Throughout my life, I have claimed many favorite songs. Each has significance because each means something that encompasses a special event in my life or brings back the memory of a particularly wonderful person, like a special early girlfriend or high school sweetheart.
But two songs stand out to me as truly songs which have come from my soul—one encapsulates the mission of my life and the other comes directly from the core of my being and lets me know about my relationship with God.
I began to become aware of that song when I was a college freshman studying for the Catholic priesthood at De Sales Preparatory Seminary in Milwaukee. The Seminary was located on the west side of South Lake Drive along the shore of Lake Michigan. I would rise early, usually before dawn, to prepare myself for my appointed work as a sacristan for the morning Eucharistic celebrations of the priests who were teachers at the seminary. I set out all their vestments and prepared the small altar cubicles for their morning private celebration of the Mass. I would also prepare the main altar in Mater Christi Chapel for the regular 7 am Mass of the seminarians. They would begin to trickle in at 6:45 am.
Every morning on my walk, slowly and meditatively, from my room in Bellarmine Hall to the back door of the chapel. That’s when the song of my soul would begin accompanying my stroll past the Seminary woods and the rushing water of the nearby creek and the sometimes loud clamor of Lake Michigan’s waves.
At the time I didn’t realize that this was the song that my spirit, my soul, was singing to me every morning. I just thought it was a beautiful song and I began to make up my own verses. They were verses of thankfulness, anticipation, excitement for being alive. I would recognize the beauty of the day’s rising sun over the lake, or the misty overcast of a cloudy, chilly morning lake breeze. All in all, the song set a pattern for my day. It brought me into the sacristy ready to be a “wonderful sacristan” and servant for all these priests and seminarians.
Only today during the beginning of my morning meditation did I realize that my spirit was singing this song to me. I thought I was doing the singing and that I was just making up some lyrics to this Bobby Vinton song, “Oh, I love you the way-a-ay you are. Oh! I love-ove you the way-a-ay you are.” I now know that when I hearing and singing that song, it was my Spirit, my God, who was using my voice to sing it to me.
I now realize that I am constantly told that I am loveable, deep down and throughout all my life, even when I have not been aware of the Lord of my life.
I bow to the divinity within you and me!
Comments