Voices Found

  Voices Found 111 and 112 All things bright and beautiful Refrain: All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, he made their glowing colors, he made their tiny wings. Refrain The purple headed mountain, the river running by, the sunset and the morning that brightens up the sky. Refrain The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun, the ripe fruits in the garden, he made them every one. Refrain   He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well. Refrain: All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all Words: Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895)  Music: Royal Oak, melody from The Dancing Master, 1686 or             All Things Bright and Beautiful, W. H Monk (182...

A Russian Dance of Death: Civil war in the Ukraine Woodcut by Dietrich H. Neufeld (1906-1983) Voices of war and peace About the woodcut Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) wrote a ballad, Der Totentanz, an allegory    describing the grim reaper, an unmitigating,  relentless partner in the dance of death.  The woodcut expresses Neufeld's personal experience  with that dance of death and terror in Ukraine during the Russian revolution in Zagradovka, 1919.  God of freedom, God of Justice Shirley Erena Murray wrote "God of Freedom" in 1980 for Amnesty International's Campaign Against Torture to be sung at a remembrance service for Prisoners of Conscience, as a reminder that torture and terror are present-day realities.   In 2023, we need no reminder that in Ukraine, that grim reaper dances on. Voices Found #90 God of freedom, God of justice, you whose love is strong as death, You who saw the dark of prison, you who knew the price of faith— Touch our wor...

  "Angel with bagpipes" c. 1380 from the Chapel, The Royal Foundation of St. Katharine, London, UK St. Katharine (287 AD- 305 AD) of Alexandria   was a martyr faithful to  Christianity despite Roman persecution. She fiercely defended the faith, infuriating Emperor Maxentius who ordered her  tortured on a spiked wheel.  The wheel miraculously shattered at her touch.  He ordered her beheaded.  In Katharine's honor, Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen, established The Royal Foundation of St. Katharine in 1147 near the Tower of London. It was a religious community and a  hospital  for the poor. The Foundation  is  now a welcoming retreat center in the Limehouse area serving the  neighborhood and the broad Church.    This angel with bagpipes is an ancient wood carving in the modern St. Katharine's  Chapel.   It was  recovered from the original  Chapel established ca. 1300,  The image is curiou...

  Send out your light, Psalm 43 VF 148 Antiphon : Send out your light and truth so they may lead me Give judgement for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people Deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked For you are the God of my strength Why have you put me from you? Why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me? Antiphon: Send out your light and your truth so they may lead me! That I may go to the alter of God, to the God of my joy and gladness And on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God Antiphon : Send out your light and truth that they may lead me Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? And why are you do disquieted within me? Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to the Most High Who is the help of my countenance and my God. Antiphon: Send out your light and your truth so they may lead me.     About the Psalm and the Antiphon  Crying out for deliverance from  the ungodly,  wicked, and deceitful, Davi...