When singer-songwriter Aly Aleigha was commissioned for a second year by Ascension Press to compose a song for Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Advent series “Waiting Well,” the song made her “work for it.”
After getting to the “good-but-not-right-yet” stage, the University of Minnesota-Duluth graduate scrapped everything. She re-worked without success and decided to try an entirely different angle.
Going back to the priest’s reflections on the theme “Waiting Well,” Aleigha — who has known Fr. Mike since college and frequently shares her music ministry on pilgrimages to the Holy Land with him and Jeff Cavins — felt the song begin to flow, but it was her own human experience and love story that got it across the finish line.
The “love-story feel” of Aly Aleigha’s original song “Waiting Well” was intentional. She leaned into a jazzy feel drawing inspiration from artists Stephen Sanchez and Alex Warren, but also drew from memory.
Aleigha's now-husband Peter proposed at Christmastime and the singer’s younger sister was engaged to be married in late December 2025. With those events in mind, “I crafted this song to apply to Jesus’ birth as well as human relationships: ‘You’re worth the wait, you’re the sweetest gift that I anticipate,’” Aleigha shared.
The song has become one of her favorites to create, largely because of the various artists — including choral voices from among family and her hometown parishioners — and because of this tender, intimate connection to her own vocation as a new wife.
In early January, Aly posted on her Aly Aleigha Music Facebook page a video celebrating Christmas with her husband. They slow danced to “Waiting Well” to highlight the dual meaning of the lyrics – meant for Jesus first, but also appreciating the value of "waiting well” for a spouse.
A love story
Aly and Peter met when she needed a last-minute drummer to fill in for an event. Their period of dating was always long-distance due to her music ministry and they knew that this would be a reality of married life as well. While the time apart was, and still is, challenging, the singer noted that Peter’s “steady, selfless, unpossessive love gives me the freedom to continue pursuing my mission and career dreams without feeling guilty… In many ways, he encourages me more than I allow myself to dream.”
The couple married in August 2024 and continue to mutually support each other’s dreams. When Peter, a teacher, finished a Master’s in Education through Grand Canyon University’s online program, they travelled to the Grand Canyon to celebrate. This past December they toured around Wisconsin and Minnesota together performing “Waiting Well” as part of Advent and Christmas themed concerts and Eucharistic adoration.
Pondering her single young adult years, Aleigha reflected, “Being single is beautiful; and I believe that season should not be wished away — but at the same time, life is so much richer and more beautiful when you allow the Lord to reveal your vocation.”
More than seeing marriage as something that could threaten the pursuit of her dreams — using the gifts God gave her and that she shares to bring others closer to Christ — her current vocation has been a path of evolving and new, shared dreams.
Commitment hasn’t been something to fear, rather the next step “in the journey of discovering how to live fully alive.” Her experience is that there is no standard mold.
“Your individual life as well as your marriage and family can uniquely represent God and how he has created your hearts … Your vocation is merely an extension of who you are … Who you were created by God to be.”
Growing gifts
As the repertoire of her music ministry has grown and expanded over the past decade (from diocesan to regional events as well as exclusive recordings with the Hallow App), Aleigha is continually humbled to see how God is working through her gifts and the opportunities unfolding.
“Any time you share the gifts the Lord gives you, he grows the gifts and gives opportunities to use them,” she acknowledged. Allowing her faith to inform her work and purifying her intention to give God glory, Aleigha feels free and released from the pressure to “perform perfectly.”
And this is where her own human love story has been built upon a divine one.
Among all the platforms for singing and playing guitar, her favorite setting remains Eucharistic adoration.
“Those moments before the Blessed Sacrament are always grounding for me. They are beautiful reminders that this is all for him and his beloved children; and it is a privilege to walk beside Christ in his ministry as he encounters people in beautiful ways.”
She clarified that worship leading is not performing, “at least, it should not be!”
“Authentic worship is not about us at all, its true focus is how wonderful the Lord is and being present with him, giving him our hearts and receiving his own.”
She has clear that, when offering music ministry, her role is “to guide people along the well-worn path of the Lord’s heart. I step out of the way so they can encounter his magnificence … He is the vista point they are really seeking.”
