Take Thou Our Minds, Dear Lord

Every year on a Wednesday night in August, our pastor, Monsignor Williams gives a blessing at Wednesday Night Novena Mass to all of the students in college or graduate school who are headed back to school for the new academic year. After the homily, he calls us up and gives us a charge to remember our roots, our faith, as we go through the year and he reminds us to bring Christ to everyone we interact with through not only our words but also our deeds. This year, before we received our blessing, he handed out copies of a hymn that we all sang, with the congregation singing in the pews behind us.

Take Thou Our Minds, Dear Lord

Take Thou our minds, dear Lord, we humbly pray;

Give us the mind of Christ each passing day;

Teach us to know the truth that sets us free;

Grant us in all our thoughts to honor Thee.

Take Thou our hearts, O Christ, they are Thine own;

Come Thou within our souls and claim Thy throne;

Help us to shed abroad Thy deathless love;

Use us to make the earth like heaven above.

Take Thou our wills, Most High! Hold Thou full sway;

Have in our inmost souls Thy perfect way;

Guard Thou each sacred hour from selfish ease;

Guide Thou our ordered lives as Thou dost please.

Take Thou ourselves, O Lord, heart, mind, and will;

Through our surrendered souls Thy plans fulfill.

We yield ourselves to Thee--time, talents, all;

We hear, and henceforth heed, Thy sovereign call. Amen

This year, it was a bit bittersweet for me; as I walked up to the front of the church, I was thinking "This is the last year I will do this. This really is the beginning of the end," which made me tear up when Father was talking to and blessing us. But then I thought that really, the end isn't what I should be sad about. Instead, I should be excited that God has great plans for me after I finish here, even if I don't know what they are yet. God is good and loving and I need to be patient and grow in virtue so that I will be well equipped to handle whatever gift He gives to me next. As another hymn puts it, Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. That is where I am right now, entering senior year realizing the importance of those two words in my life. Life is good because God is good :)