Golden Oldies
When did you last listen to some ‘Golden Oldies’?
Just by way of an interesting exercise, try listening to some of the many songs that emerged from the days of the Musicals. If you do so, you’ll find that even some of the saddest songs still manage to have tunes that can be hummed or sung at moments when sad thoughts could not be further from one’s mind.
What of the singers themselves? Did they always feel as though they were bursting for joy when singing that ‘June is bursting out all over’ or ‘Oh what a beautiful morning!’ or ‘I’m singin’ in the rain’? Did they sometimes put on an act so that they were actually saying to the world, ‘Smile, though your heart be breaking’? At a moment of proclaiming that ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music’, were there also, perhaps, a few seconds when the singer might have felt that ‘Pore Jud is dead’ might have been more appropriate?
There is something about a song that conveys a meaning much deeper than its mere words or melody. If this were not so, why would we have songs that we somehow associate with people and places, with moods and events?
How often do we acknowledge that there are times when it is ‘the singer, not the song’, that is important? On other occasions, the singer is unimportant because of the message that is conveyed in the melody.
What if the ‘Meistersinger’ is God? What is the song that he is singing to me and within me at this moment? Is there is a difference between God and his song? Is not his song also his Word?
Could it be that God’s song is actually Jesus? Do I listen to God singing Jesus into my life?
What song could I sing to him that would speak most truly of who he is to me at this very moment?
God bless,
Sr. Janet
Just by way of an interesting exercise, try listening to some of the many songs that emerged from the days of the Musicals. If you do so, you’ll find that even some of the saddest songs still manage to have tunes that can be hummed or sung at moments when sad thoughts could not be further from one’s mind.
What of the singers themselves? Did they always feel as though they were bursting for joy when singing that ‘June is bursting out all over’ or ‘Oh what a beautiful morning!’ or ‘I’m singin’ in the rain’? Did they sometimes put on an act so that they were actually saying to the world, ‘Smile, though your heart be breaking’? At a moment of proclaiming that ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music’, were there also, perhaps, a few seconds when the singer might have felt that ‘Pore Jud is dead’ might have been more appropriate?
There is something about a song that conveys a meaning much deeper than its mere words or melody. If this were not so, why would we have songs that we somehow associate with people and places, with moods and events?
How often do we acknowledge that there are times when it is ‘the singer, not the song’, that is important? On other occasions, the singer is unimportant because of the message that is conveyed in the melody.
What if the ‘Meistersinger’ is God? What is the song that he is singing to me and within me at this moment? Is there is a difference between God and his song? Is not his song also his Word?
Could it be that God’s song is actually Jesus? Do I listen to God singing Jesus into my life?
What song could I sing to him that would speak most truly of who he is to me at this very moment?
God bless,
Sr. Janet
