40 Days of Sacred Songs

Introduction

Hello Friends

It wants but a few days to Lent 2022 and time for me to attempt to send out a daily email for the coming forty days of devotion.

This year I will be writing a daily reflection on Hymns and Sacred Songs that have touched my soul down the years.

In the Anglican Tradition we have a phrase Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi (We believe what we pray) which leads to an emphasis on the right words for the Liturgy.  The Book of Common Prayer is one of the Four Cornerstones of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral which is the litmus test for being part of the Anglican Communion.

Our sisters and brothers in the Methodist church have historically found their doctrine not between the pages of a prayer book but in the hymns which drove their founders forwards and inspired their devotion.  It is not for nothing that the Methodist Hymnnal is called ‘Sing the Faith’.

Looking back on life in the year when I have reached State Pension age I find that my life has been enriched by Hymns, Sunday School Choruses, and Sacred Songs from the age of 6 to 66 and I hope in the days ahead to share some of that journey and some of those riches.

Each day you will receive an email containing a hymn or song to listen to, a Bible Passage, a short reflection on the hymn, and a closing prayer.  (Oh and another hymn thrown in as an epilogue just for the fun of it).

The emails should arrive in your inbox late on the evening before they are set for use but may be read at any time and (almost) in any order.

If you would like to continue to receive these reflections then you need do nothing at all and I will attempt to send them as usual.

If you would not like to receive them it should be easy to unsubscribe yourself from the circulation list using the link at the foot of the email

If you know of someone else who would like them please let me know…

May you have a blessed and fruitful Lent

Andrew Dotchin – Felixstowe

…and just to get us in the mood its over to Westminster Abbey for a rousing dose of Trumpets and Drums.  Music fit for a Queen

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com and on Twitter as @SuffolkVicar, and on my public Facebook page Rev Andrew Dotchin

Acknowledgements:

Prayers are taken from the Psalm Prayers in the Common Worship Psalter. material from which is included here ,is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2005

Scripture quotations are copyright © New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

These Reflections, ‘With a Song in my Heart’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2022