Category: Easter

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Musing on Lent and Easter music. 

crown of thorns with title lent and easter © Blackburn Cathedral

During the installation of Abp. Sarah Mullally, lines were sung from the words of Julian of Norwich. The composer Joanna Marsh had compiled these words in her anthem All Shall Be Well in 2021. Lyrics and music © Joanna Marsh

Without love we may not live 

And in this love our life is everlasting.                                            

Love was without beginning, is and shall be without ending. 

All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. 

Ah! Good Lord, how might it all be well? 

For wickedness hath been suffered to rise  
contrary to the Goodness. 

 I it am, the Might and the Goodness of the Fatherhood; 

 I it am, the Wisdom of the Motherhood; 

 I it am, the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love. 

The Blackburn Chamber Choir sang a programme of music for Lent and Easter. Various pieces gave different views of God and his work with us.  

One prayed that God “will not hide his face from us or cast us off in displeasure.” It pleaded with God to forgive all our sins. Another, by the same composer (Richard Farrant d. 1580), asked God to remember his tender mercy and loving kindness, instead of “the sins and offenses of our youth.”  

A twentieth century piece, “Solus ad Victinam”, by Kenneth Leighton (d.1988) used words by Peter Abelard who died in 1142. It reflected on Christ giving himself as a sacrifice for our sin. It asked that we will suffer Christ’s pain for the 3 days. By doing so, we aim to win his mercy. This allows us to share his glory and “the laughter of his Easter day”.

These concepts seem alien today. The idea of pleading for forgiveness seems foreign. The sense that God is displeased with us and would punish us is also unfamiliar. The yearning to suffer with Christ is even more so.  

Our Bishop said that Jesus had sought us. He saved us. Then, He sat down after completing His task (Hebrews 1:3). God is all loving kindness. We do not need to plead for what he has already given. 

Another more popular piece from the Romantic era (Mendlesson d. 1847), asked God to listen because the godless and wicked oppress the writer. It then yearned for ‘the wings of a dove: far away would I rove… In the wilderness build me a nest to remain there for ever at rest’. It felt like sheer escapism, more the self-indulgence of the composer than the spiritual resourcing of the listeners.  

Do we come to Julian meetings or meditate at home, to have time ‘at rest’? Or do we meditate because, as another piece (Ubi Caritas Ola Gujielo b. 1978) reminded us, “where love is, there is God,” who binds us together in unity? in Christ we are one with each other and with God. We come to experience that, not merely assert it .  

Richard Rohr and others expand that unity. In Christ, we are one with people of any ethnic background. We are one with those who speak any language. We are united with people of any religion. We are at one with both the poor and the rich. We are at one with God. Despite our current wars, we are at one with Ukrainian and Russian, American, Israeli, Palestinian and Iranian.  The is no duality between God and people, and no ‘us’ and ‘them’ between people groups.

The broad range of Christian prayers use many pictures of God and his action on us. In silence, we allow God simply to be himself. We open ourselves to a new, simple vision. We discover the tranquility underlying the discords and upsets of the world. We also drop the chaos of our minds. This is not to ‘remain forever at rest,’ but to face with confidence whatever comes next. 

Text © Philip Tyers.  

Image © Blackburn Cathedral, used with permission

 The Julian Meetings support in-person and online groups around the country. We make teaching on Contemplative Prayer and Meditation as easily and widely accessible as we can. Articles and reviews express the views only of their respective authors.

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Easter Greetings

Blessings to all our readers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches all celebrate Easter this weekend as the calendars align. Except possibly the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as that is too complicated for me to work out.

An Easter message from the JM National Council:

The Julian Meetings works to support the one-hundred-and-forty local meetings across the UK in which anyone and everyone can share in the experience of silent prayer in the company of others.

JM also seeks to promote and publicise this ancient and essential strand of the Christian tradition through our website, social media, and simple and accessible publications.

The organisation is run by a small group of volunteers, with no paid staff.  We keep expenses to a minimum.  There are, however, costs in equipment, postage and other essentials.

JM is seeking to increase its individual membership. Members are able to participate in the discussions on the future work and development of JM and get advance notice of books recently published and available to review.   Usually the only regular communication that members receive is a monthly update about what has been added to the website.  A discretionary donation is requested.

If you are able either to become a member, or would prefer just to make a donation, we would be very grateful.  Your support will give us confidence, as a small core group of volunteers, that The Julian Meetings can continue its work into the future.  We believe that silent contemplation with God is a foundation of our Christian belief.  Sadly, the world has never needed this more.

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Photo – Greek Orthodox Easter Church decorations from Greek Gateway Facebook page

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Freedom

Christ_on_the_Cross_by_Frantisek_Bilek

Christ_on_the_Cross_by_Frantisek_Bilek wiki commons

Contemplation and meditation are often thought of as activities, which don’t really relate to everyday life or the life of the wider community.  This is a mistake.  The iconic image of contemplation, maybe, is the monk or the nun alone in prayer in their cell.  But such people know the connection that what they are doing has with the rest of the world.  Thomas Merton, himself a monk who wrote extensively about contemplative practice, was also much concerned with the world’s social and moral problems.  In He is Risen, he wrote in 1975 about freedom of action and thought in the context of spending time with God:

“Too may Christians are not free because they submit to the domination of other people’s ideas. They submit passively to the opinion of the crowd. For self- protection they hide in the crowd, and run along with the crowd – even when it turns into a lynch mob. They are afraid of the aloneness, the moral nakedness, which they would feel apart from the crowd.

But the Christian in whom Christ is risen dares to think and act differently from the crowd.

He has ideas of his own, not because he is arrogant, but because he has the humility to stand alone and pay attention to the purpose and grace of God, which are often quite contrary to the purposes and plans of an established human power structure.”