Grace notes


Winter in the Tuileries Garden, Paris  (Photo: Irene Bom)

 
I love the term ‘grace note’. It’s so evocative.

Technically, a ‘grace note’ is a musical note not essential to the harmony or melody, designed to embellish or ‘ornament’ the music and add extra flourish. It colours, without clashing.

 
Here is a grace note in one of Chopin’s manuscripts.

 
The term, ‘grace note’, is also a beautiful metaphor for all the little graces that colour and enhance our lives.

May God help us to develop an ear and appreciation for the grace notes that echo all around us, and may He bless us with the capacity to add grace notes of our own.
 


Grateful Praise

God created the heavens,
star-spattered with beauty,
and the earth, teeming with life.
And God set us on the Earth,
alive and wide-eyed,
able to see and hear,
feel and taste life’s beauty,
able to dream and plan,
create and build out of the richness of the earth.
Lord of all to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise!

God gave us families to love us,
teachers to teach us,
elders to guide us,
and leaders to inspire us.
God gave us His Son
to save us from the path of destruction and sin,
and to be a strengthening presence
in our trials and temptations.
Lord of all to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise!

Every good thing that fills our souls with gladness
and our lives with light
is a gift from God.
We have been entrusted with unfathomable riches.
For this, let us come before God
in thanksgiving and grateful praise.
Lord of all to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise!

 
written by David Inglis,
posted on the Henrietta United Church of Christ website.
 


 
From the blog
 
The blessing of light
The whole bright world rejoices
walk, run, soar

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