Friends … so sorry for messing up the link for yesterday morning’s check in. I seem to have cut and pasted the zoom invitation badly so it didn’t work. I will do better next week!
The folks at A Sanctified Art have just shared the theme song for the series, which is, I think hauntingly beautiful.
During a busy week, I felt quite grounded as I listened to it today. I seem to be a bit stuck on the challenges of this week … to more closely align my intentions with my actions.
I resist. Which usually means that I am meant to dig deeper.
The song is meant to feel like a breath prayer, meditation, or piece of sung liturgy. It can be sung by a solo voice with choir, or choir and congregation.
Paul Vasile, the composer, writes:
“When the invitation to write a Lenten theme song came in a season of political and personal turmoil, I found it difficult to imagine singing across significant differences with other faithful people. If I took that risk, what music or text could honor the complexity of our stories and experiences and not do more harm?
I leaned into my experiences of community singing over the past decade, trusting practices of song-sharing that are deeply relational and can foster spaces to know yourself, know others, and be known to them.
What felt essential was a return to the breath which could anchor an invitation to listening and self-awareness. The phrase “breathe, listen, and notice” emerged as I imagined what might help us share our stories and experiences without judgment or assumptions. If all you do while you listen to the song is breathe, that is enough. I also hope that moments of call-and-echo singing can model the back and forth patterns of conversation, as well as offer opportunities for grace-filled learning.”
You can find the song here:
(Preview version) Breathe Listen and Notice—Lent theme song on Vimeo
