Inspiration

We're gearing up for another year of Faith Formation.  Teaching third and fourth graders for the first time ever, I am responsible for making sure they know some prayers that I myself don't have memorized!  The list is considerable, even though I know the kids already are familiar with some of them:  Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, Act of Contrition, Angel of God, the Fatima prayer, St. Michael the Archangel, Hail Holy Queen, and the Apostle's Creed.  Plus, they need to have memorized the 10 commandments, the 7 sacraments, and at the very least the order of the Gospels and Pentateuch in the Bible.  That's a lot of words to have carved into their little brains!!

So, as I was saying the Hail Holy Queen prayer to myself in preparation for all of that,  I was struck by how beautiful the words were.  Lyrical, poetic even.  And it occurred to me.... put it to music.  That's how we'll all remember it.  We'll sing it.    Within minutes of deciding this, the words started singing themselves in my head.  "Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy...  O clement, O lovely, o sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ....".  I rushed to the piano, and wrote down what was in my head.   It took less than 30 minutes.   (Side note: I have only ever written one other piece of music, and that was for Reagan's baptism.  That song also came to me fully intact nearly instantaneously, 8 years ago.)  A gift, inspired for a reason.  This Hail Holy Queen song, now that it is put to music, I have been singing NONSTOP.  Subconsciously, I find myself singing it while at work, humming it in the car.  It has been a constant playlist in my head without ceasing for three solid days.  Needless to say, the words are now etched into my psyche. 

With the anxiety of two major hurricanes striking our country nearly simultaneously, something else occurred to me.  By singing constantly, I was PRAYING constantly.... at a time when our country needs prayers desperately.  Subconsciously, nearly unceasing for three solid days, I was praying, and asking our Blessed Mother to pray for us, too.  And you know what??  The Lord listened - not to me, but to all of us, and to His mother - because Hurricane Irma, which could have been so utterly horrendous, took the slightest of shifts, changed course by a mere 20 miles,  which turned the absolute worst case scenario into the BEST case scenario.  And thousands were spared their homes, and their lives.  By the slightest of margins.  Meteorologists are thanking the "Bermuda High" for this change in course.  I am thanking God. 

Mother of Mercy, pray for us.