Music Notes: 16th Sunday after Pentecost

Opening hymn: All Creatures of our God and King

Virtually blind and unable to endure daylight, St. Francis of Assisi wrote this nature hymn during the summer of 1225 in the seclusion of a hut near San Damiano, Italy. The text is a meditation on Psalm 145 (although it also reflects Psalm 148 as well as the Canticle of the Three Young Men in the Furnace). St. Francis is universally known for preaching to the birds and urging them to praise God. But his whole life was one of service to God and humanity. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis led a carefree, adventurous life as a youth, but after an illness and a pilgrimage to Rome in 1205, he voluntarily began a traveling life of poverty. He restored run-down chapels and shrines, preached, sang devotional "laudi spirituali" (adapted from Italian folk songs), and helped the poor and the lepers. Other young men joined him, and Francis founded the order named after him. St. John’s own Craig McRoberts is a First-Year Novitiate of The Third Order of the Society of St. Francis. If you’d like to learn about The Third Order and Franciscan Spirituality, talk to Craig.

Offertory hymn: Simple Gifts

In 1848, Elder Joseph Brackett wrote “Simple Gifts” in his Shaker community in Maine. The Shakers were a small group that left England to find religious tolerance in North America. They believed in simplicity, equality, celibacy, and communal living. Seventy-five years before the emancipation of the slaves and one hundred fifty years before women began voting in America, the Shakers were practicing social, sexual, economic, and spiritual equality for all members. 

Communion hymn: Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love.

This morning’s communion hymn reflects a collaboration between two cultures. The text comes from a European Christian inspired by his service in Ghana. The melody comes from a West African country. May our singing be a metaphor for the neighborly relationships that are possible in Christ.