I first heard Peter Mayer’s song performed live when I opened for the great American folk singer David Wilcox. For my wife Tami and I, it was like the shards of light of our own musings all came together in a lightening bolt of understanding.  We love how he expresses how spirit connection can be found all around us in our everyday life - if we have eyes to see.
It reminded us of a favourite quote from the artist Emily Carr: 
"God got so stuffy squeezed into a church.  Only out in the open air was there room for him. He was like a great breathing among the trees."

We obviously need to understand this lyric in the poetic context in which it appears.  A theologian or a literalist will say if everything is holy, nothing is holy.  Clearly. War, deceit and cruelty are not holy.  But for me, the overstatement ‘everything is holy now’ effectively reminds me to look for beauty and spiritual revelation in the mundane.

Peter Mayer is an amazing guitarist and songwriter from Minnesota and the author of this song.  Please check out more of his songs at petermayer.net  My dear friend Dean Clark sings the lead vocal on this one.

Lyrics:
When I was a boy, each week
On Sunday, we would go to church
And pay attention to the priest

He would read the holy word
And consecrate the holy bread
And everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now
Everything, everything
Everything is holy now

When I was in Sunday school
We would learn about the time
Moses split the sea in two
Jesus made the water wine
And I remember feeling sad
That miracles don t happen still
But now I can t keep track
Cause everything s a miracle
Everything, Everything
Everything s a miracle

Wine from water is not so small
But an even better magic trick
Is that anything is here at all
So the challenging thing becomes
Not to look for miracles
But finding where there isn t one

When holy water was rare at best
It barely wet my fingertips
But now I have to hold my breath
Like I m swimming in a sea of it
It used to be a world half there
Heaven s second rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
Cause everything is holy now
Everything, everything
Everything is holy now

Read a questioning child s face
And say it s not a testament
That d be very hard to say
See another new morning come
And say it s not a sacrament
I tell you that it can t be done

This morning, outside I stood
And saw a little red-winged bird
Shining like a burning bush
Singing like a scripture verse
It made me want to bow my head
I remember when church let out
How things have changed since then
Everything is holy now
It used to be a world half-there
Heaven s second rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
Cause everything is holy now

© 1999 Peter Mayer