This layered song by psalmist Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is based on Psalm 31. Each part can be taught to a different part of the community or choir. When each is secure, they can be combined to create a rich, textured space for prayer.

The song can be sung a cappella or can be accompanied. It could be useful in Taizé-style services, and the text also invites it to be sung during Holy Week, especially Good Friday. 

Part 1:
"Into your hands I place my life."

Part 2:
"Oh, loving faithful God."

Part 3:
"Oh, my life is yours."

Richard's music is licensed through CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Be sure report use of the piece if you print the text or music for your community.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom was written by Emma's Revolution (activists and singers Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow) after September 11, 2001 and it quickly became an anthem of the peace movement. It sets the word 'peace' in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, offering a powerful interfaith message that has been shared at protests, religious services, and in other community contexts.

"We were moving from NYC to the Washington DC area over September 11th, 2001. When the only response from the government and the corporate media was “war and retribution,” we wrote “Peace, Salaam, Shalom” and sang it at an impromptu peace march in DC that week. Less than a month later, we led the song at the first peace rally in NYC after 9/11, where over 10,000 people sang with us for the three hour march, all the way from Union Square to Times Square."

Emma's Revolution asks groups, organizations, schools, churches, etc., that use their music to pay a one-time, sliding scale fee of $75-150 for use of the song in perpetuity. See their website for more information.

Psalm 141 is commonly used during Vespers or Evening Prayer. This setting by psalmist and singer-songwriter Richard Bruxvoort Colligan invites the community to sing a refrain which alternates with solo verses.

Use call and echo patterns to teach the refrain phrase by phrase. Weave them together when the community is ready and proceed right into the psalm setting without breaking the flow.

Refrain:
Our breath is incense, sweet smell rising.
Our hands are open, lifted up in the evening. 

Verse 1: 
I call out to you Come and hear me 
Give ear to my voice, my God, and quickly. Refrain 

Verse 2
Watch the door of my mouth for integrity 
Guard my lips and keep my heart from turning. Refrain 

Verse 3 
Let the elders guide and correct my way 
Keep my words and actions true I pray. Refrain 

Verse 4 
Watch the farmer's plow turn the blessed earth 
Bones of death and signs of rising birth. Refrain 

Verse 5
You are the earth, I am a seed 
Hide me, grow me, love and never leave me. Refrain

Richard's music is licensed via CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Be sure report use of the piece if you print the text or music for your community.