Today, we had some new choir members join us for our sung prayer at Lauds and the Mass following. They were a bit high, but their enthusiasm made up for the loss in pitch. There were, however, a few members of our community who were less than excited that these new folk joined us on this gray and drab December morning...some of the sisters don't like bats.
Yup. Bats. The chapel was filled with sisters reflecting in silence before Lauds began, but after the first verse of the call to prayer antiphon with organ accompaniment, the bats decided to join in our song of praise. One or two started out fairly quiet and unless you knew, they sounded like a squeak in our ceiling fan high above on the Gothic ceiling. But as our prayer progressed, those one or two began to sound like a few and grew louder. The bat choir chirped, squeaked, and chattered from the choir loft down to the sisters in our pews. They were quite respectful and did settle back down during the Eucharistic Prayer. I imagine we disturbed their winter rest.
Those of us sisters in the back of the choir looked across the aisle to each other with a smile and then up into the choir loft. We knew that a few of the sisters would gather their Divine Office (prayer book) and make a break for the chapel door if they knew who was singing with us this morning. However, there is not much we can do. The bats can creep into a building using the very smallest of spaces, and it's cold out there in the South Dakota winter. Besides...Daniel's canticles remind us that all of God's creatures, the great and the small, bless the Lord. Even some of the Psalms reflect on all of creation praising God. Maybe our bats decided it was time to join us for a little Christmas prayer : )
Blessings,
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