ROCKLAND -- In a long line, hundreds stream out of the doors of Holy Family Parish in Rockland.

It is the night of March 1, and the evening Brazilian Mass has just ended. Father Chris Snyder glides between English and Portuguese, greeting parishioners with hugs and high fives. Some families linger in the crowded stairwell to venerate the statue of the Virgin Mary. The sanctuary, once filled with loving voices, is eerily silent as Lorena Araujo, director of Holy Family's Brazilian community choir for 12 years, packs up for the night. You've got to be tough to direct a church choir, she says.

"Not that people will respect you, but people will respect the rules that we have to follow," Araujo told The Pilot. "It doesn't matter if it's a church or whatever you are, you have to follow the rules and obey."

She is in church at least twice a week, leading the choirs during Mass and at rehearsals. She is in charge of selecting the music for each week and teaching it to singers of all ages. Her favorite hymn is "Holy Is His Name." Sometimes she doesn't know how to talk to God, so she sings to him instead. If she's in her car and feeling sad, she sings on the road. She founded the children's choir and has seen many of them graduate to become adult singers, including her goddaughter Karolaynne Moreira. Araujo has known Moreira since she was seven.

"Learning under someone that you grew up looking up to, it's very important in your sense of your walk and journey with God, as well," said Moreira, who is now 22. "So I feel very blessed."

Araujo, 39, also sings in the English-language choir and at funerals when necessary. The funerals are hard, she said, but also "very thoughtful."

"I try to focus on all the family, and I try to be really part of it," she said. "I try to go really deep in it."

Her leadership in the choir made her one of 101 people to receive the Cheverus Awards last year. The annual awards, named after Boston's first bishop, honor those who have long dedicated themselves to the service of the Church, often in quiet and unrecognized ways.

"Lorena is a very positive presence, always willing to help out, and embodying what it truly means to be a generous volunteer with her time, talent, and treasure," Pastor Father Walter Carreiro said when nominating Araujo for the award.

Araujo was surprised to have won, and "a little bit embarrassed" when Archbishop Richard G. Henning gave her the medal in front of everyone in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross during the awards ceremony last November. Others deserved it more than her, she felt. She is reluctant to take pride in her accomplishments because she believes all the praise should go to God.

"I believe that he called me for this, and I'm very grateful that I had the sensibility to listen to God's word when he called me to do this work," she said.

Music has been a constant in her life. She was born in Sao Mateus, a city of 126,000 people in the state of Espirito Santo in southeastern Brazil. Her father was a professional musician whose guitar playing supported Araujo, her mother, and her two siblings. Having a musician as the sole breadwinner meant it was sometimes difficult to make ends meet. Araujo's father gave her a guitar when she was 11, and she taught herself how to play. Shortly after that, her parents divorced, forcing her mother to find work as a house cleaner and she was now responsible for caring for her younger siblings. Now that she has children of her own, Araujo realizes what her mother went through.

"It was tough for me as a child, because I didn't see my mom as much because she was always working," she said. "But now that I'm a mom, I see how strong a woman she is."

Araujo and her mother came to the U.S. when she was 14. Her mother continued to clean houses while she found work waitressing at a Brazilian restaurant in Plymouth. One of her customers for lunch was Fabiano, the man who would become her husband and the father of her two children. They were teenagers in love, attending Mass at Holy Family together. At the time, Araujo knew little about Catholicism. Singing was something she did for fun with her brothers, not in front of a large crowd. Then she was invited to sing in the parish choir.

"To be honest, I didn't even know I was a singer," she said. "I just say yes."

She started going to retreats, encountered the Holy Spirit, and decided to become Catholic.

"That's when I knew God was here," she said.

Since then, her life has revolved around her parish. The people of Holy Family have themselves become like family to her.

"Sometimes you are weak, and you need people that pray not with you, but sometimes for you, because you don't have the strength to pray," she said. "And I believe that's how this parish helped me, with people that have the same faith, and they care about me and they love me."