Psalm 119: Lord, Let Your Face Shine

"Lord, Let Your Face Shine" is Dorothy Bergquist’s setting of Psalm 119. Carolyn Bergquist, soprano. Marla Lowen, pianist. Accompanied by one of St. Mary’s choirs. Listen to this piece here or on our podcast.

Many of us who attend the 9:30 AM service don’t remember a time without sung psalms. At Deacon Penny Berktold’s direction, we started singing responsorial psalms back in the 1990s. At the time, Ruth Breidenthal was our organist and Dorothy Bergquist was our parish choir director. Dorothy’s daughter, Carolyn Bergquist’s experience as a cantor in a Catholic church helped guide us to our first sung psalm sources. When we were missing psalm settings, Dorothy Bergquist composed them. Marla Lowen, Ruth’s successor as organist, and Carolyn, our original psalmist, recorded all of Dorothy’s psalms so as to have a record of her work. Carolyn has graciously shared these recordings with us.