Song: Pray With Our Feet

Words by: Paul Vasile, based on a quotation by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Music by: Paul Vasile

Notes: This is what folk in Minneapolis are doing -- praying with their feet, getting out on the street. They're singing songs to bless each other, the people they're protecting, and the ICE agents who are so misguided. And this is not the only place in the world where people of "middle power" gather -- not super-powers, not uber-wealthy -- just people who care about living in a world where we feed and educate our children, hold jobs with purpose. Paul Vasile describes it as "belonging belovedness -- you are safe, you are seen, you are heard." In this conversation, we dive into the sometimes knotty weeds of faith and how someone who is deeply connected in a faith tradition might want to expand into questions of what world we want to create together. Big trees. "Talk less, sing more." "As a queer person, I experienced a faith that helped me be a bigger, better me."

Songwriter Info:

Paul Vasile (he/him) is a church musician, teacher, coach, and composer who finds his greatest joy in collaborative and community-centered work. Committed to modeling expansive, imaginative, and hospitable experiences of music making wherever he goes, Paul's leadership builds trust, invites spaces of creativity, vulnerability, and play, and supports practices of reflection and holistic learning.

For the past decade he has offered short- and long-term transitional leadership, consulting services, and creative resources to faith communities in seasons of discernment, challenge, and transformation. From 2016 to 2023, Paul served as the Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a non-profit that shares "paperless" (oral tradition) leadership practices and songs. He traveled across North America modeling distinctive approaches to communal singing and learning at retreat centers, conferences, denominational gatherings, seminaries, and in congregations of all sizes.

Paul also composes music that invites communities to express and explore their connection to sacred stories, their bodies, and the ecosystems that sustain us. His music is represented in Glory to God, All Creation Sings, and Voices Together, as well as The Hymn Society’s resource, Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming The LGBTQIA2S+ Community.

Sharing Info: Please buy sheet music on Paul's website if you plan to share this song as a songleader.

Song Learning Time Stamps:

Start time of teaching: 00:04:35

Start time of reprise: 01:15:00

Links:

Paul's website: https://www.paulvasile.com/ 

Paul's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovedintobeing/ 

Sheet music for Pray With Our Feet: https://www.paulvasile.com/products/pray-with-our-feet

Feb 7th workshop at Lutheran church in Ft. Washington, MD with Maren Marchesini: https://www.sharingthesong.org/

Inspiration for lyrics, including quote by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: https://www.tbemaine.org/praying-with-hearts-and-feet 

Music that Makes Community: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/ 

Rev. Donald Schnell, a 2012 interview as Music Makes Community was beginning: https://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=329

Bobby McFerrin: https://bobbymcferrin.com/ 

Taizé chants: https://www.taize.fr/en/the-songs 

Chanda Rule: https://www.chandarule.com/

Hold Me by Nina Wise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxU_egWayc4&t=16s

Nina Wise: https://ninawise.com

East Coast songleader trainings:

Mila Redwood in Toronto: https://www.milaredwood.ca/song-leader-training

Patricia in Burlington, VT: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/songleader-training.html 

Alice Parker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Parker

Liz Rog -- here's a place to find her book on songleading: https://www.centerforbelonging.earth/

Arvo Pärt – Passio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passio_(P%C3%A4rt) 

Spencer LaJoye: https://www.spencerlajoye.com/ 

Spencer's song Plowshare Prayer: https://youtu.be/MhOZv5i7CHY?si=S5bbjdBDJP2cU_4I

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, unison

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