ROGERS — During the papal Mass Thursday, April 17 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., people stood in line to receive holy Communion in a crowd of 46,000 participants.
In the background, 580 singers from four different choirs, along with an orchestra, performed “Bienaventurados,” a Spanish hymn composed by Lourdes Cardenas Montgomery, music director at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers.
Montgomery only discovered that her hymn had been selected a week earlier and it had been an exciting few days for her. She unfortunately was not able to attend the Mass, but she was able to watch the Mass live on cable.
“Exhilaration is putting it mildly,” she said. “It is an honor to be in line with other composers, who I might add are all men. To be an Hispanic woman whose piece was chosen for this important Mass is a great tribute.”
Stella Garcia, a friend and senior editor with Oregon Catholic Press, sent Montgomery an e-mail of the songs selected for the papal Mass, and her song was on the list.
Her Spanish hymns have been published by Oregon Catholic Press for nearly 10 years. As a graduate in music theory and composition at the University of Miami, Montgomery worked as music and choir director at parishes in the Miami area. During that time she met Father Juan Sosa, a nationally known composer of liturgical music.
“He was on all these liturgical committees and he worked with the Oregon Catholic Press as a consultant,” she said.
“He asked me to bring him everything I had in the way of new compositions. He took them to Oregon Catholic Press music division. I have 13 songs in the Spanish hymnal and one of them is ’Bienaventurados,’” Montgomery said.
“Bienaventurados,” or “Blessed are those,” is based on Christ’s preaching on the Beatitudes and has grown in national popularity since it was published in 2001.
“I wrote this song by taking the words that Jesus said on the mountain,” Montgomery said. “I started looking for music for the Beatitudes and I didn’t like the music I found in the hymnal. I wasn’t happy with what I was hearing. So I said, ’I have to take matters into my own hands,’ and I came up with this melody.”
As hymns go, the song style is unusual.
“I used a different style that is very rare in a hymn,” she said. “I used a lot of jazz chords and the melodies are taken from the extensions of these jazz chords. The people at Oregon Catholic Press had never seen anything like that. I have gotten e-mails from all over the country telling me how much they have enjoyed this piece.”
In addition to writing music for Oregon Catholic Press, Montgomery conducted workshops around the country for churches that needed help with their Hispanic music programs.
“I would teach the do’s and don’ts of liturgical music,” she said.
Although Montgomery is working in Rogers, her ties to Arkansas began in Little Rock in 1968 when she attended Our Lady of the Holy Souls School for four years. She was born in Havana, Cuba, and brought to the United States when she was 5 years old.
“Those were very happy years. I had very good images of my childhood from being at Holy Souls School,” she said.
But in 1971 her parents decided to move to Miami. There she studied at the University of Miami, met her husband Michael and had two children, Teresa and Michael.
Montgomery, her husband and son moved to northwest Arkansas in November 2005. Her daughter has just graduated from the University of Miami and decided to stay in Florida.
Montgomery writes music on a daily basis.
“The muses are calling me,” she said with a laugh. “I wrote three songs today. It was my day off and I am working on a CD right now. When I am writing, I put my hands on the piano and play chords. One chord will lead to another. I will repeat the words for the song in my mind as I play the chords and this will create a rhythm. I have to decide on a style as well.”
Her latest CD and book of music, “De La Cruz a la Gloria” (“From the Cross to the Glory”) is a composition for Lenten services.
“Every time I would write a piece because I couldn’t find a song. If I can’t find it in a book, I will write it myself so I will have a setting of the song in Spanish. That is my inspiration — the need,” Montgomery said.
After she had written several pieces, her senior editor called and asked her to record a collection of her music. Michael and she recorded the instrumental tracks for the CD in Portland at Oregon Catholic Press in 2003.
Currently, she is considering local recording studios and local talent for her next CD.
“I have come up with a different style in my writing now. One of my songs Mike said sounded like Appalachia. I would like to come up with a regional sound that would be different from Oregon,” Montgomery said.
She continues her work as the parish music director and she hopes she can satisfy the musical needs of “this wonderful community from the children that attend catechism class, the school choir, to the Sunday English and Spanish choirs. This is what the Lord is calling me to do. This honor that God has made possible through the Holy Spirit is his way of telling me to continue with my work and not let negative words and criticisms destroy my spirit.”