Only This I Want Dan Schutte

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Lyrics

Refrain
Only this I want:
but to know the Lord,
and to bear his cross,
so to wear the crown he wore.
1. All but this is loss,
worthless refuse to me,
for to gain the Lord
is to gain all I need.
2. I will run the race;
I will fight the good fight,
so to win the prize
of the kingdom of my Lord.
3. Let your heart be glad,
always glad in the Lord,
so to shine like stars
in the darkness of the night.

Text based on Philippians 3:7-16; 2:15, 18. Text and music © 1981, OCP. All rights reserved.

Artist Reflection

When I was ending my 15th year, going on 16, I was a high school drop out. I lived with my mom, who was a single mother at the time. I had 4 brothers and we were on welfare, living in a low-income housing project. I spent my time practicing martial arts and acting tough with my boys on the streets of Cleveland. My other pastime was looking for girls. I went to a youth group at San Juan Bautista, the local Hispanic Catholic church, looking for chicks. Boy, did I find one! Her name was Sister Nancy Madden, M.S.B.T. We became friends very quickly, and she saw so much potential in me that I did not see.

As I look back, I now know that she orchestrated many things to get me on the right track, such as drag me back to school kicking and screaming. At one point she told me that she had a guitar in her house. She told me that if I learned how to play it for Mass I could keep it. I wanted that guitar! Our pastor, Father Vincent Pasqualetto, ST, was a classically trained guitar player. With his help I was playing at Mass within a month.

Sister Nancy immediately bought me a bunch of music books from OCP and others. I learned most of the songs from all of the Glory and Praise collections. One of those songs was "Only This I Want" by Dan Schutte. I remember playing that song for hours and really meaning all the words as I sang them.

I have to say that the St. Louis Jesuits turned my life around. Now that I am an OCP/spiritandsong artist, I get to meet all of these composers. I'm still having trouble making complete sentences around them, but maybe someday I'll be able to tell them that "I will run the race; I will fight the good fight, so to win the prize of the kingdom of my Lord." God bless you guys!

- Andy Andino

PS: When it came time to make Consecrated I knew we had to do this song and I also knew that the only person who could sing it would be my cousin, Nellie Cruz. She was one of the original members of Who Do you Say I Am and is now a Daughter of God. Her vocal presence and spiritual conviction are exactly what the song called for — not to mention the fact that she came from the very same kind of background that I did. Thanks, Nellie, for making this song even more special to me in that way.