A New Song

I woke up yesterday a bit early with a line in my head--it was nothing remarkable in itself:

"At my best, I come to You with eyes that are open."

A little later in the morning I added a second line:

"Morning has called me up and Your will has spoken."

I have a young high school daughter with the voice of an angel who is a developing musician. She has written a couple of songs and recently joined the adult choir at church. I thought right away that I should write the line down and expand it into a full set of lyrics to which my daughter can write music.

I wrote three stanzas yesterday and although it is still very rough, I gave it to my daughter and she is working on the music already. We'll see what we come up with.

I got this morning's Bible verse email a short time ago. (you know you can sign up with a number of organizations that send you a daily verse -- kind of nice use of technology!). The verse I received was this:


"I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."
Psalm 16:8

The beauty of these scripture messages is that many times they seem relevant and so helpful with what you are doing or going through. The Bible is like that regardless, it is so rich and so encouraging.

Feeling a Little Blue in the Pew

I was in church a while back just saying a few Hail Marys before Mass. I was feeling like I sometimes do, a little sad and out of place at weekday Mass with all the saintly people who attend. I feel a little unworthy at times.

After a few prayers I sat down and looked around. The walls of the church had a line of construction paper sheets running on both sides of the church displaying the artwork of the kids who were receiving their First Communion. Much of it was very nice -- images of the host, chalices, bread, burst of light, and dozens of little phrases and prayers. Each of the renderings expressed the Sacrament or perhaps the Communicant's new relationship with God in some way. A small breeze was somehow running through our church--every few seconds. There are no windows--so it must have been either through the vestibule in back or perhaps an air conditioning vent. Any way, you could see the sheets moving ever so slightly as the breeze would come in and then die down. One sheet was flapping about quite vigorously however directly on my left, perhaps one of the closest sheets to my location in the pew.

Of course being Irish and always open to supernatural communications, I kept glancing over at the one sheet that was practically flying off the wall. I thought the good Lord, knowing that I am not a subtle person, was going to make sure that I got His message loud and clear. I inched over a bit so I could read the message on the sheet. In a child's handwriting, the message stated simply: "God Loves You."

As I got to my feet for the Priest's entrance, I stopped worrying about being out of place and just concerned myself with loving Him back.