When you sing you pray twice.

Registering for fall classes should not seem like a challenge but I found some interesting hurdles this year. In the past, as a first year student the path was clear. Now as a middler the path is confused by my transferring to a different seminary. I can't proceed with a typical middler schedule as there are some remaining 1st year requirements that have presented themselves due to the transfer. Well this is not really a big hurdle, just something that deserves attention.

The hurdle I found is listening to what I need to take compared to what I want to take. By 'need' I am not thinking about academic requirements, rather I am thinking about what I 'need' to become a better person and potentially better priest.

So I looked at the courses that I did not want to take; things that would make me turn and run. Chief among them is a course in singing for the musically challenged. Yes, that course would make me turn and run, so I signed up for that course.

I guess that if I am going to wear the fancy clothes then along with the Prayer Book I should be able to carry a tune. My suspicion is that the course requirements will have several text books, probably hymnals, and a bucket. Many of us need a bucket to carry a tune.

I am reminded that my wife tells me that a voice is a muscle and it just needs exercise and conditioning. This is the same person who thinks my singing is fine. I guess love is blind and tone deaf.

Well, there is a special place in heaven for the person who can teach me to sing and chant.

And while there is no prize for studying what you 'need' to study rather than what you want to study I suspect that there will be a reward someday in the future. Even if that reward is simply not attracting amorous cats or scaring little children when I sing the effort will be worthwhile.

So, this fall semester, with God's help I will learn to pray twice.

Shalom,