Mary Did You Know?

December 18, 2023
Devotional by: Babs Johnston

Growing up, I loved secular Christmas music. My dad sang professionally part time to augment his income for a family with nine children.

As a teen, I traveled with Dad to his gigs & from the audience “mouthed words” he may have forgotten as he sang from the stage. Today, the number of songs from “The Great American Songbook” I’ve committed to memory is pretty impressive.

I can’t recall “singing hymns” in our Catholic Church, but my Dad was in the choir. Maybe they sang in Latin. I can’t recall. I mainly remember the smell of incense & snugging beside my Mom’s soft beaver coat.

But, at Christmas, I know we sang carols both in & out of church. My all time favorite was “Oh Holy Night”— when Dad hit: “FAAAALLL ON YOUR KNEEEES!!! Oh HEEEAR the Angels Singing!! Oh NIIIIGHT Devine”!! (Like Hoyt Jackson’s beautiful tenor once belted from our MPC Choir Loft!)

However, I STILL prefer secular to sacred with ONE exception. In 2003 our daughter was a member of the Morgan County High School chorus when director Steve DeLaigle debuted “Mary, Did You Know.” This performance literally brought unstoppable tears from my eyes. And, to this day, I never heard a song-secular or spiritual- that has touched me as deeply as this sacred song. And as I write this “Advent Devotional,” the tears are welling up.