At our meeting last evening we learned how to sing the psalms using Psalm tone A, one of eight psalm tones published in Reading the Psalms with Luther (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2007). By way of an introduction to"Singing the Psalms," this little book provides the following prefatory comments:

The psalms are appointed for singing. Each psalm verse in divided into two part, with an asterisk (*) indicating the point of division. Most of the text of each half verse [versicle] is sung to the reciting a reciting tone. At the point of the verticle line (1), the final two or three syllables are sung to the notes provided. Ordinarily there is one syllable of the text for each note. When there are only two syllables, the first syllable is sung to two notes.

Any psalm can be sung to any tone. It is best, however, that the tone, which can range from cheerful and bright to somber and austere, be appropriate to the text.

Before singing Evening Prayer, we practiced singing several psalms to Tone A, and things worked out quite well. Mason helped greatly by giving us the reciting tone at the beginning of every three or four verses (something we observed Sr. Judy doing at our last monastery retreat).

Importantly, we reminded one another of next week's pancake supper at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, the Ash Wednesday service at St. Thomas Lutheran Church, and the Taize services thereafter on Lenten Wednesday evenings (see the previous posting!).

For those who wanted one, Stephen made available copies of Songs & Prayers from Taize, and Andy announced that he will bring ten copies of Frederica Mathewes-Green's First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty-Day Journey through the Ancient Great Canon, our Lenten study book, to our next meeting.

Next week Stephen, using the Book of Common Prayer, will lead us in Evening Prayer. We hope to see everyone at First Presbyterian Church, 7:00 p.m., Thurday, February 7, as we continue to practice singing the psalms, both as individuals in our Daily Offices and as a community in our meetings.