Lucky Me!

Background: My favorite hymn tune in the whole wide world is St. Columba, which has yielded such hits as "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" and "Breathe on Me, O Breath of God." The other day in church, I opened to song I didn't know. It looked reasonable, being pretty old and not from one of those three-letter companies that so commonly produce songs I hate (and a couple I like, to be fair). Then our organist started playing, and I recognized immediately not the song listed but St. Columba. So we sang ol' Charlie W's words (O for a Heart to Praise My God), to the coolest tune in the history of awesome songs. Boo yeah!

In other news, I'm joining my church's choir this coming Thursday. Our organist, who also happens to be the choir leader, won me over with mention that he'd like to do some simple Latin chant... oooh, Latin. Oooh, chant. Oooh, hundreds of years of tradition and kick-butt awesome Catholicism. Another cool thing is that our choir, unlike so many these days, actually has a home in the choir loft! Alas, because it is a small and generally old choir, that means that very few people know it exists. However, I have hope for the future.

I'm our organists new biggest fan. I don't know who the old one was, but he's all about trying to get our parish to be more faithful to the guidelines for liturgical music, and incorporating some of the traditional stuff. To begin with, we're already pretty good about being very proper with ceremony and respecting the dignity of Mass, but I'm impressed that he's going to keep on working on it...

In other less Catholic news, I totally got my license yesterday. Whoo independence!


O for a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels Thy blood
So freely shed for me.

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer’s throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.

A humble, lowly, contrite, heart,
Believing, true and clean,
Which neither life nor death can part
From Christ who dwells within.

A heart in every thought renewed
And full of love divine,
Perfect and right and pure and good,
A copy, Lord, of Thine.

Thy tender heart is still the same,
And melts at human woe:
Jesus, for thee distressed I am,
I want Thy love to know.

My heart, Thou know’st, can never rest
Till Thou create my peace;
Till of mine Eden repossest,
From self, and sin, I cease.

Fruit of Thy gracious lips, on me
Bestow that peace unknown,
The hidden manna, and the tree
Of life, and the white stone.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;
Come quickly from above;
Write Thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new, best name of Love.

God Bless Cananada...

Full Name: Cananada (Ca-na-nuh-da)

Population: 3 (all have other residences in the surrounding area)
Location: Wheatfield Drive (sewer)
Borders: bordered on all sides by the United States of America
Area: generously, 1 square meter
Terrain: top of a sewer
Government: Duumvirate (it's real, look her up!)
Duumvirs: Emperor Trevor Smyth Nikolai, Caesar Pinkus [yours truly] (Mr. Pants, Crown Prince and heir apparent)
Chief Resource: Caribou (subterranean)
Exports: Cananada t-shirts, postcards
Other economic activity: guided tours
Religion: 2/3 of the population is Catholic, 1/3 United Methodist. But... 100% of the duumvirate is CATHOLIC, baby!
Flag description: solid blue
Military: 100% of the population has martial arts training
History: Founded by two adventuresome young people with big dreams, big hearts, and a very itty bit of land. But, much has come from this tiny land, in the spirit of Liechtenstein. The first major military battle occured several months ago, when several inches were stolen by the imperializing American street-pavers. The people of Cananada haven't forgotten this atrocity committed on their soil and vow revenge.
Future outlook: While the Honorable Duumvirs are passing away in approximately twelve years, the rule of Cananada will be passed on to the Crown Prince. In the meantime, Cananada is set to enjoy a perpetual Golden Age. The people have hopes of possibly a "Cananada Pride Parade," and have even entered the running to host the 2080 Olympics, hoping to have aquired at least enough land for a stadium by then.

I don't want to brag or anything, but we've even got the Vatican beat as smallest sovereign nation in the world... Vive il Papa!