By Emily Chaffins -

MIAMI | During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the Anduiza family rediscovered their calling to play music for God. During the lockdowns, the young adult siblings Ashley Marie, Frank, Jr., Melissa, and Michelle Lauren Anduiza decided to perform praise and worship at home.

“We started amongst four of us, Franky bringing his guitar, and we’d sit around the couch and do praise and worship together,” Michelle Lauren recalled.

Today, this form of family prayer has expanded into the local Adore Praise & Worship band, which organizes Adore Night praise and worship, among other events, around Miami. Melissa is the lead vocalist, Ashley Marie plays the piano/keyboard, Frank, Jr. is on the guitar, and Michelle Lauren and their father, Frank, Sr., set the rhythm with the cajón and bongos, respectively.

The family, from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Miami, harmonizes while playing both their original works and others’ music for a “calm, peaceful, prayerful feel,” as Melissa described their style.

 

WHEN IT ALL BEGAN

Ever since the eldest, Melissa, was around 15-17 years old, and the youngest, Michelle, was around 5-7, the three oldest siblings would play music. From around 2003-2007, Melissa, Ashley Marie, and Frank, Jr. started the “Breaking Edge” youth band at Good Shepherd Church in Miami, where they played music during ministry events. At the time, Michelle Lauren was too young to participate in the band.

“We had a couple of bands,” Frank, Jr. recalled. “After ‘Breaking Edge,’ we had ‘Salvation,’ and we played at Mass, events, and retreats.”

In 2007, the group split since Frank, Jr. and Melissa went to college outside of Miami. Towards the end of 2019, the siblings were back in Miami and decided to attend an open mic night at St. Augustine Parish in Coral Gables.

“We played two of our own original songs, and before this, it was just us getting together in our living room, having our own praise and worship sessions,” said Ashley Marie.

St. Augustine Parish invited them to play music at Masses, as well as at online events when the pandemic struck.

Their lives went through further transformation during the lockdowns.

“We all went through another reversion in our faith,” said Melissa. “We were really getting back, connecting with our faith and practicing it in a more authentic way. After being separated for so many years, we were all together again. Praying with music resonated with us.”

Later, during a Mass at Good Shepherd, the pastor, Father Jesus Arias, preached about giving back to the community. The siblings were moved to seriously pursue using their music for the church. They requested to be added to the Mass schedule at Good Shepherd, which marked their “official start” as a band, Ashley Marie noted.

“That was when we said we needed an actual name,” she said. They chose “Adore Praise & Worship.”

 

BRINGING MUSIC TO THE COMMUNITY

“Adore Night” is the band’s signature event: a praise and worship session with Eucharistic adoration that takes place every month at St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest.

The prototype of Adore Night kicked off at Good Shepherd Feb. 11, 2022 as “Young Adults Praise & Worship Nights.” At that time, the prayer gathering did not include adoration.

“Over several months of kind of trial and error, we saw every meeting was drawing less and less people,” Ashley Marie said. “We got together, reevaluated what we were doing – our mission, where it was going, and how to get back on track.”

The band renamed the events Adore Night and widened their net, inviting “anybody who wants to come and worship,” as Ashley Marie explained, rather than only young adults. They launched Adore Night July 28, 2022 at Good Shepherd. Later on, they moved the events to St. Louis.

“We did it a year without the Blessed Sacrament, but last August, we had Jesus in the Eucharist exposed,” Ashley Marie said. “We will never go back to having Adore Night without the Eucharist.”

“Adore Night has been one of our most fruitful services,” she added.

“Adore Praise & Worship” also plays at various retreats and events around Miami – and abroad. The siblings will be accompanying Our Lady of Lourdes Parish’s Hospitalite de Miami pilgrimage in September, “serving pilgrims with the Hospitalite de Miami and playing all the music for that pilgrimage,” Melissa said.

The band has recorded and produced their first album, “Savior.” Frank, Jr. explained, “The songs are about professing our lives to Jesus and proclaiming him as our savior.”

“We decided to just do it as something for fun, kind of experimental, as part of our mission to evangelize and use our gifts of music, to give it away,” he added.

With Frank, Jr. using his laptop to produce the songs, the siblings recorded three pieces, “Singing Hallelujah,” “Victory Song,” and “Savior,” which are originals from the time of the pandemic.

“We recorded it all by ourselves while having 9-to-5 jobs and crazy schedules,” he said. “It was an awesome experience. We got good feedback from it, and we all got a lot out of it…. We want to record more songs for sure.”

 

PRAISING GOD AS A FAMILY

The Anduiza siblings were almost entirely “self-taught” in music, said Melissa. Their careers have little to do with music. Ashley Marie is a pharmacy account manager; Melissa is St. Louis Parish’s communications and funeral director; Michelle Lauren is a religious education coordinator at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Miami; and Frank, Jr. is a graphic designer.

However, music plays a big part in their family life.

“Singing with your family is really fun because you can be yourself,” Frank, Jr. said. “You know everything about each other, so there’s that realness and authenticity. The chemistry is unbelievable, the way we can read each other’s minds. That’s probably the best part for me: my family, it’s the music that brings us together. It’s one thing in common among many others.”

Music has played an important role in Michelle Lauren’s faith experience.

“My first encounter of the faith, of really meeting Jesus, was with the Blessed Sacrament at a Steubenville conference,” she said. “It was the music that really brought me there – the praise and worship band they had. I remember the priest holding the monstrance at me. I thought of all of the rosaries I had prayed with my family, the things I was learning at home, and everything just made sense.”

The siblings’ mother, Maria S. Anduiza, is a constant supporter and is “there every Adore Night,” said Melissa. “She’s there with my son. She sells T-shirts as a fundraiser. It’s a whole family affair: everyone participates. It really is something very special to be able to spend time together.”

Going to adoration also is important to the whole family, “because Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist,” Frank, Jr. said. “He’s the source of all life, and for me, I need to just spend that really intentional, focused time in front of him.”

“At the end of Adore Night, before benediction, the celebrant takes time to walk with Jesus in the monstrance and bring him to every single person there,” said Melissa. “That is one of the deepest parts of the evening, the most inspiring and touching, to see people one-on-one with Jesus.”

FIND OUT MORE

Visit Adore Praise & Worship’s website and social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) for upcoming events/content or to contact “Adore Praise & Worship.”