Law School, Choir, and Floods

Well, since my last post I have both started law school and nearly finished an entire semester. I guess the life of a law student is pretty busy.

My Contracts professor begins each class period with a reading, a prayer, or some sort of inspirational word. Today, she started with a reading by Mother Theresa. I don't remember what the reading was about, but it reminded me of a beautiful choral piece I was able to sing while at Concordia.

Dr. Clausen's "Prayer," which we performed too many times to count during the 2009-2010 school year, has such a powerful and utterly beautiful text set to music in a way only the Doc can. The text is from a poem attributed to Mother Theresa, and I've transcribed it from Clausen's piece below:

~~~

Help me,
Help me spread your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul,
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that my life may be only a radiance of yours, a radiance of yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I know will feel your presence in my soul.
Let them look up, look up,
look up and see no longer me
but only you.
Amen.
~~~

This isn't meant to be an in-your-face theological discussion. For me, the piece is a way to connect to the point of it all. "It" life, "it" spirituality, "it" education--all of it. Every time I listen to the piece (click here), I remember the rehearsals, the passion, the man who tried to capture, in one score, a desperate longing for God's life and radiance.

I remember how the original poem simply started "Help me spread your fragrance...," but that Clausen was struck by the simple "help me."

I am struck, each and every time, by the fact that the line "flood my soul" usually connotes overwhelming joy, but in Fargo/Moorhead in the fall of 2009, a flood reminds us of a fierce, sometimes terrifying thing. After all, it was in the spring of 2009 when the mighty Red River flooded the region, destroyed homes, shut down schools and colleges, and evacuated all residents. It is not a simple feeling; it is an uncontrollable force that spills out of the banks of our control and into our entire lives.

I am struck by the overwhelming desperation of Mother Theresa and Dr. Clausen for a radiance and life to be so alive within me, within you, within the one reading or singing these lines, to be so alive that every person can feel something different. I am overwhelmed by the reminder that we seek the life not for ourselves but for those around us, so they can look up and feel that presence too.

And, for me, I am struck by the fact that I was very aware of the blessing I had while I was in The Concordia Choir, but I still could not know how to treasure the moments until I left. What a lesson.

Before the Commencement Concert in the spring of 2012.
Seniors were honored with red carnations for the concert.