Fr. Egide Muziazia, an SVD from Congo, stationed here in St.Michael’s Missionhouse in Steyl, taught us today a Christmas song in French, his main language, and a “Kyrie” in the native Swahili. He wants us to sing them on the second day of Christmas when he will celebrate Holy Mass with us – and surely he will accompany us with his native drum! We have learned quickly the Swahili as it is easier to read, but the french song, with the familiar melody of the “Angels we have heard on high,” was quite difficult to pronounce. He has such patience with us, letting us repeat each word after him. We’ve tried and tried and laughed many times in between since, as you well know, we are an international community, with our own language and our own way of talking and pronouncing words, it will really take a little miracle for us to learn French in just a few minutes! We just fairly managed singing it, but, of course, when we got to the “Gloria….gloria in excelsis Deo” we sang the loudest – that is just the best part which we know very well! It was fun and we can see that Fr. Egide enjoyed it, too, because he played his drum with gusto!
