CREDITSLead Sheets by Trevor Hewer (rain-creative.com)

Artwork by Roberta Hansen (designbyroberta.com)

Project Management by Amy Knight (Signpost Music)

1. BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (ALPHA) 2

2. SHOW ME THE PLACE 4

3. GLORY 8

4 THE INNKEEPER 11

5. THE MAGI 14

6. LEAVE ALL THINGS 16

7. AS THE FATHER SENT ME 19

8. FELIX CULPA 21

9. THE HEART OF GOD 24

10. THE CHRIST HYMN 27

11. LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU 30

12. I BECOME WHAT I RECEIVE 33

13. THE CHRIST IN YOU 36

14. ABIDE IN ME 38

15. EVERY BREATH IS YOURS 40

16. BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (OMEGA) 43

ABOUT ALANA LEVANDOSKI 45

2 3

BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (ALPHA)

1

H ere is mystery. Here in the beginning.

The early Christians, who intuited that Love is at the heart of nothing becoming something (ex nihilo), sang the hymn found in Colossians that this album is based on. They seemed to hear the echoes from the beginning—that matter, which is so extraordinarily precious and barely even here on an energetic level, is the way in which God manifests.

I know that my small son is made of mostly particles / atoms / energy, but it is through his bodily presence and his personhood that I am able to hold him, to kiss him and to rock him to sleep. Love is made manifest at this level of touch and scent and gravity. It is also the level at which suffering happens.

Christ is all in all.

Even the rocks cry out.

Even the “stones ring.”

I am reminded of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” and will end with it here:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;As tumbled over rim in roundy wellsStones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’sBow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;Selves — goes itself; myself it speak sand spells,Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—Christ — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not hisTo the Father through the features of men’s faces.

© Copyright 2015 Alana Levandoski. CCLI# 7048363

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4 5

SHOW ME THE PLACE

2

I have painted a rather broad brush-stroke from the “beginning” where Christ plays in ten thousand places (or infinitesimal

places), and jumped right into the season of Advent (this being a very significant aspect to the church calendar and the Christian narrative).

I did this consciously and with gentle awareness that there was much more at work previous to the birth of Jesus. But that might be another album!

I like to think of this song by Leonard Cohen as the voice of the eternal Word singing, before entering time in Jesus. I then hear it as the voice of us all, when we reach the place of surrender.

Advent is a pinnacle period in the Christian narrative. That “Christ plays in ten thousand places”—in the birds, in the water and in the trees—is one thing (and marvellous!), but we now have something radically new entering

time. That a being created by God could become totally conscious of his incarnation and be a radical receptor for God is no small thing. We must remember that part of the reason we believe this was God’s total manifestation, is because Jesus emptied himself and loved beyond human comprehension.

Here we have this Mystery entering time in a very new way—the way of conscious incarnation; the way that would show us how to ask:

Show me the place where the word became a manShow me the place where the suffering beganShow me the place where you want your slave to go

6 7

8 9

GLORY

3

E nter the shepherds. If there was no other story to indicate that “the whole shootin’ match is sacred” as Wendell

Berry says, we have it here with the shepherds. Think about it. There’s nothing glorious about standing watch in the middle of the night for a smelly herd of sheep. And yet, here we have a glimpse of God, revealed in the ordinary.

This is the pain of incarnation.

Anyone who has been present for the miracle of birth knows how fleshy and gritty it really is. This is where God shows up, in these “commonplace” occurrences: in the cold, tired feet of the shepherds trying to make a living for their children; and in the poor wayfaring young couple doing their best as the birth water and blood of new life emerges in the stable.

We are Adamah (of the earth), and we are not exempt from the ordinary miracles that

take place here. It is in this reality and this paradigm that God reveals God’s self to us. Transformation is made of grit and shifts and tremors, and it is made of the things we cannot control.

The angels appear to the shepherds to emphasize the convergence of heaven and earth.

And it is in this posture that we sing glory to God! Peace on earth! Good will toward humanity!

This song was inspired by Frederick Buechner’s remarkable trilogy of sermons entitled “The Birth”.

10 11

THE INNKEEPER

4

E nter the innkeeper. I cannot take credit for looking at the narrative from the innkeeper’s perspective. It is in thanks

to Frederick Buechner that I was able to write this song.

Spend time listening to or playing this song and begin to put yourself in the innkeeper’s place. He’s a busy guy with a certain reputation to uphold at his establishment, and when this pregnant couple shows up, he doesn’t frankly need the noise or the scandal of their presence.

Some inkling in the back of his heart smarts a bit as he tells them to get moving, so instead of turning them away, he offers a place out back.

Who knows how long it took for the innkeeper to realize that he turned Love away from his door? How long does it usually take me and you?

If you listen closely to the innkeeper’s voice, you will hear something remarkable. In his poverty, he has become “the least of these” and has made room, by way of not having enough room. His is a tired, old remorse, washed in over time from the shores of the hope for success and a good reputation.

Make room for the innkeeper who had no room. Think of him when Love calls. Love is scandalous. Love is not tidy and Love always keeps asking for a room.

12 13

14 15

THE MAGI

5

E nter the Magi from the East. Scientists and astrologers from an exotic place, no doubt taking the Silk Road, follow

the star that would take them to an important unfolding prophecy.

Today we know that almost every element of Earth was formed at the heart of a star. There is more to this Adamah, this earth, than meets the eye. All of this ordinariness and all of this grandeur come from “above” after all.

So lest we leave this tale for just the shepherds to tell, we bring in the magi. Stargazers—the readers of celestial signs—in those days were considered to be respected scientists.

They knelt and revered the little one whom they had read in the stars would render their thrones as paltry. And they were most

remarkably surprised: because this was clearly the One whom God shone through completely, and yet he was without a throne.

There is some speculation that around the time the gospel of Luke was written, men from the East came to kneel before Emperor Nero. No matter how we dissect the great narratives however, the story of the Magi coming to kneel before the One who would empty himself has infinite power. Love spreads like wildfire wherever there are ears to hear. There is a spark held in this story that has inspired generations of children to dress up like powerful kings and then kneel before a baby (children always want to be seen as full persons so they understand more deeply that God might fully come in the form of a baby).

This is a song of epiphany.

© Copyright 2015 Alana Levandoski. CCLI# 7048365

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16 17

LEAVE ALL THINGS

6

E nter Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus is all grown up now. He has begun radically and prophetically challenging his present-day culture. Where there is injustice for anyone (not just people like him), he calls for love. Not only does he call for love, but he also calls for his followers to watch him closely and to emulate him. A scandalous Samaritan woman draws water in the heat of the day, so he makes himself lower than her and asks for a drink. Jesus disturbs people out of their comfort zones.

Perhaps living in the comfort zone often becomes the golden calf we choose to worship?

When the young man comes to Jesus wanting to know how to inherit the kingdom, he little expects that his comfort zone will be confronted and that he will be asked to give it up.

Jesus is confronting the young man’s power, composure and reputation in his societal role. This “follow me” business is tricky. Jesus says

it many times. Remember that the path Jesus took was self-emptying, dying and forgiving. It might be fair to ask if, in this context, we actually do want to follow Jesus.

When we sing or listen to this song, I imagine each one of us will have different “things” to leave. Intellect. Control. Reputation. Certainty. Power. Entitlement. Superiority. Defensiveness. Politics. Judgment. Suspicion. Victimhood. Competition. Money. Feelingwronged. Being right. Success.

Whatever we possess, possesses us. And only God, who is our very breath, is our true possessor. We are constantly being called home, and that which lies between us and home must get left behind.

But remember, this album is called Behold, I Make All Things New. This newness happens through the process of letting go—whether we choose it, or it eventually chooses us.

18 19

AS THE FATHER SENT ME

7

A gain, here we have a highly specific teaching from Jesus. This is not a nice, sentimental phrase.

Let’s look at some of the recorded events of Jesus’ life to hear what Jesus is asking of us:

Jesus spent 40 days without food in the desert. He spent time and cultivated friendships with abandoned and socially unacceptable people. He found ways to speak the scriptures to promote new life that threatened the very foundations of the certitude held by those who had become confident and comfortable. He utterly poured himself out with forgiveness in his heart. He died.

In the film Agora, set in the 4th century in Alexandria, there is a scene where a young slave, recently converted to Christianity, is

helping his fellow believers haul stoned bodies of Jewish people in wheel barrows to an area outside of town. He stops and essentially asks the questions, “Do you think Jesus would approve of this? Aren’t we asked to be like him?” And with violence and contempt, his new Christian friends spit at him and say, “How dare you think you could be like our Lord?”

This is the shame and shadow of Christian history. Listen to Jesus’ own words:

As the Father sent meSo I send you

I don’t have much else to say about this. It speaks for itself.

AS THE FATHER SENT ME

7

A gain, here we have a highly specific teaching from Jesus. This is not a nice, sentimental phrase.

Let’s look at some of the recorded events of Jesus’ life to hear what Jesus is asking of us:

Jesus spent 40 days without food in the desert. He spent time and cultivated friendships with abandoned and socially unacceptable people. He found ways to speak the scriptures to promote new life that threatened the very foundations of the certitude held by those who had become confident and comfortable. He utterly poured himself out with forgiveness in his heart. He died.

In the film Agora, set in the 4th century in Alexandria, there is a scene where a young slave, recently converted to Christianity, is helping his fellow believers haul stoned bodies

of Jewish people in wheel barrows to an area outside of town. He stops and essentially asks the questions, “Do you think Jesus would approve of this? Aren’t we asked to be like him?” And with violence and contempt, his new Christian friends spit at him and say, “How dare you think you could be like our Lord?”

This is the shame and shadow of Christian history. Listen to Jesus’ own words:

As the Father sent meSo I send you

I don’t have much else to say about this. It speaks for itself.

20 21

FELIX CULPA

8

I wasn’t sure if I was going to record this song for this album until I placed it right here in the austere season of Lent,

between “As the Father Sent Me” and “The Heart of God” (an Easter song).

Jesus prayed the Psalms from the cross. And the Christian tradition has chanted the Psalms for 2000 years. I placed “Felix Culpa” in this particular spot so we could sing the 3000-year-old song (Psalm 121:3-4) to give us courage for the road. To my great delight, I did some more research on its history and discovered that many scholars believe this to be the Song of Ascents that pilgrims chanted on the road to Jerusalem and the Temple.

I certainly wrote this within the context of pilgrimage. This is a song of comfort, but I did not intend it to be a song of comfort in the “comfort zone.” It was written to be a song of comfort for the journey.

When I wrote this song I called it “Felix Culpa” (roughly translated “happy fault” or “blessed fall”) because I felt I had surrendered

in the way an alcoholic does with the 12-Step Program. There was no better way to describe my surrender. To me, Felix Culpa means the same thing as admitting to my powerlessness and praying the Serenity Prayer. It is about the release and transformation that happens after accepting what is, and seeing perhaps for the first time that I am a divine child of God.

In Julie Ann Stevens’ painting that co-relates to this song, (see linernotes or online at www.alanalevandoski/beholdimakelinernotes.com) there is a staircase leading to a cross, with an abyss on either side of it. I liken this painting to the feeling of the first contractions before the onset of childbirth. This is the birthing song to help us breathe into the acceptance that the way in which renewal happens is often painful, and lacks knowledge of outcomes.

I placed this song here because it was written during a death I walked through. I placed it here to comfort others in their own pilgrimages toward surrender. I placed it here for Jesus, should he need it, as this is the time during my album when he is forsaken.

22 23

24 25

THE HEART OF GOD

9

I had written Good Friday songs. And even Holy Saturday songs. But I had been waiting a long time to write an authentic

Easter Sunday song. Many of us seem to enjoy Easter Sunday and avoid Good Friday like the plague. I, however, had found myself in a Good Friday frame of mind for many years.

This is the Easter song that was waiting to be written. Accepting resurrection takes time. It takes letting go of the old and allowing for the new to take its place.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart, celebrated in the Catholic tradition, sees Jesus’ physical heart as the beating heart of God. It was often depicted

in paintings with a flame and a crown of thorns and wounded hands to show the way in which Jesus died. The flame was said to represent the transformational power of divine love.

Julie Ann Stevens’ stunning depiction (www.alanalevandoski/beholdimakelinernotes.com) is more than I could have asked for to meditate with, as my own heart tried to sing in tune with the heart of God.

Hallelujah! The heart of God has been revealed!

26 27

THE CHRIST HYMN

10

W hen I initally discovered that the first chapter of Colossians contains an early hymn, my imagination

was sparked with wanting to make a work of art about it. In the end, to do this better justice, I enlisted four great poets of our time to dance with this hymn.

I asked Malcolm Guite, Scott Cairns, Joel McKerrow and Luci Shaw to contribute a recitation to this composition. While I gave them each a line from the hymn, they also spent time with the hymn in its entirety.

These are the lines:

To Malcolm I gave — He is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.

To Scott I gave — He is the firstborn from the dead.

To Joel I gave — God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.

To Luci I gave — Every creature in heaven and earth.

28 29

30 31

LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU

11

T he apostle Paul was a pretty extreme guy. He said extreme things that, if said today, particularly in the church,

might get someone into trouble. Like Jesus, he integrated many paradoxes and worked tirelessly, to preach that we are, all of us, divine children of God.

We are deepening our Eastertide celebration here with the feast of Pentecost. The way

we will celebrate this feast is by throwing off the old clutches of rigid fear—the defensive clutches of our rational, philosophical capacity—and like a little child who basks in loving arms, loosening the grip of our own small control issues, and opening to the possibility that Christ is in us too.

32 33

I BECOME WHAT I RECEIVE

12

W e are about to enter into the heart of Pentecost by way of ritual. While this chant could be taken

many ways, I see it as very Eucharistic in nature.

Walter Brueggemann says, “I think many people come to the Eucharist with very

privatized notions of ‘getting right with Jesus’ rather than seeing it is a public declaration of an alternative way of being in the world.”This alternative way is often up for interpretation, but all those who embody the broken Christ and share the Living Bread together know something of the mystery at the heart of things.

34 35

36 37

THE CHRIST IN YOU

13

A s we journey through this time of Pentecost within Eastertide, this is the point of growth where, once we have

“become what we receive,” we begin to look outward with new eyes and hear outwardly with new ears. We can no longer stay in our individual bubble with Jesus. We begin to look everywhere and all around and into the eyes of the other. We start to let go of our own story a bit more, in order to make space for hearing another’s story. We are no longer in competition for who is the most victimized or who is the strongest.

Sister Simone Campbell says of radical acceptance, “The broken heart becomes big enough to include those we want to vote off the island.”

I played this song recently and someone came up and told me that the etymology of the word “respect” is “to look twice.” Re-spect.

This is a sacred vow. I’m gonna look twice at you, until I see the Christ in you.

Maybe someday we’ll throw off enough personal control to look once at someone and see the Christ in him or her.

38 39

ABIDE IN ME

14

I am not in the habit of changing the lyrics of old hymns to better suit cultural sensibilities. I have higher hopes for

people’s imaginations, believing that they can hold the tension of the times within themselves and even employ a bit of tolerance for folks of other times, who were immersed in their own cultural norms.

In this instance, however, I felt it was appropriate to change one small but significant word from Henry Francis Lyte’s beautiful hymn

“Abide With Me.” Jesus said “abide in me, as I in you.” Whereas Lyte used the word ‘with,’ I wanted to maintain Jesus’ original language. I noticed an interesting and rather incredible difference when singing it in this new way.

Before I perform this song, I often get folks to stand and open their posture by outstretching their hands. This song is an invitation to accept that we are not a barrier or stumbling block for God’s presence. We are God’s skin.

40 41

EVERY BREATH IS YOURS

15

I n the church calendar and in the Colossians Christ Hymn, there comes a point where we begin to see the Divine

in the ordinary. The church calendar calls it Ordinary Time and the Christ Hymn says “every creature in heaven and earth.”

We are so much at the heart of Pentecost now that we have no alternative but to move into Ordinary Time; God is so integrated that our daily affairs are aflame and no longer belong to us. We are a flame within the flame, neither snuffed out nor running rampant.

42 43

BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (OMEGA)

16

I recently read an article on time that, thanks to my childhood hero Madeleine L’Engle, I was able to be receptive to. Time is not as linear as we think it is. L’Engle often called real time “Kairos Time” and linear time “Chronos Time.” The article I read was about an Australian study that showed a “future event causes the photon to decide its past.”

Christ in Revelation spoke to us in “Chronos Time,” indicating the same implications of John 1, the Colossians Christ Hymn, and Ephesians 1: that this mystery is the beginning and the end of… perhaps time and space as we know it? Perhaps… perhaps, all things.

As I welcome Christ in, I experience the truth that how I participate in the world makes a difference to the past, the present and the future. As I write this, the liberation work that was fought for in the Southern United States is in a volatile place and could careen in any number of directions. Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

As I sing this song, I hold the oppressors of the world very close to my heart. They are in need of deep, deep healing. I hold them so close to my heart that I feel their losses and pain and

confusion and even their hatred. I also hold those who suffer in grief and frustration at the hands of such oppressors, and feel their losses, pain and temptation to hate back. I then hold all of us, the oppressed, the oppressors and the bystanders, as we stand at the crossroads and pray for the wisdom to see a third road to take. When sickness masquerades as morality or even as “Christian,” how do we hold the tension and not visit sickness with more sickness?

We have a choice. We have been called by Christ to participate in this narrative, as strange as it may seem. Sometimes it’s tempting to simply give in, acquire more stuff and wait for heaven. Sometimes it’s tempting to become deeply cynical.

He who sits upon the throne of heaven also sits upon the throne of our hearts; and we know, through the actions and words of Jesus, that we will not find God through winning and being on top.

“Human work and human love have eternal significance.” — Denis Edwards

“Behold, I make all things new.” — Christ from the future

44

In 2010, after ten years of hard work in the music business as a songwriter and recording artist, Manitoba native Alana Levandoski decided to take a sabbatical, not knowing if she would ever return. Five years later, she now has a family and lives in Alberta in a little cabin on a lake that she and her husband built together.

Alana has recently experienced a rebirth as an artist, finally opening to a way of integrating her spirituality, her craftsmanship and her

lifestyle. Abiding by a monastic rule inspired by her time living with the Benedictines, Alana and her husband Ian have committed to a life of minimalism and sacred simplicity.

Describing her new album, Behold, I Make all Things New as a “Christ Narrative,” Levandoski has returned with an integrated work that will appeal to music fans, appreciators of Jesus, and Christians alike.

ABOUT ALANA LEVANDOSKI

A Companion to Alana’s 2015 CD Behold, I Make All Things New

1. BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (ALPHA)2. SHOW ME THE PLACE

3. GLORY4. THE INNKEEPER

5. THE MAGI6. LEAVE ALL THINGS

7. AS THE FATHER SENT ME8. FELIX CULPA

9. THE HEART OF GOD10. THE CHRIST HYMN

11. LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU12. I BECOME WHAT I RECEIVE

13. THE CHRIST IN YOU14. ABIDE IN ME

15. EVERY BREATH IS YOURS16. BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (OMEGA)

7 75572 16222 6

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