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Here’s an anthem for two-part choir and optional C instrument. Available here at the GIA Music website.

The Schola from St. Peter Catholic Student Center in Waco, TX sings Mendelssohn’s He Watching Over Israel from Elijah. Dr. Janya Martin. Armstrong Browning Library. Listen below:

This choral / congregational introit is a prayer asking the assistance of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the service. Led here by the St. Peter’s Catholic Center choir.

You can find the score here at the GIA website. Listen below:

“How Can I Keep from Singing? performed at Baylor IFL’s Symposium on Faith and Culture. With gratitude to the Schola of St. Peter’s Catholic Student Center and Dr. Janya Martin. Arranged by Carlos Colón, who also plays the piano in this recording.

1. My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth’s lamentation

I hear the sweet thought far off hymn

That hails a new creation.

Chorus: No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to the rock I’m clinging;

Since Christ is Lord of Heav’n and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

• Through all the tumult and the strife

I hear the music ringing:

It finds an echo in my soul,

How can I keep from singing? (chorus)

• What though my joys and comfort die?

The Lord my Savior liveth:

What thought the darkness gather round!

Songs in the night He giveth. (chorus)

• The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

A fountain ever springing:

All things are mine since I am His

How can I keep from singing? (chorus)

I co-produced this documentary for Baylor Chapel a few years ago. https://vimeo.com/118193318

Here’s a summary by the film producer, Pilar Timpane:

Lamento con Alas (“Lament with Wings”) is a short documentary about good Samaritans Lavoyger Durham and Lori Baker who attempt to make a difference during the immigration surge in the summer of 2014. Durham breaks stereotypes as a Texan rancher who sets up water stations that keep immigrants alive even as they illegally cross his land. And Baker, an associate professor of anthropology at Baylor University, exhumes deceased immigrants from unmarked graves and works to return the dead to their families in Latin America. She founded the Reuniting Families Project to establish a system for DNA analysis and identification of these deceased migrants. Durham and Baker both work to bring dignity to migrants who cross our border in dangerous conditions.

Now, several ears later, the crisis at the border continues. This summer, immigration has surged again, with nearly 400,000 immigrants apprehended through August 2016. These numbers include families and unaccompanied children, most of whom are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and are trafficked through Mexico on their way to the US border. And as the rhetoric of the political season has demonstrated, Americans are deeply divided over how to handle Latin American and Middle Eastern immigrants—some cry that we should build a wall whereas others hope for clearer paths to citizenship.