Echoes of Solanus Casey

Performed by the Solanus Choir in the St. Bonaventure Monastery

Track 1. Father Solanus playing the violin and singing “Beautiful Isle” (1:49)

Beautiful Isle of the sea! Smile on the brow of the waters!
Dear {as} your mem’ries to me;
Sweet {are} the songs of your daughters.
Over your mountains and dales; Down by each murmuring river,
Cheer’d by {your} flow’r loving gales. O! I could wander forever!
Land of the True and the Old; Home ever dear unto me,
Fountain of pleasures untold; Beautiful Isle....

2. We Are Called (3:34)

3. Come to Me (3:45)

4. Deep Within (4:02)

5. Guiding Me (4:04)

6. Behold the River of Life (3:10)

7. We Will Rise Again (3:32)

8. Taste and See (4:31)

9. Behold the Lamb of God (3:38)

10. The Fragrance of Christ (3:49)

11. Hallelujah, My Father (3:29)

12. The Name of God (2:54)

13. Litany of the Saints (6:23)

14. You Are Mine (3:25)

15. The Last Shall Be First (5:09)

16. Father Solanus speaking on the Science of Religion (3:39)

My dear friends:
As we race down the Mississipi this morning, as the train steams to the Wisconsin side, the thoughts come to my mind about science. When shall we wake up to know that the greatness of any particular science must depend on the importance, on the gravity, the greatness of the subject treated. Botany, for example, or zoology, simple sciences are interesting. Music is beautiful, for example, the flute, the player piano, the harp, the violin, queen of them all, because of the cross...how sweet when properly mastered.

Then the science of astronomy that treats of the innumerable planets: Their wonderful order, their speed, their inconceivable distance, the marvelous clockwork of the universe.

We talk, too, of a perhaps less attractive science, but oh , how important, mathematics. And yet, what are any or all of these such petty sciences when the one great science of all times and all generations come in question...the science of religion, the science of our relationship with God and our neighbor.

No other science, in the end, amounts to the snap of one’s finger, but for time and for eternity {like} the science of religion fills the individual and society with hope, awe, both the very soul of happiness this side of heaven. Therefore, again, the verse:

God made me to know Him.
O! what a bles’d aim!
To love Him and serve Him
Sure rests in the same.
It is Heaven-begun
For the grateful on Earth:
To treasurer aright
Highest Heaven it’s worth.
(God himself the reward even here).

“God bless you all.”

© 2000 Father Solanus Guild

1780 Mt. Elliott

Detroit MI 48207
(313) 579-2100 ext 140
solanusguild@thecapuchins.org
www.solanuscasey.org