here in this place

Being in my church choir means I get to sing a lot of lovely music, and sometimes some pretty dumb music too. Each one of us has songs we just groan over - some of the lowest on my list are "God of Eve & God of Mary"/"God of Adam, God of Joseph" and the second verse of "Dust and Ashes." There's also just a whole category of overused, done-to-death music from the 60's and 70's. "Gather Us In" is one of them, and Marty Haugen, who wrote it, is absolutely despised in some circles. Personally, "Gather" doesn't bother me much, although I could definitely sing it in my sleep. But this Monday, singing at a funeral at my church, I was struck by the fourth verse:

Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in - and hold us forever,
gather us in - and make us your own.
Gather us in - all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

Now perhaps my taste for liturgical music has been warped by too many years in the choir, but I got choked up singing this! Maybe just because it was an emotional event, but I think maybe because of the words too. Try reading it without hearing the tune in your head. (I know, it's almost impossible.) I think there are some good ideas here.

Anyway ... um ... no conclusion to this post ... just wanted to share.

Holy Cross Choir

True story from choir practice ... our pianist Amy was actually talking on her cell phone while playing piano (beautifully). Our other two instrumentalists wanted to try ... Jim's picture didn't come out too well, but it looks like with practice he might acquire Amy's phone/instrument skill. Donna, however, is out of luck, I don't think she can talk and play flute at the same time.

That same night, our director Carolyn had a very bouncy psalm to practice singing. Some silly people (me included) started swaying back and forth to the song, as we do more often than I'd like to admit. But that night, everyone was in a silly mood and soon the entire choir was circled around Carolyn and the piano, swaying in unison and joining in on the refrain.

It was hard to keep from swaying when she sang the psalm for Easter morning - but she said she would kill us if we did it again and made her laugh ;)

I love my choir :)

Trivia

Did you know that the two US states that have never recorded a temperature over 100 degrees are Alaska and .... Hawaii? Neither did I, that's why my Trivia team tied at 92 points instead of winning with 93 ... Trivia Night is a huge event at Holy Cross Parish. It's a fundraiser for the school and we do it four or five times a year. 300 people crammed into the school auditorium, everyone trying to remember what year Jesse Ventura was elected governor and what Disney movie featured the characters Si and Am. Highlight of the night was undoubtedly my pastor singing karaoke to "Broken Wings." If you've never met Fr. Mike Matthews ... you should. He's extremely tall and thin, with Coke-bottle glasses and a huge smile. He's a fantastic priest - not only does he sing and dance for us at Trivia Night, it occurs to me that he has that cheerful and fun-loving spirit all the time. The kind of joy we should all have in serving the Lord ...