Happy Worship Wednesday!

“Happy Worship Wednesday!” the words I begin MOST Wednesdays with (barring any technical difficulties) before I play a few minutes of Gospel or worship music. As the song starts, my students clap and sing along, and a few have a particular gift for drumming with a pencil. It is their authentic way of praise and we all look forward to our weekly bout of worship in social studies.

Upon arriving at St. James, I learned quickly about my kids’ spiritual disposition to praise through song. During one of my first days with 7B, my first-year homeroom class, they asked to put on “Bigger Every Day” and broke out into a choreographed dance they had picked up somewhere in elementary school. I could not remember a time when a room full of seventh graders sang and danced by their own choice. But 7B was there, shimmying their joyful worship. 

Last week, our school choir led a closing rendition of “Praise” by Brandon Lake, directed by our fabulous 5th Grade Teacher Ms. Durena that brought the house down. (Unfortunately, this Instagram video highlight does not show the entire church behind the choir singing along at the top of their lungs). The song was a reminder to “let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Our school choir got me thinking, even more than they usually do every Friday at 9am, about the power of praise. 

Over the past year, my students at St. James School in North Miami have taught me again and again how to praise. In the midst of another difficult week, a busy morning, or even just a class that began with the wrong energy, we stop and we worship. My kids' disposition to worship, to stop and sing and even dance their praise of the Lord, in the midst of the chaos of life, is a sign of their deep resilience. They praise in the same breaths as they forgive each other, in the same movement in which we laugh after a long day. My students reminded me of the way praise was part of the language of my own household growing up, with my mom whispering “praise you Jesus,” under her breath while sitting in traffic or in thanksgiving for another sunny day in San Diego. My grandma was never caught more than a few minutes without singing a song of worship, no matter the state of her family finances or how high her blood pressure was that day. Yet somewhere along the journey to adulthood, I lost my familial disposition to praise.

I recently got some time to rebuild my habits of worship and prayer on the ACE Pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago. While the theme of the pilgrimage was discernment, I continuously sat (or walked, rather) with simple prayers of gratitude and praise in the midst of our daily hikes. 

To praise is to honor God for everything God is, in His bigness, in His complete goodness and power. Our praises add nothing to His greatness but they are a way for us to see God outside the box we so often put Him in. To praise is to seek humility. We go beyond ourselves, no matter how difficult it may be to look past the current afflictions of  life, and seek to worship as best we can despite our human littleness. We join our suffering of the moment to that of Job and Paul and the saints, “That the name of the Lord be praised” even as “He has given and taken away.” (Job 1:21) My students have reminded me with their lively prayers that the power of praise goes beyond all else. 

My kids submit weekly requests for our Worship Wednesday and here are a few of our favorites:

• “Bigger Every Day” by Moses Bliss 
• This Kirk Franklin song, “Bless Me” was recorded 28 miles from my school in Miami with the community at the Everglades Correctional Facility. Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music intend to bring us an earthly vision of the Kingdom of God while calling attention to the injustices of our prison system. 
• It is not a St. James Mass without “Waymaker!”
• “Goodness of God” by Cece Winans brings down the house about once a month at school Mass. 
• “Taste and See” by John Mark Pantana is great for Worship Wednesday independent work time.