2019-03-22 Lent 2 Friday Bring Him Home from Les Misérables

For years, Mom and I were Cleveland Playhouse subscribers. It was one way I could get mom to go out and enjoy herself. Subscribers pay for tickets before the season began. There was no way she would pay for something and then let it go to waste. So, every time our scheduled evening rolled around, Mom had a reason to get dressed up and go out.
Mom loved to eat out. We would find a restaurant near Cleveland Playhouse, have a nice dinner and take in a musical at the Theatre.

I have continued to subscribe for nearly the same reason I encouraged Mom to subscribe. Having a paid theatre ticket plus parking ticket is indeed an investment in having fun. Truly it forces me to stop working and drive to Cleveland for a night out.

Miserables, was one of the musicals this season. It was the first time I experienced it. Bring Him Home was one of the songs that blew me away. It was the way Nick Cartrell performed it. He was so powerful with pure tones, fragile strength of sustained notes, ease in the range of sound. All of this created such an amazing soundscape one could literally hear a pin drop in that large theatre. The applause actually took pause, before it when wild.

It is a man’s song, because of the context of the story.
I love it so much. I feel it deeply in my soul.
I am learning to sing it

It is a prayer begging safe return of a young man who has gone to war.

Take a look at the lyrics:

Bring Him Home

God on high, hear my prayer
In my need, you have always been there
He is young, he's afraid
Let him rest, heaven-blessed

Bring him home. Bring him home. Bring him home

He's like the son I might have known
If God had granted me a son
The summers die, one by one
How soon they fly, on and on
And I am old and will be gone.

Bring him peace, bring him joy
He is young, he is only a boy
You can take, you can give
Let him be, let him live
If I die, let me die
Let him live

Bring him home. Bring him home. Bring him home++++

The lyrics are truly a prayer that many of us have prayed. Hearing the lyrics SUNG - is an absolutely different experience from reading the words. I invite you to take three minutes to listen to Nick Cartrell sing, click on this URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0rRWffiSs

Hopefully you have listened.

Like me, did you find yourself in deep prayer as he prayed the song?
Is there someone that you feel strongly about and want to reach out to with prayer?
Listen to the song again with your eyes closed.
You can change the words to meet your personal need.
I think of all the young boys we send off to fight;
of the families who cry this prayer in their hearts.
I think of all the young people who are dealing with opioids
in an attempt to escape life.
I think of all the young people who don’t know
how special and unique they are and
the tremendous gifts they have for themselves and for our world.
Who knows - one of them may become the surgeon that saves my life or the President who protects our Mother Earth, so that our grandchildren will have a sustainable future….yet that same young person could find the challenge more difficult than s/he can bear.
What to do?

Listen to this song.
Sing this song in your heart.
Feel what you feel.
Pray it when you need it.
Trust it when you pray it.
Know that you are never alone
…and most importantly,
a young person, an old person, someone may be counting on you to pray this prayer for them.
a prayer for Life….
Do it! Please.

Counting on you,
Carol