Make Us One Tom Kendzia

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Artist Reflection

A number of years ago I began to work for the Catholic Church fresh out of college and fresh out of my teenage years. While studying classical piano and majoring in music, I also spent my college life "on sabbatical" from active participation in the church and was in a number of rock bands trying to make a living. A church near my temporary home was looking for a music director in 1977 and I haven't left the ministry since! I heard the call to write "contemporary" music for my community. I have been trying ever since to write music from the heart that is traditional yet contemporary, singable but listenable, liturgical as well as inspirational. A recording of my earliest works was released in 1980 on the NALR label entitled Light of the World. Twenty-five years later, I am very proud to have another go around with that music, only this time the title cut is "Make Us One."

The words to this song -- a rocker in 1980 and it still rocks! -- are a plea to God to unite us. Used at liturgy to gather, we sing:
Make us one in your love, let us live at your side;
O Lord, you are the source of all life.
You are all that we need, you are Lord of our lives:
Make us one, O Lord, in your love.

Is it possible for us to be as one body? Many think not, and turn to all ways instead of Christ to try to achieve this. It is only in God that we can be one. It is what I believed in 1977 when I wrote this song, and believe that we as Catholics need now more than ever. The teachings of Jesus Christ and the Eucharist make us one. Only then can we have the wisdom and strength to be the living Christ. Thanks to Kathy Trocolli and Carl Hergysell for their powerful vocal work on the track. It continues to inspire me so many years later, and I hope it does for you.

- Tom Kendzia