Outpouring

A Voice Like Paint on Canvas

By Anna Biela, Ph.D, MFA, OCAD Alumna

May 21, 2026, Wroc[love], 7:55 am

During my Baptism in the Holy Spirit, as I was being prayed over by two intercessors, one of them suddenly asked me, out of the blue, “Do you like to sing?” I said I do, but I don’t know how. She said that God will show me how.

I told her that as a little girl I wanted to be a singer—that was my first desire of being an artist.

Moments later, when I was speaking with my new friend from the seminar, he asked if they told me anything. I said no, nothing… and then I remembered and said, actually, she asked me a bizarre question—if I like to sing.

He said, “Well, this is your opportunity to sing—we were all singing as we were praising God and praying through music.”

I said that this is the thing I am most terrified to do, because I sing out of tune. I don’t know how to repeat a rhythm or remember words. And he said, “Maybe you will sing in tongues.”

I said that would be perfect, because it would just pour out—like my paint on canvas.

So here I am today, reflecting on yesterday, which didn’t feel like anything extraordinary, and I wonder… will the outpouring of the Spirit happen through singing? Am I a singer trying to be a painter and healer?

A few years back I took a singing course, but I was so ashamed of my lack of ability to copy and repeat the songs we chose for a concert setting that I ended up lip-syncing.

I tried to join a choir twice in my life, and I got discouraged, because they would always isolate my vocals, and I thought it was because I was out of key.

That is the thing I am most terrified to do.

But I love singing in the sense of making sounds come out that don’t resemble any songs I’ve heard before. The only words I truly remember are prayers, and the only songs I sing are the Hail Mary and the Our Father, almost like a mantra.