His Eye Is On the Sparrow.

On March 25th, the day that Brian and I gave our families the news, we settled in at my mom’s house to watch Sister Act.

‘Cause that’s how you celebrate news of a pregnancy, right?

Do you remember Sister Act?  Whoopi Goldberg plays a lounge singer who goes into hiding at a convent until she can testify to a murder at a later date. It’s hysterical.

The only problem with watching Sister Act is that it gave me the itch to watch Sister Act II.  I’m not sure how many times in the history of entertainment that a sequel has outshined the original (it can’t have been that many times), but I think I like the second one the best.

It always makes me cry tears of joy in the end.

It wasn’t until the first time that I saw Sister Act II that I ever heard the old song, His Eye Is On the Sparrow.  Unfortunately in the movie, Lauryn Hill’s character gets interrupted and she never actually finishes the song.  …which is an excellent way to keep a Square Piece obsessed for the rest of her life.

Last Monday I spent a couple hours trying to hunt down the perfect rendition of this song to share with Brian and with you.  Come to find out, I do not think the perfect rendition actually exists.  (I’m half tempted to do it myself.)

So here’s what we’ve got on the menu today:

• the Sister Act II scene that began my obsession
• Lauryn Hill belting it live (but she never gets to the “I sing because I’m happy” part, which is a real shame and why the hunt continued)
• a quartet version, that’s quite well done
• and the part at the end of Sister Act II that makes me cry (if you only knew how Whoopi turned those kids around!)

The part at the end of Sister Act II that makes me cry:

Happy tears as we speak!  Joyful, joyful indeed!