Journey of the Heart was composed in response to the mass shooting that occurred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. This incident occurred within our community and deeply impacted friends and neighbors who were teachers, students, counselors, and relatives of those who attended the school. It is an exploration of the human journey that can be taken in response to such a tragedy; a journey that is key to the possibility of healing and transformation. The music of this Oratorio is deeply spiritual, recognizing and celebrating the inextricable connection of humanity by a power greater than all of us. A power grounded in Love and compassion. 

It opens with a movement about the current state of woundedness in our world and an invitation to a table of communion where painful wounds, isolation, loneliness, and fear can be brought into the light.  It then discovers the sacred heart (the Gift) within all humanity and the world around us. It explores our human ability to experience healing, divine purpose, and beauty through presence, forgiveness, and ultimately our surrender (to give away our lives) to the greater purposes of Love.  It encounters Love’s invitation to transformation and Love’s presence as suffering is brought into the light.  The music then moves toward hope and a vision of our world on the other side of healing, communion, and transformation.  The music highlights humanity’s task at this pivotal time in our history to respond to Love’s invitation for the healing of our woundedness and divisions.  The Oratorio is a witness to Love’s unveiling of a world of incredible potential, abundance, beauty, and wonder now and for future generations.

The call to compose this Sacred Oratorio occurred at a gathering of people exploring the creation of safe communities following the Columbine tragedy. Professor Mary Elizabeth Moore (Claremont School of Theology, now Boston University School of Theology) read a poem she had written entitled “Come to the Table.”  The call  to write turned into a 23+-year journey of learning, self-discovery, and personal transformation. While deeply personal, Journey of the Heart also follows what I now know is a universal path of healing and transformation fundamental to the architecture of our humanity. A path that is of vital importance to our collective human journey at this moment in time.  

Commentary on Individual Pieces of the Composition

On the Listen Now page, there is a description of the important experiences and motivations that helped to craft each movement along the story arc. I had no idea at the beginning of this Journey what the compilation of music would look like at the end.  Instead, I let the Journey reveal itself.  Getting to the end was supported in part from input from Drs. Kingsland and Skoog as they participated in, reviewed, and gave critical input during the final three years of the composition process.  Both could sense that the overall story arc was coming to completion and that attention needed to move to completing the arrangements and orchestration, and assembling a group of musicians that would learn, perform and record the Oratorio.  These steps would then allow for updating and finalizing the overall manuscript and taking the Oratorio forward into a new period of more widespread exploration and performances.