To me, sacred music celebrates a sense of wholeness, and evokes aspirations toward unity. We need to know that we live in a livable world where there is room for seeming opposites, including joy and suffering. We long for wholeness and union. And we want to fully inhabit that longing while learning tolerance for what we are given. Some music seems to enliven these qualities, and that is what I will call sacred music. Sacred music is for seekers of wholeness; it places that seeking firmly in our physical bodies and lifts us outward in praise of our common humanity and onward to our home in the cosmos. The 43 songs in this book, especially the smaller pieces, especially the rounds, can be used for spiritual practice as musical mantras, or for practice in singing clear choral polyphony. I advise that the words of these pieces be considered first, their inner intention understood, internalized and recited with some repetition in unison as in speech. Then the music will fly high. Some of the smaller pieces even can be sung consecutively as a performance suite. The larger pieces are well suited for performance at either private or public gatherings. May all of life become praise!

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