Singing Along the Journey

Music

Posts that relate to making or listening to or thinking about music

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
Read More

And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
Read More

Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
Read More

The weight of it all…

A year ago today, I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church.  As a member of my committee  (and someone whose grace and spirit I admire so deeply) said to me immediately afterward, in the grips of a welcome hug, "So, do you feel the weight of the Gospel call on your life yet?"   At the time, I probably thought that I did -- I certainly understood the solemnity of the choice that I had just made, the gravity of standing in front of my community and declaring it, the responsibility involved in asking for their confirmation of my call and the duty I had in…
Read More

Open mine eyes…

For various reasons, I had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of study time with the Road to Emmaus story this week (Luke  24:13-35, in case you want to read it), and it has set me to pondering further some things that, well, I have been pondering.  As I was reading  from various commentaries, I was struck by one particular comment:  that, in the eyes of this analyst, one of the signs of a good story (particular a story written to instruct and guide) is that it is incomplete -- there are lots of "spaces" in the tale, allowing we the readers of that tale to fill in the…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Star-shaped pegs, round holes, and obsessions…

The Lenten season is never a particularly easy one for me...I tend to take the set-apart nature of this time very seriously, and conduct my own very intense version of the 12-step "ruthless moral inventory" to the very maximum.  Throw in a little of the type of soul-searching and relationship review that precedes the commemoration of Yom Kippur, and add a dash of my own personal intensity, and well, you can imagine what these weeks are like inside my spirit and my head.  I have always loved the Lenten season, despite its difficulties -- but not this year. Without burdening those of you who kindly read what I write with…
Read More

The soundtrack of…

And now, for something totally different. I will admit that I am experimenting right now with different types of writing -- I've already mentioned the need I feel to learn to address the primary sources rather than the secondary.  I particularly feel this need when working with pieces of music for performance that relate directly to the lectionary text of the day.  So, all last week, I worked on practicing  just that by addressing the text of one of the songs that I sang last Sunday in church.  That text was drawn from Psalm 27, as set by Frances Allitsen in the sacred parlor room classic, "The Lord is My Light." For a three-minute-long…
Read More

Now I see me, now I don’t…

As I sit at my desk this first Monday morning of 2011, I have before me a number of project files -- many of which have a due date of January 10, 2011.   And I need to decide which one to tackle first.   The good thing about mornings is that usually, I can multi-task.  For example, right now I am listening to a wonderful recording of Johann Adolph Hasse's Salve Regina in A-Dur, with an ear to whether or not I want to add it to my repertoire this year (and I think the answer is yes).  At the same time, I am staring at a folder for the incorporation…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More