I can testify to that

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Andrew Crane, Angels, BYU Choirs, Elaine Hagenberg, Matthew Paez, Saint Augustine

They always do, and here I can testify to that as my own diaphragm expands with their heavenly love, I feel them using you and all of us as instruments of praise, glowing through your golden airways and spreading out and up and up the sweetest scents of spring.
–Leon Hieros, responding to dearest Matthew:

I am convinced that angels stood beside us as we recorded this piece. There is hope in this world.
–Matthew Paez, tenor of the BYU Singers

🌸👼🌸👼🌸👼🌸

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so very blessed

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Brian Newhouse, Elaine Hagenberg, Wartburg Choir, William Brighty Rands

aren’t our manifestations

so unspeakably blessed

to remember

it is only the Divine

singing through us

Thought of Thoughts, and Light of Lights,
Breath of Breaths, and Night of Nights?

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Awake, My Soul

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Christ Jesus, Elaine Hagenberg, Luxus Lazarz

Höchste Dankbarkeit, unser
liebstes Schwesterlein
Luxus Lazarz

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innocence, experience, Truth

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André Heywood, Christ Jesus, Elaine Hagenberg, Fellow beings, Henry Leck, Indianapolis Children's Choir, St. John's Boys' Choir, William Blake

The Lamb

Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

👼🐑🐯👼

We Shall

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Elaine Hagenberg, Gustavus Choir, Saint Augustine

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grace (un)perceivable

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Elaine Hagenberg, John O'Donohue, RiverCityMen'sChorus, RiverCityWomen'sChorus, Self-union

The soul was never meant to be seen completely. The light of modern consciousness is not gentle or reverent; it lacks graciousness in the presence of mystery; it wants to unriddle and control the unknown. Modern consciousness is similar to the harsh and brilliant white light of a hospital operating theatre. This neon light is too direct and clear to befriend the shadowed world of the soul. It is not hospitable to what is reserved and hidden. The Celtic mind had a wonderful respect for the mystery and depth of the individual soul.

The Celts recognized that the shape of each soul is different; the spiritual clothing one person wears, can never fit the soul of another. It is interesting that the word revelation comes from re-valere, literally, to veil again. The world of the soul is glimpsed through the opening in a veil which closes again. There is no direct, permanent or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature which must find its own spiritual belonging and direction. Individuality is the only gateway to spiritual potential and blessing.

John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

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Still with Thee

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Elaine Hagenberg, Harriett Beecher Stowe

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When We Love

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Charles Anthony Silvestri, Drake University Chamber Choir, Elaine Hagenberg

The towering tree spreads his greening canopy
–A veil between the soil and sky–
Not in selfish vanity,
But the gentle thrush to shade and shelter.
So it is with love.

For when we love,
Simply love,
Even as we are loved,
Our weary world can be transformed.

The busy thrush builds her nest below
–A fortnight’s work to weave and set–
Not for herself alone,
But her tender brood to shield and cherish.
And so it is with love.

For when we love,
Simply love,
Even as we are loved,
Our weary world can be transformed
Into the Kingdom of God!

💜🙏

Aren’t we all?

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(im)personally, BYU Choirs, Elaine Hagenberg, Fellow beings, Marina Kaiser, Sacred darkness, Secret Garden

You know

when strays
are just so kind?

How it feels when
in the dark of night
you take the garbage out
and they greet you as family,
even when you cannot feed them,
even they who do not come close anymore
because they are dying and withdraw
so that you don’t have to feel their pain?

How serene the thought sometimes
of leaving your last breath curled-up
among such gentle fellow creatures
who harbour no accusations against anyone,
whom no noise stops from purring:

It is all between each one of us and God…

Thank you for allowing me to see you
from the enormity of our one love…

We are all uncomfortable with our existential aloneness
before its acceptance can lead us into true togetherness.

We are all strays.

Until we see we are Eternity,
we are all strays from it.

All fellow beings of God, non-verbal or verbal,
start acting more and more healingly and kindly
when we have started truly meeting them in stillness.
And stillness doesn’t have to be their forte at all.

But we have to meet our Self in silence first.

And that requires us to direct ALL of our energy accordingly.
No more wasting time with time-wasting things.

Gentleness with ourselves when we fall short
of any internal or external expectations.

Knowledge that we are always
Loved and watched over

A L W A Y S

God bless you friends.
Thank you for our
shared music of
stillness.
Leon

💜🙏