“Verde Mont” – the Beautiful Green Hills
Open the Doors of Your Heart
A “Once Upon a Time” Story of SONG, FAITH, and FINDING a “Pearl of Great Price”
Some people say that if you want to know your calling in this world, the seeker must look into the heart of their childhood years – there may be found the “Pearls of Great Price”.
Once upon a time, when your grandparents were very young, amidst a verdant land of green mountains and deep valleys its inhabitants called “New England”, a small city grew up on the shores of the great Lake Champlain. There lived a young lass near the age of six or seven years – and this is HER Pearl.
The little lady attended a parochial school by the name of Nazareth, and learned from stern nuns the topics they chose. Most favored of all were the classes about devotion. She was enthralled by the majesty of our Creator God, the compassion of Mary and Jesus, the Light of the World – all surrounded by “Heaven’s Own Angels”. These classes included the learning and singing of Hymns and songs of love and of a spiritual nature. In this little girl’s heart of hearts she so loved to sing for God.
This was the most wonderful experience ever and she wanted to share this with everyone!
One summer, the lass would invite her playmates to ‘join her club’ where she would collect the dues of a few pennies or a nickel. This fee was deposited into a ‘peanut butter ‘jar of which the cover had and opening similar to that of a ‘piggy bank’.
The club was located in her back yard – where her father stored his fishing shanty used during the long winter months when the lake would freeze over.
This little shanty became her Clubhouse, a teaching and praying room for the lass and her friends. She so earnestly wanted to share all that she had learned in the previous school year – and especially to share and sing the hymns and songs.
This singing of hymns would eventually evolve into a procession around the back yard in honor of Mother Mary.
Flowers were gathered, a beautiful silk scarf (secretly borrowed) from the older sister and a small statue of Mary. The statue was placed in the center of the scarf and adorned with the flowers.
Then four of the children would secure the corners of the scarf and lift and carry the little statue, processing around the yard and singing this hymn:
‘O Mary we crown Thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels , Queen of the May’.
To the casual observer, here were children singing around a little figure, dancing with flowers from a mother’s garden, and carrying a scarf “borrowed” from a dresser drawer. Yet for those with a heart tuned to light and love, and an inner eye able to “see” the “sounds”of the Soul – here they beheld one of life’s most special pearls: “A Pearl of Great Price” – and they glimpsed “Once Upon a Time” in the here and now.
Open the Doors of YOUR Heart…
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Harmonies in Life and Soul 