I read somewhere that a capacity for religious experience may be genetic.

The notion is attractive. Contemplating it brings me exhilaration and relief. It liberates the religious impulse from the intellect. It suggests that a person is religious, not because they can prove the existence of the deity they worship or because they’ve gotten past the conundrum of a loving, omniscient, all-powerful God co-existing with Evil. No. Being religious, according to those who embrace the concept, is simply ‘in their DNA,’ like brown eyes and a knack for musical invention.

Faith, then, isn’t achieved. We needn’t require that it make sense. If Reason deems it absurd, fine. In fact, the absurdity of faith is exhilarating. “I believe because it is absurd,” said Tertullian long ago.

My dear wife, my partner and best friend for nearly six decades, hasn’t the slightest feeling for religion. I go to church every Sunday. Jo stays home with “Meet the Press.” I pray and ponder, many times, every day. Not her. Religion does not “run in her family.” If Jo prays or ponders the will of God, she has never made it known to me.

Our daughter seems to have inherited the religious gene from my side, while our son is like his mama, non-religious. Happily, we all get along. We like each other. Religious matters rarely come up. When they do, we’re respectful. We listen. When I offer a grateful prayer before we tuck into our annual Thanksgiving feast, all heads are bowed.

Whatever your religion or lack thereof, you are invited to listen a piece I wrote for two cellos and piano called “Largo Religioso.” You don’t need to have the religious gene to enjoy this music. I know that’s so because my wife loves this performance!

The lead cellist is Michael Ronstadt. The second cellist is his 14-year-old student whom I shall not name so as to guard her privacy.

Surprise! -- that’s ME playing the piano. I almost never play my music in public. It makes me nervous. I would much rather listen to good musicians playing it.

But in rehearsal the student asked me, piteously, “You ARE going to play the piano part when we perform, right?” No I wasn’t. I was going to ask our church organist to play the part. But when I told her as much, she was visibly disappointed. So I reluctantly agreed. The organist turned the pages for me.

We performed it in a service at my church: Cincinnati’s Mt. Auburn Presbyterian. It marked the first time I performed my music with someone sixty years younger than myself!

I love what our guest pastor said immediately after we finished performing the piece: “Thank you … for that glimpse into the heart of God.”

The link below will take you to a video of the entire service. Our performance starts at 19:33. You’ll have to find your way to that spot and then click “play.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPptaiHusQA

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.