by Michele Latham

I’m not sure I agree with the concept of the tortured artist. I’d like to think our world contains beautiful art that is born of happiness and love.  But,  if it’s true that suffering inspires some of the best creations,  I have a musician friend who has had plenty from which to draw.  It seems that she’s had more than her fair share of tough times, sadness and loss. I’ve known this sweet woman for 12 years, but I heard her voice long before that. My husband grew up with her. In the early years of our marriage, he often played a tape of her singing  original songs. When I heard her voice, I instantly knew. I knew she was a kindred spirit. I sang along, harmonizing with her and wondered if circumstances would ever bring us together.

Fast forward several years. We finally met and we have spent hours talking and singing together.  My family has ended up in the Orthodox church. And so has my friend, the song writer! Her music can still break my heart. The sadness she has experienced is sometimes blatant in her lyrics and other times hovers just below the surface.  No matter what the subject of the song, the listener is drawn in. You want to cry with her and get angry with her, but mostly you feel her hope. Hope that things can be better. Hope that we will all pull through the dark times.

One day, though, something changed.  My priest motioned me to where he was sitting in the church hall, “you have to hear this…”. He pointed to the CD player next to him. The music began and I listened. It was my songbird! It was her beautiful voice, her style of acoustic guitar accompaniment…but something was different. As I listened to the words, I couldn’t stop the tears. The songs were about our saints. The words were simple, almost childlike in the description of the saint’s lives.

There was still an element of sadness, but it was transformed. The pain had become the sound of sweet longing. She was putting into those simple, beautiful songs the yearning she felt to know the saints better. And to know God better. That yearning that  we all feel at sometime or another. God has given us this glimpse of holiness through his saints and we long for more.

My dear sister has been guided by the Holy Spirit to perfectly capture the beauty and sorrow of  God’s love in her songs. How blessed I am for knowing her.

“St. Innocent of Komel”
by Jennifer Latham Sherrill

St. Innocent withdrew into the great and mighty forest
at the River Sora, in the Russian wilderness
he set a cross, dug a well, built the monastery cells
and a church for God

St. Innocent, pray for me
that I be filled with love and peace
I want to walk and talk like you
I want to be “innocent” too

As his friend was dying he told Innocent, “The Lord
wants you to go the River Nurma.” so Innocent did go
and he spent 30 years building a monastery nearby,
he worked day and night for God

We pray for love in Christ
We pray to live a holy life

St. Innocent, pray for me
that I be filled with love and peace
I want to walk and talk like you
I want to be “innocent” too