Songbooks

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.

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

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

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

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)

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)

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

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.)

Motley Travelers of Pleasant Avenue (songbook)

(Songbook, 2012) Motley Travelers of Pleasant Avenue. Six songs written on commission for Lake Country School, on Pleasant Avenue in Minneapolis. I interviewed some parents and staff, heard lots of stories about this amazing school. From these, I pulled together a little notebook of songs, including the title song. (Price includes shipping of songbook. Browse individual songs below.)

Motley Travelers of Pleasant Avenue
This Pleasant Road
If a Bee Can Fly
What Joy to Be Alive
Everybody Wants to Sing
Come Share This Road

River of Gladness (songbook)

(2011 Songbook). River of Gladness: Hymns from the Heart of the City.
by Bret Hesla.

Eight songs written on commission for Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota on the occasion of their 50th anniversary (1961-2011). The themes were gathered in conversation with members of the church, and reflect themes of this urban congregation and also of the historic peace church: peace, reconciliation, inclusion, welcome, justice. (Songbook price includes shipping. Browse contents below.)

Songbook Contents:

Blest are Those Who Trust
Sing the Day
River of Gladness
Where Love and Justice Combine
We Share the Peace .
Pour Out Your Heart
Invitation
Peace Peace

Big Fat Tape of Songs for Kids

(CD–1992) Big Fat Tape of Songs for Kids . Recorded with Larry Dittberner. Nineteen original and traditional songs joyfully blended like a bouquet of flowers picked from your neighbor’s garden. This is not the shallow children’s fare of feel-good happy rainbow music. These songs touch the many moods that children feel, and connect old favorites with wonderful new material. Larry and Bret love to sing, love to make music together, and love to do so with children. Their many years of singing experience season this recording with joy, tenderness, pizzazz, longing, and gusto. This is a must. (1992, 38 min.) (CD price includes shipping. Browse tracks below.)

1. Mole in the Ground (2:03)
2. Big Fat Walleye (2:00) (Hesla)
3. Make New Friends (1:21) arr Dittberner
4. The Farmer is the One (1:25)
5. The Ballad of the Bottler (2:13) (Hesla)
6. One Bottle of Pop (1:51) arr Hesla
7. Crawdad (2:15)
8. Hambone (0:57)
9. Home on the Range / I Ride an Old Paint (3:52)
10. Simple Gifts (2:02)
11. Froggie Went a Courtin’ (2:49)
12. The Farmer’s Market (3:20) (Hesla)
13. Solar System (1:00) (Hesla)
14. Hymn For the Russian Earth (1:45)
15. My Dame Had a Lame Tame Crane/ Why Shouldn’t
My Goose? (1:16)
16. She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain (2:53)
17. Fly Away Home (3:04) Arr. Dittberner

A New Perspective (CD)

(CD–1990) A New Perspective: Songs of Simple Living. In this recording (their first), Bret Hesla and Larry Dittberner put together a collection whose popularity endures due to its blend of simple elements, important themes, and the fun musicality. With issues ranging from cooking to soil erosion to peace, the authors sing about everyday living as sacred and important. Many of these songs work well for group singing. (Price includes shipping)
A New Perspective:
Songs of Simple Living

1. When Justice Comes (Bret Hesla) 4:49
2. All in All (w: Celtic Prayer, m:Larry Dittberner) 4:56
3. The Farmer’s Market (Bret Hesla) 3:20
4. Midnight Lullaby (Larry Dittberner) 6:05
5. Bread For the Journey (Bret Hesla) 3:37
6. Stir Fry (Bret Hesla) 3:18
7. We’ve Got to Stop Treating the Soil Like Dirt (Bret Hesla) 3:34
8. Yea O God (Larry Dittberner) 4:53
9. A New Perspective (w: E.B. Browning, m: Larry Dittberner) 3:52

Justice Like a Base of Stone (CD, Book)

(CD/Songbook–2006) Justice Like a Base of Stone: Hymns of Hope and Transformation. Songs and hymns of justice, inclusion, hope and nonviolence by Bret Hesla. Recorded by the group Bread for the Journey. Published by Augsburg Fortress. (CD: $10. Songbook $12. Price includes shipping. Browse contents below.)

This 2006 songbook (and recording by the group Bread for the Journey) features original songs of Bret Hesla. Key themes: justice for all people, building inclusive community, peacemaking & healing. Many of the CD arrangements emphasize SATB singing. The songbook includes keyboard accompaniment, background notes and tips for using with a group. (published and distributed by Augsburg Fortress) .

Close to Home (songbook)

(2013 Songbook) Close to Home: Songs for Community Singing. Thirty-four songs to help you and your friends sing the joys of local food, canoeing, peacemaking, marriage equality, corner hardware stores and other fine big-town values. (Songbook 8.5″ x 7″ format; price includes shipping. Or click and listen to individual songs.)

Big Fat Walleye
Big Town Values
Can You Strum
Childhood Sweethearts
Close to Home
Eat Food Carol
Farewell Ontario
February Blues
Fine Form
Grain Belt Beer
Greenland Ice is Falling
Greater Minnesota Get-together
I Burned the Beans
I’ve Walked Minnesota
I Will Not Be Passive
Kingfield Market Carol
Look Who’s Out in the Garden
Man at the Hardware Store
Merry Merry Minnesota
Motley Travelers of Pleasant Avenue
One Sweet August Afternoon
Potluck Carol
Rosie’s Last Request
Selling the House
Shoulder Next to Shoulder
This Good Old Man
This Night of Rejoicing
To Sing with You is Home
Vision of Hope
We Will Remember
We’ll Come Shining Through
Were You There When we Sang at Corcoran?
When Healthcare Reaches All
You Belong in This World

Global Songs, Local Voices

(CD & Songbook: 1994) Hear the voices from communities of faith world-wide and new songs that speak from a theology of justice, nonviolence and care of creation, as performed by the group Bread for the Journey, singers and musicians dedicated to building community through song. Songbook includes keyboard accompaniment, guitar chords, and background notes.

(Hard copy: price includes shipping.)

Tracks:

Uyaimose (Zimbabwe)
Cantalo (Argentina–Tr:Hesla)
For the Beauty of the Earth (China)
Canto de esperanza (Peru, Costa Rica–Tr: Hesla)
Halle, Halle, Halle (Caribbean)
Valley Psalm of the Holy Spirit (Philippines)
African Processional (Cameroon)
Slowly Slowly the Evening Falls (USA–Hesla)
Psalm 85 (USA)
How Great Thou Art (Sweden)
The Earth Is the Lord’s (Philippines)
Mold Me, Lord (Tanzania)
Juntos creamos espiritu (USA–Hesla)
With a Song of Joy (USA–Hesla)
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize (USA)
God’s Mercies (Sweden)
Canto de entrada (El Salvador–Tr:Hesla)

Songbooks

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

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