Sing A New Song

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song, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I am always heartened when my “coffee time” is accompanied by a song – or even just a snippet of a familiar melody. Sometimes I walk all day long with one line playing in my mind and on occasion I hear myself saying: “All right, already! Can we please change the channel?!” Today, however, the song makes me smile and I am feeling somewhat redeemed by possibility.

Sing a new song unto the Lord! Let your song be sung from mountains high. Sing a new song unto the Lord, singing Alleluia! (How can I resist?)

Every day can be a day for a new song, depending on my attitude. What is your song for today? Are you willing to sing it?

Virtual Travel

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Cynthia Bourgeault, music, praise, song, Stonington Maine, taize, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

Sometimes virtual travel is almost as good as being there. So it was last evening when a large rowdy band of Christians walked up a hill in Stonington, Maine and was transported from St. Mary’s Church to the chapel at Taizé, France to worship God in song. Not unlike Stonington, Taizé is a tiny town with a stable population of just under 200 people. in the summer, however, over 100,000 people, most of them young pilgrims, descend on Taizé to sing and serve in what becomes for them a spiritual homecoming.

We were lots more than half a hundred, spilling out of pews and finding our places around the sanctuary to sing those same melodies with gusto and devotion – none more devoted and joyous than our “maestro,” Cynthia Bourgeault. It was a glorious session accompanied with piano, harp and base viol.

I thought of how music is often able touch us in places where nothing else can. Last evening was one of those times when community was clearly deepened among us. I was aware also, however, of our monthly gatherings at the Sophia Center in Binghamton, NY where we also pray in the manner of Taizé. We are sometimes only three or four souls singing to recorded music or even just with our own voices. While not as spectacular, we are certainly as fervent in our praise and live by the motto that “Those who sing, pray twice.” I recommend it highly – even if it is a solo song, a simple song, to God.

 

 

 

 

 

The New Covenant

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heart, jeremiah, Jubilee, knowing, love, pledge, sing, song, St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Our most cherished annual gathering, to honor St. Joseph (feast day 3/19) and those Sisters celebrating a jubilee in religious life (40, 50, 60, 70, 75 years this time), was held yesterday. The liturgy was glorious and we “sang our hearts out!” As I thought of that turn of phrase this morning I felt more deeply the truth of our covenant with God as expressed in today’s first lectionary reading from Jeremiah 31:31-34.

Speaking on behalf of God, Jeremiah says, “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant…” We sang – with accompanying gestures, tracing a heart over our inner, physical, beating hearts: My song will be for You forever, You the music in my heart! Jeremiah continues: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts.” Our song proclaimed: I will pledge my love forever; I will call your name out loud. I will reach my hand out to you and I know you’ll reach for me.

The new covenant is sealed in love, is lived in love. There need be no fear of abandonment in this way of relating. It is as certain as the steady beating of our hearts. There can be no greater knowing, no greater blessing than this! Praise God!

 

 

 

 

 

Of Integrity and Song

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Andrew Harvey, common purpose, concert, conscience, conviction, good, humanity, justice, love, Peace, purpose, raised voices, shared values, song, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I was thrown back a few decades on Saturday evening at an anniversary concert that brought together entertainers who have sung out for justice, peace and love in many ways over many years. What a joy know that their voices had not lost any of their power and purity and that new songs held the same integrity as the old ones did when we were all “young.” (The audience was also “of a certain age” and loving every minute of both the familiar and newly penned messages.) There is a feeling that arises during an experience like that. It is a strength in the camaraderie of common purpose and understanding, a sense of integrity that pervades the space. The feeling sparks a renewal of energy for right living, knowing that shared values for the good of the world still exist and can be expressed by raising our voices in that moment of song and remembered later when difficult situations arise.

A quote from Andrew Harvey that I read this morning amplified and clarified the message of the weekend for me. In the introduction to a chapter on Integrity in the book, One Heart: Wisdom from the World’s Scriptures, he writes the following:

How easy it is to flatter when we need something, or lie when we have to get out of a tedious obligation. Yet we all know that when we don’t follow our conscience and profoundly held beliefs, something worse than disaster or derision falls upon us: a loss of ourselves, a hemorrhage of our innermost reality that leaves us feeling empty and drained of strength and hope. We know that when we do act from our deepest conviction, whatever the cost or consequence, a sense of peace descends on us, steadying us to endure and witness anything…God’s plan for humanity is dependent upon each person having the integrity to enact his or her own deepest nature and its laws and responsibilities in the world. The failure to do this, on the deepest level, is a betrayal of God’s purpose both for oneself and for the world.

So get out those well-worn CDs (and records?) and sing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Breath…

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Acts of the Apostles, breath, Easter, Epistles, faith, fan the flames, Hebrew Scriptures, joy, love, Peace, prayer circle, song, soul flame, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve often heard it said that faith is caught, not taught. During the Easter season, things shift in the lectionary which, on Sundays, ordinarily takes the first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures and the second from one of the Letters (Epistles). The change is made so that we might hear the stories of the early Christian movement and how the Spirit was working in the communities gathered around the charismatic leaders. This morning we have the quintessential example of Christian community in the first reading where, in ACTS 2:42-47, we hear of Christians “holding all things in common, dividing their property and possessions according to each one’s need…” which in our world and time seems incredible, although a worthy ideal and the likely goal of communes and monastic communities and perhaps small rural communities that we might find scattered throughout the world.

My thoughts this morning we spurred on, however, by the second reading from the first letter of Peter, that impulsive, fiery, deeply devoted apostle who wrote the following lines about faith in Christ. Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now but believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. (1PT 1:9) I learned early on in religion classes that “faith is a gift” and that “it is our duty to fan the flames of the Spirit into life.” This morning I found myself asking myself, “How does that happen?” It is certainly true in my life that I have been gifted with the Christian faith – otherwise why would I have spent the last 50 years in a religious community trying to live as a faithful Christian.

Going back to my initial statement above, however, I think the answer to my question of fanning the flames is two-fold. I do believe it is my responsibility to spend time and energy in “the cell of my heart” nurturing my relationship with God in silence and reflection. Concomitantly, however, I believe that what Jesus did on Easter night in his visit to his disciples in the upper room (JN 20:19-31) is still happening for us. We have only to feel it, to recognize it. John says, “Jesus came, stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'”

How do we breathe the Spirit on one another? Is it just at ceremonies like sacramental Confirmation or Ordination where the bishop lays hands on the heads of the candidates? Maybe it’s every time we offer peace to one another at a religious service or an interfaith gathering…Energy exchange may be even more elemental than that, bringing the Spirit to life in song – in a prayer circle, perhaps…

Yesterday, I heard again a song by Sara Thomsen that I have come to value as a good example of all these words of mine. It’s one of those songs where the refrain gets a foothold inside and will not let go. I will repeat only the last verse and that refrain here and hope that you get the point or search out the entire song to catch the Spirit that is living and active to this day and beyond.

By breath, by blood, by body, by spirit, we are all one.

The fire in my heart, my soul flame burning/ Is the fire in your heart, your soul flame burning./ We are Spirit burning bright, by the light of day, in the dark of night./ We are shining like the sun, and like the moon, like the Holy One. By breath…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which Instrument Are You?

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divine, instrument of praise, joy, justice, light, music, praise, pray, psalm 67, song, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

Psalm 67 may be considered, says one commentary, “an international hymn of praise because it calls all nations and peoples of the earth to enter into the worship of God…” In speaking of the Psalms as they appear in the Hebrew Scriptures, this commentary continues: “In many of the Psalms there is a ‘we’ versus ‘they’ mentality. This sentiment has been overcome in this Psalm, and thus speaks, perhaps, of an unusual development in the religious ideals of the Hebrew people. They have moved from a narrow conception of the divine to one that is shared by all peoples of the earth…Our task as contemporary creatures is not simply to pray for ourselves, or narrowly for those around us who are dear to us, but to give voice for the whole earth…Imagine yourself as creation’s voice, as an instrument through which those without a voice can enter with praise the presence of God…There is often a wide gap between the vision of beauty held out for the world and the experience of pain and ugliness we find in it. Those who pray hold these two regions together, and will not let them fall apart.”

I was heartened by these words and so would like to suggest that each of us choose our favorite music-making instrument, visualize ourselves at our place in the great orchestra of the nations and play – pray – (singing?) this version of Psalm 67 (aloud!) for the reconciliation of the whole world. Ready? Begin:

O God, have mercy upon us and bless us with the light streaming from your face. And so that here on earth we know and walk in your ways, restore us back to health again. May every person, every creature become an instrument of praise to you and may you be the song that makes us glad and every nation sings with joy, for your pure justice reigns and rules, guiding all with equal hand. May every creature, every person, then, be an instrument of praise, and earth itself abound with a fullness yet unknown, as you alone become “our God” for everyone. Your blessings fill us full, and cover us and earth with awe from edge to edge. (translation and commentary by Lynn Bauman)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sing Out!

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chorus, family, hallelujah, person who sings prays twice, praise, psalm 148, sing, song, songfest, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I grew up listening to my mother sing. She sang with my aunt in parish shows, at church services and at the piano at home. I have in my mind a picture of her in our wonderful deep rocking chair crooning my brother to sleep. (I’m sure she did the same for my sister and me – I just don’t remember it consciously.) One of my most cherished memories was of family “songfests” with my mother and father (who also loved to sing) at our family Christmases in the last decade of their lives. Not our best vocal presentations but captured on cassette tapes, “the Barton Family Singers” sang our hearts out with the simple joy of being together.

It is said that the person who sings prays twice. I know that to be true especially in church services where the music lifts me up and raises my spirit along with my voice in community. I encourage everyone to sing whenever possible and appropriate – even those who in their childhood at school were told by teachers to “mouth the words” because their singing voices were less than stellar. I tell them what I heard long ago: that “God gave you that voice and is waiting for you to give it back.” We are not all divas or soloists in the choir but everyone deserves to feel the freedom and joy that comes with singing. Whether alone in the woods, with a wild crowd at a wedding or in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, my advice is that of the psalmist whose praise rings out this morning calling us all to SING OUT!

Hallelujah! In truth all things sing You! The heights transcendent begin your song. Heaven, teeming with the life of angels, is a chorus singing…Rulers of earth and all of its peoples, kings and queens, presidents and emperors, young men and maidens old and young alike. Let us stand together in a chorus of song, and let the melodies rise from our throats in praise to the One whose beauty and splendor fill heaven and earth. For singing is our strength, and every creature serves only in song. And each child of God is invited near, to the center of the singing forever. Hallelujah!     (PS 148:1-2, 11-14, Ancient Songs Sung Anew: The Psalms as Poetry)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where Is Your Heart?

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Cynthia Bourgeault, divine, heart, heart chakra, love, music, perception, Psalm 95, sacred heart of Jesus, softening, song, symbol, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the Source of all Life, The Wisdom Way of Knowing

I remember a song from my mother’s repertoire whose refrain sang: “You’re close to me here, but where is your heart?” The physical heart is what keeps us alive and we know where that lives and how important it is to take care of it. In the last few days I’ve heard of a number of people having heart attacks or heart surgery – all quite serious events. Obviously, however, the question from my mother’s song is about something else.

The heart is universally accepted as the symbol of love. Catholic spirituality speaks of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, energy workers see the heart chakra as the center of the body from which love radiates, spiritual teachers the world over use the heart to refer to the Divine. We are urged to “open your heart and your pocketbook” in times of national disasters and many of us pray each day, asking God to open our hearts to the needs of our neighbors near and far.

Today, the psalmist calls us to take the responsibility for that opening in psalm 95, singing: If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts! Cynthia Bourgeault, in her book The Wisdom Way of Knowing, calls the heart an organ of perception, the center from where we learn to move toward union with the Source of all Life. The process of that daily dance toward the center is not linear, not easy, but the reward of hearing that music, singing that song, softening our hearts is nothing less than everything.