Laudete Omnes Gentes

*LAUDETE OMNES GENTES
Begin softly with a gradual crescendo through the 4th repetition, then decrescendo in like manner...

Sing praises, all you peoples!
Sing praises to the Lord;
Sing praises, all you peoples!
Sing praises to the Lord.

Funny how a song or a fleeting image can take us back to places we have been. This song takes me back to the little community of Taize' in 2003. “Sing praises, all you peoples! Sing praises to the Lord.” In the orange and yellow glow I can see the “church” at Taize’ and can lift my voice with perhaps a thousand pilgrims from France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, USA, and many other places. I can see the white-robed brothers processing in and can hear the cantor’s voice behind me as he reads the psalm. On my knees I grunt audibly as I try to fold my legs under the angular little wooden kneeling stool. I look around to see if anyone is watching, and of course they aren’t.

Recently I was reading once again Robert Benson’s book Living Prayer which tells of his first visit to Alabama’s Camp Sumatanga for the Academy for Spiritual Formation. As I read his description of the landscape I could almost see myself there again. It was like hearing an old song fraught with laughter and tears and signs of change.

When Robert first visited Sumatanga he wondered aloud how in the world he wound up there. “This isn’t the Promised Land, for Pete’s sake, it’s Alabama.”

Eventually he heard the Lord telling him, “You promised to follow wherever I might take you, and this is where we go next. You are here because the road leads here.”

We are here because the road leads here, and the Lord is with us. Praise the Lord.

“Sing praises, all you peoples!
Sing praises to the Lord;
Sing praises, all you peoples!
Sing praises to the Lord.”