{"id":5903,"date":"2012-11-20T11:17:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=5903"},"modified":"2012-11-21T13:45:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T18:45:07","slug":"singing-my-way-to-the-sacraments-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/11\/singing-my-way-to-the-sacraments-index.html","title":{"rendered":"Singing my way to the Sacraments [Index]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the run-up to my reception into the Catholic Church, I tried to talk a little about the process of conversion and the Christian faith in the language I\u2019m most fluent in: the lyrics of Broadway musicals.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cReach out your hand, and see what it gets you\u201d<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 The song is from Stephen Sondheim\u2019s\u00a0Anyone Can Whistle<\/em><\/a>, and the Gospel reading is from one of the Scrutiny masses in Lent. \u00a0I\u2019m contrasting Bartimaeus, the man born blind, with Nurse Fay Apple from the show. \u00a0Both make themselves vulnerable and\u00a0receive\u00a0new vision, that\u2019s impossible to give up, but hard to accept.
    \n

    \u201cBut what I found most affecting was the moments right before Bartimaeus opened his eyes. Walking forward in anticipation and encountering someone who\u2019s already enough to overload the senses you\u2019ve got, before you can ask for any others to be dazzled by.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \u201cIn a world of wondering, suddenly you know\u201d<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 When a classmate sang \u201cHow Glory Goes\u201d from\u00a0Floyd Collins<\/a><\/em>, I was still an atheist, but it was the first time I found prayer affecting or had any glimpse of what the point of talking to an omniscient God might me.
    \n

    \u201cGod was giving Floyd the words he needed to be able to reach out at all. \u00a0And instead of the sadness I would have expected the actor to convey, his God seemed to feel something more like delight. \u00a0The actor\u2019s God wasn\u2019t primarily occupied with Floyd\u2019s\u00a0predicament<\/em>, he was wholly consumed with\u00a0Floyd<\/em>. \u00a0The actor\u2019s eyes crinkled up with amusement at the metaphors that came to Floyd. \u00a0There was a profound sense of intimacy and recognition. \u00a0It pleased God to hear Floyd\u2019s prayer and to pray with him, because the prayer was so utterly Floyd, and Floyd would remain Floyd in this moment and after his death. \u00a0His leg was crushed, but his self was alive and shining.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \u201cNo one can be what he wants me to be\u201d<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 In\u00a0Man of La Mancha<\/a><\/em>, Don Quixote is a holy fool, and his prophetic demands put an impossible strain on Aldonza, since he calls her to be more than she is, but doesn\u2019t have the strength to redeem her.
    \n

    Christ calls us Dulcinea already, and rebukes us for clinging to \u2018Aldonza\u2019 in our fear. \u00a0 We\u2019ve already been offered the power to be what we ought to be, but, moment by moment, we decline to exercise it or acknowledge it. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t possibly be so beautiful or so strong. \u00a0Better to stay small on the sidelines than acknowledge every moment we\u2019ve spent shirking til this point. \u00a0The first \u2018Amen\u2019 is an acknowledgement that we hadn\u2019t said it until now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the run-up to my reception into the Catholic Church, I tried to talk a little about the process of conversion and the Christian faith in the language I\u2019m most fluent in: the lyrics of Broadway musicals. \u201cReach out your hand, and see what it gets you\u201d \u2013 The song is from Stephen Sondheim\u2019s\u00a0Anyone Can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":5905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,16],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-5903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversion-2","category-sequence-index","tag-at-the-theatre"],"yoast_head":"\nSinging my way to the Sacraments [Index]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the run-up to my reception into the Catholic Church, I tried to talk a little about the process of conversion and the Christian faith in the language\" 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