Being Catholic at a Baptist University

For 25-year-old singer-songwriter Tori Harris, attending a Baptist University was the best thing that ever happened to her Catholic faith. Though Harris grew up attending Catholic schools and seeing her parents as models of the faith, she acknowledged during a recent interview on Christopher Closeup that college forced her to confront the rationality of her belief in God. She found that the worldview presented by Christianity in general - and Catholicism in particular - seemed the most truthful and consistent.

Harris recalled, “Going into a Baptist environment, there’s such a historical conflict and friction between the two faith identities. It was a time in my life where I was being asked really hard questions, and had to take ownership and step up…And it was a boon to my friends, too. The discussions that we had were really fruitful, though we don’t all agree theologically on which expression of Christianity that we identify with. My closest friends are Southern Baptists, so there’s definitely disagreement there. But at the same time, we’ve never had more respect for each other. And there’s a great love and devotion on both sides for the pursuit of truth.”

Harris has chosen to pursue and share that truth through a music career that takes her around the country to speak and perform at LifeTeen camps, parish conferences, and colleges. Her latest album, “Sweet Dolor,” is now reaching audiences with messages of faith, hope, and healing.

Though the words “sweet” and “dolor” (translation: suffering) may seem incompatible at first, Harris noted that they’ve been vital to her own growth as a person and an artist. By facing her fears and carrying her cross, she’s learned to trust God with everything, which can make the suffering she experiences on the road to transformation seem “redemptive and sweet.” Still, there were certain experiences in which it was a struggle to find anything redemptive: specifically, the death of her friend Melanie due to cancer. After Harris received the devastating news, she cried out to God, demanding consolation. The results made their way into her song “Fields of Gold.”

Harris said, “The image that I got, that consoled my heart, was Christ in the Eucharist, Christ at His throne in heaven—this knowledge that wherever Christ is in the Eucharist, so are all the Seraphim that surround the throne, so are all the angels in heaven, and so are all the saints of the past and the present - meaning, so was my friend Melanie. So in this song, ‘Fields of Gold,’ I’m talking about being at Mass, closing my eyes in prayer, and knowing in a spiritual sense, that there we are, in the Book of Revelation. We’re dancing in this field of barley, we’re feasting on the hidden manna which is the Eucharist. We’re around the throne of God. The song is talking about how, even in death, we’re still not separated from those that we love because heaven does exist. It’s something that we…can experience in the Mass.”

The song “King of Kings” builds on that idea because it was inspired by the part of the Mass where everyone sings “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Harris explained, “That’s what Scripture says the angels are singing around the throne of heaven. So that’s the point where, every time I’m at Mass, I feel most united to the communion of saints.”

Winning souls for that communion of saints, especially among teens, remains a goal that Harris seeks to accomplish through her music.  I’ll share that part of her ministry in my next column.

(This essay is a recent “Light One Candle” column, written by Tony Rossi, of The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.)

Background information:

The Christophers

Tori Harris