Category: Prayer
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In the Beginning
As waters rise due to environmental devastation, our situation has similarities to the flood story. This time, we’re the ones bringing the flood. How might God’s presence and promise help us now? This text emerged in a shape that didn’t fit any traditional format. I’m grateful to Kate Williams for creating a wonderful tune that…
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We Wear Our Knowledge Like a Shell
When preparing a collection of my work, I received a cover draft from designer Martha Chlipala which featured a chambered nautilus. This led me down a deep, wonderful rabbit hole learning about their distant ancient relatives, the ammonoids, and cephalopods more generally. It also brought me back to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.’s famous poem, “The…
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Your Love Is a Wider Love
Christian Scripture and liturgy often compare God to kings and mountains. What if we explored God’s greatness in other ways? Thanks to Sally Ann Morris for the mystery and longing in this new tune. You can find this piece to preview or purchase here or as part of my collection Elemental Joy.
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Let Me Be Humble
In the fall of 2023, I had an extraordinary opportunity to visit Italy and learn about St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi, two Christians who took the scriptural call to humility very seriously. After attempting to match this theme with several meters and tunes, I finally thought of the tune SLANE and found some…
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Come Join Me Now
We are never without the presence of God and Thea accompaniment of God’s creation and the saints. The great Maya Angelous said, “one of the things I do, when I step on the stage, when I stand up to translate, when I go to teach my classes, when I go to direct a movie, I…
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Holy Spirit, Spark a Vision
When I began my ministry, the very first task assigned to me was to attend a faith-based organizing training. One of the many gifts of that experience was the understanding that power is worth cultivating as long as you have a positive purpose that is larger than that power. In this text, the Holy Spirit…
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My God, I Am A Harrowed Land
“for in Love’s field was never found / a nobler weapon than a wound.” A biography of St. Theresa of Avila brought me to this quote from Richard Cranshaw’s poetic tribute to her. The quote stayed with me for months, demanding exploration. Times of great loss can lead us into retreat and calcification; and they…
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Bless What Is Breaking
Some of the holiest moments I have experienced while hymn writing have been when I consider a deeply personal and painful experience and try to imagine how it might be of service to a singing congregation. In this case — just as with one of my earliest pieces, “I Know God Holds You” — the…
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In the Faithfulness of Service
Christians sometimes argue about what is better: Martha’s service or Mary’s worship, the effort of works or a receptiveness to grace, achieving a position of responsibility or growing in humility. Jesus reminds us that we are called to love God with all that we do, and with all that we are. In the faithfulness of service,in the…
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When Our Minds Are Set and Certain
How can we work against the many forces urging us towards polarization and division? This text was inspired by A Sanctified Art’s theme for Lent in 2025: Everything In Between: Meeting God in the midst of extremes. When our minds are set and certaingrant us grace that intercedes.When our hearts are hard with habitease us…
Hannah C Brown 