Tag: music
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“Christ is Risen”
Two chants from Orthodox Easter liturgy: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. Thy resurrection, O Christ our Savior The angels in heaven sing Enable us on earth to glorify thee in purity of heart about the image (first posted April 11, 2018)
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Bread and Roses!
It’s International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day has taken on the character of a “women’s rights” holiday, but the history of the day is deeply embedded in the international labor movement. In that spirit, today is a good day to remember that The Catholic Worker is a contemporary as well as historic organization. And here’s […]
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The Great Divide
“The owl of Minerva flies at dusk.” As a child, for some obscure reason, I latched on to the idea of the Continental Divide. The mere mention of it has made my heart leap as if spotting an old friend ever since. Once, when we were doing focus groups out in Denver, a couple of […]
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Studying Isaiah 9 2-7
We are studying Isaiah 9:2-7 for Sunday, December 19 – a beautiful expression of the anticipation of future redemption, and the text for one of the more famous choruses from Handel’s Messiah. [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are my notes on this text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: The book of Isaiah is a […]
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Rhythms
The first Sunday in Advent almost always falls on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We observed the day by driving home from Ohio. Thinking about how things change. Or, don’t. I was waiting for this advent song to come on the radio, but it never did: It’s not that long a drive. Keep awake. Image: “Winter […]
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There a Great Miracle Occurred
Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev. 1 Maccabees 4:59 Last night was the first night of […]
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Studying Psalm 84
How would we express our desire to be in the presence of God? We can meditate on the psalmist’s articulation of that desire this week, as we are studying Psalm 84 for Sunday, October 24. The psalm gives voice to an intense longing to be in the presence of the HOLY ONE. Here are a […]
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Utopianism
Some people treat “utopian” as a term of abuse. Not me. I don’t go along with the foes of art who act like totalitarianism is just around the corner whenever someone starts pointing out that since we ourselves have made our worlds into hells then we could unmake them and remake them, kinder and better. […]
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Feeling the Music
“Words make you think thoughts, music makes you feel a feeling, but a song makes you feel a thought.” Yip Harburg I didn’t learn that quotation at church. But I learned the truth of it at church. A hymn is a song. And it is probably fair to say that most of us churchgoers learn […]
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Ear Worms
People need music. It’s built in to us. We can stop gathering for choir practice, we can make a rule that we will only sing in the sanctuary softly behind masks so that we don’t spew potentially fatal aerosols all over the air commons, we can make a thing out of those craftily edited Zoom […]
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A Present from a Friend, or The Keep Going Song
Got this by text this morning: Here’s something an old friend shared with me that made me smile and weep at the same time. Me, too. The Bengsons have a YouTube channel here.
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Studying Malachi 2 1-9 & 3 5-6
We are studying Malachi 2:1-9 & 3:5-6 for Sunday, March 29. The focus is on Malachi’s indictment of the priesthood in post-exilic Israel. We’ll have to think about how this does, or doesn’t, pertain to a religious world in which we don’t have a hereditary priestly class that is responsible for administering the system of […]
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Music
The most remarkable thing that happened today didn’t happen at church, although it happened in a church. VOICES of Kentuckiana practices in the basement of Central Presbyterian Church. This Sunday the composer of one of the songs in the spring concert, Harry Pickens, came to rehearsal to listen to the progress we were making on […]
Matters of Interpretation 