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#10/52: Lutheran Lenten Services, My Favorite Piano, and my Favorite Lenten Hymns

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Lutheran Lenten Services and my Favorite Piano

My favorite piano sits in front of my home church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock Nebraska.  It is my favorite church season of the year, Lent.

My favorite piano and my favorite sheet music Lorie Line
Lorie Line During Lenten Vespers

It’s a time of reflection when I play the piano every Wednesday night during Lent. Lorie Line is my favorite pianist and her amazing piano hymn arrangements just perfect for this Holy season before East.

I have played the piano for the Lutheran Lenten Services at Trinity Lutheran Church since 1997 (I think)  and sometimes I think I should change up my sheet music. But I keep going back to the Heritage Collection II because I love these standard hymns.

These hymns are friends, they have seen me through the worse times in my life and given me comfort.  Sitting at the piano at the front of the church listening to the reading of the passion served as a therapy.

My Favorite Hymns: Lenten Season

Below are a few songs directly from Lorie Lines You Tube Channel. I can’t count the number of times I had this CD on auto-repeat.

  • Be Thou Vision
  • Nearer, Still Nearer
  • Faith of My Fathers
  • In The Garden
  • Rock Of Ages
  • Take My Life and Let It Be
  • David of the White Rock
  • Beach Spring
  • Con Que Pagaremos?
  • O Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
  • Nearer to God To Thee
  • Be With Me Lord
  • This Is My Father’s World
  • How Can I Keep From Singing?
  • An Irish Blessing
  • How Great Thou Art

I have played this piano book from front to back and most pieces are at the intermediate level and have a strong arpeggio style. This makes it easy to play but still very stylish and sounds wonderful.

Although I have played many pianos over the years my favorite piano my church piano and is the home of my spiritual soul and faith.

As the journey of Jesus takes me through Lent, Good Friday and Easter I am humbled, I pray for peace and glory at the promise of resurrection on Good Friday and celebrate Christ resurrection on Easter.

Last year I finished a daily Advent Devotional Series and this year I will concentrate on a weekly Lent series revolving around the Lutheran Lenten services at Trinity Lutheran Church.

If you have a favorite piano hymn or link to sheet music you like place your link or website here, I’m always interested in finding more piano hymn variations.

Day 277: Red Door, Nebraska City Church

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Now that I’ve learned the significance of red doors on churches I’m on the lookout for more to photograph. The first red door I saw on a church was during a visit to  South Windsor Connecticut. Little did I know the second one I would find would be in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The oldest Episcopal church in Nebraska, founded in 1857 has a crimson door. 

Red Door at a church in Nebraska
Red Door at a church in Nebraska

So what does it mean when you see a red door on a church? What does it represent in the Christian faith? The blood of Christ. As you walk through the door into the house of worship you are cleansed in the blood of Christ. Read about my first encounter below, along with the history of Martin Luther and a very famous door.

Significance of Red Doors in a Church – 3 Quarters Today

I didn’t know of the significance of red doors on churches until I read, Finally A Red Door, on another Project 365 blog. Although this door is of a Catholic church in Connecticut the symbolism of a red door in churches spans …
Since I drive around the country side on a regular basis you would think I would spot more, but I believe the tradition of painting church doors to represent the blood of Christ is no longer fashionable. Have you ever see a red door on a church? 
 
 

 

 
 

Day 146/365:Christ the Lord is Risen Indeed

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Christ the Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Happy Easter to one and God Bless you and your families this Easter season.

Christ The Lord is Risen Indeed!

Today, on Easter, this image of theRelated articles

Faith, It’s Not Just Black and White

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Sometimes faith is shades of gray. As some of you know who have been reading my blog my mother died in January of 2011. It has taken years to go through her things and absorb the life I never learned about. There are some things I still don’t understand, family history I don’t know. But through her death God opened a door.

Faith is God stretches beyond all comprehension
Faith, it’s not just black and white…

Although she made sure my brother and I were baptized, attended Sunday school and church every week,  it was only out of duty and respect to my God Mother Granny Turcotte. After we were confirmed, she never stepped foot in church again. The topic of religion and faith often brought a scornful look to her face and I never knew why because my faith has always brought me a great deal of comfort.

I grew up in a small country church, Grace Episcopal in Broad Brook Connecticut, and God brought me to the Lutheran church in college. My church home now is Missouri Synod Trinity Lutheran in Murdock Nebraska.

Not only did my Mother cut herself from God, but from family and friends. She didn’t think it was important to create relationships with relatives and her children. I rarely saw any of my aunts and uncles who lived in Oklahoma and California. The few cousins I knew as a child drifted as I got older.

There was one family member that consistently and faithfully maintained contact, a niece, my cousin Gail. I found saved cards, photos, and letters in my Mothers desk of an older cousin I never knew and never met.  In February a forwarded letter from Gail arrived in my mailbox, so I reached out with the news of Mom’s passing, including my email address. An email arrived a  week later.

Here is where God’s grace and divine intervention becomes apparent.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional StoriesChicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul:

Gail and I learned quite a bit from each other the next week.  Her Mother (Mom’s sister) was also not religious. We lived very parallel lives and had similar experiences and troubling childhoods with both of us having a difficult relationship with our Mothers.

During the normal course of telling each other about our lives Gail stated that she is a faithful member of Missouri Synod Trinity Lutheran Church in Woodward Oklahoma. This news brought goosebumps, tears to my eyes,  a lump in my throat, and a prayer of thanks to God. How can this be a coincidence? I believe it’s not.

What does it mean? I don’t know. But I do take comfort in this has to be a sign, a message, an indication of God’s hand in our lives. Acknowledgment that to everything there is a purpose. Wait and the message will be revealed. Listen and hear God’s word in the world around us, from the people around us.

Better yet, when you find yourself in church pray for your family, your friends, those who have lost faith, who are lost. The Lord Jesus Christ will find them and guide them home. Gail’s Mother, my aunt, and the last of the five brothers and sisters, died last week. I truly believe our prayers that were delivered up to God were received and now our Mothers are safely and lovingly in the arms of Jesus and are at peace.

 

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Significance of Red Doors in a Church

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I didn’t know of the significance of red doors on churches  until I read, Finally A Red Door, on another  Project 365 blog.  Although this door is of a Catholic church in Connecticut the symbolism of a red door in churches spans many denominations. It is definitely a more popular tradition in older churches.

Catholic Church in Connecticut

According to Dr. Richard C Hoefler, dean of Christ Chapel at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, “Christians have entered into worship, into the presence of God, through the blood of Christ.” It is also said that a red door in the Lutheran Church harkens back to the time of Martin Luther, who posted his 95 Theses on the red doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany—the crimson color symbolizes the church as part of the Reformation. (Pastor Kuhlman, can you confirm?)

On the website St. David’s Episcopal Church  in Laurinburg, NC it explains: “Red Front Doors. The red doors symbolize the blood of Christ, which is our entry into salvation. They also remind us of the blood of the martyrs, the seeds of the church.”

Historically a church has been a place of sanctuary, a place where a soldier could not pursue an enemy, much like when one takes refuge in  Christ the enemy, the devil and evil,  cannot pursue and destroy you. Thank you Bonnie for bringing this little known history to my attention.

By the way, this door is at St. Francis Assisi in South Windsor Connecticut.

I am now on a quest for other Red Doors around the country, here is one in Nebraska City at an Episcopal Church

Symbolism in Churches

If you are interested in learning more about symbolism in churches and the meaning of certain design elements in architecture of a various churches the books below are full of interesting information of Christian symbolism.

The Secret Language of Churches & Cathedrals: Decoding the Sacred Symbolism of Christianity’s Holy BuildingsHow to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and CathedralsSymbols of the Church