By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
Struck suddenly by a debilitating disorder that took her mobility, her independence, and nearly her voice, Lauren Moore of the Catholic Music Initiative now prepares to make her first public return to the stage for a night of joyful praise to the Lord who saw her through her suffering.
Along with her husband, Dave Moore, Lauren has been a resounding voice in music ministry for nearly two decades. Together, the couple has seen considerable success in their work: whether ministering to the homebound of the Diocese of Dallas as televised Mass musicians, creating Mass settings through the Catholic Music Initiative, or leading tens of thousands of voices in worship during the National Eucharistic Congress. The success is not the point though, the couple said; the point is praise.
“Our gift to be able to sing and produce and play music, it’s a gift from God,” Dave said, “and what we do with that gift is our gift back to him.”
That response of praise must be a gift given, the Moores said, in times of joy and in times of sorrow.
‘Light in the darkness’
After a family-wide bout of the flu in January, Lauren began to feel strange. A tingling, numb sensation crept into her hands and feet. Soon, that prickling pain spread upwards — reaching through her ribcage — and a paralysis set in. She could no longer walk from room to room. She struggled to speak. The pain was excruciating. Something, she could tell, was very wrong.
Following a frustrating set of diagnostic dead-ends, Lauren finally received a diagnosis: Guillain–Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the body’s network of nerves, causing weakness, numbness, and paralysis. In Lauren’s case, the family flu had triggered the condition.
Even with a diagnosis in her pocket, treatment was difficult. Lauren discovered a host of allergies to medications; and an attempt at intravenous immunoglobulin — a treatment to boost the immune system with healthy antibodies — brought on anaphylactic shock that nearly necessitated intubation. A deft intervention prevented that fate. Still, the singer feared that her condition might jeopardize her voice, as the pain continued making its ascent through her body, inching toward her throat.
“Lord, please spare my voice,” she recalled praying during that time. “Please spare my ability to do what you put me on this earth to do.”
Though she found difficulty lifting her voice in song, Lauren often lifted her mind in prayer during her stay in the Intensive Care Unit, pondering the words of beloved hymns she had so often sung.
“One of the songs that really resonated in my heart during this time was ‘Way Maker,’” she recalled. The lyrics of the song — “way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness” — were a reminder to Lauren of who God is, and an encouragement to trust him even in the midst of struggles.
And certainly, those struggles persisted.
“There were about five days during this whole ordeal in the ICU where I couldn’t eat, and I wasn’t really drinking much,” she recalled. She barely slept, which led to waking nightmares where she felt pinned down “like a toy in a box who needed to have a button on her to sing.” An intense, fiery pain throughout her back also plagued the singer. Lauren had never experienced redemptive suffering so tangibly.
“All we had to do was surrender and rely on God to activate even the littlest bit of hope,” Dave said, recalling the ordeal. “We came to understand that hope isn’t about crossing your fingers. It’s about firmly planting your feet on the ground.”
‘Groans from within’
After previous failed attempts to stop the spread of her Guillain–Barré symptoms, Lauren experienced her first big breakthrough: plasmapheresis, a medical procedure that removes plasma from blood, replacing it with healthy plasma.
“It’s exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time, because you’re receiving this gift of life that people have donated,” Lauren said. “It took 25 – I call them angels – people who donated plasma for me to continue to get better and to live.”
These treatments took about two hours a piece and were very painful. At the suggestion of her plasmapheresis technician, a Christian, Lauren passed those difficult hours praising God through music.
“We had groups of people outside the door… and we were all singing and praising,” said Lauren, who described the experience as a total surrender in trust to the Lord. Referencing lyrics from a favorite hymn, she added, “Even though it was a painful procedure, we lift our voices even still. We ‘rise to bless you still.’”
Weeks following her plasmapheresis treatment, Lauren finally moved from the ICU to an outpatient rehabilitation hospital. There, she relearned how to sit in a chair, to hold a spoon, to stand. Lifting herself on a walker for the first time, she recalled, “was the most excruciating pain.” To cope, Lauren let out operatic trills and arias, filling the hospital halls with the melodies; it was the first time she had sung with a full voice since the harrowing illness began.
“The groans from within is what it really was… I was praising God,” she said. “It was the freest my voice had ever felt; and I felt this difference in the way I produce sound. My voice was more connected to my experience, to that raw surrender and that pain that I had gone through.”
In April, Lauren returned home at last.
The Moore We Are
On Nov. 4, Lauren will take to the stage for her first public performance since her hospitalization. Hosted at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, the event is set to bring together many of the members of the community that rallied behind the Moores during Lauren’s health trial – from the diocesan priests who brought her Communion to the ICU nurses and doctors who brought her medical care.
“It’s a personal celebration, but it’s a communal celebration,” Lauren said.
The name of the event, “The Moore We Are,” is a play on the couple’s last name, as well as a reference to what it means to live a life that is abundant in faith.
“When we were thinking of ‘The Moore We Are,’” Dave explained, “it’s the more we love, the more we double down on community, the more we trust, the more we hope.”
Proceeds from the performance will support the Moore’s Catholic Music Initiative, a ministry the couple founded with the purpose of writing and recording sacred music that focuses on praise, theological accuracy, and accessibility.
The couple also shared that Lauren is expected to resume singing for televised Masses this Advent. The return, they said, is a miraculous gift from God.
“Sometimes you have to go through that pain to get to that side of healing, to get to that side of redemption, of grace,” Lauren said, “and the suffering is all for God’s glory.”
To learn more about “The Moore We Are” and to buy tickets, visit catholicmusicinitiative.org/events/the-moore-we-are.
Cutline for featured image: During an upcoming “The Moore We Are” event, set to take place at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center on Nov. 4, Lauren Moore, center, will publicly sing for the first time since her months-long hospitalization earlier this year. The singer was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder that causes severe weakness, numbness, and paralysis. Also pictured are Dave Moore, right, and Abigail Moore. (Moore family photo)
