ROUALT AND THE MUSIC OF ARVO PÄRT: A LENTEN REFLECTION
If there is a composer that I personally can usher me into the presence of the Triune God, through sound, it is Arvo Pärt. May this reflection bless you as we reflect on our fallenness and his transcendence, moving closer to Holy Week. (Turn the volume up and let the sound wash over you!)
Plate 43 | "We must die, we and all that is ours."
The spiritual life is a calling to become fully human after the likeness of Christ, who, being united with God, has shown us what humanity, united to God, was intended to be. ~ Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006), 103.
LISTEN: THE FRATRES
Genesis 3:19:
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
LISTEN: KYRIE
Job 29:18-20
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix; 19 my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches; 20 my glory was fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’
LISTEN: SANCTUS
Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of lifewith its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
LISTEN: THE DEER’S CRY
Prayer
Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. (BOCP, 1662)