Set list MMA 2015 Benefit Concert at St. Edna's

What a wonderful time we all had last night singing and playing music with the wonderful community gathered at St. Edna's. Gary Daigle and his team of wonderful and hospitable collaborators made it a day to remember from the on-site meals for us artistes with our incessant demands for Perrier at 42° and blue M&Ms to the well-rehearsed choir and general set-up. It was clearly a lot of work, but done with such transparent efficiency and apparent grace that we were just caught up in the joy and faith of the community. Thanks to Lisa, Lara, Diane, Lorie, and the entire St. Edna team.

So this was the playlist from the concert last night, and as many iTunes versions as I could find.

Remember that all this was in service of Music Ministry Alive, which I've written about before. It is David Haas's and Lori True's summertime "camp" at St. Catherine University in St. Paul for high school and young college age liturgical musicians. You can read more about it here and here, and see more on their website. Last year's setlist is here, so you can see that we didn't completely do a rerun—certainly the happy addition of Lori True to the list of performers brought another dimension of passionate, pastoral song to our gathering.

Our concert was, obviously, on the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, and in the shadow of the refugee crisis in Europe (and, as Mike Joncas pointed out, here at home along our southern border.) Lori's song "Who Is the Alien?" and Michael's "A Place Called Home," a new text for the beautiful "Finlandia" melody of Jean Sibelius, gave us opportunity for prayer and reflection on those realities, and Marty's new song for the Year of Mercy, "Be Merciful," was also a reminder to imitate God in our treatment of one another.

Set list:
All seven of us together:
A Place at the Table (True)
Joyfully Singing (Balhoff, Daigle, Ducote)

Local contingent
I Am for You (Cooney)
Psalm 23 (Daigle)
Too Many Walls - Theresa Donohoo
Trumpet in the Morning (Cooney)
In the Bleak Midwinter (Holst/Rosetti, Cooney)
Covenant Hymn (Daigle, Cooney)

All seven of us:
Canticle of the Turning (Cooney)
We Come to Your Feast (Joncas)

Visiting Team:
I Have Loved You (Joncas)
You Are Mine (Haas)
Within the Reign of God (Haugen)
Light a Candle (True)
I Will Live On - David Haas
Shepherd Me, O God (Haugen)
A Place Called Home (Joncas)
Who Is the Alien? (True)
Be Merciful (Haugen)
Watch, O Lord (Haugen)

All seven of us:
Blest Are They (Haas)
On Eagle's Wings (Joncas)
Encore: We Are Called (Haas)

MMA alumna Olivia Guntin from St. Anne sang with Terry on "In the Bleak Midwinter," and also performed the first verse of "Blest Are They" with the seven of us.

Here are the songs on iTunes - the two that wouldn't fit are linked above.