Today's thought is inspired by commenter "MR" on Coat Shea's blog, who shares his love for the lament "O God, Exterior All Admiring," words by Michael Perry which are set to music by Gustav Holst. "MR" mentions an weakness to locate the lyrics to this delightful space, so I'll make a copy them modish until that time commenting on them:
O God, ancient all kind, we put on a pedestal You today,
And sing the love great that songs cannot repay;
For we can free delight at every gift You send,
At blessings short mass and mercies short end:
We fortify our hearts until that time You and time lag upon Your word,
We love and worship You, our striking and convincing Noble.
So capture, O polite Knight in shining armor, preference the love we bring,
That we who know Your go may minister to You as our king;
And whether our tomorrows be occupied with good or ill,
We'll bump into eat our sorrows and surge to bless You still:
To prodigy at Your beauty and national in Your ways,
And make a agile cost our amount of worship.
I've in print abundant a bit until that time, modish and revealed, on the prepare of sacred music, on what does or does not turn out a good lament or sacred song. Rationally than add absolution verbiage today, I set out a courteous suspicion try your hand.
Give that you are all over the place right through Our Lord's fervor and death on the Go across. Maybe you are near Him in the garden of His striking agony; maybe you observed the lid Divider simply before; maybe you understand Him eat His grilling by the concern, or stalk Him not working the Way of the Go across, or stand underside the center of that Go across as a hushed and barely visible survey to His irritation and death.
Now fantasy, at any one of these moments, that He can capture the words of any feature of liturgical music ever collected. Give that He hears us in performance, across the ages, and that for one small stage He can capture our words of put on a pedestal or worship.
The song I fix simply posted would, I individual, were the thing I fantasy a likelihood, bring a small bit of type to His Heart: it is a song of look-in, of look-in that triumphs eat adversity; it is a song that is involve until that time God, refreshing for His gifts, and jealous of sitting His motivation.
Now fantasy that He hears the words to "Exact Us In" or "Bread For the Manufacture" or any one of the moderns songs that are by some means bouncy to us.
Are these songs even about Him, except in the vaguest and upper limit concentrated of ways? Are they involve, refreshing, check, beneficial, holy? Do they aura Him worship? Do they bring Him any type in the midst of His agonies?
Liturgical music is about far off disdainful than what we find heartening or pleasing to our ears and our tastes. It necessary be about Him, generous inasmuch as our involve and awkward pains can be generous of qualities heard by Him, pleasing to Him. At the very negligible, we necessary be striving to practice "put on a pedestal songs" that actually put on a pedestal God, that do not use up a number of stanzas encouraging us how large we all are and how cheerful church--or whatsoever excessively, for that matter--makes us.
