HOSANNAH! (Lisa)

Our daughter Claire took great pleasure in the structure of a Catholic mass. Living with intellectual disabilities made it difficult to anticipate life but Catholic mass was predictable and the soothing rhythmic waves of Word and Song washed over her.

It took some time to recognize Claire’s incredible ability to anticipate the singing of Hosanna… Amazing! I couldn’t tell you exactly where it falls in mass or what just precedes it but she knew.

As a young girl, just before Hosanna, she would stand, rocking her entire body singing out her high-pitched song…. Ah, Ah! Years later, when she could no longer stand, she rocked her seated self nearly off the pew. Time past and she slowly lost the ability to move her limbs and trunk, her ability to make sounds and when she lost the ability to breath deep, her body-rock morphed into a gentle head nod. On painful days she struggled to even open her eyes. Just at the start of Hosanna. I would lean down and sing a concert of one in her ear letting her know I was with her, understanding and sharing in the importance of that very moment. And though I knew the importance she held in this prayerful song, I admit it will take me a lifetime to understand the full WHY it was so special to her but recently I was blessed with an insight.

On the Feast of the Holy Trinity, Deacon Daniel Cajigas shared that the Holy Trinity is an eternal dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit - Lover, Loved and Love. God the Father was Lover, God the Son was the Beloved and God the Holy Spirit who resides in each of us and who surely lived in Claire was the LOVE itself existing between the Father and The Son, the very LOVE, the very LOVE.

Claire’s physical body failed her gradually throughout her life. She graciously lived with loss after loss after loss every day but the one thing she seemed to know in her heart was that the HOLY, HOLY, HOLY LOVE, the Holy Spirit that is LOVE lived inside of her. This she would never lose. She knew her HOLINESS because of it. She knew it so much so, she was moved to sing out in praise of it with her whole body, voice and mind.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Lord God of Hosts

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!

in the highest.