Many love it and others don't, but we almost lost it all together. Just in time for All Souls Day, The National Catholic Reporter has Sister Suzanne Toolan's story behind her hymn, "I am the bread of life."

Her memoir is here.

The song is copyrighted. The scriptural reference:

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

John 6:35-40

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without singing a few carols, but what are the origins of the familiar words and tunes we sing every year? Read on to find out the history of the Christmas Carol and the top ten tunes that churches across the UK will be singing this year.

The Times Online reports that the top 10 carols of the Church of England are:
Church of England are:

O Come All Ye Faithful
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Once in Royal David's City
In the Bleak Midwinter
Joy to the World
Away in a Manger
The First Nowell
Angels from the Realms of Glory

O Come All Ye Faithful, is popularly thought to have been written by a 13th-century saint. But the crescendoing carol, originally in Latin and entitled Adeste Fidelis, dates instead to 1743. It was written by John Francis Wade, a Roman Catholic who fled France during the Jacobean rebellion and worked as a music teacher in England. The carol was first translated into English in 1789 for use in the Protestant Church. There are almost 50 different English versions, the most well known was translated in 1841 by Frederick Oakeley an Anglican priest who wrote “Ye faithful, approach ye”. But after his conversion to Catholicism in 1845 Oakeley rewrote the opening lines as ‘O come all ye faithful / Joyfully triumphant.

HT to Thinking Anglicans.

What is your favorite?

Saint Thomas' Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City is Web casting audio files of its Holy Week services.

Hat tip to bls at Topmost Apple, who also found some other wonderful music.

The "great triumph of God over death" conveyed in music is the focus of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly's Easter feature, with commentary by Canon Victoria Sirota of Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, author of Preaching to the Choir: Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician.. The piece features excerpts from raditional hymns, African-American spirituals, and contemporary praise music, and context to help people understand the motifs of the music and how they tie into the Holy Week experience.

LAWTON: Many of the crucifixion songs focus on the blood of Christ, which Christians believe atoned for the sins of the world.

Canon SIROTA: The truth of the reality that we are dealing with life and death issues; the idea of blood, which is so horrifying. And when you bleed you are terrified that you are going to die. But to use that as a symbol then of new life, it reminds us that the story doesn't end there, that we end in resurrection.

LAWTON: And so comes the great transition to Easter Sunday, from mourning to resurrection.

Canon SIROTA: We hear the joy, we hear the triumph. We sing fast music. We sing it joyously. It's in a major key and it helps us to feel that this is "the day the Lord has made."

LAWTON: Many Easter songs incorporate the words, "Alleluia" or "Hallelujah."

CHOIR #2 (singing): Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Choir

Canon SIROTA: Alleluia is the Latin form of "praise to God." Hallelujah is the Hebrew form of "praise to God." So they're both ecstatic. And I think the sound of it is why we haven't translated them. Hallelujah -- just that sense of almost moving into the non-verbal. Not a translation of praise to God, but "Hallelujah" -- that sheer joy, sheer ecstasy. Not only do we use them especially at Easter, but we don't say them in the Christian Church during Lent. We bury the Alleluias and return them on Easter Sunday.

Transcript and video here.