Texts & Translations
 

House of Belonging 

Jeffrey Derus

 

This is the bright home

 in which I live,

 this is where

 I ask

 my friends

 to come,

 this is where I want

 to love all the things

 it has taken me so long

 to learn to love.

 

This is the temple

 of my adult aloneness

 and I belong

 to that aloneness

 as I belong to my life.

 

There is no house

 like the house of belonging.
-David Whyte

 

Ascension

 

Am Himmelfahrtstage

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

 

Erhaben, o Herr, über alles Lob, 

über alle Herrlichkeit;

herrschest du von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. 

Halleluja!

 

Exalted, O Lord, above all praise, 

above all glory, 

you rule for ever.

Hallelujah!

-Antiphon for Ascension Day

​​
 

Credo from Missa Ascendo ad patrem meum

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 

​

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem,

factorem coeli et terrae,

visibilium onmium et invisibilium.

 

Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum,

Filium Dei unigenitum.

Et ex Patre natum ante onmia saecula.

 

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine,

Deum verum de Deo vero.

Genitum, non factum, 

consubstantialem Patri:

per quem omnia facta sunt.

 

Qui propter nos homines, 

et propter nostram salutem 

descendit de coelis.

Et incarnatus est de 

Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine:

ET HOMO FACTUS EST.

 

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis; 

sub Pontio Pilato passus, 

et sepultus est.

Et resurrexit tertia die, 

secundum Scripturas.

Et ascendit in coelum: 

sedet ad dexteram Patris.

Et iterum venturus est com gloria

judicare vivos et mortuos 

cujus regni non erit finis.

 

Et in Spiritum Sanctum, 

Dominum et vivificantem:

qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. 

Qui cum Patre, 

et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur:

qui locutus est per Prophetas.

 

Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et 

apostolicam Ecclesiam.

Confiteor unum baptisma 

in remissionem peccatorum.

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

 

I believe in one God, The Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth,

and of all things visible and invisible.

 

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ the 

Only-begotten Son of God.

Born of the Father before all ages.

 

God of God, Light of Light, 

true God of true God.

Begotten, not made,

of one substance with the Father. 

By whom all things were made.

 

Who for us men 

and for our salvation came 

down from heaven.

And became incarnate by the 

Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary:

AND WAS MADE MAN.

 

He was also crucified for us, 

suffered under Pontius Pilate, 

and was buried.

And on the third day He rose again 

according to the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and 

sits at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory 

to judge the living and the dead and 

His kingdom will have no end.

 

And in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord and Giver of life,

Who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

Who together with the Father 

and the Son is adored and glorified,

and who spoke through the prophets.

 

And one holy, Catholic and 

Apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism 

for the forgiveness of sins

and I await the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

 

Take My Wings and Cleave the Air

 

By and By 

arr. Carol Barnett (b. 1949)

​

Refrain

Oh by an’ by, by an’ by, 

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load.

Oh by an’ by, by an’ by, 

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load.

 

I know my robe’s gonna fit me well,

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load,

‘cause I tried it on at the gates of hell,

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load. Refrain.

 

Oh hell is a deep and dark despair,

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load,

So stop, poor sinner, an’ a don’t go there. 

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load. Refrain.

 

Oh one of these mornings, bright an’ fair,

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load,

Gonna take my wings and cleave the air.

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load. Refrain.

 

Oh when I get to heaven gonna sing and shout,

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load,

For there’s no one there to turn me out.

I’m gonna lay down this heavy load. Refrain.

-Traditional Spiritual

 

My Flight for Heaven

Blake Henson (b. 1983)

 

Charm me asleep, and melt me so

With thy delicious numbers,

That, being ravish’d, hence I go

Away in easy slumbers.

Ease my sick head,

And make my bed,

Thou power that canst sever

From me this ill,

And quickly still,

Though thou not kill

My fever.

 

Fall on me like the silent dew,

Or like those maiden showers

Which, by the peep of day, do strew

A baptism o’er the flowers.

Melt, melt my pains

With thy soft strains;

That, having ease me given,

With full delight

I leave this light,

And take my flight

For Heaven.

-Robert Herrick

 

Measure Me, Sky!

Elaine Hagenberg (b. 1979)

 

Measure me, sky! 

Tell me I reach by a song 

Nearer the stars; 

I have been little so long. 

 

Horizon, reach out! 

Catch at my hands, 

stretch me taut, 

Rim of the world: 

Widen my eyes by a thought. 

 

Sky, be my depth, 

Wind, be my width 

and my height, 

World, my heart’s span; 

Loveliness, wings for my flight.

-Leonora Speyer

 

Seeking Each Other

 

To be Sung on the Water

Samuel Barber

 

Beautiful, my delight,

Pass, as we pass the wave.

Pass, as the mottled night

Leaves what it cannot save,

Scattering dark and bright.

 

Beautiful, pass and be

Less than the guiltless shade

To which our vows were said;

Less than the sound of the oar

To which our vows were made, 

Less than the sound of its blade

Dipping the stream once more.

-Louise Bogan

 

In the Night We Shall Go In

Imant Raminsh

 

In the night we shall go in,

we shall go in to steal

a flowering, flowering branch.

 

We shall climb over the wall

in the darkness of the alien garden,

two shadows in the shadow.

 

Winter is not yet gone,

and the apple tree appears

suddenly changed into

a fragment of cascade stars.

 

In the night we shall go in

up to its trembling firmament,

and your hands, your little hands

and mine will steal the stars.

 

And silently to our house

in the night and the shadow,

perfume’s silent step,

and with starry feet,

the clear body of spring.

-Pablo Neruda tr. Donald D. Walsh

​

 

His Name So Sweet

arr. Stacey V. Gibbs (b. 1962)

 

Refrain

Oh, I jus’ come from de fountain,

I’m jus’ from the de fountain, Lord,

I jus’ come from dere an’ His name so sweet.

 

Oh, sinnuh, do you love Jesus?

Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus.
Sinnuh, do you love Jesus?

Hallelujah, His name so sweet. Refrain.

 

Oh, elder, do you love Jesus?

Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus.

Elder, do you love Jesus?

Hallelujah, His name so sweet. Refrain.

-Traditional Spiritual

 

Finding Community

 

Crowded Table

arr. Andrea Ramsey 

 

You can hold my hand

When you need to let go.

I can be your mountain

When you're feeling valley-low.

I can be your streetlight

Showing you the way home.

You can hold my hand

When you need to let go.

 

Refrain

I want a house with a crowded table

And a place by the fire for everyone.

Let us take on the world while we're young and able,

And bring us back together when the day is done.

 

If we want a garden,

We're gonna have to sow the seeds.

Plant a little happiness,

Let the roots run deep.

If it's love that we give,

Then it's love that we reap.

If we want a garden,

We're gonna have to sow the seed. Refrain.

 

The door is always open,

Your picture's on my wall.

Everyone's a little broken,

And everyone belongs.

Yeah, everyone belongs. Refrain.

-Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna, and Brandi Carlile

 

This Glorious Mountain Temple, Nature

 

Sacred Place

Alex Berko

 

1. Opening Prayer

 

In the dusk of the river, the wind

gone, the leaves grow still—

The beautiful poise of lightness,

The heavy world pushing toward it.

 

— Wendell Berry

Excerpt from “The Porch Over the River”

 

1. Amidah

 

“How softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and

reassuring the company they keep—their brows in the sky, their

feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers

leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds

bees butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into

music—things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting

here and blending as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature

had gathered her choicest treasures, whether great or small to draw

her lovers into close confiding communion with her.”

 

— John Muir to Teddy Roosevelt

on preserving Yosemite National Park

 

1. Shema

 

The earth says have a place, be what that place

requires; hear the sound the birds imply

and see as deep as ridges go behind

each other. (Some people call their scenery flat,

their only pictures framed by what they know:

I think around them rise a riches and a loss

too equal for their chart—but absolutely tall.)*

The earth says every summer have a ranch

that’s minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape

that proclaims a universe—sermon

of the hills, hallelujah mountain,

highway guided by the way the world is tilted,

reduplication of mirage, flat evening:

a kind of ritual for the wavering.

The earth says where you live wear the kind

of color that your life is (grey shirt for me)*

and by listening with the same bowed head that sings

draw all things into one song, join

the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy

way, the rage without met by the wings

within that guide you anywhere the wind blows.

Listening, I think that’s what the earth says.

 

— William Stafford

 

1. Mi Shebeirach

 

May the source of strength

Who blessed the ones before us

Help us find the courage

to make our lives a blessing

And let us say Amen.

 

Bless those in need of healing

with r’fuah sh’leimah

The renewal of body,

the renewal of spirit

And let us say Amen.

 

— Traditional Jewish Prayer

 

1. Kaddish

 

“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone,

like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”

 

— Rabindranath Tagore, 1861–1941

 

1. Closing Prayer

 

In the dusk of the river, the wind

gone, the leaves grow still—

The beautiful poise of lightness,

The heavy world pushing toward it.

 

— Wendell Berry

Excerpt from “The Porch Over the River”