The Daughters of St. Paul sing Christmas carols in Downtown Crossing on Dec. 7. Pilot photo/Wes Cipolla
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BOSTON -- "My gosh, my gosh, my gosh!" Sister Fay Pele of the Daughters of St. Paul shouted as she ran through the automatic doors of Macy's in Downtown Crossing. "This year, it's cold!"
Sister Fay was born and raised in Samoa, a tropical island nation in the South Pacific. In other words, it's about as far from the Boston winter as one can get. The weather outside was frightful on Dec. 7, but the Daughters of St. Paul still performed a medley of Christmas carols outside Macy's, bundled up in hats, scarves, coats, and earmuffs along with their veils.
"It's awesome -- and freezing cold," said Sister Tracey Dugas.
The setlist included classics like "O Come, All Ye Faithful," modern pop carols, secular tunes like "Deck the Halls," and dance remixes of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Jingle Bells." The sisters even did a little dancing themselves.
"All the nostalgia and beauty of Christmas songs, they sort of open and soften our hearts a little bit," Sister Tracey said. "So they listen to this music, and they feel those positive feelings of hope and love and warmth."
The concert was a preview of "Come to Bethlehem," the Daughters of St. Paul Choir's annual Christmas concert tour. The tour came to Natick High School on Dec. 9 and 10; Mascoutah, Illinois on Dec. 14; St. Louis, Missouri on Dec. 15; and will come to New Orleans on Dec. 20.
Alexis Walkenstein, who does marketing for the Daughters of St. Paul (her agency, appropriately is called Be in Awe) said that Downtown Crossing is the perfect place for a performance.
"You always get such a cross-section of people, and they're amazed," she said. "Some people have never even seen a nun before."
The Daughters of St. Paul are known as "the Media Nuns" for their use of mass communication to evangelize. Sister Tracey said that the "first and foremost" message of the concert "is that God is truly with us," especially at Christmas.
Music, she said, makes people more open to that message, creating "a deeper personal experience."
"Even if it's just to remind them that nuns exist," she said. "We're in the world, praying for the world all the time."
Sister Fay said that she performs "to dance for Jesus and see all the beautiful faces, God's people that are joining us with their smiles."
"For me," she said, "singing is a way of evangelization and spreading God's word."