Songs From The Center: Volumes 1 & 2

Everything Belongs: Songs from The Center Volume 2

available now

released November 2024

Songs From The Center

“Do we know of a song that will work?”

That is a frequent question around the table in our weekly Contemplative Worship planning meetings. Each of our services seeks to help the worshiper enter into a contemplative dimension of the scripture and theme of the day. Songs serve as an important opportunity to allow Wisdom to descend from the “mind” to the “heart,” or from the surface to the depths of our being. Over the past six years, and especially during the global pandemic, we found it very difficult to find a song that said and expressed what we longed to say to God, to each other, or to ourselves.

So, Peter Johns simply wrote one. And another. And another. And another.

The songs from our first two albums – A Discerning Heart: Songs from The Center (released November 2021) and now Everything Belongs: Songs from The Center, Volume 2 (released November 2024) – are only a selection of what is developing to be a canon of songs composed by Peter Johns for use in Contemplative Worship at The Center for Christian Spirituality in Houston, Texas and other Contemplative Worship gatherings around the world. All the songs on these albums (except one) were composed for congregational use in Contemplative Worship at The Center.

These Songs from The Center are part of a larger contemplative movement to find fresh ways to deepen our spirituality and awareness of God through music. While these songs are not contemplative chants such as Taizé chants or the Songs of the Presence chants used in many Contemplative Wisdom circles, they fill a common need – the need to express various streams of Wisdom in song. It is very hard to find an ancient or traditional hymn, or a contemporary Christian song or praise chorus, that adequately reflects the contemplative dimension of the Gospel. Likewise, it is extremely hard to find the great Wisdom from ancient, medieval and modern contemplative Christian writers put to music for a congregation. Thus, these Songs from The Center fill a major need in congregational music. They are what I would call “Contemplative Wisdom” songs that facilitate “Contemplative Prayer.”

The leadership and community at The Center have inspired, influenced, and embraced these songs as expressions of their spirituality. These songs have become part of our weekly rhythm of Contemplative Worship and centering in God, and we hope they help you deepen your awareness of The Divine Center.