Hymn by Hymn
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STLT#359, When We Are Gathered
When it comes to film, there are genres and directors I am a fan of, those I dislike, and those I appreciate. For purposes of today’s post, I will say that I dislike horror and appreciate the director Robert Rodriguez – especially his masterful work on Sin City. Now, if you ever saw his film From Dusk… Continue reading
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STLT#358, Rank by Rank Again We Stand
I don’t even know where to begin, so I guess I’ll begin with this morning’s experience of singing. As frequent readers know, I’m an Anglophile – a lover of British television, British film, the British Isles, and at least once, a British person. Knowing this was today’s hymn before I cracked open the hymnal, I started… Continue reading
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STLT#357, Bright Morning Stars
I started singing this morning before I opened the hymnal, because I knew what today’s song would be. “Bright morning star’s a-risin’…” I sang. And then I looked at our lyrics – “Bright morning stars are rising” – and thought, huh? Isn’t there just one morning star – the sun, or if we go Christian… Continue reading
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STLT#356, Will You Seek in Far-Off Places?
Among the things I have learned in almost a year of doing this practice is that I am sometimes the outlier – sometimes I see something in a hymn others don’t see that makes me anxious or angry or bored. I know some of it is that I do this before the coffee’s kicked in,… Continue reading
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STLT#355, We Lift Our Hearts in Thanks
Our English ethical culturist is back – this time with a more or less decent song of thanksgiving (puzzling placed in the Here and Now section). Good old Perceval Chubb… who once wrote an article stating that Americans ‘have an incapacity for leisure’ and whose O We Believe in Christmas felt pretty empty and apologetic.… Continue reading
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STLT#354, We Laugh, We Cry
This is a very long song. I suppose it has to be, given that it’s about life, death, and the whole schmear. But it is a long song, made longer by accompanists who drag it out – and lordy, there seems to be a compulsion amongst some of our accompanists to draaaaag thiiiiiis ooooone ouuuuuut… Continue reading
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STLT#353, Golden Breaks the Dawn
I wasn’t expecting to have a moment with this hymn. I don’t know what I was expecting – perhaps a morning of wading through information, or trying to ignore my personal exhaustion with nature metaphors (a product of this practice, to be sure – they don’t come barreling down in normal time), or a struggle… Continue reading
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STLT#352, Find a Stillness
I love this prayer. Seriously, this meditative, prayerful hymn – lyrics by Carl Seaburg, set to a Transylvanian folk tune – is absolutely in my top ten list. I love the haunting, minor key of the tune as well as the phrasing. Some might say the third phrase is too high, but that’s what transposition… Continue reading
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STLT#351, A Long, Long Way the Sea-Winds Blow
So… yesterday I kinda made fun of the whole “time cliché” thing. And this morning I realized we’re in the Here and Now section, so of COURSE we are singing songs about time and being present. I don’t regret yesterday’s post – it did feel a little cliché to me. This one feels less so,… Continue reading
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STLT#350, The Ceaseless Flow of Endless Time
Carpe diem. Que sera, sera. There’s no time like the present. You can’t turn back time. Learn from yesterday, live today, hope for tomorrow. Time marches on. All the lyrics to this hymn. Welcome, my friends, to the Henry Blake Cliché Festival (A M*A*S*H reference? Joe Cleveland’s right – I am old) … er, I mean,… Continue reading
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links
Learn more about my ministry at The Art of Meaning
Read my thoughts about congregational life at Hold My Chalice
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