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Rise Up, Get Going

Easter Sunday 2025; Our Saviour’s Mpls

Chorus:
Rise up now, get going.
Hope got out of that tomb!
Rise up now, get going.
Hope got out of that tomb!
Rise up now, get going.
Hope got out of that tomb!
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

1. That stone of greed’s been rolled away. Hope got out of that tomb!
Corruption cuffed and hauled away. Hope got out of that tomb!
Abundance for us all today. Hope got out of that tomb!
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

2. Don’t wallow in a powerless thrall. Hope …
Lift up your head the Gardener calls . Hope …
No dawdling or justice stalls. Hope …
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

3. Don’t look for Jesus ‘mongst the dead. Hope …
Go look where hungry folks are fed. Hope …
And bring 5000 loaves of bread. Hope …
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

4. Go forth and follow Jesus’s feet. Hope …
There’s footprints on the path of peace. Hope …
They’re headed for the burdened street. Hope …
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

5. The stone sings Hallelujah. Hope …
The tree sings Hallelujah. Hope …
The star sings Hallelujah. Hope …
(So) How ’bout if we all sing Hallelujah? (to v6)

6. Sing Halle, Hallelujah. Hope …
Sing Halle, Hallelujah. Hope …
Sing Halle, Hallelujah. Hope …
Love’s on the move. Rise up, get going.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2025 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording credits: Bret Hesla vocals and ukulele, Tim Gustafson guitar, Paul Andress piano

Thanks to Paul Andress and Tim Gustafson for playing on the recording! And thanks to Cooper Sherry for the great downloadable piano score. And how about those musicians on the live recording: Tom Witt on piano, Paul D’Amico Carper on fiddle, Elizabeth D’Amico Carper on vocals!

God Save This Breaking Land

Good Friday 2025, Our Saviour’s Mpls

1. God save this breaking land before we’re past repair.
We’ve let false profits ravage the gift all creatures share.
Frayed rules like loos’ning bands, that once bound greedy hands,
No longer guard the future now. God save this breaking land.

2. Tall fences painted white, like sentries, stand their ground
On lakes where great abundance has private shoreline ’round.
While “Mine but never yours” fouls every aquifer.
A plague of thirst and struggle looms. God save this breaking land.

3. Deep buried tribal hate released like rabid dogs
Is roaming every valley stalking the common good
As speakers crafting lies blare loudly through the skies
To drown the sparrow songs of hope. God save this breaking land.

4. You made the universe from voids of empty space.
Why not repair between us for wid’ning wounds of race?
From boardrooms everywhere, out to the crowded square,
Roll away the stone of priv’lege now. God save this breaking land.

5. God save this breaking land. Come resurrect us all.
Let new transforming skin grow where all is cracked and raw.
Empower these feet to move, clad with persistent shoes,
From shattered hopes to firm resolve. God save this breaking land.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

I’m guessing your spirit is in a similar place as mine, dividing its time between lament and resistance. This song is a lament. The lyrics are harsh, like the time we’re living in. I suspect it will take some courage on the part of your leaders to include this song in your service or event.

I find a certain release in the singing of it; the melody has a traditional hymn-like shape to it. You could do it as a solo, or as a choir piece. My vote, as usual, would be to let the whole group sing it.

After I initially sent this song around, I got a quick reply from a woman in Kansas, saying “Sorta seems to me that WE need to save this breaking land.” So I wrote this set of alternative lyrics, calling for some human agency, for her UU choir.

Rise For This Breaking Land

1. Rise for this breaking land from couches of despairWe’ve let false profits ravage the gift all creatures share. Frayed rules like loos’ning bands, that once bound greedy hands,No longer guard the future now. Rise for this breaking land.

2. Tall fences painted white, like sentries, stand their ground On lakes where great abundance has private shoreline ’round. While “Mine but never yours” fouls every aquifer.The common good has been laid low. Rise for this breaking land.

3. Deep buried tribal hate, released like rabid hounds [dogs]Is stalking every valley, backing wide welcome downAs speakers crafting lies blare loudly through the skiesTo drown the sparrow songs of hope. (To spew their toxic bilge of blame)Rise for this breaking land.

4. Who’ll bring unflinching eyes to look in sorrow’s face?Who’ll seek repair between us for wid’ning wounds of race?From boardrooms everywhere, out to the crowded square,Roll away the stone of priv’lege now. Rise for this breaking land.

5. Rise for this breaking land. Be resurrected now. Let new transforming skin grow where all is cracked and raw.Let feet of thousands move, clad with persistent shoes, From shattered hopes to firm resolve. Rise for this breaking land.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2025 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

What Do We Need? Housing Chant #6

What do we need: AFFORDABLE HOUSING!
When do we need it: YESTERDAY!
How do we get it?: ACTION FROM THE CITY (x) AND STATE!

(or)

What do we need: AFFORDABLE HOUSING!
When do we need it: YESTERDAY!
How do we get it?: LEADERSHIP WITH VISION (x) AND HEART

(or)

What do we need: AFFORDABLE HOUSING!
When do we need it: YESTERDAY!
How do we get it?: FIX THE ZONING BLOCKING (x) THE WAY!

By Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Everywhere: Housing Chant #5

[Leader: ALL]
We need housing: EVERYWHERE!
Affordable housing: EVERYWHERE!
Low-cost housing: EVERYWHERE!
In every town: EVERYWHERE!

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Listen Up: Housing Chant #4

Listen up: Don’t zone us out (3 times)
[X – X – X – X]

Make housing (x) affordable (3 times)
[X – X – X – X]

or do both of the above together:

Listen up: Don’t zone us out
Make housing (x) affordable.

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Change What?: Housing Chant #3

(leader: ALL)

Change what? CHANGE ZONING LAWS (2X)
When?: NOW (4X)

Build what? BUILD STARTER HOMES (2X)
When?: NOW (4X)

etc.

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Problem: Housing Chant #2

(leader: ALL)
Housing Shortage: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

Rents too high: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

Economic Zoning: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

Got no home: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

Aesthetic mandates: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

Apathy: PROBLEM (3X)
What time is it?: TIME FOR CHANGE!

by Bret Hesla
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Zoning Racism: Housing Chant #1

Economic zoning
Is race discrimination!

by Bret Hesla
contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

A Home For All

Some folks say
It’s a dream of fools
But I can’t help
Wanting a home for all

Why not here?
Does it break some rule?
‘Cause I can’t help
Wanting a home for all.

It’s some mother’s son
Living on the street
It’s a friend of mine
Facing eviction’s fate

Will I rise
Now that justice calls?
When I can’t help
Wanting a home for all

Lyrics by Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Can’t Help Falling In Love
Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

A Home We Can Afford

[sing to the tune — Yellow Submarine]

In the town where I was born
Many people find | that life is hard
Many thou-sand have no home
Many more have rent | they can’t afford

Chorus:
We all wanna live in a home we can afford
A home we can afford, a home we can afford
We all wanna live in a home we can afford
A home we can afford, a home we can afford

Those with de-cent paying jobs
Aren’t excluded | by zoning laws
But if your rent is half your pay
Eviction’s crouching | with sharpened claws

Lyrics Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Yellow Submarine
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Housing for Everyone

Let every good person here join in the song
Housing for everyone
Success to each other, and pass it along
Housing for everyone

Chorus:
Housing for, housing for, housing for all
Housing for, housing for, housing for all
Housing for all. Housing for all.
Housing for everyone.

There’s not enough homes so let all of us say,
Housing for everyone
We cannot let zoning laws stand in the way
Housing for everyone

Chorus:

A friend on your left and a friend on your right
Housing for everyone
When all have a home it’s a beautiful sight
Housing for everyone

Chorus:

Let’s gather tomorrow and sing it once more
Housing for everyone
Till everyone’s in a place they can afford
Housing for everyone

Chorus:

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: Vive La Compagnie |
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Housing’s Got to Be F.A.I.R.

Our town needs affordable homes, I said
Our town needs affordable homes, I said
Our town needs affordable homes,
It’s a great big justice problem

Thousands living out on the street, I said
Thousands living out on the street, I said
Thousands living out on the street
And it’s worse if you are BI-POC

Chorus:
Our housing’s got to be F-A-I-R
Our housing’s got to be F-A-I-R
Free the zoning restraints
Build affordable homes
In every suburb and every town
Our housing’s got to be F-A-I-R
Our housing’s got to be F-A-I-R
Free the zoning restraints
Build affordable homes
In every suburb and every town

Zoning keeps a lot of us down, I said
Zoning keeps a lot of us down, I said
Zoning keeps a lot of us down,
It’s a great big justice problem

Rent cost getting out of control, I said
Rent cost getting out of control, I said
Rent cost getting out of control,
And it’s worse if you are BIPOC

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: YMCA
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Affordable Housing Songs & Chants

Here’s a quick brainstorm of songs/chants to help move Minnesota’s political leaders to address the lack of affordable housing. Feel free to edit, modify, improve the songs or chants as the situations and messages vary. I wrote these as a resource in 2025 for Minnesota’s Yes To Homes Campaign and ISAIAH.

Housing’s Got to Be F.A.I.R. (tune: YMCA)

A Home We Can Afford (tune: Yellow Submarine)

Housing for Everyone (tune: Vive La Compagnie)

A Home for All (tune: Can’t Help Falling in Love)

Chant #1: Zoning Racism

Chant #2: Problem

Chant #3: Change What?

Chant #4: Listen Up

Chant #5: Everywhere

Chant #6: What Do We Need?

The songs are all new words to familiar tunes, so should be easy for a motley batch of folks to print out at sing together — at the capitol, at the city hall, etc. Some are easy enough that you don’t even need to print.

No Trouble In My Heart

Christmas hope and joy trounce post-election worry

Chorus:
No trouble in my heart
I hear the angels singing, now
Glory, glory halleluya
Little baby Jesus is born.

1. Stars shining in the sky | Black night is filled with majesty
Hope crackles in the air | Little baby Jesus is born.

2. Joy, joy like the snow | Fresh beau-ty blankets all the earth
Make tracks to the manger | Little baby Jesus is born. (Ch)

3. Take a listen in the dark | Can’t you hear the neighbors caroling?
Can’t you feel the resilience? | Little baby Jesus is born.

4. God’s love’s been delivered | Put Mary on a meal train
Cup your hands like a cradle | Little baby Jesus is born. (Ch)

5. Glory, Glory Halleluya | Glory, Glory Halleluya everywhere!
Glory, Glory Halleluya | Little baby Jesus is born! (Ch)

Extra:
No fretting in my head | Bad news cannot discourage me
Marinate in celebration | Little baby Jesus is born.

Big hammer overhead | Down here we’re dodging heavy blows
Soon something’s gonna change | Little baby Jesus is born

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Christmas hope and joy trounce post-election worry.

Put Your Hand On The Ground

Chorus:

Put your hand on the ground. Touch it like a prayer.
Put your hand on the ground. Touch it like a prayer.
Put your hand on the ground. I know it’s true:
Somebody somewhere Is touch-ing it too.

People on the streets of Krakaw, touching it too
People biking in Jakarta, touching it too
People praying in Somalia, touching it too
People dancing out in Pine Ridge, touching it too

All the feet of all the mothers, touching it too
All the knees of all the mourners, touching it too
All the backs of all the dreamers, touching it too
All the bottoms of the babies, touching it too

People crossing at the borders, touching it too
People tenting in the cities, touching it too
People fearing deportation, touching it too
People standing by in witness, touching it too

All the recently departed, touching it too
All the ashes of our forebears, touching it too
All the memories of the ancients, touching it too
All the great hopes of our journeys, touching it too
———————

All the trees that stand upon it, touching it too
All the forests of Siberia, touching it too
The great giants in the Amazon, touching it too
All the baobabs in Kenya, touching it too

All the palm trees of Tahiti, touching it too
All the pecans in Sonora, touching it too
All the bristlecones so ancient, touching it too
Cottonwoods along the St. Croix, touching it too

People singing in South Africa, touching it too
People ricing up in White Earth, touching it too
Mushroom hunters in Bavaria, touching it too
People drumming in Brazilia, touching it too

All the feet of all the mothers, touching it too
All the knees of all the mourners, touching it too
All the backs of all the dreamers, touching it too
All the bottoms of the babies, touching it too

Workers picking tea in China, touching it too
Workers welding in Detroit, touching it too
Workers tapping trees in Maine, touching it too
Workers typing in DC, touching it too

People writing code in Oslo, touching it too
People herding goats in Syria, touching it too
Dog sled mushers in the Yukon, touching it too
People zooming from wherever, touching it too

All the ladders of the roofers, touching it too
All the tools of the plumbers, touching it too
All the wheels of the truckers, touching it too
All the desks of all the teachers, touching it too

People marching down to Selma, touching it too
People chanting up at Standing Rock, touching it too
People picketing in Austin, touching it too
People tenting here in the city, touching it too

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

May We Know the Truth

May we know the truth deeper than words
May we know the truth wider than creeds
May we know the truth newer than yesterday’s blooms.
Alleluia!

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress © 2022 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Be In Our Eyes

1. Be in our eyes that we may see
Your faces on the street.
To see you wand’ring in the alleyways.

Chorus:
Send us fresh into the world. Be in our eyes.
Send us fresh into the world. Be in our eyes.

2. Be in our legs to perservere
The portages to peace.
To leave the treadmill of the status quo. (Ch: with “legs”)

3. Be in our lungs to shout our joy
Full-throated ev’ry day.
To shun the slouching davenport of gloom. (Ch: with “lungs”)

4. Be in our ears to hear your merry
Humming as you cook.
And then to hear the dinner bell of now.(Ch: with “ears”)

5. Be in our minds, to wrestle with
The issues of our time
In quest of insight for the common good. (Ch: with “minds”)

6. Be in our hands to stack the deck
& Deal aces to the poor.
To freely give as we so freely gain. (Ch: with “hands”)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2013 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

Service Outlines, Poems, Articles for Eco-Justice

Service Outlines

Poems

Mail Your Vote, Everybody

I wrote this song “Mail Your Vote, Everybody”, on commission for Minnesota-based ACT Center for Disability Leadership https://www.selfadvocacy.org/, as part of their effort to help people with developmental and intellectual disabilities to vote-by-mail in the November 2020 election.

The companion website https://vote.selfadvocacy.org/ gives simple step-by-step guidelines that allies can use to virtually support people to register online and then mail their vote. (Non-Minnesota users can adapt the specifics to fit your state’s process.) Please share this link, spread the song far and wide, and help us get out the vote (by mail). Let your power sail! #mailyourvoteeverybody

“Mail Your Vote, Everybody” was written by Bret Hesla on commission for the ACT Center. The singers all Zoom-recorded themselves; after which, Matthew Zimmerman of Control-Z blended the pieces together.

Stay Awake!

TEACHING VIDEO, above, includes a bonus ending with the Xmas nativity story.

Stay awake!
Let us all stay awake.
Alleluia!
What is good is still to come.
Stay awake, Alleluia!

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Here’s a fun little shortie: pretty useful for lots of settings. Advent service, before a reading perhaps. Or any event pregnant with expectation. Written with my friend Paul Andress.

Speaking of expectation, the TEACHING VIDEO above includes a bonus ending with the nativity story, as played out on my compost pile.

Performance: Just sing it once alone to model it, then invite folks in. Sing it three or four times. You could pre-teach the SATB parts to a smaller group, who could be dispersed throughout the hall.

SEE VIDEO ABOVE: Last year I got this irresistible little chime set from my friend Linda. Super fun, and I think the perfect sound. But then, as Pete Seeger once said, a good song can withstand a lot of treatment. Use your imagination.

Stay awake!

Advent, lent/holy week,

In All My Prayers

In All My Prayers

Let my own trials make wide my heart.
Till I, like Job,
May come to hold in all my prayers
The suff-‘ring of the world.
May come to hold in all my prayers
The suff-‘ring of the world.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

From the insights of Ralph Baumgartner, a member of our congregation. Last spring, on a Wednesday evening during Lent, Ralph did a short reflection about the transformation that Job went through. As time went by, Job became more and more concerned for the wider sufferings of the oppressed all around him, not just his own woes.

Performance: I’m thinking you can use this refrain with readings: alternate back and forth between singing once through, then humming once through while someone reads a short something aloud.

:
From the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
yet God pays no attention to their prayer.
Job 24:12
.

Where Have I Borne Witness?

Where Have I Borne Witness?

Where have I borne wit-ness?
Where have I borne wit-ness?
To the ways of jus-tice.
To the ways of love.
Where have I borne wit-ness?
Where have I borne wit-ness?
To the ways of jus-tice and love

Where have I brought courage? …

Where have I stood open? …

Where have I been midwife? …

Where have I just listened? …

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Jaw Breaking Potholes

Jaw-breaking pot-holes!
You’re on the rapid road to dentures,
If you don’t pay attention,
When driving in the springtime.
‘Cause the puddles may be harboring:

[or biking in the springtime]

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Thanks to Rebekah Fergus for great singing, as usual!

Come Stand Beside This Fire

1. Your hands: are they feeling cold?
Are they just like mine?
Are they feeling cold?
Come stand. Stand beside this Fire.
All of us will stand.
Stand beside this Fire.

2. Your heart. Is it weary too?
Is it just like like mine?
Is it weary, too?
Come stand. Stand beside this Fire.
All of us will stand.
Stand beside this Fire.

3. Your voice, longing to be heard.
Is it just like mine?
Longing to be heard?
Come stand. Stand beside this Fire.
All of us will stand.
Stand beside this Fire.

4. Your hope, is it flick’ring still?
Is it just like mine?
is it flick’ring still?
Come stand. Stand beside this Fire.
All of us will stand.
Stand beside this Fire.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In 2019, musician Paul Andress and I set out to write some short refrains. He wanted some new material to use at various spots in the services for his church, a Edina Community Lutheran in Minnesota. This is a community with a long history of embracing LGBTQIA+ inclusion, racial justice, and eco faith. To get ideas rolling, we sat down with Catherine Malotky, a friend, retired pastor, writer, thinker and member of Paul’s congregation. We talked through their typical service structure. What happens here? What needs to be said here. To help define the purpose of the beginning, gathering time, Catherine’s comment was, “Be clear about with whom we are gathering together, and whose vision is our common ground. Like an outdoor fire at night or when it’s cold, what is attracting us here and will propel us into the impact of the service? What is our source of heat and light?”

This song gives you some space to do that. It also has a feel of comfort, healing, and inclusion. You could sing it around an actual fire, or around a centering candle, or just lift up the Fire in the imagination of the group.

Suite Prayers for Our Earth

You for whom there is no adequate name:
You are present in the whole universe
And in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love.
Pour out upon us the power of your love.
That we may protect life and beauty.
That we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace. Fill us with peace.
That we may live as sisters and brothers,
harming no one.
O God of the poor, help us to rescue
the abandoned and forgotten of this earth
So precious in your eyes.

Bring healing. Bring healing to our lives.
Bring healing. Bring healing to our lives
That we may protect the world and not prey upon it.
That we may sow beauty not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts of those who only look to gain at the expense of the poor.
At the expense of the earth.
Touch every heart.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing
Teach us to be filled with a feeling of awe.
Teach us to be filled with contemplation.
And to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature
As we journey, journey toward your infinite light.

We thank you. We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us we pray in our struggle for justice,
Encourage us we pray in our struggle for justice,
For love and peace.

Suite Prayers for Our Earth. © 2022 Bret Hesla and Zach Busch.
Text: Pope Francis A Prayer for Our Earth (Laudato sì), 2015 © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Adapted, with additional text, by Bret Hesla.
Music: Bret Hesla and Zach Busch.
All rights reserved. bret.hesla@gmail.com, zach@bethel-madison.org

Download full score.

Do All The Good You Can

Refrain:

Do all the good you can.
By all the means you know.
For ev’ry-one you come a-cross.
And ev’ry place you go.

1. I feel foundations shift
I fear the rising storm
I grieve this breaking land
Yearning to sing this song. (Ref.)

2. Walk ‘mid the growing earth
Take in the scented breeze
I hold this prayer for you
You lift it high for me. (Ref.)

3. Come dance the hopes we know
Spinning despite the cold
The chrys’lis waits, then one day cracks
Letting wet wings unfold. (Ref.)

piano version audio, below.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Thanks to Rebekah Fergus and Paul Andress for singing on the guitar version! Thanks also to Cooper Sherry for the lovely piano score, and singing with it!

**************************

The text for the refrain of this song was based on the acceptance speech of Paida Chikate, a 2022 recipient of the Hawkinson Fund Scholarship for Peace and Justice. It paraphrases the advice she got from her great grandmother when she left home. See below for the full story. As for the verses, they were also partly inspired by the words of the other justice workers being honored at that same event.

—–Below, Paida shares excerpted text from her acceptance speech.. Thanks Paida!—————-

Hello everyone, my name is Paida Chikate, I am a PhD student at the University of Minnesota and I am so proud to be one of the recipients of the Hawkinson scholarship this year. First and foremost, thank you so much to all the donors who continue to support the Hawkinson Foundation- you are making such a lasting impact on us the recipients.

I wanted to briefly share a story with you all that may inspire you to do more for your own communities. I am from Zimbabwe, a small country in Southern Africa. It is a rich country but it is plagued by corruption and looting of resources. Thirteen years ago, when I left my home, I went to see my great grandmother who was 102 at the time to seek her blessing to leave the country and come to America. She was, as usual, excited for me and wanted to know everything. After I described the journey, she looked at me puzzled and said, “So you are going to fly in a metal box over an ocean, to live very far away and go to a school with people you have never met?” I nervously said I was. She then said, “Well, I am giving you my blessing on one condition and that is to do all the good you can wherever you are for the people you live with. Remember,” she said, “you are an ambassador of this family, so do not embarrass us!” Her frankness was her best trait 🙂

I live by that advice as much as I can and to this day, it has served me well. So I leave you that same charge my great grandmother left me: Do all the good you can, wherever you are for the people you live with especially because right now, we all need as much good as we can get.

———————

p.s. Bret further writes: I’ve also since found that that same refrain text appears to be connected to an older quote from John Wesley (1703 – 1791).

Within This Food

1. Within this food we remember the pouring rain
And the sun’s warm spreading hands.
We also remember the morning breeze,
The breath across the land.
And all of the miracles born of the earth,
And the glories that stream from above
Within this food, this fruit of the field, this labor of love.

Chorus:
Thanks for this food.
Thanks for this food.
Thanks for this food, this fruit of the field, this labor of love.

2. These unmatched dishes tell the stories of who I’ve known
And places that I’ve been. I’m setting the table with memories
Of family and friends.
These guardian angels support every meal
With each of their beautiful souls,
Both new and old, both fancy and plain, both broken and whole. (Ch)

3. Now I sit down at the table with neighbors and friends
And soon we’re in high gear.
We’re getting the latest on everyone else,
Whether or not they’re here.
I look in these faces around me and see
A necklace of glimmering pearls,
Strung with the years, the sharing of food, the smiles and tears. (Ch)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1991 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Six Feet Deep (Six Songs for Regenerative Agriculture)

In 2019 I was commissioned to write a song for the Land Stewardship Project and their Soil Builders program.

One song became six. Click and listen.

1. Back to Soil

2. Got Cover Crops

3. A Little Better

4. Dead Dirt’s Coming Back

5. Boundless Earth

6. Six Feet Deep

For the commission, Doug, my LSP liaison, gave me a few brochures, a few talking points, and offered to connect me to some farmers to interview. It was all a plunge into the amazing world of Regenerative Agriculture. What an eye-opener! Knowing nothing about farming, much less regenerative ag, I went to a field day in Mower County to hear farmer Tom Cotter talk about his work. About 25 farmers (and me) showed up. Amazing set of practices he’s blending together: no-till, no plow, cover crops 24-7-365, innovative grazing techniques, mycorrhizal fungi, science, ecology, joy, health, honesty. These farmers, doing what they’re calling regenerative agriculture, seem to have re-imagined their work as building soil for the long term, which not only leads to healthier food and better yield, but helps fight climate change by storing carbon in the soil. Next I went to visit another farmer from around Cannon Falls, Kaleb Anderson. A super fun conversation that further opened my mind to the really exciting work these folks are doing. He recommended a book called, Dirt to Soil, by North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown. So I read that, too: kind of a regenerative ag bible. And on and on.
The first two songs, with video by LSP, were recorded in 2020; the other four in 2022. All with with the band Six Feet Deep.

Boundless Earth

The Boundless Earth

My folks got land when it was free.
Land full of trails we didn’t see
Times were hard.
But we were young and full of certainty.

We pulled the rocks. We cut the trees
We cleared the sod, made room for seed
Times were hard.
But we were young and full of certainty.

We turned the soil, played by the book.
Pulled fences down, did what it took
Times were hard.
But we were young, and full of certainty.

The cities grew. The memories waned
Most of us left those thinning plains
Times were hard.
But we were young and full of certainty.

That Eden land we stumbled on
That boundless earth: where has it gone?
Times were hard.
And we were young and full of certainty

We got this land when it was free
Land full of trails we didn’t see
Times were hard.
But we were young and full of certainty

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording Credits:
Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dan Chouinard – accordion, piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Steve Kimball — percussion
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar
Rebekah Fergus- harmony vocals
Recording Engineer Dave Michel
Recorded at Orchard House, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This song is part of the series Six Feet Deep, a collection of six songs written on commission for the Land Stewardship Project. The songs reflect the words, hopes, dreams and practices of farmers who are using the practices of regenerative agriculture.

I ended up writing a suite of songs — two recorded in 2020, and four more in 2022. Many of the images in these songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about, or the books I read.

Dead Dirt’s Coming Back

Dead Dirt’s Coming Back

1. My dead dirt’s come alive, just look and see
And I bet you wonder how that came to be
My friends and I got tired of farming like we’re hired
By someone with whom we don’t quite agree.

2. My friends and I we’ve set aside the plow
And most folks when they hear that they’re like, “Wow!”
We try not to disturb the living mother earth
We’re working with, not fighting nature now.

Chorus:
Yeah, we’ve got new ways to do things
And here’s the part that makes you want to smile
All the dead dirt’s coming back, the dead dirt’s coming back,
The dead dirt’s coming back to living soil.

3. My friends and I put grazing stock in play
And we move our fences several times a day
When the neighbors pasture’s chewed and brown
They see ours green and tall
And they can’t believe we’re running cows at all (Ch.)

4. There comes a time in every person’s life
What we value most, and what we do don’t jive
As the years erode away their fading voices say
If you meant to take a risk, well your time has arrived! (Ch.)

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording Credits:
Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dan Chouinard — piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Steve Kimball — drums
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar, group vocals
Rebekah Fergus — harmony vocals
Robin Nelson — group vocals
Betty Tisel – group vocals
Jane Dunlap – group vocals
Brooks Cavin- group vocals
Larry Dittberner- group vocals
Recording Engineer Dave Michel
Recorded at Orchard House, Minneapolis, Minnesota

In 2019, I was commissioned to write a song for the Land Stewardship Project. They wanted a song about their Soil Builders program. Doug, my liaison, gave me a few brochures, a few notes, and offered to connect me to some farmers to interview. So, knowing nothing about farming, I went to a field day in Mower County put on by farmer Tom Cotter, to tell other farmers about his work. About 25 farmers (and me) showed up. Amazing set of practices he’s blending together–no-till, no plow, cover crops 24-7-365, innovative grazing techniques, mycorrhizal fungi, science, ecology, joy, health, honesty. These farmers doing what they’re calling regenerative agriculture seem to have re-imagined their work as building soil for the long term, which not only leads to healthier food and better yield, but helps fight climate change by storing carbon in the soil. Then I went to visit another farmer from around Cannon Falls, Kaleb Anderson. A super fun conversation that further opened my mind to the work these folks are doing. He recommended a book called, Dirt to Soil, by North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown. So I read that, too: kind of a regenerative ag bible. And on and on.

I ended up writing a suite of songs — two recorded in 2020, and four more in 2022. Most of the images in these songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about.

A Little Better

A Little Better

1. When I get old I’ll leave this place
When I get old I’ll leave this place
When I get old I’ll leave this place
Pass it on to a younger face
I’m gonna leave this land a little better
For the next who comes along.

2. I rarely turn the soil these days
I rarely turn the soil these days
I rarely turn the soil these days
I’ve been trying out different ways
I’m gonna leave this land a little better
For the next who comes along.

3. Ran out to watch a storm last spring (3x)
I saw a three-inch rain soak in
I’m gonna leave this land a little better
For the next who comes along.

4. You smell that ground you know it’s right (3x)
Someone’s future’s looking bright
I’m gonna leave this land a little better
For the next who comes along.

5. They drank from this crick when Dad was young (3x)
My grandchildren will again
I’m gonna leave this land a little better
For the next who comes along.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording Credits: Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dan Chouinard — piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Steve Kimball — percussion
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar, group vocals
Rebekah Fergus — harmony vocals
Robin Nelson, – group vocals
Betty Tisel — group vocals
Jane Dunlap — group vocals
Brooks Cavin — group vocals
Larry Dittberner — group vocals
Recording Engineer, Dave Michel
Recorded at Orchard House, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I ended up writing a suite of songs — two recorded in 2020, and four more in 2022. Most of the images in these songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about.

Six Feet Deep

Six Feet Deep

1. Native prairie, the soil thrived
Way, way back before the plows arrived
It was six feet deep.
Can you imagine it was six feet deep? [Serious black!]
Once upon a time, the soil was six feet deep.

2. It was species rich, like a hundred-fold
Their roots all tangled in the midnight gold
It was six feet deep. Can you imagine it was six feet deep? [Serious black!]
All that life, standing on six feet deep.

3. Then came my people. Tell me how
The big fat loam’s gotten skinny now.
It was six feet deep. Can you imagine it was six feet deep? [Serious black!]
How on earth could did we squander that six feet deep?

4. City folks, you got to pay your mind
If the soil dies, you’re going right behind
Talking six feet deep. Can you imagine it — six feet deep? [Serious black]
Everybody’s got a stake in that six feet deep.

5. It’s no joke, it’s no jive
People need a vision to stay alive
How ’bout six feet deep? Could we regenerate six feet deep? [Serious black]
We’ve got a vision — We call it six feet deep.
We’ve got a vision — We call it six feet deep.
We’ve got a vision — We call it six feet deep.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording Credits:

Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dan Chouinard — piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Steve Kimball — drums
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar, group vocals
Rebekah Fergus — harmony vocals
Jeff Bower — tuba
Robin Nelson — group vocals
Betty Tisel — group vocals
Jane Dunlap — group vocals
Brooks Cavin — group vocals
Larry Dittberner — group vocals
Recording Engineer — Dave Michel
Recorded at Orchard House, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I ended up writing a suite of songs — two recorded in 2020, and four more in 2022. Most of the images in these songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about.

Southern Minnesota

1. Come listen while I lift refrains
To praise the unassuming plains
Of southern Minnesota,
The place where I was born.

2. From high above you’d see a quilt
Within each square a farm is built
‘Cross southern Minnesota,
I see it in my sleep.

Bridge: Her wand’ring streams wear evening gowns
Of cottonwoods half-fallen down.
It’s southern Minnesota;
Come just the way you are.

3. My father thrived in Austin town.
And there he lies beneath the ground.
In southern Minnesota,
Our stories build the soil.

Bridge: If I were just an old guitar
And earth could strum, I’m fairly sure that
That southern Minnesota
would sound from every string

6. Please greet my mom next time you go
To watch that fleecy sunset show,
As southern Minnesota
prepares to say “Goodnight.”

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Mississippi Water

Sweet Mississippi water
In July we lingered beside that
Sweet Mississippi water
Don’t you love how it meanders through this land?

Chorus:
Oo – oooh, Oo – oooh
Oo – oooh, Oo – oooh
Oo – oooh, Oo – oooh
Mississippi water.

Blue Mississippi water
October set me alone by that
Blue Mississippi water
Study’ng ’bout how it meanders through this land. (Ch)

Long Mississippi water
My two thousand miles of home, that
Long Mississippi water
All my memories meander through this land. (Ch)

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2021 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Pray for the Rain

1. Pray for the sunlight.
Pray for the rising
Of all living things.
Pray for the courage
To grow where you can.
And pray for the rain. Pray for the rain upon the land.

2. Pray for the beauty
Yet to be seen.
Pray for conversion
From pavement to green.
Pray for the courage
To follow your plans.
And pray for the rain. Pray for the rain upon the land.

3. Pray for the power
To come to the poor.
Pray for the hungry
Who knock on your door
Pray for the courage
To open your hand.
And pray for the rain. Pray for the rain upon the land.

4. Pray for the healing
That cannot be sold.
Pray for the riches
That banks cannot hold.
Pray for the courage
To take a new stand.
And pray for the rain. Pray for the rain upon the land.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1990 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Blood Moon Block Party

1. The harvest moon was looming in the Minnesota sky.
Ohhh, the Minnesota sky
The harvest moon was looming in the Minnesota sky
Then someone said that moon had turned to blood.

2. The neighbors all came out to see | the moon dissolve away. Ohhh …

3. I came with my binoculars | and passed them all around. Ohhh …

4. The shadow of our planet took / a bite out of the moon. Ohhh …

4. We talked of northern lights and all / the wonders of the sky. Ohhh …

5. The kids looked up to please their folks then / frollicked in the dark. Ohh, they frollic

6. The streetlights were obnoxious but / they couldn’t stop the show. Ohhh …

7. When I looked down I noticed several / mushrooms at my feet. Ohhh …

8. The twenty-something neighbors dragged / their couch out in the yard. Ohhh …

9. My mom in her apartment had / her curtains open wide. Ohhh …

10. Right before the end I saw / an eyeball in the sky. Ohhh …

11. Or maybe it was just a chocolate / cookie rimmed in white. Ohhh …

12. The harvest moon was looming in / the Minnesota sky. Ohhh …

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

What Makes Up My Body?

1. What you ask, what makes up your bo-dy?
What we ask what makes up my body?
Cells. Right. Well that explain’s that.
Cells make up my body and
Oh, it’s a wonder at all how we all came to be.

2. What you ask, what makes up a cell?
What we ask what makes up a cell?
Molecules.
Right. Well that explain’s that.
Molecules make up a cell, and
Cells make up my body and
Oh, it’s a wonder at all how we all came to be.

3. What makes up a molecule? Atoms … Right, … (etc, working backwards to cells)
4. What makes up an atom? Protons… Right, … (etc, working backwards to cells)
5. What makes up a Proton? Quarks… Right, … (etc, working backwards to cells)
6. What makes up a quark? who knows… Right, … (etc, working backwards to cells)

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2018 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Stir Up Your Power

Stir Up Your Power.

Refrain:
Stir up your power.
Stir up your power.
Stir up your power.
Come and lift the people. *

Cantor lines: pick and choose.

1. Come and lift the people (3x); Stir up your power.
2. Ancient Light of Justice (3x); Stir up your power.
3. Bridging what divides us (3x); Stir up your power.
4. Rest your hand upon us (3x); Stir up your power.
5. Fountain of Compassion (3x); Stir up your power.
6. Shining deep within us (3x); Stir up your power.
7. Reconcile the nations (3x); Stir up your power.
8. Tender of the Vinyard (3x); Stir up your power.
9. Ever-blooming Mercy (3x); Stir up your power.
10. Move us into action (3x); Stir up your power.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Also can be found in the collection Singing Our Prayer, by Tom Witt, which would have one of Tom’s lovely piano accpt scores.

I wrote this as an Advent, waiting song. Waiting for the transformation, the greening, the compassionating of this world. Waiting for the changes we long for, the changes we pray for and which we must participate in.

It’s easy to teach and lead this tune with no-paper. Get the group going own their part, then the cantor can sneak in.

*The 4th line of the group part could change with each verse, to echo the cantor line for that verse, or can remain “come and lift the people” throughout. e.g. verse two group part could be “Stir up your power, stir up your power, stir up your power, Ancient Light of Justice.” Depends on how you want to teach the song.

In The Living Water

In The Living Water

In the living water we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in!
In the living water we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in
To the water of justice, kindness, peace and community!
In the living water we have been baptized.

In the way of Jesus we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in!
In the living water we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in
To the water of justice, kindness, peace and community!
In the living water we have been baptized.

In the flowing Spirit we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in!
In the living water we have been baptized.
All are welcomed in
To the water of justice, kindness, peace and community!
In the living water we have been baptized.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. With new words by Mary Preus and Bret Hesla.
© 1999, 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Franklin Hotel

aka The Ordinary Ballad Of The Franklin Hotel

When I went to visit Richard \ I stayed at the Franklin Hotel
When I went to visit Richard | I stayed at the Franklin Hotel
If you go to Strawberry Point | If you go to Strawberry Point
You should stay there as well

Got to town kinda late | the hotel was locked and dark repeat
With a little note on the door repeat
said my room key was down at the bar

We met up the next morning | Breakfast in the dining hall repeat
Pressed tin tiles above repeat
And wainscoating down on the walls

It was thirty-seven tables | Scattered in a great big room..
You only gotta close your eyes…
You’re back in nineteen hundred and two.

chorus:
At the Franklin Hotel | At the Franklin Hotel |At the Franklin Hotel

We sat by a window | Sun caught me right in my eyes …
Just one other customer there …
Way on the other side

I said yes to the coffee | Kinda like I always do …
There was only one kind to choose …
They always make it so easy for you.

The waitress brought menus | Laminated stiff as a board …
I got the two eggs and toast …
What Richard got, I wouldn’t know
Chorus:

We talked about nothing | All that usual stuff …
My backsplash tiles are done …
And he sounded sick of his job.

I went for a refill | When our waitress came back …
Can I get more jelly, too? …
She went and got me three little packs.

Nothing else really happened | There isn’t much more to tell …
But I’m so super really glad I stayed …
Down at the Franklin Hotel.
Chorus

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2018 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Things That Can’t Be Done

1. May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers
May God bless you with discomfort
At well-designed half-truths
May God bless you with discomfort
At thin commitments
So that you may live from deep within your heart.

2. May God bless you with fires of anger
At exploitations
May God bless you with fires of anger
When money’s like a wrecking ball
May God bless you with fires of anger
At privilege grinning
So that you may join the trouble to heal this land (Ch)

Chorus:
May God bless you to be so foolish | to think you matter
May God bless you to be so foolish | to think you’ll change this world
May God bless you to be so foolish | to keep on trying
So that you may do the things that can’t be done.

3. May God bless you with tears like rainfall | for breath extinguished
May God bless you with tears like rainfall | for families torn apart
May God bless you with tears like rainfall | for trampled futures
So that you may stand with those whose lot is pain.

Text based on a prayer by Sr. Ruth Fox. Adapted and additional text Bret Hesla. Music Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Vocals — Bret Hesla and Rebekah Fergus.
Instruments — Bret Hesla.

Based on a prayer by Sister Ruth Fox, which I first heard when our Pastor Martha Schwehn-Bardwell used it in a sermon in the spring of 2021. Here’ the original.

A Non-traditional Blessing,
by Sr. Ruth Fox, OSB
May God bless you with discontent with easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships,
so that you live from deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people,
so that you will work for justice, equity and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, staarvation and war,
so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and to change their pain to joy.
May God bless you with the foolishness to think you can make a difference in this world,
so you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

Sr. Ruth Fox is a Benedictine Sister of Sacred Heart Monastery, Dickinson, ND (formerly Richardton, ND). She has been a leader in Benedictine life at home, on the national and international stage. She has also authored books and articles as well as provided many retreat across the country.

And thanks to Rebekah Fergus for the fantastic vocals on the recording.

Sure Has Been a While

Sure Has Been a While

Loosen up your heart.
Resurrect your style.
Tea with friends. it sure has been a while.

Practice up your lines.
Try ’em with a smile:
“Come on in. It sure has been a while!”

Let your morning glories open
For the new dawn ’bout to shine.
Unfurl those fuschia trumpets
And turn the world divine.

Kettle’s awfully full.
Just about to boil.
Come on in. It sure has been a while!

Let your morning glories open
For the new dawn ’bout to shine.
Unfurl those fuschia trumpets
And turn the world divine.

Kettle’s awfully full.
Just about to boil.
Come on in. It sure has been a while!
Hello friends, it sure has been a while

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Well, this song is going to be in my premature post pandemic collection. Last spring, 2021, the vaccine had many of us believing that the trajectory was toward ever-widening possibility. Here’s a little song I just wrote about emerging from that pandemic bubble, and actually inviting friends into your house. Felt pretty weird, and great. Sadly, the Delta variant has rendered this all a bit too optimistic…..

All That We Could Touch

All That We Could Touch

You and I walked the year away
Same familiar streets ev’ry day
Every night one more little stone
Added to our cairn of longing

Chorus:
But we got through, you and I
Got through when all the world was oil and water
We got through, you and I
When all that we could touch was one another

Now the snow’s mostly disappeared
Look at all the opening doors
I don’t know how my hand will shake
Closing in past six feet away. (Ch)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Tiny Little House

1. On a tiny little house down the block | Someone put a notice up
Then they came once more with a twenty-four-yard dumpster.
It took about two hours last Tuesday morn
Backhoe comes, then it’s gone
And it seemed like a metaphor for something.

2. It was once a really fine new house | Then it was a wee, old house
And now it’s destined for that twenty-four-yard dumpster
It took about two hours last Tuesday morn
Backhoe comes, then it’s gone
And it seemed like a metaphor for something.

3. When that linoleum was new in fifty-four
You should’a seen that checkerboard!
Now it’s pieces stored in a twenty-four-yard dumpster
It took about two hours last Tuesday morn
Backhoe comes, then it’s gone
And it seemed like a metaphor for something.

Bridge:
Ninety years of climbing narrow stairs
Ninety years of praying weary prayers
Ninety years of stories told in boards
But the walls just aren’t true anymore.

4. Cedar siding that was cupped, grayed and worn
Curly shingles holding on
I stood and watched them go in a twenty-four-yard dumpster
It took about two hours last Tuesday morn
Backhoe comes, then it’s gone
And it seemed like a metaphor for something.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Here’s a little song for the little old houses that are slowly disappearing from our neighborhood here in south Minneapolis.

If You Lessen Your Anger

If you lessen, lessen your anger
If you lessen, lessen your anger
Anger at the structures of power
Anger at the structures of power
Then you low, lower your love
for the victims of that power
You low-, low-, low-, lower your love.

(optional other verses)

2. If you soften, soften your outrage
If you soften, soften your outrage
Outrage at the vict’ry of greed
Outrage at the vict’ry of greed
Then you low………..greed

3. If you dampen, dampen your fire
If you dampen, dampen your fire
Burning ’cause the deck has been stacked
burning ’cause the deck has been stacked
then you low……………scam

4. Never lessen, lessen your anger
Never lessen, lessen your anger
Anger at the structures of power
Anger at the structures of power
Never low…..power

Lyrics: v1 William Sloane Coffin, adap. BH, v2-4 BH. Music by Bret Hesla.
© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

“If you lessen your anger at the structures of power, you lower your love for the victims of power.” William Sloane Coffin

Everywhere a Song

Everywhere A Song
(Songwriter’s Hymn), Jan 6, 2021

1. There’s a song in ev-‘ry person
There’s a song in ev-‘ry home
There’s a song in ev-‘ry fam-‘ly
More than one, more than one.

And even when I try, I try to write it down
I try to write it down and nothing comes
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.

2. There’s a song in ev-‘ry heartache
There’s a song in ev-‘ry pain
There’s a song in ev-‘ry struggle
Those we win, and those in vain ….(and even when)

And even when I try, I try to write it down
I try to write it down and nothing comes
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.

Bridge:
I don’t need to hear it anymore
I feel it like a flutter in my bones.
I don’t need to sing it
It quivers ev-‘ry moment on it’s own.

3. There’s a song in ev-‘ry journey
There’s a song in ev-‘ry road
There’s a song in ev-‘ry coming home
And setting down your load…. (and even when)

And even when I try, I try to write it down
I try to write it down and nothing comes
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.
I trust that there is ev-‘rywhere a song.

I’m certain there is ev-‘rywhere a song.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Deep Within the Night

Guitar accpt mp3

Piano accpt mp3

Stars in spin, all but one
Deep within the night
Stillness dwells in all things
Deep within the night

Infant born, cries of hope
Deep within the night
Wonder prays heaven to earth
Deep within the night

Breaths of steam rising up
Deep within the night
Grateful tears streaming down
Deep within the night

Fragile life comes once more
Deep within the night
Milky Way shines Amen
Deep within the night

(optional last verse)

Wings of awe, carry me
Deep within the night
To the place God is born (love is born)
Deep within the night

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score Cooper Sherry.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission., please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Here’s a simple song you can sing together for Advent/Christmas/Solstice/Winter. For me, it captures some of the wonder that I remember feeling as a young boy. Wonder looking up at Orion’s Belt in the December sky. Wonder at the soft singing while holding a candle on Christmas Eve. I still long to feel that wonder all these years later. Wonder and gratitude, perhaps two sides of the same coin.

Thanks to Cooper Sherry of Tacoma WA for creating the lovely piano score.

Sing G-L-O-R-Y

This song spells out the Christmas story as it slowly sets out the family manger figures in a little wooden stable. Two videos for two different melodies: gentle/reflective, and upbeat celebration.

Lyrics for the gentle version

Baby J-E-S-U-S is born this day.
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya
Go spread the happy news to all the E-A-R-T-H
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya
Sing G-L-O-R-Y this day.

Angels, like grandmas hovered R-O-U-N-D … Sing G-L-O-R-Y…
They couldn’t wait to squish the Prince of P-E-A-C-E …

Telescoping magi rode their C-A-M-E-L’s …
The star led them right to a lowly S-T-A-L-L …

Angel songs set shepherds on a Q-U-E-S-T …
They went to see the babe with all their S-H-E-E-P …

Set your fancy dishes on the T-A-B-L-E …
Call neighbors far and wide to join the F-E-A-S-T …

Baby J-E-S-U-S is born this day …
Good will and peace will be the song for Y-O-U and me …

And here’s the uptempo version:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS8VB-FgUtg[/embedyt]

Lyrics for up-beat version

Baby J-E-S-U-S is born on Christmas Day.
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya
Go spread the happy news to all the E-A-R-T-H
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya

Re- J-O-I-C-E, re J-O-I-C-E
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya
Re- J-O-I-C-E, re J-O-I-C-E
Sing G-L-O-R-Y Halleluya

Angels, like grandmas hovered R-O-U-N-D …
They couldn’t wait to squeeze the Prince of P-E-A-C-E …

Telescoping magi rode their C-A-M-E-L’s …
The star led them right to a lowly S-T-A-L-L …

Angel songs set shepherds on a Q-U-E-S-T …
They went to see the babe with all their S-H-E-E-P …

Set your fancy dishes on the T-A-B-L-E …
Dial up the neighbors for a P-A-R-T-Y

Baby J-E-S-U-S is born this day …
Good will and peace will be the song for Y-O-U and me …

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In The Blackness

In the Blackness

In the blackness is the sign of your eternity
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness lie the farthest reaches of your love
Cover us O God with this good night

Chorus:
Be our company in the fertile soil of midnight
Be our company in the rhythm of our rest
Be our company in the dark behind the starlight
Cover us O God with this good night
Cover us O God with this good night

In the blackness is the blanket of your gentleness
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness are your warming arms around the earth
Cover us O God with this good night

In the blackness is the silence of creation born
Cover us O God with this good night
In the blackness we can hear you humming freedom songs
Cover us O God with this good night

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2015 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Got Cover Crops

Got Cover Crops
Bret Hesla © 2020

1. Here comes wind | here comes rain.
Devil gonna take my soil away.
Oh black water, hills erode.
Uh-uh, I can’t let that go! That’s why …

Chorus:
I’ve got cover crops. I’ve got them all about.
I don’t leave myself defenseless with my bare soil hanging out.
I’ve got cover crops. I’ve got them all about.
Hold that water, build that soil
Makin’ the numbers pencil out.

2. Green protector, species cover
Add a bit of chicory for my mother.
Smorgasbord for cows to graze
Pollinator paradise. Telling you … Ch

3. I plant some things to keep it wet.
I plant some things to keep it fertile.
I plant some things that I can sell.
I love to double dip! Telling you … Ch

4. Italian ryegrass & mammoth clover
Brassica, peas and beans and big sunflowers
Radish, fescue and hairy vetch
Yeah, why not the kitchen sink?

5. They work great for me and I’ll tell you true.
I think they could work great for you.
If you don’t make the number one mistake:
You never tried ’em in the first place. That’s why … Ch

6. Fireflies sparkle, grandkids frolic.
Anybody heard of the word bucolic?
Who doesn’t love November green?
Hey, look over there — it’s another fox! Yes … Ch

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Dan Chouinard — piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Joe Silberschmidt — drums
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar
Rebekah Fergus- vocals
Martha Schwen Bardwell– vocals
Linda Breitag- vocals
Ray Makeever- vocals
Larry Dittberner- vocals
Bob Stuber– vocals

Production Services Matthew Zimmerman/Control Z

About a year ago I was commissioned to write a song for the Land Stewardship Project. They wanted a song about their Soil Builders program. Doug, my liaison, gave me a few brochures, a few notes, and offered to connect me to some farmers to interview. So, knowing nothing about farming, I went to a field day in Mower County put on by farmer Tom Cotter, to tell other farmers about his work. About 25 farmers (and me) showed up. Amazing set of practices he’s blending together–no-till, no plow, cover crops 24-7-365, innovative grazing techniques, mycorrhizal fungi, science, ecology, joy, health, honesty. These farmers doing what they’re calling regenerative agriculture seem to have re-imagined their work as building soil for the long term, which not only leads to healthier food and better yield, but helps fight climate change by storing carbon in the soil. Then I went to visit another farmer from around Cannon Falls, Kaleb Anderson. A super fun conversation that further opened my mind to the work these folks are doing. He recommended a book called, Dirt to Soil, by a North Dakota farmer named Gabe Brown. So I read that, too: kind of a regenerative ag bible. And on and on.

I ended up writing a suite of songs, two of which are recorded so far: Got Cover Crops (this one) and Back to Soil. Most of the images in these two songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about. Doug called me back at some point and said, “Whatever you do, be sure the song includes the message of “building soil,” because that’s what these folks are up to.” He also said I’d get a $100 bonus if I incorporated the term “mycorrhizal fungi” into the song.

I’m waiting for that bonus, Doug.

The band is a total creature of the pandemic. Once I was ready to record, Covid -19 hit. So no possibility for side-by-side in the studio, much less to rehearse. I got a social distance plan from my friend Matthew. I first recorded myself, at home, singing and playing guitar. Then I invited a bunch of players to separately listen to my track and record themselves, at home, on their instrument. Be sure to keep to the same beat. Matthew put it all together. But we’ve still never played these songs all together in the same room. It helps to have dynamite musicians. Thanks all!

Back to Soil

Back to Soil
Bret Hesla © 2020

1. Well if you study history, then you’ll know
The empire falls when the topsoil goes.
The signs today are pretty clear to read
Soil’s looking bad and we’ve lost six feet.
But here’s the news, we could build it back
And I heard about farmers with a plan for that.
So I paid one a visit, we sat to chat ‘n that
one cup of coffee set me on a whole new track.

2. I went to no-till, let the soil be still.
I quit fighting what’s on my side.
Then it was cover crop, covered every bare spot
with the armor of a thick green hide.
And when the fields turned into gaudy buffet
I put new ways to graze in place.
Now I’m working with nature, “Halleluya!”
The dirt’s coming back, back to soil.

3. I keep living roots, year round living in the soil
Pulling carbon out of the sky.
They pull it down underground, then it’s shot right out
To feed the little microbes, mycorrhizal fungi.
[x] I make ’em happy, and they send back
all the nutrients that I was paying money for.
I’m building back black. “Halleluya!”
The dirt’s coming back, back to soil.

4. It takes a lotta swag, to buck big ag
Still farm and keep the family fed.
You gotta first find a mentor that you respect
You study mother nature, and scratch your head.
I made a lotta mistakes as I was changing things
But one day I noticed all the rain soaked in.
Best of all, my money stopped eroding
all the way to the Gulf of Monsanto.

5. And it’s joy, joy, there’s a certain kind of joy
I feel when I’m down on my knees.
Joy, joy, when I grab a chunk of soil
And it crumbles like cottage cheese.
I know I’m on the right track, standing near
‘Cause it smells like a good cup of coffee.
Here’s a little cup for you. Halleluya!
One sip and I think you’ll see
Why the soil’s got me singing, “Halleluya!”
One sip and I think you’ll see
Why the soil’s got me singing, “Halleluya!”
The dirt’s coming back, back to soil.
The dead dirt’s coming back. | Here’s a little cup for you.
I hope you like it black.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording: Bret Hesla & Six Feet Deep
Bret Hesla — lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dan Chouinard — piano
Dave Michel — bass, vocals
Joe Silberschmidt — drums
Tim Gustafson — lead guitar
Rebekah Fergus- vocals
Martha Schwen Bardwell– vocals
Linda Breitag- vocals
Ray Makeever- vocals
Larry Dittberner- vocals
Bob Stuber– vocals
Production Services Matthew Zimmerman/Control Z

In 2020 I was commissioned to write a song for the Land Stewardship Project. They wanted a song about their Soil Builders program. Doug, my liaison, gave me a few brochures, a few notes, and offered to connect me to some farmers to interview. So, knowing nothing about farming, I went to a field day in Mower County put on by farmer Tom Cotter, to tell other farmers about his work. About 25 farmers (and me) showed up. Amazing set of practices he’s blending together–no-till, no plow, cover crops 24-7-365, innovative grazing techniques, mycorrhizal fungi, science, ecology, joy, health, honesty. These farmers doing what they’re calling regenerative agriculture seem to have re-imagined their work as building soil for the long term, which not only leads to healthier food and better yield, but helps fight climate change by storing carbon in the soil. Then I went to visit another farmer from around Cannon Falls, Kaleb Anderson. A super fun conversation that further opened my mind to the work these folks are doing. He recommended a book called, Dirt to Soil, by North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown. So I read that, too: kind of a regenerative ag bible. And on and on.

I ended up writing a suite of songs, two of which are recorded so far: Back to Soil (this one) and Got Cover Crops. Most of the images in these two songs come directly from the comments of the folks I talked to or read about. Doug called me back at some point and said, “Whatever you do, be sure the song includes the message of “building soil,” because that’s what these folks are up to.” He also said I’d get a $100 bonus if I incorporated the term “mycorrhizal fungi” into the song.

I’m waiting for that bonus, Doug.

I Shall Walk

I Shall Walk

This recording is from a 1995 (ish) live concert of the group Bread for the Journey. Larry was a guest vocalist on this song, which he also wrote. To hear the whole live recording, or get the companion songbook, see Global Songs 2: Bread for the Journey.

Lake of Mercy (songbook)

In my 25 years as a hospital chaplain, there are two songs I have turned to again and again, to sing with patients of a wide variety of spiritual traditions: Bread for the Journey and Lake of Mercy, composed by my friend Bret Hesla. Both these songs, with simple melodies that seem to sing themselves from the first time they are heard, consistently evoke images and experiences of healing and wholeness during times when there is hope for physical healing, and just as readily in the sacred context of letting go at end of life. I have sung them hundreds of times but for me they have never become tiresome or stale, for they always seem to bring joy and strength to others at first hearing.
— Bill Dexheimer Pharris

This collection gathers 20 songs for Bret’s that are especially useful for chaplains and other spiritual care providers who use music and singing in their work for healing. The songs, chosen in collaboration with Chaplain Bill Dexheimer Pharris of M Health Fairview, reach across spiritual traditions, using metaphors that touch the core of our human experience. If you work with people from diverse backgrounds, these songs will be extremely useful to you.

Lake Of Mercy
May What Is Right For Every Season
Letting Go
We’ll Come Shining Through
God Has Been With Us
In God’s Embrace
Bread For The Journey
Teach Us What It Means To Pray
Nothing Worth Doing
May You Rest
Slowly, Slowly the Evening Falls
Pour Out Your Heart
Juntos Creamos Espíritu
Everything That We Have
You Belong in This World
This Good Old Man
Be With Us Now
Come Rest From Your Labors
We Share the Peace
This Remains

Individual songs, click above.
Songbook orders, click below.

Note: there are several songbook options: Leadsheet or Chordchart books are for guitar players. Piano book for keyboard players. The Tablet book contains links to quickly jump to any song from your tablet.

Who Can Help But Celebrate?

Wonders here, wonders there.
Wonder why they’re ev’rywhere.
Who can help but celebrate
the beauties of the earth?

(chorus)
I mean Who? Who? Who?
Who can help but celebrate?
Who can help but celebrate
the beau-ties of the earth?

Milkweed flow’r, purple rain
Monarch out my window pane
Backyard sanctuary
where I worship ev’ry day. (ch)

Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Light above the world so high
From way way back in time.

Faces light faces dark
Faces smiling in the park
Face a new direction
and you find another friend. (ch)

Time to work, time to play,
time to thank God ev’ry day.
Take some time to go take in
the outdoors ev’ry day. (ch)

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsR40wCXowY[/embedyt]

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Bret Hesla, Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Fiddle: Linda Breitag
Vocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

This song was written on commission for my home congregation, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. It combines two key themes for that community: celebration and care of the earth. Located in the middle of a large metropolitan area, it’s important – and challenging–to find ways to live sustainably and be connected to the earth. We’re wrestling with this challenge as we move into the next 150 years.

When you sing it, note that everything comes in twos. Have the songleader sing each verse once alone, then all repeat. Likewise for the chorus. Enjoy those “Who”s!

This Lovely Food

This Lovely Food

1. This lovely food. These lovely people.
This lovely city. This lovely earth.
There is no space left in our hearts for all our gratitude.
It just keeps spilling down the edges of our life together.

This waking sky. This ancient morning.
This simple garden. This fragrant soil.
The Mississippi of God’s love runs through our stories here.
And just keeps spilling down the edges of our lives.
It just keeps spilling down the edges of our life together.

2. This font of stone
Is something you could play in.
This floor of maple
Begs for a dance.
And when the singing sometimes catches us a certain way
Sweet tears come spilling down the edges of our life together.

These wide front doors
Are level with the the sidewalk.
This wall of windows
Welcomes the street.
Then the announcements send us forth to join God’s wider “we.”
As love keeps spilling down the edges of our lives.
It just keeps spilling down the edges of our life together.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson; Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Vocals: Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Song Notes:
I wrote this as part of a commission for the church I attend, Our Saviour’s Lutheran of Minneapolis. One thing they asked for is if I could write a song for singing after communion. Here’s a shot at that; gratitude, joy, community all wrapped up in a little two-step.

Gratitude Ritual idea (outdoors): Ask folks to bring a jar of water from home, and to table their jar with things they’re grateful for. Then, when gathered, place a pitcher in the center of the space. Label the pitcher “All our hearts.” Then invite folks to come forward, speak one or two things from their list, and pour their water into the pitcher. Sing/play this song throughout. Hopefully you’ll have lots and lots more water that space in the pitcher, and the overflow of gratitude will be super wet and fun. Probably and outdoor ritual, but creative folks could figure out how to do it indoors and capture the wetness.

Verse 2 celebrates particulars of that community’s life and gathering space. The church’s old building burned down in 1995, and the new building has a much more modern, open design, including an entire wall of floor to ceiling windows in the sanctuary. The windows face Chicago Avenue, with all its pedestrians, buses, traffic, and city flavor. It’s fun to sing a song that’s very specific to your community. Feel free to adapt these v2 images to fit your people and location.

This Is Home

This Is Home
© 2019 Bret Hesla.

Here we’re invited. Come right on in.
Here we were always part of the plan.
Seeking a thousand, we’ve stumbled on ten!

Refrain:
This is home. Let us give thanks
For all of these mercy-filled glories of God.
This is home. Let us give thanks.
The home we have longed for has found us.

Here we are noticed. Here we can’t hide.
Here we are greeted. Looked in the eye.
Here our name’s spoken numberless times.
This is home ….

Here we can say it: Set down our load.
Break through the silence Crippling our soul.
Share without judgment our wounds from the road.
This is home ….

Here there are duties for each of us planned.
Here we must show up: the time is at hand.
Here we’re expected to give what we can.
This is home ….

We have a vision we’re eager to tell.
Wide is the table, deep is the well.
In-crowd dismantled, we circle with all.
This is home ….

[for other verses, see Leadsheet]

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt
Guitar: Bret Hesla
Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Vocals: Bret Hesla, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag

Notes: This Is Home.
This song is part of a commission series, Love’s Wide Embrace, written for a Lutheran congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before doing any songwriting, I did a lot of listening and asking questions. “What’s one story you’d like to share that captures something about this congregation and your connection to it?” “What does it feel like to be a part of this church?” “Why are you here?” “Why are we here?”

This song is a collection of some of the responses of people in the congregation. Lots of the answers and observations were about being in community, about being deeply welcomed, but also about being accountable to one another in community. Words like “embraced” and “accepted” and “challenged” kept popping up. Also the word “home”.

Come Rest In the Arms of Love

Come Rest In The Arms Of Love

Come rest in the arms of Mercy.
Come rest in the arms of Love.

Come you for whom hope is fading.
Come rest in the arms of Love.

Take refuge from all distraction.
Come rest in the arms of Love.

Come feel what is still within you.
Come rest in the arms of Love.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever
Vocals: Ray Makeever (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

Notes: Come Rest in the Arms of Love. This song was written on commission for my home congregation, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. It’s a repetitive, Taize-like structure, lending itself to prayers, meditative settings. If you do each verse twice, the first by a single voice songleader, and the repeat by the group, you can do it with no printed paper.

Also, of course, you can easily make up some new verses, so please do.

Our Saviour’s Rouser

Our Saviour’s Rouser
© 2019 Bret Hesla.

We are called, nurtured and sent
to celebrate the beauties of life.
Called, nurtured and sent
to serve, and share what God has provided.
We are called, nurtured and sent
to go do justice in this land.
We are L U T H E R A N S
making P E A C E.
All together! Halleluya! Amen!

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever;
Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Notes: Our Saviour’s Rouser

This song was commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When I first met with the anniversary committee, I asked what they had in mind for the song they wanted. The first thing they said was, “our mission statement.” Now you might think, hmmm, mission statement, kind of dry. But not this one: “we are called nurtured and sent to celebrate, serve and do justice.” I got to thinking, what is a mission statement. It’s something we all rally around and whole-heartedly buy in to. Which made me think back to my high school fight song, except here we’re committed to nonviolence, so let’s call it a rouser. I think every group needs it’s own rouser. Schools already have them. Why not churches? Here’s ours.

By the way, if you want to sing this in your community, you don’t have to spell it “L-u-t-h-e-r-a-n-s”. We are M-E-T-H-O-D-I-S-Ts, or C-A-T-H-O-L-I-C-S, or M-E-N-N-O-N-I-T-Es, or U-N-I-T-A-R-I-A-Ns, or U-N-D-E-C-I-D-E-Ds, or P-R-E-S-B-Y-Ter-E-Ns, or C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-Ns, etc. No matter how you spell it, the sky’s the limit on peacemaking, justice and joy. Let’s all get on board.

ps. I managed to get another song out of this same mission statement, Loves Wide Embrace. Different flavor altogether–more of a straight-up hymn.

Dandelion Prayer

Dandelion Prayer
© 2019 Bret Hesla.

Help us to be your breeze of love.
To blow your kindness all around
Till justice pops up like
dandelions, dandelions,
Pops up like dandelions.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Guitar: Bret Hesla, Piano: Tom Witt
Vocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Notes: Dandelion Prayer. This song was written on commission for my home congregation, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. I’ve heard it said that the challenge of writing lyrics for hymns is like taking PhD concepts and putting them in language a 5-year-old can understand. So I listen to our pastor’s children’s sermons, and the simple repeat-after-me prayers that they lead to close each time. The core of this song springs from one of those.

I’ve added a little line dance in the recording, that would work for a group arranged in rows, although if you had space, a little cupid shuffle macarena type choreography would be perfect. The spoken instructions are:
Blow right right right right
Blow left, left left left
Dandelion right, dandelion left
Turn the world around
We could turn the world around

I Say Peace

I Say Peace
© 2019 Bret Hesla

I say “Peace”
when I see the cross.
That word somehow jumps out of my mouth.
I can’t explain it.
But when I see the cross
I say “Peace, Peace Peace.”
First I say “Peace.”
Then I say “Peace.”
And then it’s “Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace.”
I can’t explain it.
But when I see the cross
I say “Peace, Peace, Peace.”

I say “Thanks” when I see the sun ….

I say “Love” when I see you all ….

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson;
Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

This song was written on commission for my home congregation, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. When I was gathering ideas for this commission series, one member of the congregation shared this story. “Every time my two-year-old son toddles into the church sanctuary and sees the cross, he says ‘Peace.'” It seemed like a great image for a song, and encapsulates something central to this congregation, deeply committed to taking collective action and making lifestyle decisions in line with peacemaking, justice and non-violence.

God Has Given Us Each Other

God Has Given Us Each Other
© 2019 Bret Hesla

1. God has given us,
given us each other
and reaches through our arms
as we enfold, through days of sorrow,
those of us who are hurting.

2. God has given us,
given us each other
and reaches through our arms.
In times of shock,
when we are reeling,
we have held to each other.

3. God has given us,
given us each other
and reaches through our arms.
When suff’ring speaks,
we feel the breaking.
Then we join in the lifting.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Harmonica: Bret Hesla;
Vocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell (lead), Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Notes: God Has Given Us Each Other

This song is one of a commission series for my home congregation, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each Sunday morning, the service ends with open time for announcements. Often someone will come forward to share a pretty difficult personal story, some hardship or sorrow they’re going through, or even a confession of some sort. Along with a request for support, and prayers. The silence in the room at these times is itself quite powerful.

As I gathered song ideas and insights from members of the community, it was clear that this type of vulnerability and sharing, and the responses of support and embrace from fellow members, are an important feature of this congregation, and a source of its strength.

Bread of Heaven

Bread of Heaven
© 2019 Bret Hesla.

Bread of heaven, cup of love.
Bread of heaven, cup of love.
You are the way we live.
You are the way we live.

Bread of sharing, cup that’s passed.
Bread of sharing, cup that’s passed.
Be in our letting go.
Be in our letting go.

Bread of mercy, cup of hope.
Bread of mercy, cup of hope.
Off’ring a way of peace.
Off’ring a way of peace.

Bread of witness, cup unbowed.
Bread of witness, cup unbowed.
Challenge of wrongful walls.
Challenge of wrongful walls.

Bread that rises, cup held high.
Bread that rises, cup held high.
All things shall be made new.
All things shall be made new.

——-other verse options ———-

Bread of kindness, cup of grace.
Bread of kindness, cup of grace.
Hosting a meal for all.
Hosting a meal for all.

Bread of refuge, cup of rest.
Bread of refuge, cup of rest.
Balm for a wounded world.
Balm for a wounded world.

Bread of beauty, cup that shines.
Bread of beauty, cup that shines.
Fill us with simple joys.
Fill us with simple joys.

Bread of courage, cup of fire.
Bread of courage, cup of fire.
Forge us for justice now.
Forge us for justice now.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever; Guitar: Bret Hesla
Vocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Love’s Wide Embrace (song)

Love’s Wide Embrace

1, 4. We have been called.
We have been called to celebrate
Our home here in love’s wide embrace.
To bear in mind.
To bear in mind all that we share;
To join the song of love’s good ways.
Halleluya, we have been called
to join the song of love’s good ways.

2. We have been held.
We have been held in tender care
As we lay wounded by the road.
Receiving grace.
Receiving healing at the hands
Of strangers with the face of God.
Halleluya, we have been healed
by strangers with the face of God.

3. We have been sent.
We have been sent and gladly go
to stand where borders must be crossed.
To challenge powers,
To challenge powers, to welcome all,
Embracing love’s full joys and costs.
Halleluya, we have been sent
embracing love’s full joys and costs.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt;
Vocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Rebekah Fergus, Martha Schwehn-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino

Notes: Loves Wide Embrace (from the 2019 commission series with the same title)

Song background and teaching tips

This song is based on the mission statement for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota–“we are called nurtured and sent to celebrate, serve and do justice.” Verse Two alludes to the Good Samaritan parable, taking the insight of Rev. Dr. Asa Lee of Wesley Theological Seminary, who was teaching at Holden Village when our congregation was there last summer. Dr. Lee stressed that to find the compassion to work for justice, we need to identify not with the Samaritan nor with the priest, but rather with the injured and robbed victim, the traveler who received the love and help of the Samaritan. When we can notice those experiences in our lives, we can find the will to work for justice, to give as we’ve received.

This hymn is mainly intended to be sung as a congregational song. But you could also perform it as a choir anthem. In which case, you might do: v1 solo, v2: sopranos melody, ATB hum parts, v3: SATB, then instrumental break, with something like flute or cello on the melody, then ending with v1: unison all.

ps. For another song based on the OSLC mission statement, check out the Our Saviour’s Rouser. A completely different feel — cue the marching band.

Love’s Wide Embrace (songbook)

(2019 Songbook). Loves Wide Embrace: Hymns to celebrate community while working for justice
by Bret Hesla.

Ten songs written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota on the occasion of their 150th anniversary (1869-2019). The themes were gathered in conversation with members of the church, and reflect the mission and key themes of this urban congregation. (Songbook price includes shipping. Browse contents below.)

Songbook Contents: click/listen/download individual songs
Our Saviour’s Rouser
Love’s Wide Embrace
This Lovely Food
Come Rest in the Arms of Love
God Has Given Us Each Other
I Say Peace
This Is Home
Dandelion Prayer
Bread of Heaven
Who Can Help But Celebrate?

Order hardcopies below (songbooks/CD/piano): (email me for bulk orders)

Full mp3 download: CD Baby: Love’s Wide Embrace

On That Christmas Night

On That Christmas Night
© 2017 Bret Hesla

1. Travelers worrying. Time was pressing on them.
Find a place, any place, on that Christmas night.
Straw and dust, leaky roof, looking like a palace.
Angels were spinning tales there on that Christmas night.

2. What will be slowly comes, turning like the heavens.
All in wait, all in prayer on that Christmas night.
Gentle breath, gentle heat, donkey in the stable.
Mary works laboring there on that Christmas night.

Bridge:
Then time was rended by a shout,
A mighty moan.
And with a great downward cry
Behold, the miracle was done!

3. Soft the hands, soft the cloth holding baby Jesus.
Loving gaze, loving tears on that Christmas night.
Mary and Joseph hum lullabies of kindness.
Parenting peace on earth there on that Christmas night.

© 2017 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

Her Song Spins a Blackness

Her Song Spins a Blackness
© 2016 Bret Hesla

1. Her Song spins a blackness full of stars.
Her Song wakes the wonder in my heart.
Let ev’ry string strum, strum with gratitude
that Her Song comes spinning all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

2. Her Song swells the apple on the tree.
Her Song tethers Mary to the babe.
Let ev’ry voice cry, cry with gratitude
that Her Song comes swelling all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

3. Her Song weaves the magi with the poor.
Her Song soothes the fear of letting go.
Let ev’ry horn blow, blow with gratitude
that Her Song comes weaving all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

4. Her Song woos the shepherds to the dance.
Her Song thrums in strangers shak-ing hands.
Let ev’ry foot jig, jig with gratitude
that Her Song comes wooing all the world
On this pregnant holy night.
When Heaven gave a tiny kick…. inside the belly of the earth.

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2016 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Here’s a Christmas song I love; it’s so fun to sing with the congregation. Expansive imagery for the divine. The pregnant earth. Mary, shepherds, magi, and the infinities. Try it out.

Wet Heavy Snow

Wet heavy snow.
It breaks your back
‘Cause it won’t fall off the shovel
When it’s thrown. I hate that!

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1991 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

It’s a fun little four-part round. I wrote it right after the big Halloween snowstorm in 1991, Minneapolis, MN. The melody covers a great big range, meaning that it’s easiest to sing with a big group, where some folks can shovel out those low notes, and others can sweep off the high notes.

Humid alternative: By the way, if you’re from a non-snow climate, maybe you can make up your own text. How about starting, “Wet heavy air….”? Let me know what you come up with, I’ll add it to the webpage!

Earth Vespers Evening Prayer Service

Opening Song: For the Wholeness of the Earth, by Bret Hesla

Opening Prayer: Something that introduces the topic of Earth Care and gives thanks for the beauty of creation. Create your own, or find one. Here’s an idea:

Evening Prayer, by John Philip Newell

In the infinity of night skies
In the free flashing of lightning
In whirling elemental winds
You are God.
In the impenetrable mists of dark clouds
In the wild gusts of lashing rain
In the ageless rocks of the sea
You are God and we bless you.
You are in all things and contained by nothing.
You are the Life of all life and beyond every name.
You are God and in the eternal mystery we praise you.

Readings: Choose two or more readings, one scripture and one contemporary poem. Some ideas (see credits for sources):
Scripture: Job 12:7-10
Poem:

When I Am Among the Trees, by Mary Oliver, or
The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry

Song: Teach Us To Discover by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Current News: Gather text for a few current news items on climate change or alternative energy or other eco-topic. Some short excerpts, others longer. Have two or more people alternate reading. Follow this with a short time of silent reflection.

Prayers: Teach the short refrain, Bring Healing To Our Lives by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. Then alternate the singing with reading its companion prayers (see same link above) or create similar with earth focus

Afterward, open it up to a time of People’s Prayers, saying simply, “For what else do the people pray?”

Closing Song: Evening is Falling, by Bret Hesla

Dismiss: Go in peace. Love our planet home. | Thanks be to God.

————–

Support documents:
Song Links: The above songs, with leadsheets, chords, mp3s and piano parts, can be found in Singing Prayers for the Earth: thirty-one songs, hymns and short refrains addressing the climate crisis of ecology and justice. © 2017 Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.

For the Wholeness of the Earth, by Bret Hesla
Teach Us To Discover by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Bring Healing To Our Lives by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.
Evening is Falling, by Bret Hesla

Readings and other resources:

When I Am Among the Trees, by Mary Oliver from Thirst, © Beacon Press, 2006.
The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry. from The Peace of Wild Things, and Other Poems, © Penguin, 2018.
Evening Prayer, by John Philip Newell, from Celtic Benediction, © William B. Eerdman, 2000.

Credits: Thanks to Mary Preus, from the Community of St. Martin in Minneapolis, for putting this service together. Evening Prayer, by John Philip Newell, from Celtic Benediction, © William B. Eerdman, 2000. Reprinted with permission.

FFI: bret.hesla@gmail.com. richard@worldmaking.net.

Start by Listening

Start by Listening

Chorus:
If we want to love our neighbor
Gotta start by listening, listening, listening
If we want to love our neighbor
Gotta start by listening, listening, listening

Verses:

Earth Day Verses:

Autumn Garden verses

Listen to the green beans who are finished for the season
Listen to the kale standing green still in October
Listen to the squash vines as the spill out past the raised beds
Listen to the compost as it turns waste into topsoil
Listen to the fungi who are working in the darkness

Words by Bret Hesla and South Minneapolis Day Camp. Music by Bret Hesla.
© 2018 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In the book One Square Inch of Silence, Gordon Hempton observes that deep listening is a first step to caring about our neighbors — the landscape, the trees, the insects, the people.

The South Minneapolis Day Camp, an urban camp for elementary aged kids, had a theme of “love your neighbor” in 2018, connecting that to not only humans but the earth. I put this song together, and got the children to participate on the verse-writing.

Solidarity With Immigrants Prayer Service

Gathering song: Come and Make the People Whole, by Bret Hesla

Opening Prayer: Lift up the themes of welcome, immigrant justice and our faith calling. Here’s one idea: Immigrant’s Prayer / Oración de un Inmigrante

Opening Song: Let Not the Needy be Forgotten, by Bret Hesla

Readings: Choose one or more readings, both scripture and contemporary. Some ideas:

Leviticus 19: 33-34 (substitute “immigrant” for “alien”)
Romans 12: 9-18
The Immigrant’s Creed, – by Jose Luis Casal

Song: Help Us to Stand With, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Prayers: Open up a time for prayers of the people.

Leader begin: Let us lift up our hearts and lives in prayer. After each prayer, I’ll say, “God, who is mercy” and please respond “Hear our prayer.”
After all who want have spoken, leader close with: “God, who is mercy: You embrace the smallest of creatures, you embrace the whole universe. Your tenderness knows no end, we, too, rest in your arms. Amen.”

Closing Song: For Justice Love and Peace, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

——————-End service outline———————

Support documents:

Song Links: The above songs, with leadsheets, chords, mp3s and piano parts, can be found in Singing Prayers for the Earth: thirty-one songs, hymns and short refrains addressing the climate crisis of ecology and justice. © 2017 Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.

Come and Make the People Whole, by Bret Hesla
Let Not the Needy be Forgotten, by Bret Hesla
Help Us to Stand With, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
You Embrace the Smallest, by Bret Hesla
For Justice Love and Peace, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Readings and other resources: Here’s a link to a UCC site with many relevant readings and text on immigrant justice.

Credits: Thanks to Mary Preus, from the Community of St. Martin in Minneapolis, for putting this service together. FFI: bret.hesla@gmail.com. richcharbruxcoll@msn.com.

This Is The Place

This is the place
Where we belong.
Here where we’ve blended our lives.
The longer that we stay here
The more clear it becomes
Here we can lean back in the everlasting arms.
This is the place
Where we belong.
Sharing the Wine of the World
The longer that we stay here
The more clear it becomes
Here God has welcomed us home.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Do You Still Believe?

Do You Still Believe?
© 2017 Bret Hesla

Do you still believe in the prayers your mother taught you?
In the liturgies through the ages handed down?
Do you still believe in the tools your father left you?
Do you trust the stream of time?
In the stream of time
In the stream of time
God has promised to be there
See what God has done
See what God has done
Bring your grateful hearts in prayer

Do you still believe in the challenges of Jesus?
In the hammering of the theses on the door?
Do you still believe when old tenets are dismantled?
Do you trust the winds of change?
In the winds of change
In the winds of change
God has promised to be there
See what God has done
See what God has done
Bring your grateful hearts in prayer

Do you still believe when the workers are not working?
When the hunger lasts and the answers can’t be found?
Do you still believe though the future is uncertain?
Do you trust the rains of doubt?
In the rains of doubt
In the rains of doubt
God has promised to be there
See what God has done
See what God has done
Bring your grateful hearts in prayer

Do you still believe in the stream upon the prairie?
In the rain that falls, in the wind that sweeps the plain?
Do you still believe that the green will follow fire?
Do you trust this living land?
In the living land
In the living land
God has promised to be there
See what God has done
See what God has done
Bring your grateful hearts in prayer.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Not long after my father died, fellow church member Jim Herrick told me that every Sunday when they gathered for choir, my dad would ask him, straight faced, “Jim, do you still believe?” I’ve assumed it was his dry sense of humor, but who knows. Anyway, I’ve taken that for the title, and gone from there. Thanks Jim.

God Has Been With Us

God Has Been With Us
© 2017 Bret Hesla

Always. And always
Always. And always
Always God has been with us on our journey
Amen. Amen. We know it to be so.

Through the days of our struggles
Through the days of our struggles
Always God has been with us in our struggles
Amen. Amen. We know it to be so.

As we risk reaching wider
As we risk reaching wider
Always God has been with us reaching wider
Amen. Amen. We know it to be so.

When we meet at this table
When we meet at this table
Always God has been with us at this table
Amen. Amen. We know it to be so.

On our knees planting gardens
On our knees planting gardens
Always God has been with us planting gardens
Amen. Amen. We know it to be so.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

I lucked out when my hometown congregation invited me to write a song for their 150th anniversary. As I interviewed individual members, the big themes that emerged were 1) gratitude–for so many things, 2) belonging–to a wide church family, and 3) looking ahead–what should we be doing now?

This song expresses that gratitude. I like how they felt a Spirit with them in all the variety of life’s triumphs and hardships and curveballs.

In God’s Embrace

In God’s Embrace
© 2017 Bret Hesla

In God’s embrace we’ve come thus far
In God’s embrace we travel forth
Through perils unknown, on paths untrod.
In God’s embrace we shall remain.
In God’s embrace we shall remain.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Inspired by what is sometimes known as the Travelers Prayer, or the Holden Village Prayer. Original title: “Call of Abraham.” Source: Daily Prayer. Edited by Eric Milner-White and George Wallace Brigg. Great Britain (1942)

O God, you have called your servants to ventures
of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice

Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice
© 2017 Bret Hesla

[Refrain]
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.
Sing for the saints who’ve filled this hall.
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.
Sing for the hands who’ve raised this fam’ly of God.
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.
Sing for the story that goes on.
Dwell in gratitude. Celebrate what’s coming.
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.

1.Now thank we all our God; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Who wondrous things has done; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Who from our mothers’ arms; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Has blessed us on our way; Full-throated praises now we’re singing:
[Refrain]

2. For all the saints, Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Who from their labors rest, Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
From earth’s wide bounds, Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
From ocean’s farthest coast; Full-throated praises now we’re singing:
[Refrain]

3. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Praise God, all creatures here below; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Praise God above, ye heav’nly host; Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
Creator Christ and Holy Ghost; Full-throated praises now we’re singing:
to vs 4, no Refrain]

4. When times were lean and days were hard
Our forebears prospered by your grace.
When conflict troubled our accord
Your healing spirit guided our ways.
This church is home and friend;
a welcome without end.
Grant that our bonds be true;
Our deepest link to You
Is Your belov’d community.
[Refrain]

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This is a medley for both choir and congregation. Great for Reformation Sunday if you’re a Lutheran. Merges a new tune (the polka refrain) with fragments of traditional hymns, sung by the choir I’m thinking, in SATB.

I’ve recorded it here with guitar and singing and a bit of harmonica, but that should give you the idea. It’s great with the piano, of course, and brass never hurts.

Always Give Thanks

Always Give Thanks

Always give thanks.
Always give thanks.
Find it in your heart to be grateful.
Always give thanks.
Always give thanks.
Pray to have a grateful heart.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

We Are The Song (hymn)

We Are the Song
© 2017 Bret Hesla

1. We are the song of a stream on the prairie.
We are the hymn of a sky filled with awe.
We are the chorus of wagons arriving
Seeking a life from the topsoil and sod.

Chorus:
Always give thanks; Always rejoice!
We have been sung by God’s beautiful voice.
In times of trial, in seasons of joy
We have been sung by God’s beautiful voice.

2. We are the song rising after tornados.
We are the chorus of great flocks of youth.
We are the hymn of a town full of music
Brimming with jobs that gave families a boost.

3. We are the song of a main street returning.
We are the chorus of mission come home.
We are the hymn in a language unheard of
Knocking with gifts at a welcoming door.

4. We are the song of the cross on this altar.
We are the chorus of prayers with a pint.
We are the hymn of injera and lefse
Mixing our flavors and blending our lives.

5. We are the song of inspiring leaders,
Some in the pulpit but most in the pews.
We are the chorus of friendship and service
Hanging the sheetrock and sharing the food.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Austin, MN, on their 150th Anniversary October 2017
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

I wrote a series of songs on commission for St.Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, MN, St. Olaf was founded in 1867 by Norwegian immigrants, meeting on the front porch of a small cabin on the prairie. Today the town is a vibrant, culturally diverse mix of people, and the church is discovering all sorts of new ways to be people of faith. St. Olaf is also my boyhood church and Austin my hometown, making this project extra meaningful for me.

We Are the Song (songbook)

We Are the Song: Hymns of Gratitude and Belonging.
This is a collection of seven songs written on commission for St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, Minnesota for their 150th anniversary, 2018. Click to view separate songs. Purchase songbooks below.

We Are The Song
This Is The Place
Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice
In God’s Embrace
Always Give Thanks
God Has Been With Us
Do You Still Believe

When God Rested

When God Rested

The human God
Is all about love and family,
and sometimes strife.
And the people will tell you that
After god made the people
God rested on the next day.

Now the insect God
has six legs
and compound eyes
And the insects will tell you that
After god made the insects
God rested on the next day.

The rock God
is three in one
Igneus, sedimentary, and metamorphic
And the rocks will tell you that
After god made the rocks
God rested on the next day.

The mushroom God
lives in the dark damp heaven below
And occasionally sends up her son
to live and die on the earth so that
other mushrooms may live.
And the mushrooms will tell you that
After god made the mushrooms
God rested on the next day.

The algae God
Is small and green
And never dries out for long
And the algae will tell you that
After god made the algae
God rested on the next day.

The cat God
has whiskers and purrs
In the deep shag carpet
by a warm sunny window
And the cats will tell you that
After god made the cats
God rested on the next day.

The emptyness God
Is never there
And cannot be grasped
And the void will tell you that
After god made the emptiness
God rested on the next day.

Words by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Reader: Larry Dittberner

A while back, I read a book called The Myth of Human Supremacy, by Derrick Jensen. He covers the whole cascading disaster, from economies to science to arts to religion to you name it, caused by believing and acting as if we are the top.

This playful poem pokes a little at that rotten core.

That Other Prayer

As I pull lambsquarters from the garden
I cock my arm to toss it into the compost
Then, on second thought
Take a bite of God, and of myself.

As I listen to the downy woodpecker
Hammering on the telephone pole in the alley behind my house
That other prayer
the one made of sentences
Stops making sense

As I breathe in the smell
of the soggy earthworm dirt of April
As I run across the squishy lawn
And my tennis shoes get cold sopping wet
That other prayer
the one made of sentences
Stops making sense

As I walk the gravel road at evening
Noticing the spaces between the noises
of the twilight swampy ditch spring peepers
Listening for the Great Unhearable
That other prayer
the one made of sentences
Stops making sense

The more I give myself to the earth
The less drive I have to figure out, and use,
the name for what I seek
And that other prayer,
The one made of sentences,
Stops making sense

The more I notice and carefully draw
the web patterns in the wings of dragonflies
The more I lose track of time
And that other prayer,
The one made of sentences,
Stops making sense

The more I give my feet to the forest paths
The more I forget to read the map.
Or care if I even brought it.
And that other prayer,
The one made of sentences,
Stops making sense

The more I give my ears
To the rain-drop percussion on the umbrella
The more I relax into the cold trickles
Running down the surprised skin of my back
And that other prayer,
The one made of sentences,
Stops making sense

May “Lost Track of Time”
Be posted on the door of my heart each day
Like a “Back Tomorrow” note
Taped to the door of an abandoned office
On a sunny afternoon in June.

Amen.

Reader: Larry Dittberner
Words by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

To Connect More Deeply

To Connect More Deeply With Nature
Bret Hesla © 2017

To connect more deeply with nature
Is a responsibility
We cannot preserve what we don’t come to love through touch and play
To sustain the earth, we must do more than purchase green products
We must touch the greenness and hurry up about it
Before it has all broken off the branches and fallen, brittle and useless
We must notice the spider chasing its prey in the cracks between bricks in our musty happy basements

To connect more deeply with nature
Is becoming a narrow privilege.
More and more it is only those with enough wealth and comfort
We who have the means and the time,
To carbon footprint our way across thousands of miles
To visit and be renewed in the majesty of earth’s dwindling beauty
Of course, the poor have the weeds growing around the front steps
While the well-off have whale tours in Alaskan fjords
Snorkeling with sea turtles in the Caribbean
And afternoons strolling through botanical gardens
After which we are on fire for preservation

To connect more deeply with nature
Is a pleasure
As the healing lotion of crane calls
and the aloe whispering of aspen leaves
soften the permanent scowl
of we, the screen starers
Until the relaxed face of wonder
Takes us beyond cheap smiling
Into the place outside of time,
Step follows step deeper into the head-high grasses of the bliss prairie
Till at some point our old eyes reassert themselves
And we look around, baffled but not concerned
And we wonder how in the world we ended up here
Next to these lovely, pulsing stands of leafy stemmy god-ness.

Reader: Larry Dittberner
Words by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Biker’s Prayer

This is my prayer for the bikers I see
Everywhere on the streets of the Twin Cities
Sailing down the lanes painted just for them
As they go gracefully on their commute to work

Just a few years ago there weren’t that many riders
But then something flipped
And whatever it was
I would sure like to have some of it bottled
To pass out at certain powerpoint-weary meetings I’ve been stuck in

This is my prayer for the bikers I see everywhere
To give them a bit of a hill to coast down
And a safe slalom ride through the potholes, past prairie-coneflower yards
And a calm to ignore the occasional middle finger “get off the road” drivers
And I pray that an eight-color madness of beauties
Bless this city we live in and bike through

This is my prayer for the bikers I see
Those alien, helmeted pedalers
Beguiling the harried car drivers
to someday consider
The workout of going to work
in the fresh air of morning
And what a morning it is, when
those bikers, undaunted by sweet siren thoughts
of saving ten minutes by driving,
mount up after oatmeal and coffee
Don the green jacket, florescent and shameless
Tuck the right pant leg into their right sock, (how dorky)
And set off pedaling new days onto their life expectancy

This is my prayer for the bikers — us bikers
well, now that we’ve started the journey of slowness,
of “how fast I get there is not most important,”
Pretty soon we’ll start looking at the folks who are walking
and think, hmmmmm, what if I got up even a half hour earlier
And walked myself off to work
without needing to tuck in my right pant leg?
Until finally, that glacial commute of two legs on the sidewalk
Becomes so alluring and so irresistible
That we slow it all down, walk,
and spend even less time at the breakfast table reading the paper
and whatever else it was I intended to do
with that time I saved by getting to work faster.

To me, it all feels subconsciously right
As if three million years of evolution
might make more sense
Than a hundred bleak years
slouched in a faster mode of getting from point A to point B
For money to spend at point C
for food you bring back and eat at point A
On a brick patio covering what used to be a good-sized garden.

Reader: Catherine Malotke
Words by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

You Embrace with Your Tenderness

You Embrace with Your Tenderness
Song ©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Song Text: Pope Francis, © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

You embrace with your tenderness
All that exists

[Prayers by Jake Johnson]

1. God of grace, we give you thanks for renewing the church in every age. Bless those who proclaim your mercy throughout the world, meeting the needs of humanity and protesting injustice. Teach us to claim your creation with your compassion, with your tenderness.

2. Generous God, your eye is on the sparrow and you are present with all things. Revitalize your pollinators around the world, heal the forests and rivers wounded by humankind, and guide our stewardship so that all life flourishes as you intend.

3. Compassionate God, we celebrate the life of your lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, pan-gender, two-spirited, queer, questioning, gender variant, intersex, bi-gender, asexual, pansexual, agender, gender queer persons, all of your children who don’t quite fit into any of these identities, and those learning more about what makes them them. Be with us as we grow evermore into our true selves, and give courage to everyone who faces oppression, bigotry, hunger and homelessness. For you embrace all.

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

We Give Ourselves

We Give Ourselves
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

We give ourselves to the earth
We give ourselves to one another
And find ourselves in Christ

“The more I give myself to the earth, the more I belong to God.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Prayer of the Universe

No one has ever really seen God, but if we love each other, God is in us.
If anyone says they love God and hates their sibling, they lie.
If we don’t love the people right in front of us, how can we love God who is invisible?

1 John 4 (paraphrase by RBC)

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Tree Song

The Tree Song
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

These woods have trees.
Each tree has growth rings.
Each ring a story of its fight.
These trees are strong–
strong and resilient.
Each year a circle added to a beautiful life.
Hard and easy, laughing, weeping,
storm and sunshine, real life.
Sometimes lovely, sometimes crazy
Nothing’s wrong as we grow inside.

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Teach Us What It Means to Pray

Teach Us What It Means to Pray
by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan and Bret Hesla
Teach us what it means to pray
in all this world of sorrow
Teach us what it means to pray
and do our part for good
More than duty, more than words can say
Teach us what it means to pray

Teach us what it means to live
with a whole heart on this planet
Teach us what it means to live
even only for this breath
What is ours to take and what to give?
Teach us what it means to live

Teach us what it means to try
to heal a world split open
Teach us what it means to try
to share another’s pain
One part suffers, all creation cries
Teach us what it means to try

Teach us what it means to live
Teach us what it means to pray

Words and music by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan and Bret Hesla. © 2017 Worldmaking.net(ASCAP). All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net, CCLI and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

I understand prayer very differently today than I did when I was younger. I’m pretty sure that’s true for most of us. In fact, I’m overflowing with questions and uncertainty; the older I get, and the more complicated the world reveals itself to be.

But I’m not troubled by this uncertainty. I just try to marinate in it, and find the healing and wholeness within it. These words try to capture some of that comfortable discomfort. I sent them to my friend Richard and he returned them as a song. (The moral of that story is, if you want to collaborate with someone, it works best if you find someone who can do 90% of the work. Thanks Richard.)

Teach Us to Discover

Teach Us to Discover
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing
United with ev’ry creature,
We thank you, Lover of the universe

Fill us with a reverent awe and respect
In wonder for ev’ry creature
We thank you, Lover of the universe

Magnolia, gorilla, beluga and dog,
We bless them all, ev’ry creature
We thank you, Lover of the universe

Bob, Eva, Loretta, Fredrique and Lavonne
Each one of us holy creatures
We thank you, Lover of the universe
We thank you, Lover of the universe

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Pour Out Upon Us

Pour Out Upon Us
Song ©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Song Text: Pope Francis, © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Pour out upon us
Pour out upon us
The power of your love

[prayer: “Pitcher of All Goodness” by Bret Hesla]

1. Pitcher of All Goodness,
Pour out upon us the power of humble service,
that we would seek to serve above seeking to gain.

Pour out upon us the power of discernment,
that we would notice where we’ve gone wrong
and adjust the way we speak, touch, email and text
in our desire for loving community.

Pour out upon us the power of togetherness,
that we would share public spaces as true neighbors.

Magnificent Pitcher of All Goodness, pour out upon us the power of your love.

2. Pour out upon us the power of slowing down,
that we would be renewed by the simple passing of time.

Pour out upon us the power of paying attention,
that we might allow moments of awe in small things,
and notice the fragile beauties trampled in our mad rush to save time.

Pour out upon us the power of humility,
that we would give up being in charge of our planet.

Universal Pitcher of All Goodness, pour out upon us the power of your love.

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net.
Song Text: Pope Francis, © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Help Us to Stand With

Help Us to Stand With
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Help us to stand with our abandoned and forgotten brothers and sisters.

Fill us with grace, oh
to claim one another
Fill us with grace to mend what is torn

Fill us with peace oh
to live as a family
Fill us with peace to mend what is torn

Fill us with strength oh
to struggle for justice
Fill us with strength to mend what is torn

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

God Make Me a Channel

God Make Me a Channel
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
God, make me a channel of your peace flowing from your river
God, make me a channel of your peace flowing from your river

Where there is hate, we plant love
Where there is hurt, forgiveness
Where there is doubt, we plant faith
and where despair, hopefulness.

God, make us a channel of your peace flowing from your river
God, make us a channel of your peace flowing from your river

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

For Justice, Love and Peace

For justice, love and peace,
Give us courage in our struggle

[Blessing: “Take Courage” by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan and Bret Hesla]

Friends, may God be in our arms as we work for justice,
In our hearts as we practice habits of kindness,
In our heads as we learn to take risks to make this planet a place of peace.
People of God, take courage!

Singers: Conie Borchart, Robin Nelson, Liza Johnson, Kathy Pino, Ray Makeever, Paul Andress, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla
Guitar: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Words and music by Richard Bruxvort Colligan. ©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Brother Sister Creatures

Brother Sister Creatures

Huge and tiny beings,
Each one part of our family.
Hearing, smelling, seeing,
Each one part of our family.

[refrain]
Brother sister creatures of the ground,
Brother sister creatures of the sea,
Brother sister creatures of the air,
Oh I love my brother sister creatures.

Loud and quiet beings,
Each one part of our family.
Moving, touching, feeling,
Each one part of our family. (ref)

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Bring Healing to Our Lives

Bring Healing to Our Lives
©2017 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Bring healing to our lives
sowing beauty, sowing life

[prayer: “Bring Many Healings” by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan]

1. Bring healing to our cities
where people gather and move, eat, drive and wait.
Architecture for businesses and housing, streets and sidewalks instilled with a grounding trust in our neighbors.

2. Bring healing to our politics:
Respectful conversation, careful listening to what’s beneath the words,
a generous allowing for differences in order to share life.

Bring healing to our neighborhoods.
Yards, alleys, work and play, families of all shapes and sizes.
Sharing space and time, giving always the benefit of the doubt.

3. Bring healing to our bodies:
Blood, skin, bone, chemistry and organs working together in harmony

Bring healing to our wild spaces:
habitats for those underground, on the surface, in the seas, in the air.
Spaces for oaks, for prairie grasses, for wetlands.

©2017 Worldmaking.net (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Use with permission please. Licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

You Embrace the Smallest

You Embrace the Smallest

You embrace the smallest of creatures
You embrace the whole universe
Your tenderness knows no end
We, too, rest in your arms.
You embrace the widest of oceans
You embrace the thinnest of hopes
Your tenderness knows no end
We, too, rest in your loving arms.

This song is part of a cycle of song I wrote with my friend Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Singing Prayers for the Earth(2017). The text of this song is inspired by Pope Francis’s 2015 Encyclical, in which is found “A Prayer for Our Earth.” I like to portray the sense that humans are just a part of the whole, the beautiful wide endless details of the cosmos. This feeling, we’re a part of something bigger, doesn’t feel like a humbling to me. It feels like warm understanding of belonging.

You can use this refrain by itself, or interspersed with readings or prayers. The recording is an example of the latter, using the text below.

[Prayer: “Arms of Renewal” © 2017 Bret Hesla]

Arms of Renewal, you hold in your healing embrace the earth that sustains us, the green life that covers the seas and land, the microscopic cells whose gifts to us we are unaware of, the rocks and particles who by not being alive are seen merely as resources rather than siblings wrapped in the same sweet bear-hug. Help us to feel your arms of healing, and to be those arms for the places we live, as we learn to renew the healthy habitats of wholeness.

Arms of Refuge, you hold in your tender embrace all our families who flee their homes, all those among us who flee from poverty, all of our girls who seek to escape trafficking, the birds threatened by loss of their forest homes, the seas threatened with the runoffs of our growing appetites, the parklands shaved ever thinner from all sides. Help us to feel your refuge in our communities both human and wider, and help us to be the arms of refuge for one another:

Arms of Compassion, you hold in your tender embrace all of us who struggle with our health, all of us who daily live with mental illness, all of us who suffer from the moral and physical wounds of war. All of us who need healing. We carry all these names in our hearts, and we set their care upon the combined voices of this singing … [pause] … Help us to feel your compassionate arms around us all, and to be those arms for one another

Embracer of all things, may we live in gratitude for your gifts of love. Amen.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Vocals, Harmonica: Bret Hesla
Piano: Tom Witt
String Bass: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Reader: Larry Dittberner

Wonders of the Universe

Wonders of the Universe

Wine us. Dine us.
Delight us with a sense of awe.
Delight us with a sense of awe
As we take time to notice
The wonders of the universe.
Wine us. Dine us.
Delight us with a sense of awe.
Delight us with a sense of awe
As we take time to notice
The wonders of the universe.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

This song is part of a cycle of song I wrote with my friend Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Singing Prayers for the Earth(2017). Here’s a little prayer disguised as a polka, or vice versa. It’s meant to be used in a back-and-forth with gee-whiz facts about this amazing universe. The recording, and below, gives an example, but there’s no limit to the amazing tidbits you could dig up. Build your own polka gee whiz presentation. Then get a handful of readers to take turns barking out the OMG-Wowness. Just because it’s a prayer doesn’t mean you have to close your eyes and be somber.

[Gee whiz facts: better yet, collect your own favorites]

Flight #1
Octopuses have three hearts.
Butterflies can taste with their feet.
A group of parrots is known as a pandemonium.
Polar bears have black skin.

Flight#2
The sun makes up more than 99% of the mass of the solar system.
Almost every element in your body was made in an exploding star.
Each of a tarsier’s eyeballs is as big as its brain.

Flight #3
Beaked whales can hold their breath for over two hours.
The universe might be a hologram.
Dung beetles can use the Milky Way to navigate.
If you cry in space the tears just stick to your face.
Scientists have discovered a planet where it rains glass, sideways.
The world’s oceans contain 20 million tons of gold.
If you multiply the number 111,111,111 by itself, you get the number: 12345678987654321.
You can use a blue whale’s wax earplug to work out its life history.

Trust the Bird

Trust the Bird
Ch:
If the bird disagrees with the bird book
I’m gonna trust the bird.
Would you believe what you read in the index
No matter what you heard?
Listen to the wren and the chickadee
The truth in the air is the authority
If the bird disagrees with the bird book
I’m gonna trust the bird.

Life is deeply listening
To voices all around
When you find you’re deeply listening
You hear that joyful sound. (Ch)

Life is sweet allowing
Things to be their way
We love that sweet allowing
That is why we say (Ch)

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. © 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

This is based on a wonderful quote from Audubon, “When the bird and the book disagree, believe the bird.” Last month, in the cold snowy January of Minnesota, I was out walking in the woods and saw an Eastern Bluebird. What? They’re not supposed to be here this time of year. This little fluff ball got fooled into trusting the climate changed winters we’ve been having for the past 30 years. She’s suppose to be in the southern US at this time of year.

There Are Gardens Waiting

There are gardens waiting

There are gardens waiting to be planted.
And green hearts longing to be born.
There are healings yet to be imagined.
And wild fields waiting to return.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

This refrain was written and recorded as part of a 2017 earth-care song cycle, “Singing Prayers for the Earth.” Sometimes the message feels like a word of hope, sometimes encouragement, and sometimes just feels like a deep fact. It’s nice to sing this song all by itself, usually done twice. It also works as a gateway to reflection, doing it several times and bracketed with space for silence. It works well as a closing song to a gathering. Some communities have sung it after serving communion. The song obviously struck a new chord in 2020 with the pandemic. And now, more recently, with the disaster of the 2024 presidential election.

The recording intersperses singing with readings of earth-healing (below). I’d encourage you to use the earth-care readings, or find new ones to connect with your context and longings.

[reading: “Let Us Recognize” by Bret Hesla]

Friends, Let us recognize that the healing of the earth will involve us doing what we know how to do: planting gardens, creating green policies, letting go of harmful habits that give us short term profits and long term damage. Let us lift up the gardens waiting to be planted and pledge ourselves to more planting.

Let us recognize that the healing of the earth will involve generations yet to be born. Walt Whitman said, “Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” Let us lift up the green hearts yet to be born, and the earth they will inherit.

[sing]

Friends, Let us recognize that the healing of the earth will involve ideas no one has thought of. We may not be in the planning room when they come. We may not be around for the public announcement of success. But we trust that these changes will come. Let us lift up the healings yet to be imagined: for the earth, for our bodies, for all nations.

Let us recognize that the greening of the earth will continue after humans are no longer in the picture. It’s bigger than us. Let us lift up the wild places waiting to return: the healing we receive when we visit those wild places, and their worth on their own merit.

Snow Globe World

Snow Globe World
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

Intro:
The world is like a snowglobe and the people are its glitter
And every day God give this ball a shake
As people swirl around me, I’m mesmerized in beauty
And grateful for the happy fact that no two are alike
[And here’s my song to celebrate that no two are alike]

1. I’m glad there are people who know wild mushrooms
And don’t share their secret locations
I’m glad there are people who net dragonfllies
Even though I feel bad for the captured
I’m glad there are people who memorize poems
Like the Cremation of Sam Magee
Ch: I sing in praise of the bright colored glitter of people that
swirl in our snow globe world.

2. I’m glad there are people who listen to cars
And know which clicks might signify trouble
I’m glad there are people who run marathons
And spend all of their free time in training
I’m glad there are people who take me to task
When I pretend I’m not copping out (Ch)

3. I’m glad there are people who like to stay home
Reading novels while on the front porch swing
I’m glad there are people who study the past
And wear old funny clothes on the weekends
I’m glad there are people who like to keep books
And make sure that the figures are jake (Ch)

4. I’m glad there are people who speak in three tongues
And can help me share tools with my neighbors
I’m glad there are people who’re outraged by stuff
That I see in the news and ignore it
I’m glad there are people who go for the pink
when the proper shoe color is brown (Ch)

5. I’m glad there are people who think that a bug
Has a worth quite the same as what ours is
I’m glad there are people who get out and spray
So the wedding outside is successful
I’m glad there are people who don’t like to read
Who would rather watch movies and dance

Last Ch:
I’m so glad there are six billion
Pieces of bright colored
glitter that swirl in this
beautiful blizzarding
shimmering flickering
magical home of a snow…..globe…..world.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

Pour Upon Us All

Pour Upon Us All

Pour upon us all
The power of your love,
That we may be mindful
How we walk on this earth.
Pour upon us all
The power of your love
That we may defend
What sustains us.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

[prayer: “Chalice Prayer” by Bret Hesla]

Chalice of goodness:
We feel the power of your love pouring down from the sun,
earth’s gorgeous nuclear power plant wheeling across the sky,
whose warm love travels 93 million miles
as if it were merely an eight-minute errand to deliver cookies to a shut-in.
Pour your love upon us.

Chalice of goodness:
We feel the power of your love in the topsoil,
the compound interest of the ecosystem,
concocting a damp black trust fund
out of the loving remains of the striving green layers,
and hosting a joyful resurrection on a recurring annual schedule.
Pour your love upon us.

Chalice of goodness:
We feel the power of your love in the algae,
pumping out oxygen for no good reason,
which just so happens to answer our prayer
before we even made any plans to fold our hands and bow our heads,
much less take a breath to sing.
Pour your love upon us.

For these powerful gifts we have received, we give thanks today and always. Amen.

On the Eighth Day

On the Eighth Day
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

They say that way back when God made the world in six short days
And rested on the seventh, ’cause it’s Sunday.
But don’t you kind of wonder what happened that next Monday?
I’m here to tell you God got up and went right back to work.

On the very next morning the eighth day God made more bugs
On the very next morning the eighth day
God made more bugs
New bugs over here / Bugs over there
New bugs coming out everywhere
With absolutly no sign at all
of when this party might be slowing down.

On the very next morning the ninth day God made more germs
On the very next morning the ninth day God made more germs
New germs over here / germs over there
Virus festering everywhere
With absolutly no sign at all
of when this party might be slowing down.

10th day: Slime molds… (liverworts breaking out everywhere)
11th day: Gravity … (heavenly attractions everywhere)
12th day: Doughnuts … (happiness breaking out …)
13th day: Chaos (…looks like my college dorm room everywhere)

14th day: On the very next morning the 14th day
The moon moved to adjourn / But God objected on a point of order.
Ah, A-men and women and trans and gender-queer
and MtF and FtM / and gender fluid and non gender
and everyone in-between.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

Not Without Peace

Not Without Peace

Not without peace
Can we stop polar ice disappearing.
Not without welcome for us all
Will our forests be strong
We can’t treat the land
With respect we don’t show for each other.
So we pray to be kind
As we work to rewild the world.
Let us pray to be kind
As we work to rewild the world.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This lively song connects the healing the planet with our other efforts for justice. The song is part of a 2017 collection addressing ecology and climate justice, Singing Prayers for the Earth, by composers Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.

I like to use this song interspersed with readings, depending on the current context and situation.

“Peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three absolutely interconnected themes, which cannot be separated and treated individually.”

[Pope Francis, Laudato Si 2015]

“Four grave problems tempt us to despair in this world: climate change, massive inequality, militarism and money in politics. The good news is that the four are connected: when we act to repair any one of these problems, we create conditions that help resolve the others.”

[Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Authentic Hope. Orbis Books, MaryKnoll, NY, 2012 ]

Letting Go

Letting Go
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

Letting go. Letting go in You.
Letting peace flow into my heart.
Letting calm rest upon my soul.
Letting go. Letting go in You.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

In 2017 I got to collaborate with Richard Bruxvoort Colligan on a series of songs addressing the climate crises–the weather climate crisis, the political climate crises, the spiritual climate crisis. Letting go is a deep healing we need in our society. Letting go of human domination of nature, letting go of things and accumulation for those of us with too much, letting go of control. This simple refrain can support a time of meditation, prayer and renewal. You can sing this song by itself, or interspersed with any sort of reading, prayer, meditation, instrumental music, or silence.

Let Not the Needy Be Forgotten

Let Not The Needy Be Forgotten
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

Ref: Let not the needy be forgotten.
And let not the hope of the poor be stripped away.

1. The victims of war
The refugees pouring in
The kidnapped and trafficked girls
The families torn apart

2. Pray what is the task
For people of faith when those
Who flee for their lives
Arrive to permanent second class?

3. How great is the breach,
The fault line through every town
A wound not allowed to heal
Corroding the ties that bind.

4. Communities thrive
When those who are safe take risks
For those under threat and fear.
To make sanctuaries bloom.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com

I got the idea for this lament on human suffering from an adult forum I led in 2016 on the question, “What hymns do we need that are currently missing as we consider climate change?” Many folks were connecting the crisis of the broken earth and the crisis of human oppression. One suggested this text, from Psalm 9:18: “Let not the needy be forgotten; nor the hope of the poor be taken away.” That comment led to this song. I added verses with themes of specific human need that I see in 2017, the oppression of recent immigrants here in the U.S, the desparate need for sanctuary. Some of us need sanctuary, some of us can provide it. Here’s hoping we can join together and all be healed.

The long vocal dance on the word “away” is the heart of this lament, and gives your congregation a relatively rare opportunity to sing like that. Guitar and/or piano are appropriate for accompanying. The entire song can be sung by a congregation, but another option would be to have only the refrain sung by the congregation and the verses sung by soloists or a choir. You could also use the refrain only (without verses), alternating a sung refrain by the congregation with short spoken segments, or prayers, specific to your current situation.

For the Wholeness of the Earth

For The Wholeness of the Earth

For the Wholeness of the Earth
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

1. We lift this prayer
for the wholeness of the earth.
We lift this prayer
for the wholeness of the earth.
We lift this prayer
for the wholeness of the earth.
Can you feel it rising in you?

2. We tune our ears to the wholeness of the earth.(3x)
Can you feel it ringing in you?

3. We turn our lives to the wholeness of the earth.(3x)
Can you feel it spinning in you?

4. We stand our ground for the wholeness of the earth (3x)
Can you feel that granite in you?

5. Give thanks to God for the wholeness of the earth.(3x)
Can you feel it rising in you?

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Guitar, Harmonica, Lead vocals: Bret Hesla
Piano: Tom Witt
Bass, Drums: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan,
Singers: Mary Preus, Andrea Sorum, Sarah Preus, Nate Crary , Conie Borchart, Robin Nelson, Liza Johnson, Kathy Pino, Ray Makeever, Paul Andress, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

This lively song connects the healing the planet with the healing of ourselves and our communities. It’s part of a 2017 collection addressing ecology and climate justice, Singing Prayers for the Earth, by composers Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. What wonderful news: this good creation rings and spins in each of us. We rise together: give thanks to God.

This song should swing! Guitar and/or piano are appropriate accompaniment. If you can, add a walking bass and percussion. A trumpet or a fiddle would sound good playing a verse for some alternation between singing and as an introduction to the song. Find a way to encourage some movement–not only the children, but everyone. May we always dance our prayers of hope and gratitude for this earth.

A song with lots of repetition gives the singers the opportunity to get into it whole heartedly. To teach it the first time, I usually sing it once all through, a capella. Then I go back and teach one line at a time, call/echo. From there, everybody go for it; close is good enough, in my experience.

Fill Us With Peace

Fill Us With Peace

Fill us with peace. Fill us with peace.
That we may live as sisters and brothers,
Fill us with peace. Fill us with peace.
That we may live harming no one.

Song Text: Pope Francis, © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Adapted and set to music by Bret Hesla. © 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Teach this refrain to your community. Then try singing it interspersed with spoken readings/prayers. You can either bracket the longer readings with the refrain, or alternate every other, using shorter readings. The above recording is one example.

[Prayer: “May We Live Into Our Sisterhood” © 2017 Bret Hesla.]

May we live into our sisterhood with the air that we breath, a clearness whose carbon dioxide weaves the green blanket that enfolds us, a clearness whose oxygen fuels the moving creatures, a clearness whose winds blow to dry the clotheslines of rich and poor alike. May we live as if we are members of the same family with this breezy wispy sister of sacred invisibility. Fill us with the peace of this sisterhood

[sing]

May we live into our brotherhood with the seas that cover our planet, in whose waters life began 3 billion years ago, in whose waters live 90% of all living things, whose tides give our clocks meaning, whose salt give our food flavor, whose health we threaten with our garbage rafts. May we live as if we are members of the same family with this great blue brother of liquid holiness. Fill us with the peace of this brotherhood.

[sing]

May we live into our sisterhood with the tiny particles we cannot see, tiny particles whose chemistry helps plants capture the sun, tiny particles whose business runs deep within our bodies, tiny particles whose dignity does not depend on our knowing they exist. May we live as if we are members of the same family with this great gathering of unimagined tinyness. Fill us with the peace of this sisterhood.

[sing]

Fill us with all these deeply-rooted meanings of peace, Dear Mother, that we may better cooperate as you gather us every day into your one great family. Amen

Come and Make the People Whole

Come and Make the People Whole
© 2017 Bret Hesla.

Ch:
Whole. Come and make the people whole.
Come and make the people whole.
Come and make the people whole.

Heal now the twisted values that abandon
the fam’lies needing help to be whole.
Come and make the people whole.

Heal now the broken laws that favor rich folks,
and block the rising of the poor folks.
Come and make the people whole.

Heal now the deep infection of white priv’ledge,
the wound that festers in the incrowd.
Come and make the people whole.

Heal now the fear that keeps us all from seeing
that we are all a single body.
Come and make the people whole.

Help us to find a room for every person
To find a home for every people
Come and make the people whole.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Minnesota organizer Grant Stevenson once pointed out that all our various efforts for justice, for anti-racism, for immigrant welcome, for earth healing, for shared abundance – can be summed up in a single prayer, “Come and make the people whole.” That idea forms the core of this song, with his permission.

Usage: “This is our opening song every time we use our earth-friendly liturgy. It sets the stage for the rest of the service. It can be thought of as a confession.” Paul Andress, music leader at Edina Community Lutheran Church.

Collection: This song is part of a 2017 collection, Singing Prayers for the Earth, that I did in collaboration with Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.

Bring Healing

Bring Healing
© 2017 Bret Hesla.
Ch:
Bring healing.
Bring healing to our lives we pray.
Bring healing to our lives we pray.
That we protect this earth,

1. Soften those who only look for gain
Gain derived by damaging the planet and the poor.
May we see beyond the bottom line
in these fair meadows,
in these fair woodlands.

2. May we live like we are not alone,
knowing how our choices ripple far outside our lives.
Other creatures also have a home
in these green pastures, by these still waters.

3. Wake us from dominion’s siren spell
Turn us from disrupting all the rhythms that restore.
May we stand in awe and be renewed
in silent nights. in holy nights.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

All Be Stewards

All Be Stewards
© 2017 Bret Hesla

All be stewards. All be stewards.
All be stewards. All be stewards.
Now. Now. Now.

Other possible texts:

Peace is calling. Peace is calling. Peace is calling. Peace is calling. Now. Now. Now.

Love is rising. Love is rising. Love is rising. Love is rising. Now. Now. Now.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This year on Earth Sunday, we used this song for the closing song. No teaching required: once you hear it you can sing it immediately. If you have the four chimes in the key you want to sing in, that would make a nice intro, or outro.

You’ll recognize the tune; it’s a doorbell chime engraved in my subconscious. I think the tune is a part of what is sometimes know as the Westminster Quarters, played by the famous clock in London.

In my image, the children of the future are standing at the door, ringing the bell.

All the Water in the World

All the Water In The World.

1. All the water in the world, The water in the world
Pouring down from the heavens
All the water in the world, The water in the world
Pouring down from the sky
Let’s look up now and get our faces wet. Oh,
Let’s look up now and get our faces wet
With water, like love pouring down.
We’ll get our faces wet
With water, like love pouring down.

2. All the water in the world, The water in the world
Flowing free in the river
All the water in the world, the water in the world
Flowing free in the stream
Let’s step in now and get our pant legs wet. Oh,
Let’s step in now and get our pant legs wet.
With water, like love flowing free.
And [get our pant legs wet
With water, like love flowing free.

3. All the water in the world, the water in the world
Welling up in the ocean.
All the water in the world, the water in the world
Welling up in the sea.
Let’s stand close now and feel the pounding waves. Oh
Let’s stand close now and feel the pounding waves.
Of water, like love welling up.
And feel the pounding waves
Of water, like love welling up.

Words and music by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan and Bret Hesla. © 2017 Worldmaking.net(ASCAP). All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net, CCLI and Worldmaking.net. Contact: Richard@worldmaking.net

Singing Prayers for the Earth (Book/CD)

Thirty-one songs, hymns and short refrains addressing the climate crisis of ecology and justice.
© 2017 Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Songs: See links below to listen, view, download
Other eco-justice resources: service outlines, poems, articles
About the project

Click below for Separate Songs

Robed In Glory

Robed in Glory

1. Royalty in plain disguise
Which of us will lift our eyes to
see how this world is robed in glory?
May God grant us all release.
From our small devices freed
To see how this world is robed in glory.

Ch: This world is robed, robed in glory.
This world is robed, robed in glory.

2. Scientists have seen and heard
the moment that the universe
began in a great exploding fury.
Waves that have been traveling
thirteen billion years to bring
a hum to our ears, like bushes burning. (CH)

3. Dragonfly so high above
When it’s born it’s just a grub
For four years completely underwater
Then it climbs above and molts
Dons its helicopter clothes to
Zigzag the summer; then it’s over. (CH)

4. Dead crow lying on the ground
Other crows soon gather round
to voice something deep by squawking loudly
Watching them place sticks and things
There beside the fallen bird
I see flowers by my father’s gravestone (CH)

5. Ash to ash and dust to dust
One day we’ll be called to rest
In Topsoil in Whom we have our being
Rearranged to life again
Behold the host arrayed in slender green
We shall all be robed in glory. (CH)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Science song. Verses are facts. Chorus is joyful declaration of amazement/gratitude.
First time, try a leader solo on the verses, with all in on the chorus.
Then bring the song back next week, and invite everyone on all of it.
The little bass line intro is worth the price of admission.

Evening Is Falling

1. Evening is falling like the first evening
Peeper is calling like the first frog
Praise the dark singing. Praise for the evening
Murmers go winging all through the bog.

2. Sweet resurrection compost is breaking
Like the first making of the first soil
Molding in wetness under the leaf pile
Broken completeness where She has toiled.

3. Gentle the black heart soul of the evening
Born on the wine-dark face of the deep
Hues of contentment color the midnight
All is renewed in circles of sleep.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This song is basically “Morning Has Broken” for the other end of the day. I keep looking for other ways to rewrite the same song: that darkness is good, death is a natural returning, there is a spirit within it all somewhere that long for. From the collection: Singing Prayers for the Earth.

Steward’s Hymn

Steward’s Hymn

Ch: May we all be stewards of the earth,
May we tend our place among the whole.
Till plain old ditches enjoy the same regard
As high majestic peaks.

1. The sky, the atmosphere above us
The deep, the aquifers below
The very pillars of existence stand in peril.

2. The great things that we hold in common
Too often now are bought and sold.
And no, there is no app that can reverse extinction.

3. The seeds with parachutes are ready
Jamb-packed into the tiny dark.
They fly on summer breezes when the pod cracks open.

4. O Welcome of A Thousand Sparrows
O Host of Many Flavored Quarks
You’ve flyered every door & now your party’s waiting.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Now That We’ve Seen

Now That We’ve Seen

Now that we’ve seen what dominion has done
Let us pray to be members instead.
Belief we were placed at the top
And could run the whole planet
Has poisoned our head.
On supersized engines of progress we slash
Through gardens we don’t understand.
And now that we’ve noticed the gardens’ demise
May we humble our ways to the land.
May we simply return to the land.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This song connects the healing the planet with harmful issues like dominion, human supremacy, unchecked economic growth. It’s part of a 2017 collection addressing ecology and climate justice, Singing Prayers for the Earth, by composers Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.

I like to sing it together several times, interspersed the readings.

In The Presence of Your Holy Silence

In the Presence of Your Holy Silence

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
We remember most deeply who we are.

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
Living things all around us speak their name.

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
There’s a revernce within us welling up.

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
We can hear what is missing in our lives.

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
We are longing to reclaim what is good.

In the presence of your Holy Silence,
Silence, Silence,
We’re invited to be made wholly new.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Several years ago now, I read the book One Square Inch of Silence, by Gorden Hempton. Hempton is an audio-ecologist, working to preserve natural quiet places least touched by the blare of encroaching human activity. He talks about the power of silence, and the necessity of quiet spaces for our personal health, for healthy communities, and of course or for other species. Silence has been on my mind ever since. I vacillate between seeking out quiet places, and lamenting its absence. I wrote this song in the spirit of that longing and that quest.

This song works well in contemplative or prayer settings. Try singing it interspersed with some silence. You might settle on one lyric and always use that. It’s nice to include some simple listening to the sounds and quiet around you. Could be done in the morning. In the evening. During Lent. During Advent. It’s always a good time to listen to silence and the natural world. That listening is a deep prayer.

Thanks to Cooper Sherry of Tacoma, WA, for the lovely piano score!

Come Rest From Your Labors

Come Rest From Your Labors

1. Hang up your tools
Put down your pen
Hand off your work
Unglove your hands
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

2. Lay down your head
Empty your mind
All will be still
All will be fine
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

Bridge:
Oh, let the Brush that paints upon
The canvas skies with sunset love
Apply great swaths of scarlet calm
Upon your setting soul.

3. Come softly sing
Come gently pray
With thankful hearts
Let all things fade
The good night awaits
Come rest from your labors now.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

When my friend Tom invited me to help write some songs for an evening prayer service, I wrote several using imagery of twilight, of dusk, of turning from day to evening. This moment of transition, this letting go, this fading toward darkness, has captured me; I think it’s a key moment in our rhythm, a key need in our daily healing, a key attribute of the love behind all things.

Like a Seed Upon the Breeze

Like A Seed Upon The Breeze

1. Like a seed upon the breeze of night
Letting go and carried into flight
Take our longings into You, Soft Wind of Peace
Carry us on.

2. Like the crimson of the afternoon
Turns at evening into rich maroon
Let our spirits gently fade in you, Dear Friend
Deepest Of Hues

Ch:
Spirit let us now depart in peace
In the shadows of your warm embrace
Spinning on the axis of your midnight grace
Carry us home.

(repeat ch.)

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This was written as a sending song for an evening service. It’s part of a suite of songs for evening, that highlight the turning of the day, the goodness of the natural rhythms, positive images of darkness, and the healing of letting go.

Because He Stood

Because He Stood

1. Because he stood in the places where it mattered
There to expose and challenge the unjust
He was a threat to the guardians of power
And he was silenced with a cross
Because he called for the sharing of abundance
Where God invites the homeless to the feast
He was a threat to those wallowing in priv’lege
And he was silenced with a cross. (ch)

Chorus:
And we pray, “What now?”
Loving God, “What now?”
Oh, we pray, “What now?”
What for those now left
Standing at the cross
of silence?

2. Because he preached on the mountain, “Love your enemy.”
And said God’s rain treats friend and foe the same
He was a threat to the campaign of division
And he was silenced with a cross
Because he would not adjust his proclamations
Though he was threatened with a dire cost
His form of love was a danger to the empire
And he was silenced with a cross. (ch)

3. Oh, but the silence of death would not be final
His voice of truth still echoes through the land.
And we, who’ve heard what a cross could never silence,
Are called to places we must stand.
Let us awake at the ripping of the curtain
And leave behind our worship at the tomb
Not wait in hope someone else picks up the mantle
But follow Jesus out to the world

Last Chorus:
Now we pray, Empow’r us.
Loving God, Empow’r us
Oh, we pray, Empow’r us
Strengthen us to stand
Where it matters now
like Jesus.

Words by Bret Hesla and Paul Batalden. Music by Bret Hesla.
© 2016 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Getting away from atonement, getting away from sacrificial death, getting away from the glorious cross as God’s plan, and just looking at a simple view: Jesus was killed for what he was doing in his life, publicly challenging injustice. The cross as a method by which the powerful can silence dissent. And … then what?

A hymn for any season. But if you use it at the close of Palm/Passion Sunday, or on Good Friday, I’m thinking you might sing only verses 1 and 2 at that point. Then maybe add the third verse and final chorus on Easter, or Easter vigil, or weeks after Easter.

Wonderful Story / In The Turning

Wonderful Story

Leader: We’re a part of a wonderful story —
All: A story that started in darkness.
Leader: We’re a part of a beautiful song
All: that began long ago in the silence.
Leader: And each night we return to the darkness
All: Each night we return to the silence
Leader: to be renewed by the Teller of the story
All: And restored by the Singer of the song.

[segue into the song In The Turning]:

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This is a short call/response piece, designed as a lead-in to the song “In the Turning.” I’m especially thinking of an evening service.

Heads up: The song includes some non-stale language in place of “God.”

In The Turning

In the Turning
1. In the turning of day back into evening,
In the turning of light back into gray,
In the turning of business into pleasure,
In the turning of struggle into play,
In the turning of planning into dreaming,
In the turning of sunlight back to stars:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

2. In the turning of springtime into summer,
In the turning of dormant into grown,
In the turning of flower into fullness,
In the turning of harvest into home,
In the turning of scarlet into snowfall,
In the turning of winter into mud:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

3. In the turning of crude ore to invention,
In the turning of engine into rust,
In the turning of handshake into ally,
In the turning of empire into dust,
In the turning of enemy to neighbor,
In the turning of greed to common good:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

4. In the turning of expert into mentor,
In the turning of upright into hunched,
In the turning of now into forgotten,
In the turning of body into mulch,
In the turning of memory into meaning,
In the turning of sadness into song:
Turn us back to you.
Turn us back to you,
Ever Turning Love.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano accpt. Zach Busch.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This song works well paired with the call/response “Wonderful Story” as a lead-in, which evokes the big bang, emerging from dark and silence.

This song is part of the suite of songs I’ve been working on as part of a project to write a new evening service.

When It Snows (round)

When It Snows
(a 2-part round)

1. 2.
When it snows
Though you’re froze
To your toes in
Minnesota
Strike a pose
One that shows
You have chosen to be frozen!

Words by Bret Hesla. Tune: unknown.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

This is a very cool 2-part round, with only one beat separating the two parts. Anna and Marie, my niece and niece-in-law, brought the tune to the lake this summer. It was so fun to sing it on la-la, it seemed like a good thing to add some words. So … here’s a little cold northern pride to celebrate the outdoors. Now can someone add in a frosty, “Strike a Pose” slide show of ski/snowboard/skate/slide/football-in-the-snow?

Bringing Our Questions

Bringing our questions and bringing our doubts
Here with each other we open our hearts
These and our longings we offer to you
O Mender of All That Unravels

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score by Cooper Sherry.
© 2015, 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Two audio demos: above with guitar, below with piano

I wrote this song a few years back for my home church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran of Minneapolis. We have a program called Living Questions, in which nonmembers and members can gather regularly to chat about their musings, the big unknowns, the deep ambiguities of our lives separate and together, what it all means. I like the title, since it honors the experience most of us have had of being more full of questions and doubt than certainty. It’s not about answers; it’s about questions.

I’ll be curious if you can find a place for it in your life and the life of your community. Perhaps some service or prayer ritual or gathering for honest conversation. Let me know if you find a way to use it.

Thanks to Cooper Sherry of Tacoma, WA for the lovely piano score (and great voice to go with it!).

We Lay Our Questions

We lay our questions on this fire.
We build a pile of smoldering prayers.
They turn into sweet smelling smoke.
Their memory stays in our clothes
Long after the flame of the Amen has died.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2008 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

May What Is Right for Every Season

(from the 2020 songbook, Lake of Mercy: Songs for Healing)

May What Is Right for Every Season

1. As the lilacs shine in May
And the corn swells in July
As the branches of October sag with apples.
May what is right for ev’ry season come to you
And each letting go that follows fall in beauty.

2. As the puppy full of spring
Goes abounding for the ball
Till the day he stiffly lies beside the rocker …

3. As the mother holds her child
Till the child is up and gone
Then returns to hold the mother in her failing …

4. In the years of quiet loss
In the strangeness left behind
In the longing for those things that never happened
May what is right for ev’ry season come to you
And each letting go that follows fall in beauty

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

When my mother-in-law was in her fourth or fifth year of dementia, my wife Jaimie, who was doing a lot of daily support and caregiving, said, “Oh Bret, can’t you write a song about how awful this is?”

I think the answer to that question is, “No.” But here’s what I wrote. Perhaps it can help, if you find yourself or a friend in a difficult place.

Only We

Only We
Bret Hesla ©2012

1. We are your neighbors. We’re friends you have known.
We are your coworkers sharing your load.
We are the regular people you meet every day.
There is no they.

2. We are your roofers and we are your cooks.
We’re your accountants we balance your books.
We plow your highways and we haul your garbage away.
There is no they.

Refrain:
Only we, only we.
All of us living as we.
Only we, only we.
All of us living as we.

3. We are the students beside you in class.
We’re the computer geeks fixing your crash.
We are your teachers. We help you discover your way.
There is no they.

4. We are the authors who write what you read.
We are the farmers who raise what you need.
We are your fellow church members who join you to pray.
There is no they.

5. We are your children, your daughters your sons.
We are your cousins, your uncles your aunts.
We are your parents who’ve loved you through all of your days.
There is no they.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2012 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

When I Feel Despair

When I Feel Despair

When I feel despair
I remember that truth and love
Have always won.

Lyrics based on a quote by Ghandi. Adapted and set to music by Bret Hesla
©2010 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

The song works well in a contemplative service, evening service, interspersed with prayers or readings, alternate singing and humming, etc. Including a Good Friday setting. It also has easy SATB for folks to jump in on.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” Mahatma Gandhi

Also this quote from Howard Zinn:
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Thanks to Zach Busch for the wonderful piano score!

Let Us Put On the Clothes of Christ

Let Us Put on the Clothes of Christ

Refrain:
Let us put on the clothes of Christ
and live as equals with everyone.
Let us put on the clothes of Christ
and reunite the family of God.

1. Jew and Greek will live side by side
with the garments of justice on.
And every door will be open wide
in that sweet and delightful dawn.
Hate and fear shall not come between.
Oh, let us unite in love!
We’ll celebrate our diversity
as we welcome the reign of God.

2. All the captives will be set free, with …
Discrimination will cease to be, in that ….
To the poor we will bring good news. Oh let us …
Our faith will travel beyond the pews, as we welcome

3. Men and women will live as one, (etc.)
With equal priv’ledge for everyone
Domination will finally end.
The pains of history we will mend

4. Let us rise up completely new
Living fully in Christ, we’ll bloom
Like the threads of a tapestry,
And weave a joyful community

——————
For full keyboard score, see Global Songs II Songbook.

Come and Grow

Come and grow.
Come and grow our faith.
Spirit of the living god
Come and grow our faith
And water in us
Water in each of us
The deep desire
To be your faithful friend.

Deepen now, deepen now our hope ….

Strengthen how, strengthen how we love ….

Cell Phone Song

Jack and Jill went up the hill to
Fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
While texting on his cell phone.
His cell phone, he’s always on his cell phone
Jack fell down and broke his crown
While texting on his cell phone.

I gave my love a cherry
That had no stone
I gave my love a riddle
And she solved it on her cell phone …

Some-time in all our lives
We all have pain and sorrow.
But if you want to lean on me,
Snap chat me on my cellphone …

Love me tender, love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
Or maybe it’s my cell phone …

Hoist up the John B Sails,
See how the main sail sets
Send for the captain ashore,
He’s shopping on his cell phone …

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that
Saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but then I found
the map quest on my cell phone …

Yesterday all my troubles
Seemed so far away
(Now I) need a place to hide away
That’s why I’m on my cellphone …

I love to go a-wandering
Along the mountain track
And as I go a-wandering
My eyes are on my cell phone …

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
I googled’m on my cell phone …

If everyone had an ocean
across the USA
Then everyone would be surfin’ ‘n-takin’
Selfies on their cell phone …

On top of Old Smokey
All covered with snow
I lost my true lover
While staring at my cell phone …

Note: Android users can substitute “Android” for “cell phone”

iPhone users, can substitute “iPhone” for “cell phone”

Land line users: find your own song

Lords Prayer–adapted

LORD’S PRAYER
(adaptation by Bret Hesla)

Gracious Spirit,
Who loves us like a mother.
Whose realm is blooming among us now. And within.
We pray that your compassion guide us in every action.
Give us what we need for each day,
And help us to be satisfied with the miracle of that alone.
Forgiver, whose embrace brings us to wholeness without our asking,
May we reconcile ourselves to one another in humility.
And may we cancel the crushing debts that imprison our neighbors
So that communities of joy and health may flourish.
May we neither profit from nor ignore evil.
But ever work to thwart it with nonviolence
As we co-create the realm of peace in this world.
Now and each day.
Amen.

Based on the Lord’s Prayer. Adapted by Bret Hesla. © 2004. From Worship In The Spirit of Jesus: Theology Liturgy and Songs Without Violence © 2004 by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Bret Hesla. Wipf and Stock.

Owl and the Pussycat

The Owl and the Pussycat

The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat.
They took some honey and plenty of money wrapped up in a five pound note.
The owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar.
Oh, beautiful Pussy, oh Pussy my love, What a beautiful pussy you are.
What a beautiful pussy you are my dear, what a beautiful pussy you are.
Oh, beautiful Pussy, oh Pussy my love, What a beautiful pussy you are.

Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl, how charmingly sweet you sing.
Oh, let us be married, too long we have tarried but what shall we use for a ring?”
So they sailed away for a year and a day to the land where the bong tree grows.
And there in the wood a piggy wig stood with a ring on the end of his nose.
With a ring on the end of his nose, my dear. With a ring on the end of his nose.
And there in the wood a piggy wig stood with a ring on the end of his nose.

“Dear Sir, are you willing to sell for a shilling your ring?” Said the piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away and were married next day by the turkey who lived on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And there in the sand they danced hand in hand by the light of the silvery moon.
By the light of the silvery moon, my dear. By the light of the silvery moon.
And there in the sand they danced hand in hand by the light of the silvery moon.

Lear, born in England, was a zoological artist, traveler and writer. He gave drawing lessons to the queen. He had epilepsy, depression, and loneliness.

Let’s Leave Our Fears and Comforts Now

Let’s Leave Our Fears And Comforts Now

8686D + chorus

1. Let’s leave our fears and comforts now and heed a higher call:
To dedicate our lives to building dignity for all.
The whims of fate are cruel to some by accident of birth.
It’s only fair for all to share the riches of the earth.
The riches of the earth, oh people
The riches of the earth.
It’s only fair for all to share the riches of the earth.

2. We’ll break apart the ancient walls of status, fear and wealth;
And build ourselves instead a house of welcome, joy and health.
As partners, friends and family join with strangers of good heart.
And as the vision’s lifted up, division falls apart.
Division falls apart, oh people.
Division falls apart.
And as the vision’s lifted up, division falls apart.

3. Among the many miracles that poets long have praised,
Another stands beside them now — the way this house was raised.
Each day may we decide anew for justice over greed.
That some receive and some let go, and all get what they need.
And all get what they need, oh people.
And all get what they need.
That some receive and some let go, and all get what they need.

Written for Habitat for Humanity’s 1998 West Regional Conference, held at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.

This is a super fun, rousing vibe to the tune, a structure similar to an old carol. The lyrics have a basic structure of 8686D. So if you omit the tags at the end of each verse, it may be sung to many familiar tunes. My favorite: “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”

Welcome Neighbors

Welcome Neighbors

1. Welcome neighbors and family all
To this magnificent glorious hall.
Here on benches of oak, now rest,
And hear the old songs we love the best.
Now the holiday time is here,
And now the shortest night of the year.
All the reason we need to fill
The air with music and good will.

2. A thousand years have come and gone
And still these melodies dance along.
Thousands more will come and go,
And still this river of song will flow.
Ours the tiniest thimble of time
To play the tunes and tongue the rhymes.
It’s now or never, so breathe and sing,
And make these marble rafters ring.

3. Not on faraway holy ground
Nor on some perfect silver screen.
(But) here alone the jewel is found,
The angels heard, the glory seen.
Cleanse your mind of bills to pay.
Erase tomorrow and yesterday.
To this moment we now belong.
Let all of us savor this night of song.

Written for the annual Winter Solstice/Christmas concert of the Blue Heron Consort, Winona, Minnesota, December 1999.

This a solo, performance piece. We originally did it with a hurdy-gurdy. Super fun to sing, alone or in duet. The second voice can double unison, then at some later verse, start on the 5th of the scale and sing the same melody shape, a fifth apart.

With A Song of Joy

With a Song of Joy

With a song of joy the buds shall break
With a song of joy the seeds shall wake
May their song of joy be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of joy the sea shall roar
With a song of joy the sky shall pour
My their song of joy be the song that you sing in your heart.

Chorus:
Joy will be the song
Joy will be the song
Joy will be the song in my heart.
Joy will be the song
Joy will be the song
Joy will be the song in my heart.

With a song of hope the sun will burn
With a song of hope the geese return
May their song of hope be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of hope the grain will swell
With a song of hope the kids will yell
May their song of hope be the song that you sing in your heart.
Ch: Hope will be the song …

With a song of peace the wind will blow
With a song of peace the stream will flow
May their song of peace be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of peace the grass will bend
With a song of peace the wound will mend
May their song of peace be the song that you sing in your heart.
Ch: Peace will be the song …

With a song of love the dads will play
With a song of love the field will sway
May their song of love be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of love the lilies bloom
With a song of love in the mother’s womb
May their song of love be the song that you sing in your heart.
Ch: Love will be the song …

With a song of ease the snake will lie
With a song of ease the buzzards fly
May their song of ease be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of ease the dogs will sleep
With a song of ease the willows weep
May their song of ease be the song that you sing in your heart.
Ch: Ease will be the song …

With a song of praise to the God of earth
With a song of praise to the God of birth
May their song of praise be the song that you sing in your heart.
With a song of praise to the God below
With a song of praise to the God of all
May their song of praise be the song that you sing in your heart.
Ch: Praise will be the song …

Recorded by Bread for the Journey, on the CD Bread for the Journey. For full piano accompaniment, see the companion songbook, “Global Songs, Local Voices.”

Who Put That Turd In My Pocket?

Who Put That Turd in My Pocket?

I’ve got a tune that has no words.
I’ve got a ring that has no jewel.
I’ve got a longing for a life I’ll never have.
Who? Who?
Who put that turd in my pocket?

I’ve got a house without a home.
I’ve got a neighbor with no face.
I’ve got a place I wish was mine but ne’er will be.
Who? Who?
Who put that turd in my pocket?

I’ve got a storm that brings no green
I’ve got a list that won’t stop growin’
I’ve got a phone that disconnects me from my heart.
Who? Who?
Who put that turd in my pocket?

I’ve got a job without a wage
I’ve got a paycheck with no life
I’ve got this feeling I should make more of myself.
Who? Who?
Who put that turd in my pocket?

I meet monthly with a songwriter’s group. Sometimes we talk about our writing process. When songwriting, I usually start with the lyrics. Some of the others always develop the tune first. That seems completely backwards to me, but I decided to try it. Here’s what happened.

[note: sheet music = melody line, lyrics and chords]

Who Made the World?

Who made the world?

Refrain:

Who? Who made the world?
Love, Sweet Love.
Who? Who made the world?
Love, Sweet Love.

On the first day, the first day
Love, Sweet Love
KA-POW! the light came shouting
Love, Sweet Love
And it was oh, so good!

On the second day, the second day
Love, Sweet Love
The edges were expanding, KA-POW! the light came shouting
Love, Sweet Love
And it was oh, so good!

(Continue the same cumulative pattern, and drop in the refrain now and then.)

3rd day. The galaxies were twirling, the edges were expanding, KA-POW …

4th day. The sun and moon were soaring

5th day. The planets were a-cooling

6th day. The waters were a-pouring

7th day. The algae were a-blooming

8th day. The fishes were a-schooling

9th day. The prairies were a-greening

10th day. The rabbits were romancing

11th day. Both you and I were dancing

12th day. Oh, Love, she put her feet up (ahhh)…

Here’s a creation story in 12 days. It’s a cumulative song, sort of like the 12 days of Christmas. Starts out with the BIG BANG!

Recorded here as a teaching track.

Big fun: buy 200 paper lunch bags. Get a Big Bang team of 4-5 people (any age) Have them practice the day before blowing them up and exploding them. They wrap the opening around your finger to create a hole. Then blow them up, squeeze the top together, and on KaPOW, they smash it between your hands to explode. Super loud bang throughout the room. Like firecracker loud, but won’t bring the firemarshall down on you.

Widen Our Sense of Belonging

Widen Our Sense of Belonging

1. Widen our sense of belonging
In every place we call home
Sharpen our eye for the beauty
Everywhere that we roam
Increase our love for each other
In simple kindness expressed
In bountiful love, together we’ll reach for the best.

2. May we have time to look inward
Teach us to trust in our dreams
Show us the balance of living
Fishing and stocking the stream
Give us new eyes when we travel
Returning to see what we missed
Then grounded in love, We’ll daily set off for the best.

Give us a home, give us a heart
Wide as the Atlantic sea.
Then grounded in love, together we’ll reach for the best.
3. Give us a song for the binding
All of us scattered and strewn
Water the seed of forgiveness
Waiting inside us to bloom
May we put gates through our fences
May we in neighbors invest
Till surrounded by love, together we’ll reach for the best.

Give us a home, Give us a heart
wide as the Iowa sky
Then surrounded by love, together we’ll reach for the best.

Written for my niece Anna and nephew-in-law Audun, on their wedding in 2011. She’s from Waverly, Iowa, he’s from Trondheim, Norway. Somehow they met.

Twenty-Eight Days

Twenty-Eight Days

(chorus)
Twenty-eight days (2x) in a little red canoe
Two old friends (2x) and a 120 pounds of food
From Moose Lake in Minnesota
We hit the border and we paddled through
It was Twenty-eight days (2x) in a little red canoe

Smell the pines (2x) tell me that’s not the best
Feel the breeze (2x) easing in from the west
Stroke the wine-dark water. Little funnel drifting back
Then you hit the land (2x) and shoulder up a heavy pack. (ch)

2. Coffee at dawn (2x) grounds boiled in the pot
Maybe could do (2x) without it, but probably not
That burn moves down your gullet
& it’s better than an overcoat
So take a big swig (2x) and spit the little grounds that float. (ch)

3. Three day rain (2x) not the time to make a move
Pass the day (2x) with the banjo and the flute
But the friendship strain would lighten
If the sky would ever turn to blue
So keep a tight lid (2x) on the irritating things you do. (ch)

4. Two old hands (2x) knowing how to travel hard
Ev’ry night (2x) Jim Beam and a deck of cards.
Played out on a boulder, it’s the same old familiar plot
Deal a hand (2x) and pour me up another shot. (ch)

A four week canoe trip into the lake-filled wilderness of Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario.

Wash That Baby In the Water

Wash That Baby in the Water

Chorus:
We’re gonna wash that baby in the water:
dunk, dunk, dunk three times down.
We’re gonna wash that baby in the water,
then pass her* all around. Pass her all around.

1. Now it’s once for the Source of the universe,
And once for Jesus Christ,
And one time more for the Holy Ghost
To stay by her side. (repeat.)

2. Once for her grandma and her grandpa.
And one time for Mom and Dad,
And then it’s one time more for the people here.
Everybody’s glad. (repeat.)

3. We’ll do it once for the times that are easy.
And once for the times that are tough,
And one time more for the in-between.
May there be enough. (repeat.)

4. May you be both strong and peaceful.
May you be both wise and fair.
May you be content with the simple things,
And may you learn to share. (repeat.)

5. We’re gonna welcome you to the family.
We’re gonna welcome you to the world.
We’re gonna welcome you to the love of God
For every boy and girl. (repeat.)

This song is fun for a big group to sing. I wrote it for the baptism of my son, Sam, in 1991. Everybody brought a little jar of water from their own home, and on cue, brought it forward and dumped it into a bowl — which was my wife Jaimie’s bread bowl that she inherited from her grandmother. Dunk, sing, pass, cuddle, celebrate. Switch her/him pronouns as you need to. Adapt as needed for the pandemic.

If God Threw A Party

Based on a poem by Hafiz, as translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

If God Threw a Party

If God threw a party and invited all the world
Then how would you treat the other guests when you arrived?
For I tell you, oh I tell you
There is no one in this world
Who’s not upon that jeweled dance floor.

Shall we dance
and both let down our guard?
Shall we dance?
This number’s not too hard.
It’s awkward doing nothing.
as long as here we are?
Shall we dance?

Global Songs III: Pave the Way

(CD & Songbook: 2001)

This third volume features 16 tracks of music previously unrecorded by the group Bread for the Journey, including songs/hymns from Palestine, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Sweden, Scotland, Mozambique, Argentina, India, Cambodia, Syria, Brazil, Hawai’i, plus a couple from group member Bret Hesla. Songbook includes keyboard accompaniment, guitar chords, and background notes.(Hard copy only: price includes shipping.)

Tracks

Pave The Way With Branches (USA–Hesla)
Nasibi (Palestine)
Le Lo Le Lo Lai Lo (Puerto Rico)
Akanamandla (South Africa)
Du Ar Helig (Sweden)
Whoever Lives Beside The Lord (Scotland)
Como Alabare (USA)
Nzamuranza (Mozambique)
Tenemos Esperanza (Argentina)
El Cielo Canta Alegria (Argentina)
Ocean Of Love (India)
Ka Haku E Ahonui Mai (Hawaii)
Guide My Feet (USA)
Everything That We Have (USA–Hesla)
Medley of Alleluias (various)
Now I Know (Cambodia)

Global Songs II: Bread for the Journey

(Songbook: 1997) Bread for the Journey’s newest recording from live concerts in April 1997. This long-awaited recording, a sequel to Global Songs/Local Voices, features over 20 hymns of hope and justice from around the world. Songbook includes keyboard accompaniment, guitar chords, and background notes.

(Hard copy only: price includes shipping)

Tracks

Sarantanani (Bolivia)
Come, Let Us Worship God (USA)
Miren que bueno (Argentina)
Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia (Tanzania)
Come Now, O Prince Of Peace (Korea)
The Right Hand Of God (Caribbean)
Sanna Sannanina (South Africa)
Oi Jumalan Karitsa (Finland)
I Shall Walk In the Presence Of God (USA)
A Dazzling Bouquet (USA–Hesla)
Heleluyan (American Indian)
By The Waters Of Babylon (Jamaica)
Go Tell It On The Mountain (USA)
When Twilight Comes (Philippines)
Come To Be Our Hope, O Jesus (Brazil)
Southern African Medley (Botswana, South Africa)
Come The Banquet Hall Is Ready (El Salvador, Tr: Hesla)
Day By Day/ Bread For The Journey (Sweden/USA–Hesla)
Let Us Put On The Clothes Of Christ (USA–Hesla)
Canticle Of The Turning (Ireland)
Hamba Nathi (South Africa)

If You’re Lonely Buy A Songbook

If You’re Lonely Buy a Songbook

1. If you’re lonely buy a songbook
Especially one where you don’t know the songs
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And everywhere you go bring it along
You’re sure to find some people you can show it to
And chances are that they can teach a song to you
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And pretty soon your repertoire will grow.

2. If you’re lonely buy a songbook
Then go and buy another twenty two.
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And plan a little singing rendezvous
Get shoulder next to shoulder in a tiny space
And revel in exuberant, unpolished ways
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And pretty soon your repertoire will grow.

3. Release the lovely bird that’s living in your heart
Don’t cede the joy of singing to the singing stars
Eventually you’ll memorize a song or two
Forget-me-nots that beautify a blooming you

4. If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And voyage out upon the rolling sea
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And feel someone’s yearning to be free
By marinating in another time and place
You sweeten your affection for the human race
If you’re lonely buy a songbook
And pretty soon your repertoire will grow.

When I bought the Rise Up Singing book in the late 80s, I knew about 5% of the songs. By 2015 I knew about 85%. For most of those songs, I can tell you who I learned it from. The book became a record of my life and friendships.

Were You There In the Dark In the Park

Were you there?
Were you there when we sang side by side
in the dark in the park by my home?
Were you there?

Did you help
Did you help Michael row the boat ashore
in the dark in the park by my home
Did you help.

Did you lean on me there as we sang
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you shout on Salaam aleikum
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you hear angels near to the ground
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Did you know thousands sang long ago
in the dark in the park by my home …?

Were you there when we sang side by side
in the dark in the park by my home …?

A song to remember the great community singing tradition in the Minneapolis parks from 1919 through 1956, where each summer there were nightly sings held, with average nightly attendance in the thousands. find out more at Minnesota Community Sings.

Timber on Twenty-Third Avenue

We had a big blowdown June of 2013, Minneapolis lost 3000 giant shade trees just in the boulevards alone. This is a call response song about it.

Timber on 23rd Avenue

1. It was just last June
What a storm we had
First the rain was big
Then the wind was bad.

Chorus:
I saw oh, so many trees blow down.
Oh what a loss!
It was “Timber”on TwentyThird Avenue.

2. When the oak went flat
When the tower tipped
Make the root ball rise
Make the sidewalk flip

3. Big karate chop
When the elm went low
Neighbor’s roof got whacked.
Took a fatal blow.

4. All the lights went out.
For a two-day lag
When I drove to work.
Had to zig and zag.

5. Hear the chain saw whine
Hear the chipper bray
80 feet of shade
Soon hauled away.

Snow Day

Quietly, quietly, quietly
the snow falls in the night.
Come, look, see
the blanket soft and white
gets deeper, deeper, deeper. (repeat)

SNOW DAY! (last time only)

——————————-
It’s fun to do with a group of young children, or a big inter-generational crowd. The image is of a big snowfall that starts in the afternoon, continues all night. The deeper the snow gets, the quieter is the night (and the song). And finally, in the magical drifted-in silence of the morning–wahoo–school is called off. SNOW DAY!

The recording is from Ridgeway Community School (elementary) winter program, 1999.

Many Years Ago on Christmas Eve

I well remember Christmas as a boy (2x)
But one day it will all be too distant to recall
So let me tell you how we passed the day
Many years ago on Christmas eve

We opened up our stockings in the morn (2x)
We got a chocolate Santa, a toothbrush and a pen
& Every year we always got the same
Many years ago on Christmas eve

My mom would soak the lutefisk for hours (2x)
The folks who’ve barely tried it complain about the smell
It always smelled like Christmas Eve to me
Many years ago on Christmas eve

We set the finest dishes for the meal (2x)
Todd would mash potatoes and Beth would slice the bread
& Joe would dish the jello into bowls
Many years ago on Christmas eve

The tablecloth was red lace over white (2x)
I would light the candles and everyone would come
Then Mom would read the Bible to begin
Many years ago on Christmas eve

We opened up the presents after that (2x)
Mom with pen and paper to track who gave us what
I mainly hoped my gifts would not be clothes
Many years ago on Christmas eve

And after that the family went to church (2x)
The service was in candle light and I was in the choir
And every year we heard the angels sing
Many years ago on Christmas eve

The Jirele’s had a party after that (2x)
It started after midnight and went till two or three
I even saw my father drinking wine
Many years ago on Christmas eve

And then we’d sleep into the silent night (2x)
And now I well can see it was lovely as a song
And something good was born within my heart
Many years ago on Christmas eve

—————————————
My memories of our Christmas Eves as a boy growing up in the 1960s, in Austin, Minnesota.

Baptized Into Community (songbook)

(Songbook–2000) Baptized into Community. Songbook with 26 songs for services of baptism and the reaffirmation of baptism. Composers include Bret Hesla, Ray Makeever, Larry Dittberner, Mary Preus, and Linda Breitag. Welcome those new folks (young or old) into your community with songs and rituals that involve everyone. Here are 26 great songs and ten dynamic ritual ideas compiled by Bret Hesla. Songs by various Minnesota composers. Some great ritual ideas from Dan Erlander. With melody lines, guitar chords, background notes, performance ideas. (Hard copy only: price includes shipping).

We Come to the Water (Makeever)
In the Living Water We Have Been Baptized (Hesla)
Shower Your Spirit Upon Us All (Hesla)
In the Water (Makeever)
Wash That Baby in the Water (Hesla)
New Child in Our Family (Breitag)
By God’s Blessing (Hesla)
Come and See (Makeever)
I Got a New Set of Clothes (Hesla)
Let Us Put On the Clothes of Christ (Hesla)
Fire of Love (Dittberner)
Brighter Than the Sun (Makeever)
Rain of Heaven (Hesla)
Holy Life (Preus)
God Bless the Baby-O (Hesla)
Baby Born Again (Makeever)
Ten Thousand Dreams (Hesla)
Like a Trout (Hesla)
Water of Life (Dittberner)
Pour Your Spirit On Us (Hesla)
Walking Wet (Makeever)
Holy River Never Failing (Hesla)
Walk Across the Water (Makeever)
Rise Up Together and Sing (Hesla)
We Have Died (Hesla)
Wash Me One More Time (Hesla)

Merry Christhallowanksgivemas

Celebrating the ever-elongating holiday.

Merry Christhallowanksgivmas

1. It was the usual Santa creep / In late October
It was the usual Santa creep / Fleet Farm with holly
It was the usual Santa creep / Cashiers with antlers rang me up
I came for socks, and ended up with all this crap.
Merry Christhallowanksgivmas / Hear the checkout scanners ping
It’s the most wonderful quarter of the year.
Merry Christhallowanksgiftmas / Hear the Muzak angels sing:
Gorge yourself in excess this day-o.

2. It was the usual overload / Thanksgiving dinner
It was the usual overload / TsuTurkeynami
It was the usual overload / Three pie trifecta polished off
And after that, well, everybody felt like crap.
Merry Christhallowanksgivmas / Mindless snacking without end
It’s the most wonderful quarter of the year.
Merry Christhallowanksgivmas / Keep the insulin on hand (then)
Gorge yourself in excess this day-o.

3. It was the usual argument / A few days later
It was the usual argument / The battle Christmas
It was the usual argument / Some well-aimed cheap shots hit their mark.
I won, I think. But basically it felt like crap.
Merry Christhallowanksgivmas / Obligations sold as “fun”
It’s the most wonderful quarter of the year.
Merry Christhallowanksgiftmas / Visit A T M’s a ton (then)
Gorge yourself in excess this day-o.

More Than Your Land

This land is more than your land or mine
It’s done fine on its own for several billion years
It’s given life to us all and someday when we die
It will be made from you and me

This is a partner song that works as a counter-melody duet with “This Land Is Your Land.” With these lyrics, it’s a nice song to have in your public singing back pocket. And it’s fun to sing.

I didn’t write the melody, and I don’t know who did; I heard it back in the 80s with a different set of words.

And if you’re singing about ecology and a land ethic, here are some new verses you can use, to the tune of This Land Is Your Land.

A healthy topsoil is made of bodies.
And moldy corpses and cornstalks rotting
And when we kick off, we’re gonna go there, too
And this land will be made from you and me.

To buy food local is such a chore
We’d rather choose food with a price that’s lower
And so we buy from the factory growers
And squeeze the best stewards off the land.

If you agree with this simple chorus
Then let’s protect our farmland and forests
And choose together the way before us
The green road for the red, white and blue

Little Head On My Shoulder

Little Head On My Shoulder

Chorus:
Little head on my shoulder
Little breath in my ear
Little girl that I carry
Holding so near.
Little girl that I carry
Holding so near.

Now the day is over
Shadows are drawing nigh
I can see Venus shining
IN the western sky
I can see Venus shining
In the western sky

Smoke curls from each chimney
Rising up to the stars
I wonder if all the houses
Are as warm as ours.
I wonder if all the houses
Are as warm as ours.

Lullaby for my daughter Rosie and my son Sam. Those precious days, now so long ago.

Let Us Be Mary

Let Us Be Mary on Christmas Morn

Refrain:
Light will shine in the darkness.
Thread will mend what is torn.
This Love lies waiting to be reborn.
Come let us be Mary on Christmas morn.
Let us be Mary for now is Christmas morn.

1. Sorrow is present among us.
Many have burdens to bear.
Christmas brings no easy answers.
Rather the presence we share.

2. May we ignore the self doubting.
May we bring mercy to bear.
Where someone’s pregnant with justice:
Christmas is soon to be there.

3. We the not noteworthy people
With un-award-wining lives:
We are the angels of glory.
We are the busy midwives.

————————–
Based on a quote from Meister Eckhart, paraphrasing: what good is it to me if Mary gave birth to God two thousand years ago, if I don’t also do so in my own time?

If I Rob A Bank

In the months before the bookstore St. Martin’s Table closed, they put out a public journal, where patrons could write in comments, memories, and good wishes. I paged through it on one of the last days, hoping to glean some gems to use for a little song. The best line, from Brigid McDonald, led me to this song.

I.
If I rob a bank and somehow get away
And give all the money to you
Will you keep St. Martin’s Table open for me
If I rob a bank for you?

II.
Good food Good books
Good people Goodbye
Good food Good books
Good people Goodbye

III.
Peace be with you all
Peace be with you all
As we leave this place of peace
Peace be with you all

IV.
Oh, the conversation partners we found
At the little tables we sat around.
Oh, the conversation partners we found
At the little tables we sat around.

I Like The Teeth In Your Smile

Here’s a song for Jaimie.

1. I like the teeth in your smile,
And the edges of your eyes where the little lines play
I like the shine of your dark brown hair
Even more with the occasional gray
I like the tone of your voice when you ask me if I love you
When you know I know you know I do …

2. I like the second hand dress
That you wore when we wed on that August day
I like the way you saw beauty in the weeds
That you took for your bridal bouquet
I like how you look back and you ask if I remember
When you know I know you know I do …

3. I like how you ignore the budget
When you find a cause to give money to
I like the quality you have that makes people
Want to open their hearts to you
And how when you’re down you ask if I also see the sorrow
When you know I know you know I do …

Bridge: I know it’s not always so easy
No, it’s not always so easy

4. I like the way you insist
That we talk at night when I only want to read
I like the way you say “leave me alone”
When you finally get the book from me
And all the times you ask if I wish that we’d met sooner
When you know I know you know I do …

Happy Birthday Chorus

Words: Bret Hesla, 1990. Music: GF Handel.

I know you can’t improve on the classics, but this is pretty fun to sing with that big group of choir folks who love Handel’s Messiah. Here it is in all it’s full-throated SATB, or sometimes SSAATTBB glory.

God Bless the Baby-O

1. Mama dipped the baby down low, low, low.
Preacher dripped the water slow, slow, slow.
Towel on the forehead dry, dry, dry.
Daddy whispered hush-a-bye, bye, bye.

Ch:
And it’s drop, drop, drip one, two and three.
Now we’ve got a little bigger family.
And it’s drop, drop, drip one, two and three.
God bless the baby-o.

2..Little twinkle in your grandpa’s eye eye eye
Roll you and a-throw you in the sky sky sky
Grandma’s gonna eat you up a-munch munch munch
Have your little chubby cheeks for lunch lunch lunch

3..Whose a-gonna nurse him now? Ma, Ma, Ma.
Who’s a-gonna bounce him? Pa, Pa, Pa.
Who’s a-gonna hold him? Me, Me, Me.
Who’s a-gonna raise him? We, We, We.

4..Pour a little water on a seed, seed, seed.
Soon you’ve got a mighty hickory, ry, ry.
As the little baby’s growing up, up, up;
Blessings gonna overflow his* cup, cup, cup.

5..Power of the spirit coming down down down
Seeping through the people all around round round
First the baby’s baptized: wash wash wash
Then the baby’s grabtized: squash squash squash!

I wrote this for Amy and Regi’s song Willito’s baptism. It’s acapella, with lots of ways for everyone to join in the singing and simple gestures. Really fun to sing with an all ages group, which baptisms tend to be, of course.

I like to write down big words for each verse and post, or have someone hold up, so folks can all join in on the three repeats for the word at the end of each line of the verses. See video.

Fifty Roses

I asked Jaimie what she wanted on her fiftiety birthday. This is what she asked for: fifty roses.

1. Fifty Aprils, fifty springs
Fifty sparrows to make the backyard sing
Fifty long-stem, long-stem roses
I brought them in the morning for you.

2. Fifty summers, fifty rains
Fifty gardens upon your fertile plains
Fifty long-stem, long-stem roses,
Crowded in a five-gallon pail …

3. Fifty autumns, fifty winds
Fifty longings for what won’t come again
Fifty long-stem, long-stem roses,
One for ev’ry trip ’round the sun …

4..Fifty winters, fifty snows
Fifty saunas, where midnight friendship grows.
Fifty long-stem, long-stem roses,
Wish I’d brought you ten-thousand more …

Br: Brought them in the morning for you.
Crowded in a five-gallon pail
One for ev’ry trip ’round the sun.
Wish I’d brought you ten-thousand more.

5. Fifty Aprils, fifty springs
Fifty wond’rings of what the years will bring
Fifty long-stem, long-stem roses,
Brought them in the morning for you

I’ve Got a Date for Dinner

I’ve Got a Date for Dinner

1. When the Thursday sun sinks low in the west
Like a big glob of butter on hot cornbread
Then I’m happy,
‘Cause I know I’ve got a date for dinner.
Yes, you heard me right, every Thursday night
All the neighbors get together for a meal.

2. When you hear the gravel cruchin’ as the car’s roll in
Like walnuts underneath a rolling pin…

3. I know Bob’s arrived ‘cause the Pinto’s here
My right hand’s chilly just thinking about a beer…

(Bridge 1:)
Cheese and macaroni, Chicken caccatori
And chili without any meat
& if your life is pallid, Try the Caesar’s salad
“Whoa, that garlic’s got teeth!”

4. Everybody’s frazzled overscheduled tight.
The only time we get to talk is Thursday night…

5. Jaimie’s makin’ chicken, I can always tell.
Feels like home when I smell that smell…

(Bridge 2:)
Oscar’s squallin’, Kobi’s bawlin’
And Rosie is climbin’ my back.
Devin clammers, Sam’s got a hammer.
“Quiet down kids,
‘cause I can’t hear Jack.”

7. It’s not a bring your own and it’s not potluck.
Everybody eats and we rotate cooks…

6. Twelve years running without fail
Blizzards, washouts, flies and hail…

We were part of a weekly meal cook-share for 15 years running with three or four other neighbor households. When it was your week, you did everything: food shop, cook, set table, clean up. All the other weeks, you just show up and eat.

Down Along Chicago Avenue

1. Jesus was born to an unwed mother.
Glory, Glory, What glory!
The outlook wasn’t bright.
But how the angels sang that night
Down along Chicago Avenue.

2. Deep in her coat Mary held her baby.
Glory, Glory, What glory!
She found the shelter door.
A woman smiled and welcomed her
Down along Chicago Avenue.

3. Hope for the world, cuddled by the homeless.
Glory, Glory, What glory!
But many heads were turned
And missed the dream of peace that burned
Down along Chicago Avenue.

4. Far, far away, Farmers gazing skyward
Glory, Glory, What glory!
beheld the northern lights.
But none could see that heav’nly sight
Down along Chicago Avenue

5. Wake, Mary, wake! to the winter morning.
Glory, Glory, What glory!
Quick, grab a bite to eat.
At seven you’re back on the street
Down along Chicago Avenue.

6. Bring gifts, you wise, for the babe before you.
Glory, Glory, What glory!
Oh, find it in your heart
To give these two a healthy start
Down along Chicago Avenue.

Alt v6:

6. Wherever power tramples on the lowly
Glory glory what glory
There Jesus is reborn,
With throngs resisting tyranny
Down along Chicago Avenue.

Notes: Here’s a Christmas carol in which Jesus is born in another time and place. It tells of Jesus being born in present-day Minneapolis, to a woman who is homeless and staying in a shelter on Chicago Avenue.

This particular shelter — transitional housing — was started in the mid 80s, when the number of people who were homeless in Minneapolis was exploding. The city asked Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church if they would create temporary overnight space for these folks. The church, at the intersection of 24th and Chicago, opened its basement, and the service continues to this day.

This past summer, George Floyd was murdered by the police on the same street, just a mile to the south. I’ve added an alternate verse 6.

Farewell Song (Canto de despedida)

Lamb of God (Cordero de Dios)

Offertory (Ofertorio)

Song Between Readings (Interleccional)

Gloria (Gloria)

Have Mercy O God (Senor ten piedad)

Entrance Song (Vamos todos al banquete)

Stream of Mercy Never Failing

8787D

I like it with the tune, “What A Friend We Have in Jesus”
I also wrote a tune for it, leadsheet below.

Both tunes included in the mp3 demo.

1. Stream of Mercy never failing,
Here we stand and look to you.
Pour your presence now upon us.
Come and christen us anew.
You have named us all your people.
You have birthed us as your own.
You’ve restored us, wholly family,
In your Spirit flowing down.

2. Empty promises divide us.
Empty goals stand in our way.
We renounce the many “isms”
That turn “we” to “we and they.”
We acknowledge our involvement.
We have all dividers been.
Make us healers of division,
As your family we defend.

3. Keep us mindful of our oneness
In your water’s wide embrace.
Give us eyes to see our kinship
Everywhere in every face.
May we learn the way of Jesus,
Learn to challenge and to serve.
May we learn to live together,
Loving all without reserve.

4. Stream of Mercy, flow upon us
Come and green our wilted vines
We Are thirsting for your justice
Now your realm our only wine
Give us courage to be faithful
May we know we’re not alone
Give us joy in our reunion
With our siblings finally known.

Anti-racism hymn. See also: “Holy River Never Failing.” which is the same lyrics, just a different metaphor for the spirit.

In the early 90s, I heard Joe Barndt of Crossroads (Chicago) give a talk on how Christians are all antiracist by the vows of baptism. The gist of the talk was that God’s purpose in Christian faith is to reunite all people as one human family, to make us whole again. The two questions of baptism, “Do you confess the faith in which you are baptized?” and “Do you renounce the forces of evil…?” could be rephrased as “Do you believe you are being made a part of the restored family of God?” and “Do you promise to defend the restored family of God from anything that would break it up again?” When we say “Yes,” we vow to defend the family and resist all that would break it apart – racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, militarism, nationalism, ableism. I hope this song helps further the work we all need to do – both as individuals and as communities– to become anti-racists.

O God You Will Show Us the Path of…

Here’s a song by Larry Ditterberner, a songwriter from St. Paul Minnesota.

O Compassion

O Compassion

O Compassion.
O Compassion.
In the quiet of my heart.
In the quiet of my heart.
In the quiet of my heart.
Waken me.

New images for the spirit. Short contemplative song for prayer. This works well to alternate with readings, and or silence. It’s easy to lead with no printed paper.

May We Awaken

May We Awaken

May we awaken, awaken, awaken.
May we awaken to the presense of God.
Here in this place.
Here in this place.
Here in this ordinary place.
May we awaken, awaken, awaken.
May we awaken to the presense of God.

May we awaken, awaken, awaken.
May we awaken to the power of love.
Here in this crowd. Here in this crowd. Here in this ordinary crowd …

May we build a world, a world, a world;
May we build a world with a culture of peace.
Now in this time. Now in this time. Now in this ordinary time …

Feel free to make up your own verses. It’s all about the power of being in the here and now. For a different musical setting to these lyrics, see the song “Here in this ordinary place.”

Let All Hearts Unite

1. Friends in this moment,
Oh, let all hearts unite.
Friends in this moment
The Spirit of love is with us.
The Spirit of love in us.

2. Here on this lovely day
Oh, let all hearts unite.
Here on this lovely day
We gather to share its pleasure
We gather in beauty now.

3. Facing this hardened world
Oh, let all hearts unite.
Facing this hardened world
Do we encourage each other.
Oh, softened with kindness come.

4. We with this bounty
Oh, let all hearts unite.
We with this bounty,
Not only distribute the harvest
But also the tools and land.

5. Now in these days of war
Oh, let all hearts unite.
Now in these days of war
We follow the way of Jesus
With bold nonviolent love.

Give Us Today

A second setting of the lyrics in the song “Give Us Our Daily Bread.”

Ch: Give us today our daily bread.
Give us today our daily bread.
May we be ever satisfied with what is our share.
Give us today our daily bread.
Give us today our daily bread.
May we be never satisfied ’til what is on earth is equally shared.

1. In simplicity is life full flavored.
In simplicity the bitter and the sweet.
In simplicity is true abundance.
Not streets of gold but paths of justice for all. (Refrain)

2. Fear of scarcity will not divide us.
Fear of scarcity will never be our guide.
Now the invitation of Jesus calls us
to share the gift and trust that God will provide. (Refrain)

Now O Spirit

A pregnant and laboring earth …

1. Now, O Spirit, fill us with fire.
Your compassion be our desire.
Now, O Spirit, open our hands.
May we share as need demands.
Letting go of what is not ours,
True abundance ev’rywhere flowers.
Daily giving justice birth:
Dawn of peace, a laboring earth.

2. Now, O Spirit, giver of breath
Free us from consuming death.
May we throttle runaway “More,”
monkey wrench the gears of war.
Meet oppression face to face
We resist in nonviolent ways.
Daily giving justice birth:
Dawn of peace, a laboring earth.

3. Now, O Spirit, turn us aside
In our quiet moments confide.
Healing Womb, Enveloping Urn
We in you develop and learn.
In the night, your silence we hear.
By your calm we certainly steer.
Daily giving justice birth:
Dawn of peace, a laboring earth.

4. Pouring Spirit, Swig of Delight
Cup of Joy, all people unite.
Shine, O Sweet Expression of Grace.
Be revealed in ev’ry face.
Sharing food our spirits we blend;
Truths discovered in stranger and friend.
Daily giving justice birth:
Dawn of peace, a laboring earth.
——————————
It’s hard to write a song about non-violence, and non-violent resistance to oppression. It’s a hard word to sing, for one. And usually, writing about a negative concept is always less powerful that writing about a positive one. Hmmm. You hate to just talk around it poetically, especially when you’re hanging with someone like my friend Jack-Nelson-Pallmeyer. There’s a guy who does not beat around the bush.

Well, here’s an attempt at such a song from my collaboration with Jack. It fits in the framework of a larger service of songs and readings.

Heart of Mercy

Heart of Mercy

Heart of mercy.
Heart of mercy
Heart of mercy.
We live in you.

Use: This song can be used as a sung prayer response, to intersperse with prayers, readings, visual images. Or just sing and alternate with silence, as a meditation time.

SATB: It sounds nice with four parts, so you might consider teaching it to the choir, so they can fill it out with harmonies from the pew, or wherever they’re sitting. As you hear on the demo recording, you can start with one voice to call it, then all can jump in for a unison pass, then add the SATB.

Come Lend Your Beauty To This Place

This tune is a second setting of the text for the song, Dazzling Bouquet. Recorded as a teaching track.

1. Mine is the church where ev’rybody’s welcome.
I know it’s true, ’cause I got through the door.
We are a dazzling bouquet of every flower.
Jump in the vase, ’cause we’ve got space for more.

(ch)
We are a dazzling bouquet, a dazzling bouquet,
a dazzling bouquet of every flower.
We are a dazzling bouquet, a dazzling bouquet.
Come, lend your beauty to this place.

2. Come gather round, you sixfoot gladiolas.
Come all you purple lilacs shining bright.
Come let us all bloom together in one garden:
A carnival of fragrance and delight …(ch)

3. Don’t think we merely tolerate each other.
We ask and tell, we don’t just turn away.
We give attention to every bud and blossom.
Let every face come grace the grand bouquet …(ch)

4. We see our demons trying to divide us;
They document their lies to make them true.
Today we’re freed from our judging and excluding.
Just look around enjoy this lovely view …(ch)

We Gather Longing

We gather longing, longing for peace.
We gather longing, longing for peace.
We gather longing, longing for peace,
And we know it’s good to be here.

Ch:
We are longing, longing
Longing, longing for peace.
We are longing, longing,
Longing, longing for peace.

2. We gather singing joyfully strong.

3. We gather dreaming what is to be.

4. We gather praying the heart of the world.

5. Weaving, mending the whole

I continue to attend church through the years. I often ask myself why, given the constant evolving of my spirituality, changes toward increasing plurality, all the curiosity and searching, my dislike of doctrine and dogma, my attempts to create meaning in community. This song is about that why.

See also the cousin of this song, Longing We Gather. I sometimes like to take the same starting text and try a few different tunes and structures.

In that spirit, I hope you feel free to do the same with this song, play around with it a little. It’s pretty flexible. Add some verses, adjust the repeats.

Salvadoran Folk Mass

Written by Guillermo Cuellar in the late 1980s, this ten-song mass lifts up the powerful voices of the Salvadoran people struggling against the brutal dictatorship, finding Jesus being crucified in their martyrs at the hands of the death squads, and finding hope in the solidarity with one another and the promises of God to be with the poorest of the poor.

Presented here in singable English translations by Bret Hesla and Bill Dexheimer Pharris. (Hard copy: price includes shipping).

Worship In The Spirit of Jesus (book)

(2005 Book). Worship in the Spirit of Jesus: Theology, liturgy and songs without violence, by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Bret Hesla. Essays, songs, and liturgies that challenge the violence embedded in core of most Christian liturgies and hymns, and then imagine and invite songs and services that embody nonviolence. 221 pp. (Hard copy book: price includes shipping. Browse songs below.
We Gather Longing
Here In This Ordinary Place
Flower of Compassion #1
Come Lend Your Beauty To This Place
Make Us Mindful
Heart of Mercy
Open Invitation
Now, O Spirit
Little By Little
Give Us Our Daily Bread
Give Us Today
Flower of Compassion #2
Let All Hearts Unite
Let’s Leave Our Fears and Comforts Now
Listen
Turn My Heart To Peace
May We Awaken
O Compassion
O God You Will Show Us the Path Of Life (Dittberner)
Stream of Mercy Never Failing
We Shall Be Peace (Dittberner)
Web of Beauty
Where There Is Hatred
Yea, O God (Dittberner)
Dazzling Bouquet

Lords Prayer–Adapted by Bret Hesla

Fly Away Home

source: Diana Earth Mission. Adapted and expanded: Larry Dittberner

She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain

Traditional American

My Dame Had a Lame Tame Crane

Two traditional rounds:

My Dame Had a Lame Tame Crane

Why Shouldn’t My Goose?

Solar System

Solar System

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Asteroid Belt
Then Jupiter is next
Then Saturn with its rings
Then Uranus, Neptune, Pluto are the rest
Around the sun together

Even though Pluto was downgraded since I wrote this song, I’m still calling Pluto a planet.

Froggie Went A-Courtin

Traditional American

Simple Gifts

Traditional Shaker Tune

Home On The Range

traditional

Recorded with Larry Dittberner on the irresistible “The Big Fat Tape of Songs for Kids.”

Sorry, CD only (cassette tapes are sold out.)

Hambone

Traditional

One Bottle of Pop

One bottle of pop, two bottle of pop, three bottle of pop, four bottle of pop
Five bottle of pop, six bottle of pop, seven bottle of pop, STOP!

Don’t put your trash in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard.
Don’t put your trash in my backyard, my backyard’s full…HEY!

Everyone recycling, -cycling, -cycling.
Everyone recycling. Once ain’t enough….NO!

Crawdad

Traditional American

You get a line and I’ll get a pole, Baby.
You get a line and I’ll get a pole, Honey.
You get a line and I’ll get a pole
And we’ll go fishing at the crawdad hole.
Honey, surgar baby, mine.

Get up old man you slept too late….
Crawdad man done passed your gate…

Yonder come a man with a sack on his back…
Packing all the crawdads he can pack….

What you gonna do when the lake runs dry?
Sit on the bank until I cry…

I hear the drake say to the duck
Been diving all day and I got no luck….

Ballad of the Bottler

Chorus:
I’m a Minnesota soda water bottler
I bottle soda water water bottles
I bottle bottled pop in some water bottles
In others I bottle bottled beer.
And counting all the Minnesota soda soda water bottled
There’s many Minnesota soda water water bottles bottled here.

1. Now a lot of people think that a bottle
is a bottle is a bottle is a bottle is a bottle
But it seems to me that a bottle with water
isn’t just a bottle but a water bottle
And a water bottle bottled with pure soda water
I call a soda water water bottle
So you see if it’s Minnesota soda water bottled
Then you call the bottles bottled Minnesota soda water water bottles.

2. With ten thousand lakes and couple hundred rivers
Why are people buying water at the store?
Just belly up to the sink, drink save a few dollars
And holler if you want a little more.
Well the problem is the poison we’re putting in the ground
We finally found it floating in the well
So either buy it in the bottle or test it in the tap
So you know the water isn’t gonna do a little number on your health.

3. Bottle business is booming but the end is looming
But the system will eventually crash.
Cause the landfill’s growing with everybody throwing
Water bottle after bottle in the trash.
Did you ever stop and think when you go to take a drink
Why you throw away the bottle when you’re done.
If we could all learn to do the bottle return.
We could fill the Minnesota soda water water bottles up again.

Farmer Is The One

Traditional American

New words Bret Hesla

Make New Friends

Make new friends but keep the old.
Those are silver, these are gold.
New made friendships like new wine
Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test
Time and change are surely best.
Brow may wrinkle, hair turn gray
Friendship never knows decay.

For ‘mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends alas may die.
New friends must their place supply.

Cherish friendship in your breast.
New is good but old is best.

From the recording, Big Fat Tape of Songs for Kids.

Mole in the Ground

Traditional American

New Perspective (song)

w. E.B. Browning; m: Larry Dittberner

Yea O God

3-part round

Yea, O God, you are our mother.
You are our mother and father.

We are the clay. We are the clay.
We are the clay. You are the potter.

We are all the work of your hands.
The work of your hands, the work of your hands.

Midnight Lullaby

On a Thursday, in the evening
I am sitting in my kitchen.
In the evening in the kitchen
I am thinking of my children.

Ch: And peace, we want peace.
Oh peace, hope for peace.
Yes, peace, work for peace.
Live in peace.

It’s so easy to get greedy.
To want more and more
That’s how it seems.
‘Cause letting go isn’t easy.
How can we without a dream? (Ch.)

Many people the world over
Live simply day by day.
And we can, I do believe it.
It’s a choice that we all can make. (Ch.)

On a Thursday in the evening
I am sitting in my kitchen.
Guitar singing, me I’m wishing.
Sending love out to my children.

In their beds, tucked in and dreaming.
Curled up tight, gently breathing.
In the midnight, children sleeping.
And their angels watch are keeping.
In the midnight, children sleeping.
And their angels watch are keeping.

All In All

God bless thou thyself in my reaping.
Each ridge and plain and field, in my reaping.
Each sickle curved, shapely and hard in my reaping.
Each ear and handful on the sheaf in my reaping.

Ch: All in all, God bless all. (repeat)

God bless each maiden, God bless each youth.
O bless each mother, and tender youngling.
God bless each woman, God bless each man.
And guard us all in all in our reaping. (Ch.)

God bless Thou Thyself, in our reaping.
Each hill and plain and field, in our reaping.
Each sickle curved, shapely and hard in our reaping.
Each ear and handful on the sheaf, in our reaping. (Ch.)

No Matter Who (songbook)

(2012 Songbook and separate book of Piano Scores) No Matter Who: Hymns and Songs for Peacemakers and Other Neighborhood Builders to Sign Together. These forty-one songs, compiled from my writing between the late 80s and 2012, are a good place to start for singable songs and hymns on progressive themes. (Songbooks below. Or click and listen to individual songs.)

Contents:

Be With Us Now
Bread for the Journey
Dazzing Bouquet
Do, Do Justice
Eat Food Carol
Embolden My Heart
Everything That We Have
Flower of Compassion
Give Us Our Daily Bread
Hearts On Fire
Here In This Ordinary Place
Holy River Never Failing
Image of God
Invitation
Juntos creamos espiritu
Justice Like a Base of Stone
Listen
Little By Little
Longing We Gather
Make Us Mindful
Mercy We Abide
No Matter Who
Open Invitation
Pave the Way With Branches
Peace, Peace
Pour Out Your Heart
Provoking Each Other
River of Gladness
Shower Your Spirit
Sing the Day
This Remains
To Sing With You Is Home
Turn My Heart to Peace
Vision Of Hope
Wash Me One More Time
We Share the Peace
We, Too
Web of Beauty
What We Do
Where Love and Justice Combine
Where There Is Hatred

(discounts available on multiple copies of People’s Songbook edition.)

Make Me An Instrument

Text based on familiar prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

Ch:
Make me an instrument of your peace.
O God, fill me with love.
Make me an instrument of your peace.
O God, make me an instrument of your peace.

1. Wherever there is hatred, let me sow love.
Wherever there is sorrow, let me sow joy.
Wherever there’s oppression, freedom let me sow.
O God, fill me with love.

2. May I seek to console, not to be consoled.
May I seek to pardon, not to be pardoned.
I seek to understand not to be understood.
O God, fill me with love.

Ch:
Hazme un instrumento de tu paz,
O Dios, dame tu_amor.
Hazme un instrumento de tu paz,
O Dios, hazme un instrumento de tu paz.

3. May I be mindful that all creatures are one
Sisters and brothers with the earth and the sun.
I pray release me from my need to be in charge.
O God, fill me with love.

Recording from the album Justice Like a Base of Stone. Text based on St. Francis of Assisi.

We Have Died

We Have Died

We have died to hatred.
To hatred we have died.
We are raised.
We are alive to peace.

We have died to indifference
To indifference we have died
We are raised.
We are alive to beauty

We have died to warring
To warring we have died
We are raised.
We are alive to healing

We have died to dominion
To dominion we have died
We are raised.
We are alive to belonging

Found in the songbook/CD Justice Like a Base of Stone, 2006.

As God Provides

Offertory song, nice in four parts or unison. Recorded here with a second song, Rising the Sun, which works as a duet where both are sung together, or as a counter melody.

As God provides abundantly the riches of the earth
As sun and rain distinguish not among each garden’s worth.
We abandon every caution as our abundance freely we bestow.
Creation streaming graciously shall lead us in the flow.
In gratitude, these gifts we bring.

1. Rising the sun’s streaming glorious and proud,
Casting jewel over jewel on the wet morning ground.
Full in their bounty all greenly and high
Do the trees stand a-reaching for the lightening sky.
Heedless of boundary line
Neither of “Private” sign
Light after light spilling down, spilling down.
All now are bathed in this dawning of gold
In this treasure unbounded that ne’er will be sold.

2. See now the lilacs a-blooming in song
With their lavender voices fragrant and strong
See how the apple trees join the choir
With magenta harmonies of blazing desire.
Lightly the petals cling, then yield to the breeze of spring
Till earth be strewn in purple and white
Come soak your feet on a dew laden stroll
And this beauty discarded will cling to your soles.

Downloads

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2025 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.Recording credits: Bret Hesla vocals and ukulele, Tim Gustafson guitar, Paul Andress piano

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2025 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

By Bret Hesla, 2025Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla, 2025Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

or do both of the above together:

by Bret Hesla, 2025Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla, 2025Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret HeslaContact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Heslacontact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics by Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Can’t Help Falling In LoveContact bret.hesla@gmail.com

[sing to the tune — Yellow Submarine]

Lyrics Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Yellow Submarine Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: Vive La Compagnie |Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: YMCAContact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Christmas hope and joy trounce post-election worry

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress © 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Service Outlines

Poems

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

:From the city the dying groan,and the throat of the wounded cries for help;yet God pays no attention to their prayer.Job 24:12.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording Credits:

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla© 2021 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 1990 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla© 2018 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. With new words by Mary Preus and Bret Hesla.© 1999, 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2018 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Text based on a prayer by Sr. Ruth Fox. Adapted and additional text Bret Hesla. Music Bret Hesla.© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Vocals — Bret Hesla and Rebekah Fergus.Instruments — Bret Hesla.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Lyrics: v1 William Sloane Coffin, adap. BH, v2-4 BH. Music by Bret Hesla.© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score Cooper Sherry.© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission., please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2015 Bret Hesla.All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Production Services Matthew Zimmerman/Control Z

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Individual songs, click above. Songbook orders, click below.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsR40wCXowY[/embedyt]

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Bret Hesla, Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Fiddle: Linda BreitagVocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson; Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort ColliganVocals: Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom WittGuitar: Bret HeslaPercussion: Richard Bruxvoort ColliganVocals: Bret Hesla, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray MakeeverVocals: Ray Makeever (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever;Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Guitar: Bret Hesla, Piano: Tom WittVocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson;Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Harmonica: Bret Hesla;Vocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell (lead), Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever; Guitar: Bret HeslaVocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Words and music by Bret Hesla.Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2025 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording credits: Bret Hesla vocals and ukulele, Tim Gustafson guitar, Paul Andress piano

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

By Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla, 2025
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

by Bret Hesla
contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics by Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Can’t Help Falling In Love
Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics Bret Hesla, 2025; Tune: Yellow Submarine
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: Vive La Compagnie |
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Lyrics: Bret Hesla, Tune: YMCA
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2024 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress © 2022 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

:
From the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
yet God pays no attention to their prayer.
Job 24:12
.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2023 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla and Paul Andress
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2022 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2021 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1990 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla
© 2018 Bret Hesla, bret.hesla@gmail.com. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact bret.hesla@gmail.com

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. With new words by Mary Preus and Bret Hesla.
© 1999, 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2018 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Text based on a prayer by Sr. Ruth Fox. Adapted and additional text Bret Hesla. Music Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Vocals — Bret Hesla and Rebekah Fergus.
Instruments — Bret Hesla.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Lyrics: v1 William Sloane Coffin, adap. BH, v2-4 BH. Music by Bret Hesla.
© 2009 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2021 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Piano score Cooper Sherry.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission., please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2015 Bret Hesla.
All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Words and music by Bret Hesla. Written on commission for Land Stewardship Project
© 2020 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Individual songs, click above.
Songbook orders, click below.

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Bret Hesla, Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Fiddle: Linda Breitag
Vocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson; Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Vocals: Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt
Guitar: Bret Hesla
Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Vocals: Bret Hesla, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever
Vocals: Ray Makeever (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever;
Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Guitar: Bret Hesla, Piano: Tom Witt
Vocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Guitar: Tim Gustafson;
Vocals: Rebekah Moir, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Cathy Pino, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Harmonica: Bret Hesla;
Vocals: Martha Schwen-Bardwell (lead), Cathy Pino, Rebekah Moir, Nate Crary, Paul Andress, Ray Makeever, Chris Tripolino, Bret Hesla

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.

Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt; Flute: Ray Makeever; Guitar: Bret Hesla
Vocals: Bret Hesla (lead), Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.