A week that will change us

This is the week, my friends! And how wonderful we can celebrate this most wonderful week together in person again.  I think Holy Week has the best liturgies of the entire year.  These liturgies are at the core of our Christian faith.  And, I’d say this week has the best music of the year, too.  The music of Holy Week and Easter, particularly of our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Vigil services, are not only stirring, but works of sheer and simple beauty that bring us deeply into the mysteries of our faith.   

The simple beauty of this music is directly tied to the bold liturgical action it accompanies, and because of this, the music is even more powerful and moving.  From the anthems sung during the washing of the feet to the chanting of Psalm 22 as the altar is stripped on Maundy Thursday, to the Passion Gospel and anthems sung on Good Friday and the four-part singing of O sacred head now wounded, to the ancient Exultet chant, psalms, and first Easter hymn at the Vigil – together this music and liturgy bring us fully into the salvation story and make it alive within us.  It ushers in the numinous – that which is holy, the presence of divine beauty – and allows us to encounter in a more complete way the mysteries of God’s love for us and the world.  

And then, there is Easter Day, the culmination of our salvation story.  What a joyous celebration we will have, complete with all our finery!  Again, our music is directly tied to our liturgy, with much of our music featuring rising figures that represent Christ rising from the dead.  We sing the great hymns of Easter in celebration, just as other Christians around the world do on this day.  

We have all been given a special and profound gift in our Holy Week & Easter liturgies and its music.  It is a gift that will change us.  It is a gift that will help us to know God’s love more fully and spread that love throughout the world.   I hope you and your loved ones will take advantage of this gift – all of it – so that we might give thanks to our God and allow ourselves to truly experience the profound love that is made present in our time of worship together during this incredible, beautiful, and most holy week. 

See you in church! 

Soli deo Gloria!

Ben Keseley, Minister of Music

There's a wideness in God's mercy

As a church musician and organist, I am often asked about my favorite hymn.  My response is always something to the effect that I have a top 5 or 10 or 15… and it depends on the week. However, our gradual hymn for Sunday is pinned right up at the top. The text is brilliant, efficient, powerful. The tune is simply beautiful and evocative. 

Writing in a simple and intense style, much like the Wesleys, Frederick William Faber penned “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” in 1854.  The verses found in our hymnal are from a much longer hymn. Faber’s text soon became very popular and was found in the hymnals of many different denominations, although the verses and tune selected for each were rarely the same.

One of the tunes we find in our hymnal for this text is St. Helena, written by Calvin Hampton in 1978.  Calvin was a brilliant musician who sadly died from AIDS much too early in his life.  His tune is written specifically for this text.  With undulating notes in the accompaniment and rocking melodic figures, his tune paints a picture of a vast rolling sea while at the same time capturing ever-present nature of God’s compassion and mercy. 

The hymn as we sing it on Sunday represents a fine example of a perfect marriage of text and tune.  I encourage you to not gloss over this text, but to pray it daily and allow its words to wash over you, to sink in, to grow within you.  May it be a balm for your soul as we go about our daily life in a troubled world.  You can listen to a wonderful recording of it below.

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in his justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in His blood.

There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings 
have such kindly judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader
than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Ben Keseley, Minister of Music 

Plainchant: the Sanctus and Agnus Dei

In this Lent, we seek to reconnect with God and deepen our faith through self-examination and intentional reading of scripture and prayer. At Saint George’s, our Lenten music seeks to do the same, to allow us to reconnect with the ancient music of the church through plainsong, or plainchant. This unaccompanied singing was the only music allowed in the church up until the 9th century and usually consisted of just a simple melody that could be sung by one or many. It is sung prayer in its simplest form.

You will notice that during Lent our liturgical music and psalms are plainsong. These settings trace their roots directly back to the beginnings of the Christian church. You can learn more about plainchant in general here in this short video. Below we focus on two of the five the mass ordinaries, the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. Click on their titles to hear Latin examples of what we sing at Eucharist each Sunday in Lent.

The Sanctus (SAHNK-toos)   

Holy, holy, holy Lord. 

Lord God of power and might. 

Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. 

Hosanna in the highest. 

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. 

Sanctus is Latin for “holy.”  The Sanctus concludes the proper preface in the Holy Communion liturgy with the recognition that the worshipping assembly’s praise is joined to that of the whole Church in heaven and on earth. 

The text of the Sanctus derives from Isaiah 6:3 and Matthew 21:9.  It recalls both the heavenly vision of the prophet Isaiah and the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  The Sanctus most likely dates from the second-century liturgy. 

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) 

Lamb of God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world.
Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy upon us. Grant us your peace.

The canticle “Lamb of God,” is used in our Eucharistic Liturgy.  The text is based on the biblical account of Jesus’ Baptism in which John the Baptist refers to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29b); this is the origin of the Christian reference to Jesus as the Lamb of God.  This reference is rooted in the Passover (Exodus 12).  The Agnus Dei (AHN-yoos Day-ee) is a reminder of the connection between Easter and Passover. 

Since the early medieval period, the Agnus Dei has been sung at the time of the breaking of the bread in the Holy Communion Liturgy (the Fraction), as a reference to Christ’s crucifixion for the world’s salvation. 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ben Keseley, Minister of Music

The Kyrie

The Kyrie

During penitential times, such as the season of Lent, we often pray the Kyrie in place of a hymn of praise (Gloria). The Kyrie is a prayer not just for ourselves, but for the church and the whole world.  It is more than just a plea for God’s mercy, it is a call for God’s favor and an expression of praise to a merciful God who loves and cares for all things. 

The Greek words Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison are translated “Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.”  Often the prayer is repeated three times, and for some occasions nine times, as a way to symbolize the Trinity (3 and 9 being Trinitarian numbers).

During the fourth century, the Jerusalem church introduced a litany of intercession into the first half of the Holy Communion liturgy, petitioning God’s intervention in the affairs of the Church and the world.  To each petition, offered by the deacon, the congregation responded: Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy).  By the fifth century, this “Deacon’s Litany” had spread throughout the church and continued to maintain a litany form until the eighth century, when the litany form disappeared and only the responses survived (Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie…).  In some churches, recent liturgical revisions have restored the Kyrie to its original litany form and have assigned its bids to an assisting minister or cantor to intone.  

The setting of the Kyrie we sing at our 10:30 Eucharist this Lent is based in the ancient plainchant melodies of the church. These melodies, whether simple or elaborate, are hauntingly beautiful and serve to bring forth the text that they carry in a heartfelt and prayerful way. Below are two examples of different plainsong settings of the Kyrie for your listening.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Dr. Ben Keseley

The Great Litany

We begin our 10:30am worship with the singing of the Great Litany (S-67) in procession.  It is customary to use the Great Litany on the first Sunday of Lent.  

The Great Litany is a responsive intercession for a wide variety of human needs.  Its beginnings are in fifth-century Rome where it was connected with both processions for obtaining God’s blessing on the fields and God’s defense against enemies and disasters.  Martin Luther made a popular revision of the Great Litany in 1529 that was influential in England. The Great Litany was the first English language rite prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, published in 1544. Cranmer modified the Great Litany by consolidating certain groups of petitions into single prayers with response.  The Great Litany has become a classic Christian prayer, one that is powerful and insistent.

The Litany is primarily directed at Christ and begins with invocations of the Holy Trinity.  The remaining structure of the prayer is as follows:

Deprecations – (from deprecari, to avert by prayer) a series of prayers  against evils and dangers, spiritual harm, and natural calamities

Obsecrations –  (from obsecrare, to ask on religious grounds) petitions which lay the

foundation for the entire prayer by recounting the entire earthly life of Christ

which plead the power of Christ’s Incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for

deliverance 

Intercessions – These petitions on behalf of others are the largest part of the

Litany.  Five sections pray for the church, for support of the weak, for the nations,

for all sorts and conditions of humanity, for reconciliation with our enemies and

with the natural world.

Agnus Dei – following a plea to Christ, the Lamb of God is prayed.

Conclusion – a Kyrie (Lord, have mercy), Our Father, versicle with response, collect, and grace conclude the Litany.

While we sing the Great Litany in procession, we process around and through the entire congregation in a “holy pretzel” symbolizing that our prayers and pleas are bound together as a community.  

Soli Deo Gloria!

Ben Keseley, Minister of Music