Something We're Not Giving Up For Lent - the Psalms!

Since we've entered the season of Lent, we have once again given up (buried) the "A" word. (I can't print it here in case the Liturgical Police are watching, but it rhymes with "What's-it-to-ya?")

One we thing we're not giving up is the psalms. In fact, we are highlighting them with new musical arrangements by Luke Mayernik. He recently wrote a collection of psalms (called a "psalter") that sets each of the Sunday psalms in a uniform collection. He titled it The Five Graces Psalter. We'll hear and sing these settings for the first five Sundays in Lent.

I've not been able to find where the name came from, but I suspect it comes from a prayer by St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787). In his prayer, Alphonsus asked for five graces: pardon for all offenses, divine light, a share in God's love, confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ  and the intercession of Mary, and perseverance. Lutherans pause at the "intercession of Mary," but surely the psalter echoes these themes - minus overt references to Jesus and Mary.

The Five Graces Psalter brings together three elements.

First is the assembly refrain. The refrains are drawn from texts by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. The ICEL prepare various liturgical texts in accordance with direction from "the Holy See." (The Vatican)

The second element is the text of the psalms themselves. They come the Revised Grail Psalms. For Roman Catholics, this is the official psalter for the English language used in their churches. In addition to translating the texts, thought was given to musical considerations so that these versions are especially suited to chanting and singing.

The third element is Mayernik's own style.  He wanted to create a psalter that would appeal to people who enjoy traditional AND contemporary music. The result is a psalter with enough musical substance for discerning ears, but also enough melodic appeal for someone who "isn't necessarily a professional musician but can carry a tune - and maybe even carry that tune throughout the entire week and sing it as a prayer. . ."

The psalms are sung like tones similar to the ones we often sing at St. Mark's. But they don't arbitrarily assign the last three syllables of a line to three specific notes. Rather, the syllables are artfully placed so that the listener has a stronger sense of a melody. The chords that accompany the melody run the gamut. They are sometimes traditional, often lush (jazzy even), and at times downright dissonant - depending on the nature of the text. This gives Mayernik's settings both harmonic freshness and melodic appeal.

Mayernik's psalms can be sung in a variety of ways - with choir or cantor/soloist, with guitar, piano, or organ.

This psalter is a beautiful addition to the church's song. We sing the psalms in a variety of ways at St. Mark's and I look forward to adding these to the mix. The Five Graces Psalter is published by MorningStar Music Publishers, part of the ECS publishing group.

Luke Mayernik - from the ECS website

sources:
A video interview with Luke Mayernik: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6FNEo14Ro&t=327s
https://www.catholicity.com/prayer/prayer-for-five-graces.html

https://www.ecspublishing.com/
https://www.lukemmusic.com/home

The Greatest Passion Hymn You (Probably) Don't Know - and How We're Going to Change That

(A version of this article appears in the St. Mark's Messenger, March 2022.)

Paul Gerhardt

Repetition.
Repetition.
Repetition.

It's how we learned to write our name, use the multiplication tables, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and recite John 3:16. It's how we learned to sing our first songs. It would not be far-fetched to say that repetition is how we first learned God loves us. (Jesus love me, this I know. . .)

The change of liturgical seasons is a great time to introduce a new hymn - at least a hymn that's new to us.

During the season of Lent, we'll add the hymn A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth to our repertoire of assembly song. We learn it through, you guessed it, repetition!

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676), Germany's most famous hymn writer, wrote this classic hymn about the passion. In many congregations it is well-known and deeply loved. But it doesn't seem to be familiar at St. Mark's.

The Prayer of the Day for Palm/Passion Sunday says this:

Christ Carrying the Cross - El Greco

A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth expands on several points from this prayer.  The opening stanza introduces us to God's lamb, expressing his pain, humiliation, and loss as he goes to his death. The second and third stanzas imagine a conversation between the Father and the Son with Jesus agreeing to take on human form. He does this out of obedience to the Father and with profound love for us - to do what we cannot do for ourselves. The final stanza expresses that we no longer need to fear death since Christ, himself, will bring the church before God's throne where it shall remain for eternity.

Since repetition is one of the ways we can learn a new hymn, we'll hear it sung and played in a variety of ways before we sing it on Palm Sunday. You can help your learning by following along in Evangelical Lutheran Worship when the hymn is being sung.

March 6, First Sunday in Lent

A soloist sings the first stanza, followed by an organ variation by Bálint Karosi, Cantor at St. Peter's (ELCA) church in New York City.

March 13, Second Sunday in Lent

A soloist sings another stanza, followed by another Karosi setting on the organ.

March 20, Third Sunday in Lent

The Festival Choir sings the full hymn during the prelude.

March 27, Fourth Sunday in Lent

A final organ variation from Karosi.

April 3, Fifth Sunday in Lent

The St. Mark's Ringers play a handbell arrangement by Larry Sue.

Finally, on Palm Sunday, we will all sing A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth as the Hymn of the Day. May it remind us all how in endless love for the human race, God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to take on our nature and to suffer death on the cross.