MOUNTAIN VESPERS :: ABOUT
Mountain Vespers was written in Holden Village, during the winter of 2000-2001. The service was written for the village, and, alongside Holden Evening Prayer by Marty Haugen, is used as a mainstay of the village's worship cycle. Thousands of people have worshipped with the service, at Holden, and in their home congregations.
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Kent Gustavson dedicated the service to Holden Village in 2002:
March 19, 2002
This setting of the Evening Prayer was written during the winter of 2000-2001 at Holden Village. I came to Holden in the fall of 2000 to strengthen my faith in God and in the world, and to process the time I spent in Palestine at the beginning of the 'Aqsa Intifada', listening to machine guns at night, and mourning the death of a close friend.
God certainly dwells among us, here in this beautiful valley; "His justice like a mountain our shadowed valley finds." I was immediately surrounded by love and pulled into the rhythms of life and work when I came to Holden. My fellow community members led me into valleys and to remote rivers and to the tops of mountains.
After a near-fatal car accident in the spring of 2001, when visiting my family on an 'out,' my friends here prayed for me and for my father, who was a prayer away from dying.
This is my home. You are my family. You sent me out with the prayer of good courage then, and you were with us in our time of need. Now, again, as I say goodbye to this valley, you will send me out with good courage.
I dedicate this Mountain Vespers to you, my family here at Holden Village.
I also dedicate this Evening Prayer to my father. God has given us the strength and courage to carry on with our journey.
God bless you all. May we all wake up each day and sing!
"Let us give ourselves and one another, commending our whole lives to love in God."