A Litany For Holding On
For a few years now, I have been learning a bit of the craft of congregational call-and-response readings. Simply put, I find there is something profoundly restorative in a community of faith 'saying aloud' and 'saying together' words in time and space. The cadence and rise and fall of spoken word and the joined confession of many gathered voices has captured me in a different but not altogether separate way than what I have typically come to know as 'congregational worship.' In this litany I combined a melodic tag that I wrote for another song to function as a sung response. I intentionally kept the response simple and singular in words so that it could perhaps work like an inhale and exhale in a melodic way.
As always, I would love to hear from you if this litany finds its way to your faith community, your home, or your gathering tables. Peace to you in the holding on—my hope is that in the breathing in and out of these words a deeper knowing of being held and carried would perhaps rise to the surface, even for a moment.
A LITANY FOR HOLDING ON
Erika Kobewka
Triune God - Father, Son, Spirit, in You we live and move and breathe
E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah
Jesus Christ, first-born over all creation, the Word made flesh, image of the
invisible God. In You all things were created and find their place. All of our
beginnings and all of our ends - You were before all things and in You all things
have been made.
E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah
tears, complexities, waverings, and losses - nothing slips through the cracks,
nothing is lost in Your spaciousness. You hold it all, and in You all things exist
and dwell. All the threads and strands, fraying and loose ends, are gathered up,
woven and held by You. Nothing goes to waste, and You never let go.
E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah
You are holding onto us. Creating, recreating, making new, pursuing, mending,
healing, reconciling, renewing, making whole. Everything, absolutely everything
finds its home in You. We find our home in You. All the broken and dislocated
people and things, animals and atoms.* You hold it all. You hold us all.
E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah
*Eugene Peterson's, The Message (Colossians 1:18-20)
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