people, look east

December 12, 2020 by Paul Vasile in Christmas, Advent, Music

I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to curate an Advent Hymn Study with two congregations over the past weeks - Valley Presbyterian Church in California and North Decatur Presbyterian Church in Georgia. Each Saturday we have gathered via Zoom for meaningful reflection on hymns and songs for the season. And it has been a life-giving challenge to create digital presentations that invite us to notice new details and beauty, especially since we can't be singing in the same room together.

change is gonna come

October 30, 2019 by Paul Vasile in Music, Social Justice

This summer I had the privilege of traveling and working in British Columbia, where I hiked close to several massive glaciers. Though they were retreating in the warm weather, they were a formidable force. Their size and presence took my breath away, as did the volume of water that flowed from them into swollen streams and rivers.

Glaciers are slow-moving agents of transformation that have shaped and re-shaped the planet for millennia. And they reminded me change is natural and inevitable. Resistance is also natural and inevitable. And while it may take a very long time to notice the slow, shaping force of a glacier or river or wind, it’s happening in ways we may never fully recognize or see in our lifetime.

songs of forgiveness

August 28, 2016 by Paul Vasile in Congregational Song, Worship, Music

The best way I know to express the joy of being forgiven is through song. I've been excited to find and compose music that celebrates God's unconditional love and boundless grace, names its power to liberate and lift us, and then invites us to share the blessing with others.

forgiven, loved, and free

August 27, 2016 by Paul Vasile in Congregational Song, Worship

To receive forgiveness is to have a burden lifted from our shoulders; it is a gift of grace upon grace upon grace. Forgiveness frees us from the unrelenting demands of perfectionism and fear of failure; it nourishes hope and encourages us toward a whole and integrated life. When we are forgiven our offenses are in the past, forgotten by God. We're given a clean slate and invited to begin again.

But have these life-changing words found their way to the core of our being? Does our liturgy provide space to celebrate and savor the grace we have received? Do the words and tunes we sing in response to the Assurance of Pardon invite us to be present to moment and to share the joy with others?

you are present

June 26, 2016 by Paul Vasile in Music, LGBTQ, Lament

I wrote the text and a musical sketch for ‘You Are Present’ months ago but returned to it a few days after the mass shooting in Orlando. The initial feelings of shock and disbelief had given way to anger at the perpetrator and a broken political system that refuses to enact sensible gun control legislation. Anger melted into sadness for the victims, whose lives were ended far too soon, as well as their families and friends.