Song of Hope

Over the last several days, I’ve reflected on the gift of music. When I think about music as a spiritual practice, I do think about singing in worship. Outside of worship, I also use music to shift my mood, and even to shift my heart and mind into more of a prayerful mode of being.

There’s a short podcast that I like called “Pray as You Go.” It is a brief meditation on the daily lectionary scripture with reflective questions and silence. And it always begins with a short piece of music – anything from monastic chant to classical Bach to contemporary Christian. The music prepares the ground of the soul, it opens the heart to hear the message.

I’ll also sometimes go back and listen to one of the pieces that our Music Director recorded during Covid. I’ll close my eyes and allow that music, that song to form into a prayer within.

One evening not long ago, I went for a walk on the beach at night under the starlit sky, I heard the echoes of the Christmas cantata – I found myself silently singing in my heart and that song became a prayer.

Today, may you find a piece of music, or a genre that could be for you an instrument of prayer. And, as my prayer has been, may you find yourself singing in tune with the music of creation, the music of love, the music of hope, the music of God’s heart.

Let us pray: Sing a song of faith and hope in our hearts, O God, even as we sing to you. And may the music of your love resound through our lives, by the way that we live and love; in Christ’s name. Amen.