By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
Each Monday morning of his senior year, before the school day had even begun, Carter Kenny had one thing on his calendar that was immovable. Rather than catching extra sleep or dealing with lingering homework, he would wake up early, travel to Notre Dame School of Dallas, and gather with the other members of the Miracle Melodies to praise God through music.
Miracle Melodies is a group of Cistercian seniors that leads praise and worship each Monday for students at the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a school serving students with developmental disabilities. The ministry is the brainchild of Class of 2023 Cistercian alumnus William Greene who, along with alumnus Carter Soderberg, founded the group during their senior year. Subsequent classes of Cistercian seniors have upheld the tradition.
“They had to wake up early; they had to battle traffic; they had to practice and prep,” Cistercian teacher Peter Saliga said of the Miracle Melodies seniors. “They’ve planned college visits around Miracle Melodies. They plan their homework around Miracle Melodies.”
Kenny, a Class of 2025 Cistercian graduate, is a member of the most recent set of Miracle Melodies seniors. A “very thoughtful and articulate young man,” according to his Form Master, Father John Bayer, O.Cist., Kenny has been an involved student over his eight years at the school. He worked on the school’s yearbook team, competed in track, served in the local chapter of the Young Men’s Service League, and joined the Miracle Melodies as a guitarist.
Kenny said that he began playing the guitar near the beginning of his time at Cistercian, while still a sixth grader. Plucking strings led to jam sessions with friends and playing at the school’s Coffee House, which eventually brought him to Miracle Melodies. Unlike the Coffee House show, though, Kenny stressed that when he would don his guitar at Notre Dame each week, he was not preparing to perform but to pray.
“We’re not playing for them. It’s not a performance. We’re worshiping with them,” the graduate said. He emphasized that the Notre Dame students are active participants in the worship: Several sign along with the songs in American Sign Language or belt out the lyrics at the top of their lungs. One of his close Notre Dame friends, he recalled, even brought his own guitar to a praise and worship session to play along with the Cistercian students.
“We had four guitarists that day,” Kenny remembered with a smile. “It just becomes one big, amorphous thing of people praising God.”
Alongside Kenny, six other Cistercian seniors served in the Miracle Melodies this year: Cash Lechler, Grayson Groves, Josh Hays, Roman Soriano, Cub Gerber, and George Saliga.
Saliga, lead vocalist of the group, is the older brother to James Saliga, a student at Notre Dame School of Dallas. That fraternal relationship informed the way he approaches his ministry with Miracle Melodies, he shared.
“James has Down syndrome and autism, so though he has his own sort of language that my family can understand, it’s difficult for other people to grasp what he tries to communicate,” Saliga said; but music can be a way of connecting, as can a fist bump or a friendly smile.
“James has taught me how to connect with others even when you can’t do so through words,” Saliga said. “This helped me a lot in how I connected with the NDS students.”
Like Kenny, Saliga emphasized that music was never the main point of what the group did each Monday. The point was always “to share the joy of serving God with others.”
“Through first connecting through music, and then through simple, personal interactions, we felt perfectly at home with all the students,” he shared, “and they in turn felt a real friendship with us.”
On May 17, the members of the Miracle Melodies graduated from Cistercian Preparatory School, officially saying farewell to their involvement in that ministry. Still, their experience in the group will stay with them.
“The guys who volunteer to serve people with special needs often learn just how simple and beautiful life is, and that changes them,” Father Bayer remarked, before sharing his well wishes for the graduating members of Miracle Melodies: “I hope that the faith is something that always expands their horizons for the good that they can do in this world. I hope it allows them to climb back up from every fall, to pursue every noble dream that God calls them to,” the priest continued, “and that it would always keep them bound to each other and to this place and lead them to every happiness that God wants for them.”
Cutline for featured image: Carter Kenny, a Class of 2025 alumnus of Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, was a guitarist for Miracle Melodies during his senior year of high school. (AMY WHITE/The Texas Catholic)
