Voices Found: in crushing wheat, VF 74, Lent/Communion

                                                                               




Voices Found#74, verse one


O wheat whose crushing is for bread,
O bread whose breaking is for life,
O life, your seeming end is seed,
a seed for wheat, our bread and life.

Words: Dolores Dufner, OSB
Music: Draycott  Barry Rose


"O wheat, " a contemplative hymn,  is perfect for Communion during Lent.  Dolores Dufner writes that her preferred use of the three verses  is,"when all is quiet and nothing else is happening."  Her text is a meditation  on the crushing of wheat, wine and life, as mourning turns to joy.

Barry Rose, a world renown British choral director, served on the Voices Found hymnal committee while he was in Philadelphia offering a  workshop for the girl and boy choristers at St. Peter's Church,  Third and Pine.  Dr. Rose wrote this gentle  musical setting.  His tune is   inspirational as a congregational hymn or as a solo. 

Shirley McRae also wrote a musical setting of Dufner's text which is published in Wonder, Love, and Praise, an earlier supplement to the Hymnal 1982.

For more information and performance suggestions please see the Leader's Guides to Voices Found and The Leader's Guide to Wonder, Love, and Praise.

                                                       
                                     


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