Monday Music Appreciation #60: A plea for the broken hearted

I had a really beautiful birthday weekend, including a profoundly moving sweat with friends out near Maskwacis, a back yard barbecue with favourite friends and family, and a beautiful worship service with the Community of Emmanuel on Sunday morning.

I could pick many different kinds of music from those events, but the song below is the one on my heart. We sang it several times as a refrain to the prayers voiced by the community yesterday morning, and it always opens people's hearts to share. Even those who didn't share left anonymous notes for us, including one that asked prayers for her deceased kids and a brother who died last year, and one with a pen drawn image of a heart in pieces and these words:

I am so sad and alone all the 

time. Everyone I need keeps on 

dying on me. I don't know what 

to do. I'm so lost.

So today's prayer/song is the one we sang yesterday (click here if you're an email subscriber). If you listen, keep these anonymous ones in your heart, that they may be consoled somehow...

Raise a song of gladness

The resurrection icon
we will pray with on Sunday

When Covid-19 shut the world down back in March of 2020, I wondered how long it would be until our Ecumenical Prayer evenings of scripture, silence, and the songs of Taize would start up again. 

Throughout these 30 months, I have missed the consolation of singing and praying with musicians and friends of different denominations, though I did my best to keep prayer going online. Of course, praying alone, even when you know other people are praying along in their own spaces, just isn't the same. Especially when it comes to raising our voices to God together.

It's been a long two-and-a-half years of being separated, but this Sunday, September 18th, we are gathering to pray in person with the group of musicians and the music I have missed so much. It's a resurrection, of sorts! And all are welcome to join us!

As health officials keep reminding us, the pandemic is not yet over, so it's recommended to wear a mask whenever we're indoors or in close proximity to people outside our immediate circles. I will be doing that as I don't think I've had the virus yet, and my life with diabetes means I still don't want to run the risk. It's up to each person to decide for themselves how they are most comfortable participating.

We will return to raising songs of gladness and prayer on this coming Sunday evening, September 20, from 7 to 8 pm at St. Thomas D'Aquin church, 8410 89 Street, which happens to be the place where we held our last prayer evening on March 8, 2020. I hope you can join us if you're in the area. We will be praying for the good of all of creation, as we are smack dab in the middle of the month of Creation.

Raise a song of gladness, peoples of the earth... Jubilate Deo omnes terra!

A lovely chant for a Sunday

I’m feeling quite low these days faith-wise, but music from Taizé never fails to speak to me and bring me into a place of prayer. Music has always been my best way to pray. These days, this chant praises God endlessly -- especially when I listen to it endlessly... and then it runs through the background of my life like a mantra even when I'm not listening. Enjoy...