Category Archives: Music

Lenten Hymn Sunday (II)

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I chose “The God of Abraham Praise” because it’s a good Lenten processional hymn that glorifies God and ties into the readings about Abraham that we have right now in Year B. It is in a minor key and it doesn’t contain the A-word (or H-word depending on spelling). I remember singing it at Church of the Incarnation the last time I was there for a full Eucharist in March 2009. I wish I hadn’t had pregnancy grumpiness because it was Rite I and lovely.

The God of Abraham praise,
who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days,
and God of love;
Jehovah, great I AM,
by earth and heaven confessed:
I bow and bless the sacred Name
for ever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise,
at whose supreme command
from earth we rise, and seek the joys
at his right hand;
we all on earth forsake,
its wisdom, fame and power;
and him our only portion make,
our Shield and Tower.

The goodly land we see,
with peace and plenty blessed:
a land of sacred liberty
and endless rest;
there milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life for ever grow,
with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord, our King,
the Lord, our Righteousness,
triumphant o’er the world and sin,
the Prince of Peace;
on Zion’s sacred height
his kingdom he maintains,
and, glorious with his saints in light,
for ever reigns.

The God who reigns on high,
the great archangels sing,
and “Holy, holy, holy,” cry,
“Almighty King!”
Who was and is the same,
and evermore shall be:
Jehovah, Father, great I AM,
we worship thee.”

The whole triumphant host
give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”
they ever cry;
hail, Abraham’s God and mine;
I join the heavenly lays;
all might and majesty are thine,
and endless praise!
— The Hymnal 1982 #401

(HT: Oremus for the lyrics)

Here is a YouTube video of it from an LCMS congregation (St. Lorenz in Frankenmuth, MI). The sound quality isn’t the best but it’s congregational singing which is how hymns should be.

40

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Psalm 40 has been coming up in various ways all of Friday. Unapologetically Episcopalian had it as their morning music and an interview with the monks behind Unvirtuous Abbey talked about the song “40” being sung at a U2 concert and the spiritual aspects of it. (BTW, you need to follow Unvirtuous Abbey on Facebook and Twitter. Trust me on this.)

With all this, I thought I’d just post the text of Psalm 40. As usual with psalms, I’m using the King James Version.

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

And for good measure, here is the video of U2 playing the song.

Lenten Worship Music (II)

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I might be without Internet for about 24 hours so I’m doing my worship music post today (Wednesday) and scheduling it for tomorrow (Thursday).

The piece of music featured today is “I Will Arise and Go to Jesus”. Fernando Ortega and Amy Grant do an amazing duet version which is unfortunately not available on YouTube so you’re getting the Michael Card version which is also good but not good in the same way as the other one. The reason I like the Fernando Ortega/Amy Grant version is that they do the “Cross verses” which I’m pasting below:

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! th??incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Lyrics are here.

Lenten Hymn Sunday (I)

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While I had no plans to incorporate YouTube into my writings, I did plan to post a hymn every Sunday.

I was going to use a different hymn today but saw this one as I was looking around.

I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I??ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

When my feeble life is o??er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o??er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
(HT: Net Hymnal)

I have visions of it being played in a New Orleans funeral procession or by a Dixieland jazz band. In addition to it being a peppy and catchy tune, it talks about a reliance on the power of God to live.

7 Quick Takes — Occupying Lent, Veggie Burgers, and #ashtag Loveliness

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7 Quick Takes

Wow! My first couple days of Lent have been sooooo amazing! I’m just gaining so many insights into my faith and… yeah, I’ll just shut up now and move on to my Quick Takes.

— 1 —

Please help my friend Paula win an award from Circle of Moms. Her daughter Anna has Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD) and has been waiting two years for a liver transplant. Their transplant blog was nominated to be in the Top 25 Moms with Inspiring Families. If you’re a mom, please go vote. At last glance, she was #26 or #27.

— 2 —

I have a mirror site for my Lenten writings on WordPress.Com. Want to read my Lenten writings (which are crappy thus far) but do not want to have to look at my eeevvvvvvvvviiiiiilllllll Obama button? Go here. You’re welcome.

— 3 —

Need some ideas for food on meat-free days? Priest’s Wife has a great entry on meatless means for manly men. My recommendations are Gardenburgers and various Morningstar Farms products (both in your freezer section). I can personally vouch for both brands’ iterations of Portabella/Mushroom Lovers burgers and spicy black bean burgers. I’m also a fan of Morningstar Farms Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers and their veggie corn dogs. (Truthfully, I prefer them to regular corn dogs.) I can’t speak highly of Morningstar Farms breakfast products because the texture is just wrong to me and I’m also mildly allergic to eggs (i.e. no breakfast sandwiches) for me. My vegetarian husband, however, loves their veggie bacon and veggie sausage patties and links.

— 4 —

I know that the vast majority of you are Catholic but I have a source for interesting and worshipful music. Ron Pogue at Unapologetically Episcopalian posts Morning and Evening Prayer every day and includes a Youtube video of sacred music each time. Some of it is Anglican chant (which is incredibly beautiful) and some of it is classical music. He’s also on Facebook which means that you can get it in your news feed… if you haven’t given up Facebook for Lent. 😉 If I didn’t already have a devotional that I use, I’d totally do Morning Prayer using his site and my Book of Common Prayer.

— 5 —

Along the lines of interesting and worshipful music for prayer, I can’t recommend Pray As You Go enough. I used to use this (in addition to Our Daily Bread) during my hour-long commute to work in Montana. It was mostly silent prayer but there was always some kind of music at the beginning and it spanned the spectrum from Taizé to chant to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I also used the silent time after I hit mile marker 379 on I-15 to pray for people.

— 6 —

My thanks to Kate for coming up with the idea of posting pics of our #ashtag loveliness on Twitter. (Thanks to Beth Anne for compiling them.) My tweets are protected so here are my pics of me rocking my #ashtag.

Me with my ashes
What I normally look like (with ashes)

Me attempting to look happy.
Me attempting to look happy and not like I’m fasting.

Me with the uncooperative bear child.
Me with Mr. Uncooperative.

— 7 —

For want of a simple salt, a woman and her baby died today. What? You didn’t hear about that on the evening news? Oh wait… that’s because it happened in the Third World! Quoting the Preeclampsia Foundation website:

Globally, preeclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a leading cause of maternal and infant illness and death. By conservative estimates, these disorders are responsible for 76,000 maternal and 500,000 infant deaths each year.

One of the treatments for preeclampsia (to keep it from jumping to full-on eclampsia) is magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), a simple salt that we refer to in the USA as “Epsom salt”. The shortage of a solution of that salt (the concentration needs to be specific) and the lack of a medical professional trained in its usage means the mother and baby die. Want to help combat that problem? Sponsor me in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes — Prohibitions Against Brown M&M’s, the Promise Walk, and Lent

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

NPR’s Facebook page posted an interview with David Lee Roth on the prohibition of brown M&M’s in the Van Halen dressing room It has to do with compliance to stage safety and is not one of those random rock star quirks. It was a simply fascinating interview and you can view it here.

— 2 —

Jennifer from Our House will be bringing her adopted son Joshua home from Eastern Europe in a few days. She and her husband were gone from their family for four weeks as they were in Joshua’s home country doing all the necessary things to adopt him. The whole thing has taken almost seven months from start to finish and I am completely overjoyed (as a mom who had to wait to take her baby home) that she is headed back overseas on Sunday to bring him back with her to the States.

— 3 —

I’ve maintained that whoever puts up the first political attack ad will automatically lose my vote. The winner: my Congressman. Is it so hard to run a clean campaign? It’s not even March yet! If I’m having to change channels now, I shudder to think what it will like this August/September.

— 4 —

I managed to catch an interesting case on Judge Judy when I was watching on Wednesday night. I should have waited to switch laundry around in the wash house because I missed the last part of a case where a couple are claiming that a friend totaled their car and expect her to pay off the note. I don’t know how it was resolved but one of the things that blew my mind was that the couple was allowed to take out a car loan without having both liability and collision coverage on their insurance. No lender that I know of allows you to borrow money from them unless you can prove that you have both. There was also the matter of their speech. You don’t get “drove” to work — you get “driven”. It has been a long time since I’ve heard the English language butchered that badly. (The “drove” thing was just the tip of the iceberg.) The rest of the cases were entertaining but not as memorable as that particular one.

— 5 —

My cough from the MUTANT DEATH COLD is gone! Serious props and my thanks to Lisa of All Things Gale for her suggestion of a spoonful of honey. I had forgotten that honey has antiseptic properties and is something I put in my tea when I get bronchitis. Yay for homeopathic remedies! Go visit Lisa and congratulate her on the birth of her son Roman on February 15th!

— 6 —

I’m pondering what my Lenten sacrifice will be. I’m Lutheran so doing something for Lent is encouraged but not required. I came to faith in the Episcopal Church however so I *always* do something for Lent. I’ll definitely be going meatless on Fridays (which I try to do anyway during Lent) but I haven’t figured out what I’ll add or give up. Some thoughts are giving up soda (as Coca-Cola is my comfort food), giving up meat for the whole time, or perhaps not petting fluffy cats. (I have one next to me who is biting me.) After my pancakes on Mardi Gras, I’ll figure something out.

— 7 —

I’m participating in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia in May. As a survivor of HELLP Syndrome (a variant of preeclampsia — it’s why I had to have an emergency c-section at 29 weeks with Daniel), I participated for the first time last year and it was an awesome experience. It was healing to do it last year and I’m excited to be able to participate again! Please consider sponsoring me.

For more Quick Takes, visit Hallie Lord at BettyBeguiles.Com who is graciously hosting this meme while Jen pushes toward the end of her manuscript.

7 Quick Takes — Laptop Shopping, The A-Word, and Other Parts of My Week

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7 Quick Takes

Daniel broke the W key off my laptop last night and I can’t get it back on — the key itself has plastic parts broken off. I can type well enough — it just feels weird to hit the little rubber knob for that key. So…

— 1 —

There is probably laptop shopping in my future. I’m looking at Lenovo and HP/Compaq. Jon has a Dell and I feel like my laptop (which truthfully is starting to have problems after three years) has fared better than his. Mine has also been transported a whole lot of places so I think all that transport has added to the normal abuse I put it through. I’ll let y’all know what I end up getting if/when I purchase something.

— 2 —

Daniel’s autism diagnosis was confirmed on Monday. A clinical psychologist administered the ADOS and she concurred with the previous suspicions of the MIND Institute and our Regional Center case worker. It was 4 hours from start to finish and I liked the psychologist doing the testing. She was really kind and you could tell that she cared and that she really viewed her job as a way of helping others. It was, however, mentally intense even though I was able to get into my NOOK during some of the testing. (I’m in the middle of Inheritance by Christopher Paolini and I think I’m going to download the entire series onto my NOOK, mostly to save bookshelf space.) My Regional Center case worker was with me through it which was good — I did need someone else there.

— 3 —

On Wednesday, I met with my local school district to start the transition from the Regional Center to the school district. Per the Lanterman Act, Daniel becomes the responsibility of the local school district at age 3 and will remain that way up to the age of 21 if necessary. (The reason is that at age 3, they transfer the focus from a medical one to an educational one.) As he turns 3 in a matter of months, we needed to get the ball rolling on what has to happen to get him transitioned. They told me about the various options, had me sign something authorizing testing, and set up the date/time for the IEP meeting. I also have specialized ABA (applied behavior analysis) training to go through for an in-home component of Daniel’s autism program next weekend. As I have to do it over Sunday, I’m in the process of putting together a team of people to take care of Daniel during church.

— 4 —

I finally found a copy of “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” on iTunes. You can find a Youtube video of it here. (I’d embed the video but WordPress is being cranky.) I love the hymn and we never sing it which saddens me. I’m sure it’s not as theologically brilliant as others but its simplicity is what makes it so appealing to me.

— 5 —

I’m so glad that Pauley Perette got to be one of the presenters for the People’s Choice Awards. I love her character on NCIS and she’s a prolific Twitter user. She’s also socially responsible and a Christian to boot. I also loved Kaley Cuoco hosting the show though I think either she or Tina Fey deserved to win more than the girl from “Glee”. (I’m not a “Gleek”.) Oh yes… the part of the opening with Neil Patrick Harris was awesome. The “Gleehab” pun was perfect.

— 6 —

Amy Wellborn has an interesting rant on “small groups”. It is indeed curious that the search terms leading to her blog recently have involved small groups because they’re kind of a Protestant thing, especially prevalent in megachurches or in chapters of national Christian organizations like Intervarsity. (Intervarsity, by the way, is not exclusively Protestant. My chapter had a sizeable Catholic minority in it, especially during my last year of college.) In those situations, corporate worship services are so incredibly large (both in terms of people and in number of services) that one can get lost in them, purposely or otherwise. The purpose of “small groups” are to have a more intimate gathering for informal worship and Scripture study. Amy has a point — daily Mass is an excellent example of a small group, though I wouldn’t say it’s the original one. It’s a small group of people gathered for worship, the Word, and the Eucharist. I recommend reading her thoughts — they’re excellent and as one who has participated in them, I totally see her point.

— 7 —

You know… I’d totally be OK with some rain about now. It’s a La Nina year so things are going to be dry but it also means that the jet stream has been shifted waaaaaay north and towns like Cordova, Alaska are getting snowed in. I checked Weather.Com and I’m going to have to wait 5 days for rain. So NOT amused by this.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.