Mein herz ist rein
Soll niemand drin wohnen
Als Jesus allein. Amen.
English translation:
I am small,
my heart is pure.
No one shall live in it
but Jesus alone.
Amen.
I remember this traditional German bedtime
prayer that my grandfather taught me when I was a small child. I used to say it every night to my mom before
I went to bed, along with my prayers in English. My mom grew up in a German immigrant family
in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. My
grandfather’s name was Wilhelm Spannenberg.
My grandmother was Clara Schramm.
Can’t get much German than that.
They were very proud of their German heritage and for my grandparents,
German was their mother tongue and the first language they spoke at home. I thought about this German bedtime prayer
that I used to pray every night as a small child in Chicago when I read the
first verse of our psalm today - “What
we have heard and know, and what our fathers have declared to us, we will
declare to the generation to come: the glorious deeds of the LORD and his
strength.” We pass down a lot of things
to our children. We do so through our
words and our actions. It is so
interesting how our church is packed on Christmas Eve Midnight mass each
year. People love midnight mass because
it is a tradition for them and most often something they remember growing up,
something they want to pass down in their family. Our faith has been passed down to us and now
we pass it down to further generations.
Are we even aware of this? There
is so much about our faith that we take for granted, yet we should appreciate
and treasure what we have and should enjoy passing it down to others. It is what we are called to do as a part of
our faith.
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