SEE ALSO http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/01/20/15/get-know-cute-responsorial-psalm-guy
When 22-year-old seminarian Kenneth Rey Parsad took to the podium at Manila Cathedral, to sing the responsorial psalm for the Holy mass that Pope Francis celebrated last Friday, his heart was pounding wildly against his chest. “It’s hard to describe the feeling,” Ken begins.
“I had to tell myself: ‘Contain yourself!’ Imagine the Pope was just there. I had mixed feelings. My heart was pounding. Good thing it stopped when I got to the podium. Then I relaxed.” Then he sang the Responsorial Psalm, “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord,” and stumped everyone.
He is the handsome young man people couldn’t stop talking about on social media. His good looks coupled with his velvety Tenor voice quickly turned him into an instant Internet sensation.
The dark-haired Abra-native says he was equally stumped with the attention he received. “I never expected it,” he smiles embarrassed. Apart from all the articles written about him and the Twitter shoutouts, the Enrique-Iglesias look-alike was also flooded with Facebook friend requests and messages. “Somebody even made me a Facebook page, but I told him to remove it already because it was too self-serving. Remember what Pope Francis said: 'humility,'” he shares with Coconuts Manila in an exclusive interview Monday afternoon.
There’s one story though that he enjoyed a lot: “Somebody wrote a satire! It says, because of the Papal visit, a theologian became a movie star. The title of my teleserye with Marian Rivera is, ‘Forgive me Father for I have sinned.’ In fairness, I laughed hard with that one.”
Ken admits “it feels good” but he’s also quick to say that the attention is also kind of scary. “There will be a lot of expectations now,” he continues. Apart from the social media love, inaccurate stories about him have begun floating in the Internet. He points to one biography that made his life sound like a fairytale. “I only have one sibling but in that story, though it was a good story, it said we were three. It’s also scary because of all the temptation, to be egotistical and to focus on myself.”
Kenneth Rey Parsad is the eldest and the only boy of two kids. Born and raised in Bangued, Abra, the seminarian came to Manila seven years ago to pursue priesthood at the UST Central Seminary. There, he immediately saw photos of Pope John Paul II in the hallways. “I wondered, ‘how does it feel like to serve the Pope?" he says. He’d have his answer seven years later, when in October 2014, he was approached to sing the Psalm for the Holy Father.
“I’ve been singing psalms for big masses for a long time already,” Ken says in Tagalog. ‘So I’m friends with the liturgists and the music people already.” It was the head of music in Manila Cathedral who told him first about the job, a proposition he thought was “too good to be true.” The reality only sunk in when Fr. Carmelo Arada, Jr, the head of ministry of lectors and commentators, repeated the request: 'you will sing it.’”
They only had a grand total of two rehearsals, but Ken, ever so diligent, would practice by himself. “This is not from St. Agustin, but the quote is attributed to him: ‘When you sing well, you pray twice.’ So for me, when I sing and I give my best, it’s like I’m praying twice.”
Kenneth Rey Parsad gave a special private performance for Coconuts TV. Be sure to swing by again to see the exclusive video.
At the Cathedral, he made sure he enunciated every single word. “That’s what I was going for, because it’s very important to deliver the message. I saw to it that my pronunciation was good and that I’ll be able to enunciate every single word correctly.” When asked if he felt like he was able to do that, Ken says yes. “I’m happy with my performance.”
As a lot of people. When news about him broke, he instantly received messages from his friends congratulating him. “It was my brothers from the minor seminary who first told me about all it, and congratulated me. They’re very proud.”
Messages from strangers came pouring in, too, but none resonated in him more than what his mother had to say. “Of course, she was very proud, but she also told me to stay humble. All my life, my mother always taught me to be humble, and to stay on the ground.”
A driving force in his life, it was also his mother who suggested for Ken to enter the seminary. “The calling [to become a priest], it comes uniquely to each one of us. Every priest has his own story. For me, it was my mom who told me to enter. I wasn’t forced, ha. She just suggested and I agreed to it. I was 11 years old then.”
He liked his experience and so he stayed. “Half of my life [has been spent] in the seminary. I really enjoy it. I’m very happy with the brotherhood you can find here. I don’t think you’ll stay at one thing if you’re not happy.”
It’s almost like living in a guys’ locker room. There’s a lot of teasing, a lot of harmless bullying. “We do things together. We go drinking once a month. We watch movies. Play sports, hang out.
“It really depends in the seminary but here in UST, they’re not very strict. They implement ‘responsible freedom.’ So we can use the computer here, unlike in other seminaries.” Ken hardly watches TV these days, choosing instead to log in on Facebook and keep entertained through the Internet. When he gets lonely or depressed, he gets his guitar and starts singing. He is a big music fan, after all, and is pretty active in the music scene of the seminary.
Apart from choir (he was choir leader last year, BTW), Ken also belongs to a quintet, a vocal group he likens to One Direction, as well as to a duet, where “my partner plays the guitar and I sing.” He’s a popular choice as the psalm reader for big masses, and has racked in precious experiences in big masses, singing for the bishops and even Cardinal Tagle a few times already.
Which brought him to the Cathedral, last Friday. “Before I went to the altar, my heart was pounding. Imagine, the Holy Father was just right there. I told myself: 'contain yourself!' When I got to the podium, the pounding thankfully stopped. Then I felt relaxed.”
He slept at San Agustin, woke up at 3am, and waited at the Cathedral for seven long hours. “When I bowed down in front of the Pope, I really looked at him,” Ken says hoping he’d get to eye-contact with the Pope. “But he wasn’t looking.”
The day after his performance, Ken stayed in his room, to rest and also to read the adoring emails. He’s really taking time to do this because for Ken, this could be his way of helping young people heed their call. “For me, it’s very important that I get to answer the messages. I want to read every single message and respond to each and every one of them. I want to hear their stories,” Ken says. While he’s already done with the major seminary (equivalent to college for secular education), Ken still has three years to go before he can become a full-pledged priest. He’s still undecided how to spend those three years. “Maybe I can continue with my studies, I don’t know yet. I’m still discerning what the Lord wants for me. I’m just open to his grace. I delight in serving the Lord, in whatever way possible. He’s been so good to me.”
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