Enrichment Night

CHARITY NEVER FAILETH

**Quit groaning, this is not an exhortation to devote more time to the poor and needy. Surely you all know me better than that, even though Charity is my middle name. (Said with all the sarcasm that my self-criticism can deliver) I just want to journal a wonderful experience the ladies of my ward shared yesterday evening. It was the annual Relief Society Birthday dinner, and we invited the sisters only. Some men grumbled but, honestly, do they really, sincerely care that Relief Society has been around for 160+ years? I think not. To begin the evening, we met in the RS room to hear a special musical program presented by a women's choir of 15 women in the area. It's not a large room so we were quite close to the choir. I had to sit on the front row, which was great for me. The program consisted of songs and dialog taken from scriptures and church history. Some of the songs were "The Pure Love of Christ" and "Charity Never Faileth" by Julie and Lex De Azevedo, "Sisters in Christ" (you may have heard this sung by Gladys Knight), and "As Sisters in Zions." Truthfully, I haven't always loved "As Sisters in Zion," but it is growing on me; and this choir had mastered it. I liked their rendition of "Sisters in Christ" even better than Gladys Knight's, and hers is very good. They ended the program by singing "We Rejoice." It is such a triumphant anthem to the glory of the gospel and God's love for us. A truly fitting ending. I know most of the audience were choked up and I saw some tears from the performers as well. On the back of the program was printed this quote:

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels, in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite." Thomas Carlyle

It really did seem that we had just heard angels sing to us. I know everyone who was priviliged to attend left feeling a little closer to divinity. We all need to look for these kind of experiences to refill our lamps in a world that is so draining.