Kfmiller's blog

Apology

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St. Junipero Serra founded a chain of missions throughout California in the 1700s. A series of anti-Catholic arson and vandalism incidents took place at the missions in recent years, with one in Los Angeles being severely damaged but thankfully now fully repaired. Pray for people who hate the Church, that their hearts will turn to God.

Instrumentation: Voice, guitar, cello
Duration: 1’


I saw your statue before they took it away
Ants are now judging angels but that’s where we are
Don’t expect balance when the mob’s taken control


I saw your mission before they set the fire

Prayers 16 & 63

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St. Gregory of Narek (c.950-1003/11) was an Armenian monk and poet. His most important work, Lamentations, contains a series of poems about the glory of God and man’s inadequacy. Pope Francis made him a Doctor of the Church in 2015.
 

Instrumentation: SATB chorus, harpsichord, piano, organ
Duration: 2’


E
With Your Word, You created
C
Everything that is
E
You alone weave light and dark
C
Yours alone is grace
A
What can I be but embarrassed and silent
B

The hearing of it

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Instrumentation: SATB chorus, double bass, timpani, cymbals.
Duration: 1’


Wisdom 2:11-15.
 

Run aground

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Instrumentation: Voice, guitar
Duration: 1’30”


(repeated pattern of Am11/Dm9/E♭m7/Em13)

You heard it from a distance
Lovely, bewitching
Then let yourself drift to where the water roughened
And there you ran aground


This is where you ended up
Bleached bones and wreckage
By now you should know the sirens' true intentions
But you still help them sing

(sheet music attached)

Hermas

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The Shepherd of Hermas is an apocryphal writing from the early Church. While ultimately not included in the New Testament, it was often read by early Christians because of its powerful allegorical view of the Church as a woman helping the author through life.

Instrumentation: Voice, guitar, double bass
Duration: 2’


One day I saw someone I used to know.
She held all the things I tried to hide.
And, filled with shame,
I turned away


But she said “Don’t let the old sad and darkened days bring you down.

Kateri

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Instrumentation: Voice, violin, bass recorder, percussion
Duration: 1’


Em     Am                            D                  Am            Em            Bm Am
Every morning through the cold and the dark you’d walk to Him

Exit

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Pray for people outside the Church, especially those who left the faith.

Instrumentation: Voice, two cellos
Duration: 1’30”


Dmaj7         
I was trying to follow you
Am7
when you turned off your lights
       A♭6                  Gmaj7
and took the wrong exit.
Dmaj7
Why would you do that?

Romero

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Instrumentation: Voice, electric guitar, bass guitar, spoken voice, piano
Duration: 1’30”


Saint Oscar Romero (1917-80) served as archbishop of El Salvador from 1977-80. His advocacy for the poor gained him powerful enemies who assassinated him while he was celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980. His killers were never brought to justice or even definitely identified. Romero was canonized by Pope Francis in 2018. The main part of this piece is addressed to Romero’s assassins while underneath a piano accompanies a spoken voice reciting the archbishop’s own words.

To you who pulled the trigger – how does it feel to kill a saint?

Walls and bars

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: Voice, ukulele, percussion
Duration: 1’


Another one’s gone
And I’m no nearer.
I hear You calling but I don’t respond the way I know I should
Please don’t give up on me (2x)


Another one’s here
And I’m no better
I see You waving to me but the distance never seems to close
Please don’t give up on me
Don’t give what I deserve

(sheet music attached)

 

About Noon

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Acts 9:1-22

Instrumentation: Voice, Banjo, Cello
Duration: 2’


D                                      G
About noon I was trav’lin’ under a vicious sun
A7                             D
Sweat ran down my face

The Chapel at the Convent (Krakow)

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: Voice, organ
Duration: 3’


During the 1930s, at the chapel of the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at Krakow, Poland, Saint Faustina received apparitions from Jesus and Mary that would form the basis of the Divine Mercy movement. Not long after Faustina’s death in 1938, a young Karol Wojtyla – the future Saint John Paul II – would sometimes stop and pray in the same chapel after ending his day working at a nearby quarry. After surviving both the Nazi occupation and Communist control, Wojtyla became pope, and canonized Faustina in 2000.

In that quiet place, she would pray
Just before things erupted again.

Various Pleas

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: Voice, guitar
Duration: 1’30”


A        D  E   A 
When it   gets tough
A    D  E  A 
We call out to You
D     G  A   D
So     far a-     bove
A      D  E   A 
Save                    us

A        D  E   A 
Save us from loss
A        D  E   A 
Save us from vi’lence
D     G  A   D
Save us from us
A        D  E   A 
Save         us


A      D  E     A 
Save us   from greed
A      D  E      A 
Save us    from hunger
D     G  A   D
Save us from death
A        D  E   A 
Save                   us


A        D  E   A 
Save us from sin
A      D  E       A 
Save us    from regret
D     G  A   D
Save us from hell
A        D  E   A 
Save                   us


A        D  E   A 
When it gets bad
A   D   E  A 
We call out to You
D     G  A   D
Here by our side
A     D  E   A 
Save                    us

(sheet music attached)

Hannah

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Instrumentation: Voice, guitar, viola, bass, percussion
Duration: 4’


Gmaj9           Dm7 Am7
Hannah was a strange girl,
Em  Cmaj7      Am
prone to staring at the sky
            Dm9
and saying things
Am                                           G

City

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: SATB chorus with brass quintet
Duration: 1’30”


Am7                    Em7
When I first saw the city
Am7                Em7
It was covered in haze

Weight

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: Voice, guitar, bass
Duration: 1’


Cmaj7          Gmaj7               D7                     Am          Cmaj7  Em  F  G13
If I could, I’d gladly carry the weight I helped create for them.

Blandine

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St. Blandine (162-177) was a fifteen-year-old slave who was arrested by Roman authorities for following Christ. When she refused to give up her faith, she was sentenced to death in an arena. When lions refused to attack her, the soldiers inflicted burns on her then allowed her to be trampled to death by bulls. Blandine’s place of martyrdom, the Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules, still stands in Lyon, France – the spot where she died is marked by a simple pillar. Her feast day is June 2.

Instrumentation: Voice, accordion, mandolin
Duration: 2’30”



(NOW)

Like Him

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Matthew 26:23

Instrumentation: Voice, cello
Duration: 2’


F#m7
Too many times
Bm                                                   A          F#m
I find myself standing by where the poison shines
C#m
Too many times

Rationale

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: SATB chorus with percussion section
Duration: 1’30”


Because of You it’s there to start
The unseen order in its place
The elements all aligning
And running with Your energy


Because of You, there’s light and dark
There’s sound and silence, air and space
The water that sustains us all
And the land that rises from it

Only You (x4)
Make it real


Because of You there’s hope for more
The Truth just behind the curtain
From where You shape each piece of it
Help us to see it right again

The Destruction of the Indies, Etc.

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Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) was a Spanish Dominican friar who, shocked by human rights violations he saw in Central and South America, spent most of his life in an unpopular fight for better conditions for indigenous and enslaved people in the New World. One of his major works, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, helped lead to reform in how these people were treated. His life still provides an example of Catholic social teaching in action, and shows the need for us to stand up today for defenseless victims at all stages of life.

Instrumentation: Voice, guitar, bass
Duration: 1’

Birthday (Christmas)

MP3 Music Playlist: 
Instrumentation: SATB chorus, brass quintet
Duration: 2’30”


G                                               Cm13
You might see Him through the window
G                               Cm13
Wandering around in the cold
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