The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

This is a different sort of post from me – I’m not telling a story from our history or about the Foundation, or giving you practical advice on how to do something. This week we begin to ponder gratitude, for the gift of music and what it has meant in our lives.

If you’re reading this, you’ve already got a connection to Moravian musical culture – whether as a professional performer, church musician, current or former member of a Moravian Church, an historian, a pastor, a listener – there’s something in your past or present that incited you to click on this link!

What is your story? As we move toward the holiday season – a season of giving thanks, of remembering loved ones, of giving and receiving gifts – think about the musical moments in your life.

It’s been reported that people who make a habit of gratitude – even just trying to think, every evening, of one thing that happened today that you’re grateful for – are healthier and happier. I believe it! As you start to look for the good things that have been a part of your day, you develop a fresh outlook and grow in your perception of those good things. So I ask, what have been the musical joys for you today? This week? This month? Since your childhood?

What drew you to Moravian music? What is it in your past or present that led you to click on this link? Was it the joy of singing hymns in four-part harmony? playing an instrument in a brass choir or band? listening to the organ or choir? seeing or hearing about the archival treasures? I encourage you to think of your “Moravian music story”, and to share it with others. As you talk with your family or friends, your church choir or those who sit near you in the pew, ask them what it is about the music of the Moravians that is special to them, and tell your own story. In this way you will grow in gratitude, and you will encourage others to do likewise. So – go tell your story!

Next week: More cause for gratitude: Where support for the Moravian Music Foundation comes from!