Ordinary miracles: hymns for agnostics
The other day on Facebook, Kat said something about hymns for atheists, which reminded me of a playlist I put together a while back. Some of these songs I would call secular hymns; others are religious but not in a way that bugs agnostic me; many of them have amazing harmonies; most of them celebrate things like the world, love, friends, and music; most of them make me grin and/or cry as I sing along; all of them give me as close to a religious feeling as I think I’ve had.
Sadly, some of the specific recordings that I really love aren’t available online. I’m linking to YouTube videos or Bandcamp where possible, so you can hear the whole song; I’m also linking to iTunes or Bandcamp where possible, so you can buy any you like. But in some cases (as indicated), the versions I’m linking to aren’t quite the versions I love. I’m also linking to lyrics when available.
I’ve been calling this playlist “Holy Now,” but “Ordinary Miracles” would be a good alternative title.
2022 update: I’ve fixed the broken links below. Also, I’ve created a YouTube playlist that includes all of the songs here that are on YouTube (but some of the below songs aren’t on YouTube).
2025 update: I’ve updated some links, and added a couple of YouTube and iTunes versions that weren’t available in the past.
- “Baba Yetu,” by Christopher Tin, as performed by Talisman A Cappella
- The lyrics are a variation of the Swahili version of the Lord’s Prayer. (“Baba yetu, yetu uliye / Mbinguni yetu, yetu amina!”) But it’s one of the most joyous songs I know. I tend to sing along with the chorus at the top of my lungs.
- (Note that Talisman also recorded a very different song with the same title.)
- “Acts of Creation,” by Cat Faber, as performed by Echo’s Children
- “Every act of creation is an act of faith!”
- “This Island Earth,” as performed by The Nylons
- “If you’re lookin’ for a miracle, open your eyes
There was one this morning just about sunrise...” - “Morning Has Broken,” lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon, as performed by Cat Stevens
- “Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird...” - “Farthest Field,” by David Dodson, as performed by Cindy Kallet, Ellen Epstein, and Michael Cicone
- “Oh my dear friends, I truly love
To hear your voices lifted up in radiant song
Though through the years, we all have made
Our separate choices, we’ve ended here where we belong.” - “Swimming to the Other Side,” by Pat Humphries, as performed by Lui Collins
- “We can worship this ground we walk on, cherishing the beings that we live beside;
Loving spirits will live forever, we’re all swimming to the other side.” - “Crossing the Water,” as performed by Bill Staines
- “We are crossing the water our whole life through
We are making a passage that is straight and true
Every heart is a vessel, every dream is a light
Shining through the darkness of the blackest night.” - “Ordinary Miracle,” as performed by Sarah McLachlan
- “The sky knows when it’s time to snow
Don’t need to teach a seed to grow
It’s just another ordinary
Miracle today” - “Holy Now,” by Peter Mayer, as performed by Cindy Kallet, Ellen Epstein and Michael Cicone
- “...See another new morning come
And say it’s not a sacrament
I tell you that it can’t be done” - “Down to the River to Pray,” as performed by Alison Krauss
- “Oh, sisters, let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
Oh, sisters, let’s go down
Down in the river to pray” - “Blessed,” as performed by Lui Collins
- “You have given me the melody as it poured forth from my heart
You have blessed me with the meter as it beat through my veins
As I walk with you and listen, your words come to me:
Oh, blessed are we this day.” - Singing along with the chorus of this at a live concert with a couple hundred others in Philadelphia many years ago was one of the high points of my life. Transporting.
- “The Atheist Christmas Carol,” as performed by Vienna Teng
- “It’s the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear,
Not alone in the dark.” - “Finlandia” (Live Version), by Jean Sibelius and Lloyd Stone, as performed by Indigo Girls
- “This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.” - “And From Now On,” by David Olney (as “You Are Here”), as performed by Mariposa
- “The earth will turn from night to morning
The moon and stars will fade away, fade away
All things must change it will not grieve me
As long as I know you are here, in my heart, you are here.” - “Fiddler’s Hymn / Yankee Reverse,” by Pete Sutherland and John Yankee, as performed by Cross Country
- “I draw the bow and I feel my heart fly.”
- Unfortunately, Cross Country’s albums aren’t available in electronic form.
- reasonably similar performance on YouTube, though I like Cross Country’s voices better
- “When I Go,” as performed by Dave Carter with Tracy Grammer
- “I’ll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when I go.”
- This one is darker and sadder and fiercer than the rest of the songs on this playlist, but it still feels to me like it fits.