late. To those who sang through fatigue, through personal struggles, through everything life had thrown at them that week:
You were brilliant.
You did not just sing on Sunday. You ministered. You carried people into the presence of God. You gave the faithful something to hold onto. In a world full of noise, you created space for the sacred. And that is not a small thing.
That is, in fact, everything.
The Message That Made It All Matter
It would be incomplete to write about this day without pausing on the reason for it all.
Divine Mercy Sunday – celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter – is one of the most powerful feasts in the Catholic calendar. Rooted in the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska and officially established by Pope John Paul II, it is a day when the Church proclaims to the world that no sin is too great, no soul too far gone, no life too broken to be reached by the mercy of Jesus Christ.
“I do not punish aching mankind,” Jesus said to St. Faustina. “I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.”
On this day, that message did not just live in words on a page. It lived in the music that the choir brought to three Masses. It lived in the tears of a worshipper in the third row. It lived in the quiet prayer of an old man in the back pew. It lived in the laughter of children after Mass, in the handshakes and embraces of parishioners reconnecting in the churchyard.
Mercy is an experience, not just a doctrine.
Keep Supporting the Music Ministry
Divine Mercy Sunday may be over, but the choir’s work continues – every week, every Mass, every celebration.
If you were blessed by what you experienced on Sunday, consider making the choir’s ministry a regular part of your giving. Speak to the choir leadership. Encourage a young person to join. Show up to Mass early and let the music do what music does.
Because when the choir sings, the church comes alive.
And a living church changes lives. “Happy is the soul that has embraced the mercy of God.”
