Vocal recital time

I went to the recital of a young lady I only met once. It was last Saturday over at Rice. It was pretty cool. No offense to anyone but if I sit quietly, no matter what the diversion, even a movie, I am tempted to fall asleep.

So I fight it. This time I spent time listening and reading the program notes trying to figure out what each foreign word, German or Italian meant what English word in the translation. Usually I could figure it out. It was fascinating.

The music was interesting too. I just have trouble sitting still. It is nothing personal.

The English selection was saved for last. I was struck by her selection. She sang four poems by Sister Helen Prejean set to music by Jake Heggie.

But the strength of the selection were the words. The music was simply there to help to emphasize the meaning of the words. I would like to believe that this young lady picked them because she admired the woman (Prejean) and planned to try to live her life as these poems suggest Prejean does.

The first poem is called "More is Required". In it she describes the road of an active disciple, trying to bring love into the world in the way God specifically asks her to. By extension we all, who call ourselves Christians, are to express God's love in our own special way.

Then she introduces the expression "when I pray, I catch on fire". When I pray, I catch on fire! To me this is an act of God, not of myself. She uses this expression again in her final poem. To me God always catches us on fire when we pray. So often we let other distractions, other voices deflect us from praying. But praying should be an episodic thing that happens a lot during our days. We should stop and pray sometimes. But we can pray as we think of a person, as we drive by an accident on the freeway, as we listen to a news report. If we are alone we can speak it out loud. I think that gives it more strength.

The third poem is about doing more than praying. Prejean feels she must act out her prayers, specifically for justice. And she recounts ways that she has acted out her Godly concerns.

As an aside, if you don't know, Helen Prejean is a strong advocate for abolition of the death penalty. I do not particularly share her opinion but I believe people like her are very necessary. While I'd hate to see death penalty abolished I think it should be used very sparingly and we need to realize how serious it is when we as a society do use the death penalty. Some people act in horrific ways and this solution is also awful. But some people probably should suffer death for what they have done.

Anyway, the last poem is a wonderful way to close this:

Primary Colors
I live my life in primary colors.
I let praise and blame fall where they may.
I hold my soul in equanimity and leave the fruits of my labors to God.
At night, when I pray, I catch on fire.
And when I put my head on the pillow,
I fall instantly to sleep.

How wonderful. Let us aspire to live like this too.