Today’s Gospel immediately suggested Tom Conry’s “Look Beyond to me,” which has been around for a long time but still fits the Gospel reading perfectly. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it on the OCP website.*
Plan B: check my songbook files. And there it was, in Conry’s We the Living collection, published by NALR in 1981. Well, of course, OCP bought out NALR, and although one can find many Conry songs on the OCP website, this particular one isn’t listed. The title did appear in the first edition of OCP’s hymnal called Journeysongs, but not in more recent editions. What to do?
Sure, there are other songs that reference that Scriptural text—Haas, Soper, and not least, Michael Joncas’s version. But I wanted Conry’s because of its prophetic, poetic text, and I still have the original songbook, so I’m good to go.
This is a perfect example of why one should never, ever, get rid of old accompaniment books. Yes, I know shelf space is at a premium, but find a hidey-hole for “inactive” music. You may not need it every week, but when you do, it’s there!
Yes, I also know there’s new stuff coming out all the time. But if a song suits your community down to the ground, you want that particular song—not a different version that may not speak to your community in quite the same way.
Here’s the thing: the music of a community is an integral part of its faith life. If a publisher needs to sell the new stuff and no longer makes older material available, are we just supposed to accept that our faith life is part of the throwaway culture we live in?
Hang onto the good stuff!
Lord, to Whom Shall We Go
Refrain: Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have a word that may live beyond our grave.
1. More than people can say, You are our way and our walking.
Your word is aways before me, as fire in the sky
Beyond the day I die.2. As long as people shall live, You are our gift, and our giving.
Your word is always within me, as water in the earth
Since before my birth.3. Wherever people are fed, You are our breath, and our breathing.
Your word is always around me, just as air surrounds us all
We may hear your call.4. Whenever people ask why, You are our cry, and our calling.
Your word will always enfold me, and hold me close to you.
Here in the world, now while I live, You are my God,
Here in the world, now while I live.©1981 by Tom Conry, New Dawn (NALR)
All rights reserved.
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org