Historic picture of the St. Bernard's Chapel
When did you fall in love with God? Do you remember? Did your parents drag you out of bed on Sundays to church whether you wanted to go or not? Maybe you had a praying grandparent who covered you in prayer. Perhaps you had a Sunday School teacher who took you to church months before your mother died of cancer. However you fell in love with Christ, I pray it was unique to you.
I fell in love with God in the chapel of my elementary school. St. Bernard's was surrounded by Sisters of Mercy who I knew loved me unconditionally.
When I first started school, my parent put me into St. Bernard's School for Exceptional Children - a school geared toward children with disabilities. When I was ready to start first grade, had I gone to public school I would have been to a special education school? So, I continued at St. Bernard's. (Side note - I met one of my best friends on the first day of first grade. Her father was the principal of the special ed school I was supposed to go to.)
Anyway, St. Bernard's had a beautiful chapel. It had marble floors and alters, tall stained glass windows, beautiful wood pews, and stalled (box pews). We love the stalls because there was a Christmas candlelight service each year and the 6th grade (and later the 8th grade) got to sit in the stalls ~ It made us feel special and important.
Unlike many Catholic schools, we only had mass once a month. Every grade was in charge of one of the masses. What we look forward to most was that most mass days were half days at school. However, mass days also meant days of practicing singing. I always got in trouble for singing too loud. (Mr. Stewart clearly didn't understand the bible verse Psalm 98:4 King James Version (KJV)
"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise."
Come to think of it, neither does Barrett of the kids. It's bad when your own kids ask you not to sing to them!
I'll never forget one spring afternoon we were practicing and the windows were open and we may or may not have been acting out and not listening. All of sudden, a window slams shut. We weren't sure if there was a ghost or if God Almighty was giving us a warning sign, but we were on our best behavior for the rest of the day.
One of the privileges of being the only physically disabled student in the school was that I got to ride the elevator, and I usually got to take a friend with me. St. Bernard's had four stories. The first two floors were the school and the upper two floors were the convent. My friend, Molly, and I loved to go exploring on the upper two floors.
The chapel doors were almost always open. Sometimes I would sneak in there to pray or just marvel at its beauty. A neat thing about going to a church in a convent it was common to see the Sisters walking around the complex. 4 of the sisters were actually involved in the school. Sister Melanie was the principal, Sister Nina taught 1st and 2nd-grade reading, and Sister Helen taught 3rd and 4th-grade math (she would make us do problems on the board and would get irritated when I scratched the chalk board with my fingernails ~ which I may or may not have done on purpose at times.) and Sister Mary Ann taught 5th and 6th-grade English.
There is something about growing up in the presence of godly women that tied a knot into my heartstrings and tattered it to the heart of God. One of my first mentors was Sister Marietta. She had been the principal of the St. Bernard's School for Exceptional Children. I had never seen someone love people or God as much as she did. I wanted to be just like her.
While it's been a while since I've studied at St. Bernard's and I no longer attend a Catholic church, (I married a Baptist deacon.) I know that God used my time in that school and chapel to tenderize my heart towards Him. I wouldn't change anything for it.
I'll never forget one spring afternoon we were practicing and the windows were open and we may or may not have been acting out and not listening. All of sudden, a window slams shut. We weren't sure if there was a ghost or if God Almighty was giving us a warning sign, but we were on our best behavior for the rest of the day.
One of the privileges of being the only physically disabled student in the school was that I got to ride the elevator, and I usually got to take a friend with me. St. Bernard's had four stories. The first two floors were the school and the upper two floors were the convent. My friend, Molly, and I loved to go exploring on the upper two floors.
The chapel doors were almost always open. Sometimes I would sneak in there to pray or just marvel at its beauty. A neat thing about going to a church in a convent it was common to see the Sisters walking around the complex. 4 of the sisters were actually involved in the school. Sister Melanie was the principal, Sister Nina taught 1st and 2nd-grade reading, and Sister Helen taught 3rd and 4th-grade math (she would make us do problems on the board and would get irritated when I scratched the chalk board with my fingernails ~ which I may or may not have done on purpose at times.) and Sister Mary Ann taught 5th and 6th-grade English.
There is something about growing up in the presence of godly women that tied a knot into my heartstrings and tattered it to the heart of God. One of my first mentors was Sister Marietta. She had been the principal of the St. Bernard's School for Exceptional Children. I had never seen someone love people or God as much as she did. I wanted to be just like her.
While it's been a while since I've studied at St. Bernard's and I no longer attend a Catholic church, (I married a Baptist deacon.) I know that God used my time in that school and chapel to tenderize my heart towards Him. I wouldn't change anything for it.
Our 5th grade class at SBA
No comments:
Post a Comment