Blog Your Blessings: My Daughter's Choir

This week's blessing is my daughter's choir.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Choristers Academy at St. John's Parish on the Green in Waterbury, Connecticut, sang to the homeless children and adults of Waterbury who attended the Christmas party of Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries. This is an annual event during which the children each receive a toy for the holiday. My daughter and her peers went to church straight after school, donned their cassocks and stoles, and schlepped through the slush across Main Street to sing in the vast hall of the city's First Congregational Church.

The church was packed with hundreds of people of every age waiting to see Santa and receive a gift. Listening to kids from the church across the street wasn't on anybody's mind. The hubbub and hustle of this throng nevertheless stopped when the kids sang the first words of "Hashi Venu" a cappella.

For a few blissful moments a church full of people whose lives were framed by doing without and struggling to survive fell silent as these kids sang from their heats. Their director wasn't waiting for any lofty introductions. They came to sing, and they sang. Though their music was most likely inaudible from the back of the auditorium, those near our kids appreciated the gift placed in their hearts.

These choir kids could have been anywhere that day, but they chose to be at church on a cold and damp afternoon singing about the wonders of Christmas.

There are no report cards at the Chorister Academy. No money, no medals, no fuss. Any child who shows up to sing must want to sing. Singing at church means singing to God. It's a simple idea, though what it becomes in the hearts of these kids is a divine mystery.

These kids chose that for themselves and each other, for their director and their church, and for the kids across the street who aren't responsible for their homelessness.

I watched these kids behave with respect and dignity towards themselves, each other, their director, and every last person in that church hall. I believe that the miracle of faith is that love prevails under all circumstances. These children live the love of God.

These kids teach me that if I am not rich, I am certainly not poor. Look at the company I keep. I'm walking with giants. Singing giants.

Blog Your Blessings