News flash! I have learned how to add content to this website!!  A wonderful friend, Rusty Graham, has been doing it for months, and he finally pointed out it would take the same time for me to do it as to send him files. Turns out it's true!  So, after excellent coffee and a quick lesson at Old City Java (thank you, Rusty!), I have added my first song, Your Words Are Sweet (Psalm 119).

I wrote it as part of a service of Sung Morning Prayer, as a way to welcome the Gospel and to sing the preacher to the pulpit.  That can be a long, hard walk, and a little sung prayer and encouragement goes a long way.  Also, the text serves as a reminder to all of us, that it's God's word we've come to hear, and God is faithful to speak, through our lips and in our hearts and minds as we receive. Takes a good bit of the pressure off, trusting that. 

Also, to me, the music feels like what the text is saying. "Your words are sweet to our taste, sweeter than honey to the mouth."  The words roll sweet on the lips and tongue, with a nice ratio of vowels to consonants, two easy notes for each of the first three syllables of alleluia, then a sustained ah from group one as group two begins the next alleluia.  It also forms a simple breathing prayer, with just enough notes to let the old air out (and the long ah making sure we do!) and just enough time for a good breath before we sing again.  On "sweet," the descant holds a major second (which to my ears is sweet!), then cascades down on "sweeter than honey to the mouth," gently picking up speed and adding another texture.  

I hope you enjoy it!  Also, I mentioned this is part of a Sung Morning Prayer.  That's mostly songs of mine but also includes a couple marvelous songs by others, one by Mark Miller and Laurie Zelman, another by Tim Hughes.  In the next little bit, I'll see if I can get clearance to publish the pieces together as one service, and I'll let you know!

Singing together builds community; singing together in worship also gives us an opportunity to experience what we’re singing about — wisdom, forgiveness, renewal, and love — and to experience it as true.  In the words of the apostle Paul, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  Music, aligned with the energy and direction of the words, amplifies and enhances this.  

Thomas H. Troeger’s “Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory,” set to swirling, unsettling music that moves toward conviction, moves us, with the gospel (Mark 9:2-13), from the glorious moment of recognizing Jesus on the mountaintop as the Son of God, to turning with him toward the valley and the cross, to a prayer that God might “transfigure our perceptions… till we seek no other glory than what lies past Calvary’s hill, and our living, and our dying, and our rising by Your will.” It’s not a propositional argument, but an entry into the energies and valences of the text. As it moves, so we move, in our imaginations, and — by God’s grace — in our lives. 

Thomas Merton’s prayer, “The Road Ahead” — “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me…” — set to a simple, plainsong melody, but with accompaniment that shifts us from key to key, then returns us home, ventures out again, doubles the pace of change, and returns once more, all the while giving just what we need, just when we need it, to sing our part and arrive at our destination — gives an experience of what the prayer is talking about, “I cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do I really know myself… but I believe… you will lead me by the right road…” 

Each of these — and every song on this website — serves as a trust-building exercise.  They’re simple enough to learn easily, often without any need for teaching beforehand, but the accompaniment or rhythm of the line, plus a matching of the energy of the music to the tone of the lyric and use of mnemonic musical and lyrical devices, gives the assembly an experience of doing more than we could on our own, plus sometimes more than we knew we were capable of, musically and spiritually. 

With a prayerful musician at the helm, these songs become trust-building exercises. They press us into the unknown, only to find that the Spirit who leads us out is also present where we are going.  New songs, woven with the old, introduced at a loving pace of change, build the emotional and spiritual resilience of our assemblies, a helpful thing for any church seeking to follow Jesus in loving and serving in today’s world. 

Finally, each of these songs arose from a moment when I couldn’t find another song to serve the purpose. “To You All Hearts Are Open” sets the Collect for Purity (Book of Common Prayer, p. 355) and gathers us into worship or into the gospel. “These Things Did Thomas Count as Real” turns the Sunday after Easter into an event, and we’ve seen our Easter 2 attendance rise sharply since we’ve begun using it and communicating how beneficial the gospel for that Sunday is. These songs fill gaps in the liturgical year and enhance moments that are often under-attended-to, where there is a prime opportunity for spiritual and emotional growth. I pray that these songs will be a blessing to you and to all you serve with your gifts of music. 

In Christ, with you, 

John Tirro