Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
Mary gladly told her cousin, "Praise the Lord! My spirit sings!"
Young and humble, she'd been chosen! God was surely changing things!
God of love, her words ring true As we sing her prayer to you:
"Now my soul is gladly singing At the greatness of the Lord.
I rejoice, for God is bringing His salvation to the world.
All who live will say I'm blest Even in my lowliness.
"God is mighty, just and holy, And he's done great things for me.
Those who fear him know the mercy That God gives us endlessly.
Mighty ones are brought down low; Lowly ones find blessings flow.
"God has filled the poor and hungry, And he's sent the rich away.
God is active here in history, In a real and wondrous way.
God has promised, and I'm blessed, For I know God's faithfulness."
The Presbyterian Outlook magazine commissioned this hymn and sells it ($9.95) with the hymn text and music together as a downloadable bulletin insert. Your purchase helps support this excellent religious magazine.
Consider buying these books for yourself, your church library and your public library, where they have the potential of touching the lives of people you might never meet.
- Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary edited by Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Cynthia L. Rigby
- Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture by Jaroslav Pelikan is a wonderful church historian's thoughtful review of how Mary has been understood at different times and places.
- Mary in the New Testament Top Catholic and Protestant biblical scholars jointly look at every biblical passage related to Mary, explaining different interpretations of the passage and the most plausible understanding of it.
- Women in the New Testament: A Middle Eastern Cultural View (PDF file) by Kenneth E. Bailey (free online essay)
- Women's Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis by N. T. Wright (free online essay)
- The Women's Bible Commentary - expanded edition edited by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe
- The IVP Women's Bible Commentary by Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans
- The Women's Study Bible by Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans
- Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament edited by Carol Meyers, Toni Craven and Ross Shepard Kraemer
- When Women Were Priests: Women's Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of Their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity by Karen Jo Torjesen
- Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation by Willard M. Swartley
- Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry by Stanley J. Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo
- Daily Feast: Meditations from Feasting on the Word, Year B, edited by Kathleen Long Bostrom and Elizabeth F. Caldwell, is a wonderful, new (2011) daily devotional that contains Scripture passages for the coming Sunday from the lectionary, excerpts from these very popular commentaries for reflection, a response, and a prayer. Additional material is provided for each Sunday.
- Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, looks at each lectionary passage from the four perspectives (exegetical, theological, pastoral and homiletically) by great pastoral preachers, seminary professors of Bible and preaching.
- Something Is About To Happen: Sermons for Advent and Christmas, by Thomas G. Long, is a wonderful collection of sermons by one of today's best preachers on the Advent passages for Year B. Long is currently professor of preaching at Chandler School of Theology after previously teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary.
- The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke by Raymond E. Brown is the classic study of the Christmas stories by a top Catholic biblical scholar who taught for many years at Union Seminary in New York.
- Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B, edited by Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews and Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, looks at each Sunday's lectionary texts from social justice perspectives as well as additional special days (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Earth Day, etc.). Writers are pastors, social writers and seminary professors of preaching, Bible and ethics.
- An Adult Christ at Christmas: Essays on the Three Biblical Christmas Stories — Matthew 2 and Luke 2 by Raymond E. Brown is a very readable book for people in the pews (and pastors in pulpits) filled with insights on the Christmas stories (sort of a Reader's Digest Condensed Version from this top biblical scholar's classic 753-page The Birth of the Messiah).
- The People's New Testament Commentary by M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock is a wonderful single volume commentary that Carolyn used in teaching a course for commissioned lay pastors and is one she recommends to all pastors and lay people.
- Check out the rest of this web site for other wonderful hymns.
- Consider buying Carolyn's two books of hymns that give permission to use the book's hymns in a local church: Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Geneva Press, 2000) and Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009)
- Share the hymn and her hymns web site with people in your church and other online friends in other churches.
- Check out A Dozen Ways to Support Carolyn's Hymn-writing (including hymn use permission).