3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

lutheran

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

by

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 127/365: Photographic View of Church

by

Today was my day of playing around in Photoshop again. This time with plug-ins from Xero-Graphics. The subject my home church of Trinity Lutheran in Murdock Nebraska. I was driving by ans a friend was taking pictures for our upcoming open house dedicating the new fellowship hall. So I stopped, said “Hi” and took a few myself. Turned out to be a perfect subject for some special effects.

Which one do you like best and why?

#1: Straight out of camera (SOOC)

#2; Xero Tweak w/burn edge

#3 Xero Illustrator w/burn edge

#4: Xero Line Art

#5: Not sure which effect, misname it, but it's a xero effect, I can find it again.

Here is a different photograph, but taken at the same time in black and white. I’ll tell you which is my favorite after the comments and voting is tallied.

#6 Different image, taken at the same time, but an effect I like

Faith, It’s Not Just Black and White

by

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.

 

Related Articles

Day 15/365: Advent Vespers

by

The Advent candles signify anticipation of the Glory of Christmas to come. For the  past eleven years I have looked forward to playing the piano during the Advent vespers at church. It gives me a great deal of peace and reminds me of the true meaning of the season.

Day 15: Advent Vespers

Not very happy with the quality, I don’t have an SLR and I don’t like the auto focus. I’m going to have to experiment with the focal settings.