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!
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
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
You Embrace the Smallest
You Embrace the Smallest
© 2017 Bret Hesla.
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
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.
Pour Upon Us All
Pour Upon Us All
© 2017 Bret Hesla.
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.
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.
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
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!).
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!
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.
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2004 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
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.
Heart of Mercy
Heart of Mercy
Heart of mercy.
Heart of mercy
Heart of mercy.
We live in you.
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2004 Bret Hesla. Licensed via OneLicense.net. All rights reserved.
Use with permission, please. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
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.
We Will Remember
We Will Remember
We will remember. We will remember.
Your story is in our hearts. We will remember.
We will remember. We will remember.
Dear sister, we will remember you.
We’ll call your name out … [Hmmmmm]
We’ll call your name out … [Hmmmmm]
We’ll call your name out … [Hmmmmm]
Dear sister, we will remember you.
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 1999 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Song Uses: The song also works well for All Saints Day, and other gatherings of remembrance.
E.g. alt lyrics for 2025 Gaza genocide memorial service:
We will remember. We will remember
Your suffering is in our hearts, we will remember
We will remember. We will remember
Dear mothers we will remember you.
(Dear brothers, sisters, fathers, children, people, martyrs)
Song background: Throughout the 20th century, thousands of Minnesotans with developmental disabilities were placed in large, state-run institutions. Conditions were often inhumane. Those who died while living there, more than 13,000, were buried in unmarked or numbered graves–no name. Since the mid-90s, leaders with disabilities at St. Paul-based Advocating Change Together, along with allies, have been replacing numbered grave markers with the actual names and birth/death dates of the people buried. Remembering them with dignity. This song was written to sing at ceremonies honoring the deceased, at which their proper headstones are unveiled. These were moving and uplifting events, led by people with disabilities.
Songleading: As for singing, it’s mostly mi-re-do. Pretty easy to sing, after you’ve heard it one time. The second verse, “we’ll call your name out” has humming, during which people can call aloud the names of those being remembered. Any simple accompaniment will work great.
Mercy We Abide
Mercy We Abide
Mercy we abide in you.
Stir in us, we pray.
1. In peace, may we assemble.
In peace, may we unite.
In peace, may we be whole.
Move within each heart.
2. For all who suffer in war.
For all who struggle for comfort
For all who slumber in ease.
3. We are broken, longing for peace
Forgiveness flow among us.
May we be reconciled.
Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2003 Bret Hesla. Admin. Augsburg Fortress.
Also licensed via OneLicense.net. All rights reserved.
Use with permission, please. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
In a nutshell: Reconsidering the line “God have mercy.” Rather, as my friend Jack says, “God is mercy.”
To me, the old language in the time-honored liturgies I grew up with brings up the old images of God –white, male, powerful judge. I can’t separate them. Most of my songwriting work for churches involves a search for new language to sing, that describes what’s going on today, and offers expansive ways to understand the divine. In this song, I’ve tried to reimagine a Kyrie that uses new imagery for God. My intent is to lift up Jesus’ vision of God as a loving spirit (who ismercy), and let that vision play out in the cantor’s text.
During the cantor lines, the congregation also has a part to sing. It’s a dialog. If this back-and-forthh feels too busy, you can just have instruments play the congregation part. Or let a small group of singers do it for a few Sundays, after which the whole congregation will easily join in.
Make Us Mindful
Make Us Mindful
Make us mindful
Ever mindful
Now we pray
May we be open.
Alt text:
Make us mindful
Ever mindful
Being ever
Open of heart
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2003 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
This short song, repetitive song can work well when alternated with spoken parts, or silence. You’ll notice on the recording that I have two different verses, but when I do this with a group, I always just choose one or the other and only sing that one.
Listen
Listen
Listen, Listen
Be open, O my heart.
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2003 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Short repetitive chant, can be used in services of prayer, meditation or preparation to hear a reading.
With different texts, you can adapt it to all sorts of uses and themes. Here are some other texts you could use, all with the same format:
Love is calling, be open O my heart.
In this moment, be open O my heart.
Ever mindful, be open O my heart.
Day is dawning, be open O my heart.
Night is falling, be open O my heart.
All is changing, be open O my heart.
Peace is blooming, be open O my heart.
Nature’s singing, be open O my heart.
Life is calling, be open O my heart.
Ever dreaming, be open O my heart.
Watching, watching | For glory yet unseen.
Listen, Listen | The Invitation comes.
All is blooming, be open O my heart.
Someone’s knocking, be open O my heart.
Flower of Compassion
Fresh-cut, nonviolent images of the spirit. Short repetitive song, designed to be interspersed with readings, spoken parts.
Flower of Compassion
Copyright © 2003 Bret Hesla. bret.hesla@gmail.com
Flower of compassion
Bloom within, bloom within, bloom within each heart
Blossom of love, you
Draw us all, Draw us all , Draw us all together.
Delicate fragrance
Drift beyond, Drift beyond, Drift beyond all borders.
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2003 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Fill Us, Fill Us
Fill Us, Fill Us
Fill us. Fill us.
Fill us with your peace.
That we may live as sisters and brothers,
Harming no one.
Text: Pope Francis. © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Adapted and set to music by Bret Hesla.
Song © 2017 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net. Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com
[Prayer: Urging Spirit, ©2017 Bret Hesla]
Urging Spirit, Fill us with your peace.
Peace that feels like the urge to share what we have.
Peace that feels like the urge to compassion for others.
Peace that feels like the urge to listen
Peace that feels like the urge to make room at the table
Peace that feels like the urge to find a difficult compromise
Peace that feels like the urge to take a risk to stop violence
Peace that feels like the urge to be kind
Fill us with your urging peace.
[sing]
Allowing Spirit, Fill us with your peace.
The Peace that allows us to let go of busyness
The Peace that allows us to be satisfied with what we have
The Peace that allows us to breathe deeply
The Peace that allows us to make space for other living things
The Peace that allows us to consider the common good
The Peace that allows us to question what’s not working
Fill us with your allowing peace.
[sing]
Inviting Spirit, Fill us with your peace.
Peace that invites us into cheerful partnership with all things.
Peace that invites us to walk in the direction of less harmful habits
Peace that invites us to honor the habitats of others
Peace that invites us to make butterfly gardens
Fill us with your inviting peace.
[sing]