It puzzles me sometimes that people of our time talk a lot about justice, thinking, I guess, that they will be on the good side when that is handed out. But Shakespeare’s Portia in The Merchant of Venice reminds us that “in the course of justice none of us / Should see salvation.” And Jesus warns us that when we judge, “with what measure ye measure…

Today I am happy to share with you a popular song which I have loved since my childhood, “Young at Heart.” This song was such a big hit for Frank Sinatra in early 1953 that the title of the movie he was working on at the time was changed to “Young at Heart,” and the song was played over the opening and closing credits as well. I’m not a film expert…

Most of our current subscribers did not see this post when we originally sent it out, and so we decided to send it around again in this, our week devoted to fairy tales — stories for children — because the great writer of hymns for children, Mrs. Cecil Alexander, wrote it for THEM to sing and not as a fairy tale, but as a song of thanksgiving for t…

Dear friends, we thank you for the prayers for our daughter, Jessica. In the nearly two years since Tony and I began Word & Song, I’ve written about George Gershwin at least five times. And here I am again, with another Gershwin tune. But as those of you who follow Sometimes a Song know, I like to let the song round out our other essays of the week…

“Only the lover sings,” said the wise philosopher Josef Pieper. Here at Word and Song we’re delighted to bring to you some of the great old love songs that people used to know, because it does seem that years go by in our time without anybody composing a single sweet or mirthful song of love. Where did all those songs go to? When you love, you want…

“Now then,” says Saint Peter, as he looks up from his desk, scanning a folder full of papers describing your life, and you expect him to ask you to explain this or justify that. But you are not ready for his question. “My good man, what songs do you know?” “Songs?” you ask, repeating our Word of the Week. “Yes,” says Peter. “You know, those melodio…

Dear friends, we thank you for the prayers for our daughter, Jessica. She is home after a rather harrowing stay at the hospital and is stable, but still in need of serious medical attention. I am sending along the song I had planned to write about for last week’s Sometimes a Song, when our word was “sky.” But with a nod to childhood and summer, I’m…