Come Hold My Son

I still remember the day like it was yesterday.  The year was 2004. I had just finished leading music for two masses on a Sunday morning at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Vancouver, Washington.  Once everything was cleaned up and put away, I sat down with Jesus before the tabernacle to say some final prayers.  I began to pray the rosary.  Near the tabernacle was a statue of the Pieta with Mary holding Jesus after he had been taking down from the cross.  Then I heard these soft words in my heart, which have really changed my life.  I heard Our Lady say to me very simply, “come hold my son.”  I prayed the rosary more, and again heard those words, “come hold my son.”  It was as if the statue was speaking to me.  Our Lady was staring at me with her dead son in her arms, beckoning me to come closer to her and to share in her pain.  I then thought of all the times she was with Jesus during her life and at His death and how she always pointed back to Him as the answer.  The words echoed even louder.  I thought of how it must have felt for her to see her son dead, and how she didn’t understand, but still said "yes" to God’s plan. Then before the tabernacle, I realized she was saying those same words to me today - to also hold Jesus in the Eucharist - “come hold my son.”  

As I wrapped up my prayers I proceeded to head to my office at the Church and grabbed my guitar and about 45 minutes later I had composed the song Come Hold my Son. As an artist and musician, some songs are written over years of thought and trial, while others are written almost effortlessly.  Come Hold my Son, literally wrote itself.  It was the easiest song to write.  The words fell into place so sweetly with so little effort.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Vancouver, WA

After writing the song, I new it was good, but at the time I had no idea that I would share it with hundreds of thousands of people across the nation and the world.  I had no idea that it would touch so many people’s hearts, and that it would bring so many people to tears. All I knew was I heard Mary say those words to me and I needed to put them in a song.

I first recorded the song on the album Companions of the Lamb in 2008 with the assistance of my friend Meagan King singing the background harmony, essentially as the female voice representing Mary.  After recording it, I still didn’t know the impact the song was to have.  It was around 2009, that I began to incorporated it into my shows and then discovered that the song was a perfect communion mediation.  

Every Sunday, at whatever Church would allow me to do so, I began to play the song as a second communion mediation and to this day I have not stopped doing so.  After receiving the Eucharist, so many people are touched when they hear the those words, now spoken to their hearts, "come hold my son." 

Each person accepts the song in their own way.  For some, it speaks to them of their own children, and for others it assist them in a struggle they are currently having.  To me, Come Hold my Son simply means to always trust in God no matter what the struggle.  Even if we don’t understand the pain, God does, and we must still accept His will and purpose just as Our Lady always said yes.  

Aside from that, there is not much more to say, If you would like to own the song and the album it is on, Check out the music player below.

God Bless!

Daniel Oberreuter (Lead singer of The Thirsting)