Voices Found

                                                           Daybreak over the Atlantic Voices Found 27 I will kindle my fire I will kindle my fire in the morn of the day, in the presence of holy angels. Without malice or jealousy, envy or fear, without terror of anyone under the sun, but the Holy Beloved to shield me. O Holy One kindle thou here in my heart, a flame of pure love to my neighbor,  To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all, To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall. O child of the loveliest Mary, From the lowliest thing, to the Holy Name, the beloved of all. Words: Carmina Gadelica Music: Mary Truly Ermey, St. Hildegard’s Community, Austin, Texas “ I will kindle my fire,” also known as “Celtic Morning Prayer” is  adapted from “Blessing of the Kindling” in   Carm...

From the  Dendermondermonde Codex to the   Las Heulgas Manuscript the  ancient voices of women  praise the Virgin Mary  O Frondens Virga   O Frondens virga Antiphon #10 by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is part of the Dendermonde Codex.  This is my photograph of a facsimile of the manuscript.  O frondens virga in tua nobilitate stanno sick aurora procedit. Nunc gaude et laetare et nos débiles d'ignare, atque magnum tuam porrige ad erigendum. O leafy ( or blooming ) branch standing in your nobility as the dawn breaks: Now rejoice and be glad, and deign to set us frail ones free from our bad habits, and stretch forth your hand to raise us up. translation by Barbara Newman, 2nd edition of Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia , 1988 Cornell University Press  Reflection Hildegard of Bingen loved Mary.  In this antiphon she envisions the Virgin as the epitome of  rebirth and renewal. She believed that the verdure of nature embodies ...

Voices Found for healing Celebrating Florence Nightingale   Florence Nightingale founded London's St. Thomas Hospital  and the Nightingale Training School for nurses in 1860.   She instituted modern sanitation and nursing practices in the hospital saving many lives.  Critical as those procedures were, she also insisted that  flowers and music were indispensable for healing.   In her book,   Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not (1860),   she wrote:     I shall never forget the rapture of fever patients over a bunch of brightly colored flowers.  I remember (in my own case) a nosegay of wild flowers being sent to me, and from that moment recovery became more rapid....I will only remark here that musical  instruments, including the human voice...have generally a beneficial effect. Voices Found: Women in the Church's Song offers healing hymns in the spirit of Nurse Nightingale: Voices Found #96 Healing River o...