LAFAYETTE PARISH — Deacon Cody Miller says his story in music began long before his new Christmas song ever reached the stage at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Milton, where he now serves. “I've always loved music, I started singing when I was eight years old. My first songs I learned was with Neil Sedaka, the old rocker from the 50s.”
Miller grew up in the church but left at 16 to pursue a music career, a journey he describes as successful but ultimately unsustainable. Two years into his marriage, he says he experienced a moment that changed the course of his life. “The holy spirit took a sword and he ran it through my heart and he said, ‘stop it’, you have to stop this lifestyle.”
Miller left the music scene, shifted his focus to his family, and eventually returned to his faith. He enrolled at Loyola in 1983, earned his master’s degree in pastoral ministry, and was ordained in 1988 before beginning decades of service in ministry.
Along the way, close friends encouraged him to deepen his spiritual life. One friend guided him toward the writings of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, a discovery Miller says reshaped his understanding of faith. “I was instantly captivated, I had discovered a whole new world of the spirituality that I was hungering for.”
That spiritual foundation later helped guide him back into music when his friend Cindy Brown collaborated with producer Rick Lagneaux to create a new Christmas song. Miller says his involvement in the project came together through a series of unexpected events. “ It's one little tiny miracle after the other, first of all I wasn’t the first person chosen to sing the song.” After several attempts with other vocalists, the song eventually came to him, and he approached it with a message he believes is central to the season. “It’s about sharing, true life. Life that is worth living.”
Miller, who now shares his music and ministry with parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church, says early reactions to the song have affirmed its purpose and offered encouragement at a time when many feel the weight of the world. “That gives me hope, even as the world gets darker and darker…we always have to have hope.”
