Amy Grant on Vince Gill's Grammy-Winning Song, "When My Amy Prays"

this week on mind and heart we're going to do something a little different I'm taking you on the road back to my roots where my education and vocation began in a likely place and during that in the likely time I'm taking you to music city to nashville tennessee I'm sister John Dominic a founders of the Dominican Sisters of Mary and mother of the Eucharist come along with us and I will introduce you to some special people that use their gifts and talents to promote goodness and virtue a Grammy award-winning artist Amy Grant Hall of Fame golfer Joe Taggart an award-winning architect Dick Miller [Music] Oh Amy it's great to see you again thank you this is always my highlight when I come back home to Nashville if you're in town and there's nothing else going on even if we can sneak in a visit for five or ten minutes yeah it's great you know so maybe for the people that are listening or viewing if you just give a little introduction of who you are we all know that or I'm torn because I just am talking to you but I know people are joining us I'm a singer-songwriter and I have done that since it was a high school hobby and I just I love music I always have you know and when I was a kid I started writing songs that helped explain my faith or help me ask questions just musically I mean I grew up loving James Taylor Carole King the Beatles I mean you name it but sort of simultaneously I was having a really exciting life-changing faith journey that really began in high school and so I was going hey nobody's like singing about this so I started writing and the rest is history it has those decades it goes and now I don't know how to do anything else so I'm like it's got a little late in life I can add a naturist at this point one-trick pony ya know so we're both from Nashville we grew up here one question I haven't kid Amy is like how in the world did you all meet I said well we're from Nashville but obviously I you know I in my mind it's Christ brings us together you know but I don't know what are you which your what's your memory of probably like who's that person Dresden or Wieck well I'm trying to remember if I met you before you were 18 I knew your mom right right that's right because I remember her saying I have a daughter who is thinking about becoming United yeah that's right because she was probably working with with Chet and there's probably a lot of people interacting at that same time that's right she was working with him about that time yes and so I just remember her going you know and I didn't I didn't go to st. Cecilia you know it's a Catholic school I went to a girls school but it was just uh just a prep school and yeah it's just so that tract is was I wasn't brought up then a lot of my friends joined a convent right you know the way I grew up so if somebody was committing their life to service it was they were gonna be a missionary you know I mean it was just they were still lives of service but it was just different what I love is like well your your outfit is out of time right it's yes medieval yeah it's out of time Stan and I love it when you're down or you'll drop by or when you would bring sisters to the Detroit show I could hear security you know Oreos are coming in the back I just love what has always felt like to us it feels so family Yeah right kind of to other people it might feel like a collision of worlds right because you know it's very natural you know yeah and I and I often think of well fans sent me forever I mean you know how he teases everybody and he's like Sally Field and my problem is is that he always has the microphone and I don't you know now what's he gets on a roll yes you know he's not gonna not gonna stop and someday I'm gonna have the microphone and he doesn't I don't know what I'll do I'll figure out something you know yeah but I think it was I think it's just sees different times where the paths would cross and it was more like it was organic it just kind of naturally had you know your mom had a long career in the music yes business yes and she worked with Chet Atkins who I knew for many many years performed with Chet Vince you know even before Vince and I were a couple Chet was Vince's main inspiration as a young guitar player and and then Joe come back married your mom a little later in life playing golf and everybody's golf Vince loves golf and I was late to the golf table but fell in love with golf in the mid-90s so it's funny that you know being married to Vince has really given me the gift of having to of wanting to own my own journey my own spiritual journey and to to share it openly with him without manipulation yeah because so many times you can want something for somebody I want you to like the music like I want you to you know I want you to want the things I want but every one of us is unique you know every one of us is wired differently anyway so um but you know when Vince and I first married I mean you know I went to church Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night that's nothing compared and I think after his brother's accident I don't know if they ever went to church again you know so but at some point I thought this is the man I love and I'm gonna tell him about my journey the same way I tell my kids you know so something incredible would happen like they felt like I don't know just like feeling like I was supposed to go pray for somebody and then it wound up into this crazy experience like I couldn't orchestrated it myself and I'm and I would come home and go you are not gonna believe what happened today and I'll tell them this experience and the look I laughed so hard one time cuz I was telling him this really deep moving I mean it was a life-changing spiritual transformative experience for me and I finished and he just slept the kimchi counter and he said it's settled we have to get you a TV show but it made me you know he I don't know if just like it was such a I don't know so many times in our culture in always we we want unity to be light mindedness we want unity to be sameness feel about this the way I feel about this and really unity is the freedom to share our differences with each other in a setting of compassion right right and because we all benefit from a broader perspective so Vince and I I can't remember what the circumstance was but I remember coming to coming to him one time going okay come on like when you're in front of a sunset like in there every time that like you just have to raise your hands and say thank you I mean come on what does it take because I was I guess asking him what in you is helpless to respond to God and it might have come from this is such a crazy story but I have a friend Jeff slaughter years ago earlier chapter in my if he was the piano teacher for my three Chapman children he used to come on Monday nights and I would feed him dinner with my family and then everybody would get a piano lesson during that time must have been the mid 90s during that time he had a nice that was killed in a four-wheeler accident I felt like I knew Jeff's family because they were from Mississippi they were very southern demonstrative funny I'd heard so many stories about his family we kind of all imitated his mom and some of her funny stories anyway so that was a time of tragedy life went through a lot of different changes years later I'm married to Vince I have had another child piano lessons long since forgotten Jeff says so many weird things have happened to me in my life I finally put them all together would you write some comments in the front of this book and he said I've just run off a couple of chapters and I said sure it was an afternoon when I was kind of I was free at the time my father was deep into his journey with dementia my mother had already passed away it was gut-wrenching for us Jeff bring I'm at a recording studio I'm waiting on the producer and Jeff brings this you know just kind of loose pile of pages and I see on the the beginning of one that it refers to his niece being killed in that four-wheeler accident so I went oh my gosh that was however many years ago at that point you know over 12 years brewed up and I was like I remember that I mean we were all together then 15 years had gone by and I remember him talking about his niece I remember him in fact it was so crazy back then because Jeff would do he would write a musical for their small Mississippi Southern Baptist Church he would write the musical and go home and lead it and he said Amy I'm telling you it was conservative I'd look out at that church all these people with their nose in a songbook the only person in the audience with their hands like this is my niece and she would say uncle Jeff someday the whole congregation is gonna have their arms up someday everybody's gonna get free and she was such a letter writer in fact it was so crazy I remembered way back when in the 90s when they were gonna get a new youth group leader in that church and all summer she had been riding that youth group leader saying oh you're gonna love this family so their kids are XYZ you're gonna love this person now somebody that might be hard to get to know I mean so many letters she actually was killed Labor Day weekend that youth group leader never met her but he preached her he gave the eulogy at her service cuz he knew her so well from her letters oh wow okay so I'm just going oh my gosh fifteen years had gone by it was just like it was yesterday what I had never heard was the end of the story so I'm rating is gone oh this just takes me that takes me back as it turns out they had had her organs donated to different people time had gone by and the man who had received her heart was in his mid 50s he was a grandfather and he wrote a letter to her mom Jeff's sister and he said I need may I ask you some questions about your daughter I'm grateful for her every day of my life but when I came out of that surgery there were things about me that were different and he said because of my education I've never been much of a letter writer I was always afraid I would like make a mistake or not say something the right way but he said from the time I got her heart I was obsessed with letter-writing and he said I write letters to my children I write letters to my grandkids I write letters to people on meet one time so I wanted to ask if she's a letter writer the second it's hard for me to explain he said I'm not so much a religious man but my wife goes to church and occasionally I will go to church with her and he said when the music begins he said I am helpless to keep my hands down Wow isn't that something yes and he said do you have any I mean that is something yes and if that was so timely for me because I'm dealing with my father who is like a blank wall I'm going I'm sorry if the heart of a child that has died gonna be put into the body of a living man if that heart tissue can carry that kind of energy and that kind of memory but I'm gonna look at my dad who can't remember my name I'm gonna put my hand on its heart and go I know you're still in there yeah I don't know what Annina says you're right so but that conversation you know it kind of became for Vince what's gonna make your hands go up no for all those things come on we're helpless sometimes that conversation has gone on for years with us come on something's gonna make it and then one day he wrote this when my meetry but my that's way [Music] my me and then when he got to me I was like oh I noticed his say did you just like lose it at that moment I mean or did you oh you did - you're like I don't want to react - but I was just going it was like his answer another question I've been asking that and you and you prompt Wow so it was that did he just come out one day and just say I've got something or D you didn't know he was working on that I mean I I mean I can't remember the first time I heard it yeah you know it's been a couple of years now but that was just a recurring conversation with us yeah knowing him I've known him since you know the early 90s you know entities oh yeah there's always something and then yeah you know and you know and just when you watch although he teases but you know there's something in there just like like that moment I'll never forget him pointing that and saying yeah and then - with my mom and Joe and me she she was in the music biz long enough and she knew and they were real and when they were not right and she wouldn't have been hung in a room you know go I mean hanging around with you know Joe and Vince all the time like she would do you know that do you remember when I don't know if you know this when when Leona's Chet's wife her birthday yes you know how she loved that business I just loved him I know and they had the birthday party at Mom's house and so mom made this big cake and Vince popped out of it yeah he probably died oh my god but Chad was there you know I think he was in on it too but that made Liane that just made her he came out of the gate I know yeah you know what I was saying at the beginning is that noticing you know that change and I do I think is this the different chapters and in our lives you know and that god he's always reworking our hearts and you know what is that bringing us home I mean thank God we have a lifetime you know cuz that I mean imagine what I mean if this life is as wonderful as it is it's a the moments when your hands are raised to you know imagine what the Eternity is going to be like you know and I I just I personally just want to really thank you for I don't think you really realize the impact that you music and just who you are as a person the number of people that you've touched you don't know how many young women that you've helped with their vocations to become a sister just singing the music and in having you know though the words resonate and you probably don't know how many Catholic churches sing a song about the bus at the breath of heaven yeah with the with the Blessed Mother I mean that's just had that when did you think about that four years of it or is that just one of the ones that came together well strangely enough that's that song had a life of its own before I stumbled upon it haha there's a song written by Chris eaten and but it was I heard it and I and the chorus he had written but all the imagery in the verses was different and Chris and I were good friends we were on tour together he's from England and I went to him one day cuz when I heard that song I imagined Mary yeah and I said who I'm about to like skate out on thin ice here yeah and I said would you let me rewrite your song oh well I know so bold so presumptuous he could have just said no way no how yeah and and he said what do you mean rewrite it and I just said I may I tell I mean is I I can't remember his lyrics but it was all like nature imagery and I said this is like the ultimate prayer yeah but in telling in in letting this be Mary's prayer it becomes all of our prayer right and he gave me carte blanche so that beautiful melody is all Chris Seaton's and but he just said okay yeah it's haunting it's justice I think so often I mean those are those those parts in scripture where you know she says she just all it says is that she pondered you know and I think that's I often times people's like well how do I reach sure out of it and it's just just do what she did you know you just ponder you ponder and you just let it chew in your heart and then you're you know and you know I think that's when I and I think about just your I mean can you think you know what's kept you grounded all these years you know we've had well that's true I mean I well you always had to have there had to have been at least one root holding you down the even if yeah I'm even to be able to to cross over you know it's always that stirred everybody but you can't do something like that if you don't know who you're about and starting at that young of a I mean I there must have been you probably wouldn't look at it but had to have been a special outpouring of God's grace and anointing upon you even if it was it in a teenager and a high school that you just had this love or for him that don't you had to express it you know and that's maybe that's kind of like my even though I wear a medieval dress to express it you know I mean that's kind of like with me you know why why did you do that I just love God and I wanted to help bring people to that point and I've had my own ups and downs too yeah I remember my mother got me a paraphrased version of the New Testament and I believe I was in there I'm gonna say fourth or fifth grade I mean I was I think well I I think I was six when I got my first Bible in fact I still have it it's totally torn up but it makes me laugh because my name was in gold on the front Amy Lee grant and I just had such a little impact you know I always wanted a really beautiful long name and and I and when I got my first Bible I thought I just I want something fancier than that she put my name on the front and then I wanted something really beautiful and anyway I still have that old Bible because I hand wrote in the front of it my version of what my name should be Oh long mom version that had shimmer and sparkle anyway I still remember the name I wrote it was Amy Kaylee goldfish it seemed like no that's a name anyway that was a difficult it was hard for me to understand that Bible I don't think I was really interested in reading it I just really wanted a big fancy name on it but then a few years went by and the good news for modern man came out to paraphrase the Living Bible and my mom got me one and it was it had these little tiny like stick video illustration it's very simple and it was in little bite-size pieces stories I mean and I remember opening that book and reading about Jesus and I was so drawn to him yeah as a child I was just like I just couldn't get enough of the stories he did what he said what and it was so innocent but I think that's what it was something related before I had before I had a curiosity about as a person and that superseded everything about religion yeah but you know I think we're gonna someday look back on all of our stories and just go we were all such numbnuts I mean how did he get where we gone I know clearly God was intervening yeah yeah totally you know I felt that way when I was teaching in first grade you know it is hooked to your guide you kind of help me with this you know yeah you know right straight with the crooked lines of our life you know and brings brings people together you know I think even on my home you know family and you know the whole situation with with my sister and her struggle but now I mean if she's probably one of the people that I just admire you know cuz if I was in an her skin you know day in and day out you know and and I have to believe that God you know is is taking care of her you know and that was a big step for me because when I entered the convent she you know she's bright about the time when my parents you know divorced and it was very difficult for her strim attic for me and then that happened and and I remember you know just praying and I was like Lord if I I'm gonna stay with this this is what I want to believe you're calling me to do I trust you in this you know yeah and and I know you'll take care of her you know so life goes on and you know her life goes on and then she had this moment where things just turned upside down and and I remember praying I was like talking about raising your hands and it was more like this you know I said you know I was gonna stick with this white you know why is this happening you know but what I heard was in my heart you know and I did wasn't a voice or whatever but it was yeah but I love her more than you do you know and and I died for her and and I will take care of her you know and and it's hard you know so I was like that's what I tell you I get like go and you're like God and that was like a moment of of peace but we don't know you know we don't know what we don't know that's when you just talked with the you know Ben says it and that song about not judging people you know we can't cuz we don't know what people are experiencing and we can do is love them you know in the human experience every step forward is based on our good performance and so that measuring stick you know the reason you get to go to college the reason you experienced a high school reunion is because you passed first grade and then second grade and third grade the reason you can invite it to this circle or to be on that board is because you proved yourself to be responsible I mean everything about our human experience is all based on not so much accomplishments but you've got the job done and if you don't get the job done then you don't get that job if you don't do the work that relationship falls apart I mean it's like so here we are experiencing human life and everything is about performance well then you have your spiritual life and and when you're young I think it's like okay here's what I'm gonna do for God here sometimes you figure out here's what I do for God oh my gosh people in my life are falling apart and then you're white-knuckling holding on to them in front of God and then and then and then and then and and at some point I believe in later life you it's like you're able to divide those two things in your head yeah you're able to say I'm not helping my friend by white-knuckling them right in front of me so I can give them all my advice I'm loving them the most when I just ponder them with an open hand in front of God that's beautiful just ponder them you know it's just an open conversation just surrounding them with your thoughts in the presence of God because ultimately he's the only one that can do anything about it right we just have to be we bring that love but ultimately he brings that grace you know it's interesting the it's the suffering and the hardships the things that don't look like the achievements that bring people together so you know obviously with my parents divorcing there's you how do we bring together this these blended group of people well it was that yeah that brought everyone together yeah and and restored and then and that was suffering you know it's it's when everything looks messy and dirty and yucky that that's when the healing and the end it comes comes forth and that's it's hard to remember when you're going through it right though and you can look back you're like yeah this is really what it's all about you know I know it and and then you get older and you really do like you see somebody's life imploding somebody just filed for divorce and when you're young it's like it's you know it's just like oh my gosh and then you get older and you go I know it doesn't feel like it right now but that person just got it's got a a very immediate invitation to take a long hard look in the mirror yeah you know you sort of see everything and you just see it differently and yeah and yeah what you were it's like we all want so desperately to feel connected to belong to feel a part of something and we try to create that with our best selves a supper club yeah a fellowship group yeah you want real belonging let your need show yeah you have a sick child you somebody is in recovery yeah and we need help with who's gonna watch the kindergarten er you have an accident that happens or somebody's lost their job this these people's house burned down I mean nobody wants an invitation to that party but those are the circumstances out of real need you just can't turn away and the next thing you know everybody's pulling clothes from their closet or you can't play with my kid or I don't know it just like yes this is the whole thing in Matthew comes together where Jesus says when you do it to the least of my brother and you've done it to me and it's in those those are all the ya need needs where he hasn't you know yeah it is yeah well maybe thank you so much for your your wonderful hospitality I mean I can't I'm so grateful for your friendship in your presence and just even the times are able to come together and the way I look at this is that we're just kind of sharing our normal conversations with with other people and inviting them to the table together to be present and hopefully they can walk away with something that make them feel lighter you know help them to greet the day with a smile so why don't you why don't we end with you repeating that prayer for others though let's say I'd carry that carry them forth okay simple prayer Lord lead me today to those I need and to those that need me unless something I do have you turn [Music] if you liked this episode of the mind and heart podcast I invite you to click on the next available podcast and continue to enrich your mind heart and soul [Music] this is how I'd read I greet the day you [Music]

Channel: Openlight Media

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Keywords: Amy Grant, Grammy, when my amy prays, vince gill, GrammyAwards, GrammyWinner, Grammys2021, billboard, grammys, Gospel, Catholic, Bible, Religious Sisters, music, christian music, musician, musiclove, podcast, order of preachers, famous musician, Catholic podcast, Jesus, GOD, LOVE, FAITH, Dominican, NUNS, religion, evangelization, Christ, Catechism, catholicism, faith, christianity, church, lumen ecclesiea, sisters, blessed, catechesis, vocation, education, Dominican sisters, self-help, catholic press, Jesusmusicmovie

Id: FOPv773WdGs

Length: 34min 14sec (2054 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019