I love to sing.  I really love to listen to people sing.  Listening to the melodic voices of the nuns in residence at the Benedictine Convent on Country Club is like having angels for neighbors.  This may be hard to replicate in California. Their angels are probably too busy to sing.

There is no more glorious sound than a choir of nuns singing and making melody in their hearts. There is no sound on earth more heavenly than the sound of singing saints. There is an ancient saying, “there is no such thing as a sad saint.”  Bishop Walsh, a friend of mine, who lived briefly at Regina Cleri, when I managed it, once said to me, “if you sing, why would you want to go to heaven.”

Everyone in my family sang. My mother played the huge pipe organ at our church, my grandfather was a pianist and was a professional orchestra leader. My uncle Bill sang in the Notre Dame choir. My aunt Dorothy who was educated by Benedictines used to live the dictum of the nuns at the school where she was the Principal, that “to sing, is to pray twice.”  Singing by being universal, is possibly one of the few ways of dropping all differences and entering a state of pure joy.

To dampen other peoples joy by refusing to participate in it may be one of the greatest sins of life.  Should you ever want a dose of pure joy, and be prompted to participate, visit the Benedictine Convent on Country Club and you will get a little taste of heaven. We have angels in the neighborhood.  I will so dearly miss this place of refuge and peace that I have visited for nye on 40 years.