Caroling

This afternoon we took a small group of middle school students with our music director to join Father at the nursing home to sing Christmas carols.   We couldn’t find the contact person we had so we waited for Father to get there.   He arrived and asked us to sing a song before Mass for those gathered there.  The first song was contemporary and Chris and the kids sang to the residents.   After that Father joined and they started singing more traditional songs.  

I stood there and took pictures and then really paid attention to those around me.  Joy to the World, Silent Night they sang and those around us started to sing as well. I started to realize the singing was coming from around me not just in front of me.  I looked around and saw men and women in wheelchairs or sitting and singing along.  

We left the Chapel and went to the Memory Care unit.   We started singing Joy to the World and a women in a wheelchair walked herself literally right up to one of our girls.   Another woman after we sang Silent Night asked if some of us were twins!!!   We walked out of their and Chris said it once again brought out how music connects us.   They may have dementia but these traditional Christmas carols crossed crazy barriers and they could connect.  They were right there with us and the music.   Maybe they were back in their childhood, or their early adult life, or anywhere else but these carols connected to them and they came to us and to the singing.

I have not really felt the Christmas spirit this year.   Today as I watched and listened to the Carols being sung I felt joy.   We were with some of our least paid attention to and we through music could all be there together.  Today I felt the real meaning of Christmas