Music Notes from Denise, May 10, 2025

This Sunday is celebrated as Good Shepherd Sunday when we recite the 23 Psalm and focus on Jesus as our shepherd. The children of St. Martin’s Chapel Choir will present a musical called The Lost Sheep by Toni Sullivan in which they perform as shepherds tending their sheep. Sullivan writes: “The story of the Good Shepherd caring for their sheep holds a relatable message for all ages: God’s love for us has no limits. The young shepherds in this mini-musical not only gain a greater understanding of God’s love for us, but also learn about God’s call to care for each other.” (The Lost Sheep by Toni Sullivan copyright 2024 Choristers Guild. All rights reserved) I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to the Children’s Chapel teachers, to Becky Brewer for helping me and to Drew Lawless for accompanying us on guitar! The Chapel Choir involves children of various ages. The older students will have speaking parts while the youngers will act in the scenes and sing the following songs.

The Life of a Shepherd

The life of a shepherd is a hard one. We work through the day and the night. The life of a shepherd is a hard one, making sure that all is right. We travel near and far to find the things we need: grass to eat and water we can drink. We make sure all is well in the place we found, then check to see the sheep are safe and sound.

Where Is the Sheep?

A shepherd had a hundred sheep and one sheep went astray. They left the ninety-nine behind and looked for it all day. Where is the sheep? Where is the sheep?

When I’m Lost and Alone

When I’m lost and alone and I can’t find the way, when I stray from your loving care, when I’m mad or afraid or I don’t want to share, I know, God, you’ll always be there. You walk with me everyday. You shepherd me on my way, you speak to my heart every day.

The adult choir will sing the final song as the Offertory: The Hands of Jesus

Let my hands be your hands, O Jesus, as I serve those who are in need. May the work that they do for others show your love in every deed. Help me, O Jesus, to grow in love and care. Teach me, O Jesus, the ways that I can share. Take my heart and fill it with love I can share with all o my way. Help me serve where you would serve with a willing spirit each day.

Our Sequence hymn will be another version of Psalm 23 written by Joseph Gelineau, S.J. called My Shepherd is the Lord. It was requested by Mike Kelly as one he fondly remembers from his youth. Mike will sing the verses as Cantor and the congregation will sing the Antiphon.

During Communion we will enjoy another student solo from Parkway Central High School. Ella Wujcik, a junior this year, will sing Morning by Oley Speaks. Ella earned a Gold rating at State Music Festival last week for this solo. Ella also enjoys working with children and is helping Chapel Choir on their songs for The Lost Sheep.

In honor of Mother’s Day, the communion hymn will be Loving Spirit by Shirley Erena Murray, the prolific New Zealand hymn writer. She has done a great deal to promote expanded images of the Divine; like Julian of Norwich, she writes of God as both Mother and Father. With sensitivity, she takes those metaphors even deeper, making basic connections between the Motherhood of God, the Incarnation of our Lord, the Eucharist, and the miracle of human birth. By the same token, the Fatherhood of God is clothed in tender images that redeem the idea of paternity in an age that at times tends to despise patriarchy. Murray herself says of this text, “This is a personal meditation, in simple form, on the images of God as known to us through human relationships. It was the first of my hymns to be widely accepted and has been used in many different ways.” (Voices Found hymnal supplement Leaders Guide, 2004 Church Publishing)

Our final hymn will be another from Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, Good Shepherd, we are not alone.  It summarizes our songs and readings into a wonderful final statement: You gather sheep from far and wide, from folds we know and from outside. One flock, one Shepherd, there will be, a loving, blest community.