Anticipating Heaven's Choir | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Anticipating Heaven's Choir | Previous Challenge Entry
By Patrick Verbeten
11/05/05
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We sat stiff and nervous in our wooden desks at Saint Joseph’s Grade School as we waited to meet this year’s teacher. Even though we had a whole summer of memories to catch up on, we dare not say a word until recess. At precisely eight o’clock, in strode Sister Vera, small in size, but majestic in presence. She warmly greeted this room full of eager fifth graders. While we were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to study history and geography for the first time in our lives, she had an even better subject to teach us - music.

Music was Sister Vera’s passion, and for us it was contagious. We put away the boring songbooks for a time and looked at some contemporary music: ballads, folk songs and even music from a guitar-plucking nun - the precursor to praise music. That was radical in the ’60s. Once she had us hooked on music she led us back to some of the traditional hymns and even chants so that we could blend our voices in better harmony. By the time the year was over, I could truly say that I had learned a skill that would last a lifetime.

I couldn’t stay in fifth grade forever, so like many of my peers, I moved up, graduated from high school, served in the Army, married and had children, and went on with my life. But many years later when I joined a church choir, I felt a desire, no a need, to find Sister Vera and thank her for the gift she had given me. I tracked her down to the Sienna Center, a convent in our hometown for the Sisters of Saint Dominic. Since I lived in another city, I wrote her a warm note thanking her for teaching me to sing. I told her how I was now using it for God’s glory.

After I sent the letter, I wondered if I would get a reply. Indeed the reply came swiftly. Sister Vera was happy that I was able to sing, for you see, she told me, her voice was now gone and she could no longer do the one thing in life that gave her the most joy. My heart sank. What do you say to a woman, who was old enough to be your mother, who had shared such devastating news? After much prayer and thought, it dawned on me that when we, her students through the years, lift our voices in praise, she too is offering up that praise. When we harmonize to the glory of God, He hears her voice as well. Through us, Father has redeemed her voice on Earth, and in heaven her voice will be restored to her for all eternity. I shared these thoughts with her in another letter.

Regrettably, I have lost track of Sister Vera again. For now I can only have faith that my words were a sweet comfort to her. One day in heaven, when we sing together with the heavenly hosts, we can trade notes again. Perhaps it is better this way.

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