December 15, 16 Call to Prayer: Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belongs escape from death. (Psalm 68) Silence (3 minutes) Scripture for Interiorization: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of … Read More
Advent Week 2 – 2024
December 8, 9 Call to Prayer: “Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God, the gift of just rule to the crown prince. May he judge your people rightly, be honorable to your meek and lowly.” (Psalm 72, The Message) Silence (2 minutes) Scripture for Interiorization: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on … Read More
Advent Week 1 – 2024
December 1 and 2 Call to Prayer: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.” (Psalm 62) Silence (1 minute) Scripture for Interiorization: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us…” (Repeat slowly, 5 times) Prompts for Prayer Focus in on the first phrase of the … Read More
The Dawn From On High
The Lord be with you friends. If you have gotten your hands or eyes on this journal, we have arrived at the Advent season 2024. This journal is a simple guide for daily prayer. Hopefully it is rather intuitive to navigate, but here are a few thoughts to help us through over the next few weeks. We are being guided … Read More
Visual Art – “Christ Is Your Spring” by Blake Johnson
I discovered this piece, (originally “A Study of Two White Lilies” by french artist Antione Berjon (1754-1843)) while sifting through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of public domain drawings. The technicolor grid, placed posthumously beside the image – likely to help “white balance” the archival photograph – caught my eye as an interesting juxtaposition: the gentleness of the artist’s … Read More
Visual Art – “The Resurrection” by Blake Johnson
Like “Christ Is Our Spring”, I discovered this piece (originally “The Resurrection”, a 16th century German molten glass sculpture) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s open source archives. I was searching for historical art pieces I could digitally reinterpret for an album of songs attempting to do a similar thing – using newer musical technologies to reimagine older hymn texts. … Read More
Song Reflection #6 – Rise Heart
Pillar Journal Songs – Eastertide 2024 by Pillar Hymnal George Herbert a Priest, music composer, orator, poet and theologian who lived at the same time as King James of England, gave up his worldly ambitions of becoming an elite master of rhetoric and public oration and embraced a delightful burden of extending the message of the cross which is to … Read More
Song Reflection #5 – Be Not So Tearful
Resurrect, Vol.1 by Bellwether Arts [Feat. Jonathan Gabhart] From an early age Phoebe Cary (1824-1871) was familiar with the deep pain of life. Her mother died when she was a young girl. They lived a peasant life in rural Ohio. Phoebe and her sister Alice found comfort amidst their struggle by writing. They wrote poetry and verse and eventually found … Read More
Song Reflection #4 – Awake Thou Wintry Earth
Resurrect, Vol.1 by Emily Hanrahan Here in the lyrics of Awake Thou Wintry Earth, we see the personified earth flinging off her sadness. She invites light, flowers, growth, and warmth in the wake of the eternal Spring. The verses present here were first printed in an 1850 edition of a book entitled “Poems for the Sick and Suffering,” written by … Read More
Song Reflection #3 – Dear Savior of a Dying World
Resurrect, Vol.1 by Olivia Abdou When I began the process of choosing a hymn to re-tune for Cardiphonia’s Resurrect project, I didn’t have a specific one in mind. But as soon as I saw the title of this hymn by Anna Laetitia Waring, I was intrigued. I had to do a double take. Dear Savior of a Dying World – … Read More