Thoughts on Christ Be Our Light One of my favorite contemporary composers is Bernadette Farrell, whom I had the pleasure of meeting and working with at a National Pastoral Musicians’ Workshop a few years ago.  She has composed so many wonderful hymns, like All That Is Hidden, but Christ Be Our Light is also one […]

Thoughts on Turn To Me Thoughts on Save Us, O Lord  Bob Dufford, who has done so much in sacred music and lives in our area, wrote this Lenten hymn, based on Psalm 80.  I chose to emphasize the first line of the refrain: “Save us, O Lord; carry us back, rouse your power and come.”  We […]

Thoughts on Turn To Me John Foley, one of the original St. Louis Jesuits, wrote Turn to Me, surely one of the great Lenten hymns, so unusual since it is written from the point of view of God. In my variations, I chose to concentrate on the phrase Turn to Me, which repeats again and […]

Thoughts on Hosea In reflecting on Lent, I thought of the words to the hymn, Hosea, by Gergory Norbert. Come back to me with all your heart, and then, particularly of the refrain: Long have I waited for your coming. . .I never liked the note values which were given to those words, so I […]

Thoughts on Be Not Afraid Due to the number of funerals we’ve been having, and the people I know who have been dying. I was moved to write variations on a hymn often used at funerals, Be Not Afraid by Bob Dufford. Bells are often rung in churches at the time of a funeral. In […]

Thoughts on Gather Us In I began on this project as a reaction to the pandemic. As we are not able to gather together in as large groups as in the past, I was moved to think about Marty Haugen’s piece, Gather Us In. His melody triggered a very different response in me than it […]