Born as I was between the theatrical debut of most Disney animated classics and their release on VHS, I never saw Fantasia as a youngster, so my first exposure to the most beautiful song ever composed - Schubert's Ave Maria - came to me, ironically, from the lips of a Bible-believing Protestant, serving as cantor at the Catholic wedding of a mutual friend. The accompanist was also a Protestant, the English teacher at the local high school. For many years, he played organ at my home parish's weekend liturgy - Sat. night and Sunday morning. Without him, we would have had no music at Mass.

The wedding of the valedictorian of my class was to a long-time friend who, along with his two younger sisters, had been accepted into the Catholic Church, the church of their mother, through the sacraments of baptism and confirmation years beforehand. I do not think that his joining the Church was in anticipation of his marriage to a Catholic, even though that is ordinarily the #1 reason that people join ... or leave, in the case of marrying a non-Catholic.

And, so, Amy, a good friend of the bride and the daughter of the head pastor of a non-denominational church, having the best voice in town and not knowing a lick of Latin, introduced me to this singularly uplifting song of Catholic devotion. And I am so grateful to her ... for her openness to serve God even within the framework of Catholicism.