Easter 2025

 

Easter Changes Everything!

Christ is Risen!

The Angel Rolling The Stone Away From the Sepulchre, William Blake, ca. 1808

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;

endless is the victory, thou o'er death hast won;

angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,

kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.

Refrain:

Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son,

Endless is the vict'ry, thou o'er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;

Lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;

let the Church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;

for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;

life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife;

make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:

bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.

Christ As The Redeemer Of Man,  William Blake, ca. 1808

He is Risen indeed!

Brahms: Ein deutches Requiem, Part 6 For here have we no continuing city
(English translation follows the German text)

Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt,

sondern die zukünftige suchen wir. 

Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis:  

Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,

wir werden aber all verwandelt werden, 

und dasselbige plötzlich, in einem Augeblick, 

zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune. 

Denn es wird die Posaune schallen, 

und die Toten werden auferstehen unverweslich,

und wir werden verwandelt werden. 

Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort, das geschrieben steht: 

Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg. 

Tod, wo ist dein Stachel? 

Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg? 

Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und Kraft, 

denn du hast alle Dinge geschaffen, 

und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen 

und sing geschaffen.

 

For here have we no continuing city,

but we seek one to come. 

Behold, I tell you a mystery: 

we shall not all sleep, 

but we shall all be changed in a moment, 

in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. 

For the trumpet shall sound, 

and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 

and we shall be changed. 

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 

Death is swallowed up in victory. 

O death, where is thy sting? 

O hell, where is the victory?

Thou are worthy, O Lord to receive glory and honour and power: 

for thou hast created all things 

and by thy will they are 

and were created.

Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
Blake images, collections.vam.ac.uk, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Holy Saturday 2025

 

Holy Saturday . . . is the sound of perfect silence. Yesterday's mockery, the good thief's prayer, the cry of dereliction - all of that is past now. Mary has dried her tears, and the whole creation is still, waiting for what will happen next.

Christ in the Sepulchre William Blake, 1808

Today, there is a great silence. The Savior has died. He rests in the tomb. Many hearts were filled with uncontrollable grief and confusion. Was He really gone? Had all their hopes been shattered? These and many other thoughts of despair filled the minds and hearts of so many who loved and followed Jesus.

It is on this day that we honor the fact that Jesus was still preaching. He descended to the land of the dead, to all the holy souls who had gone before Him, so as to bring them His gift of salvation. He brought His gift of mercy and redemption to Moses, Abraham, the prophets and so many others. This was a day of great joy for them. But a day of great sorrow and confusion for those who watched their Messiah die on the Cross.

Holy Saturday should be a reminder to us that even those things which seem to be the worst of tragedies are not always what they seem. God the Son was obviously doing great things as He laid in the tomb. He was accomplishing His mission of redemption. He was changing lives and pouring forth grace and mercy.

With the altar stripped bare and the Divine Service unspoken, the wait in silence resonates.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74285/the-angels-hovering-over-the-watercolour-blake-william/

Text:

The opening quotation was taken from an excerpt from Death on A Friday Afternoon, by Richard John Neuhaus. The excerpt was posted on firstthings.com in 2007.
Second quotation, cathoicreadings.org, Holy Saturday entry

Good Friday 2025

 

For contemplation on this holy day...

Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)               Salvador Dali, 1954

Christ of Saint John of the Cross                     Salvador Dali, 1951

For more information on the Christian dimension of Dali's surrealistic interpretation of the Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) go here and here, for Christ of Saint John of the Cross go here and here, and for the Good Friday music(Verwandlungsmusik) from Wagner's opera, Parsifal, go here.

Palm Sunday 2025

 

The Bible pictured above served my family well beginning in the 1890's. As one of my earliest memories I recall my parents carrying it every Sunday to Mount Calvary Lutheran Church a few blocks from our home. It's too fragile for use these days and now occupies an honored place in our family archive. The book becomes special to me on Palm Sundays. Among the near eighty years of memorabilia inside are a dozen or so treasured palm crosses from my childhood.

Today is Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday, the last Sunday of Lent, and the beginning of Holy Week. On this day, Christians around the world commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is also a time to remember the Passion history as preparation for the Holy Week experience. Readings for the day recall the anointing of Jesus, the institution of the Lord's Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus's trials before Caiaphas and Pilate, the crucifixion of Jesus, and His burial.

All glory, laud, and honor to you Redeemer King,

To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

You are the king of Israel and David's royal Son,

Now in the Lord's name coming, our King and Blessed One.

The company of angels are praising you on high;

Creation and all mortals in chorus make reply.

The multitude of pilgrims with palms before you went,

Our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.

To you, before your Passion, they sang their hymns of praise.

To you, now high exalted, our melody we raise.

Their praises you accepted; accept the prayers we bring,

Great author of all goodness, all good and gracious King.

All glory, laud and honor to you, Redeemer King,

To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

                                   Theodulf of Orleans, 750/760-821

On the Sunday following this Passion Week we celebrate a 2000 year-old event that changes everything.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
early 20th century postcards from the family archives

St. Patrick's Day 2025

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today's post could focus on the contemporary experience of St. Patrick's Day in the U.S. - the wearing of the green, the parades, the parties, the drinking songs. Instead I want to look back at the true meaning of the day, the religious aspects, that so often get lost in the worldly celebration. Of course, there's nothing wrong with celebration - we do live in the world - as long as it's done in moderation while we keep the origins of the day in mind. Enjoy.

If you do nothing else with this post, at least listen to the remarkably powerful hymn.

The Reverend Paul Prange, Chair of the Board for Ministerial Education, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, has this to say about St. Patrick:

When it comes to St. Patrick, truth may be stranger than fiction.

Born in Scotland, he grew up as a Christian but was not too serious about his faith. His life changed suddenly at age sixteen when he was kidnapped by Irish pirates. For six years he labored as a slave, tending pigs and sheep. He began to value the Christian faith in which he had been raised. When he escaped from slavery, he made his way to the coast, got a job on a ship, and returned to his family in Scotland. 

Back in Scotland, he could not get Ireland out of his mind. The love of Christ was compelling him to share with his former captors the promises of God that had come to mean so much to him while he lived among them. After studying the Bible for nearly 20 years, he went back to Ireland a free man, and he never left. 

Patrick baptized thousands of people. He helped to organize congregations all over Ireland, and worked hard to train and ordain men to serve as ministers of the gospel. Among his converts were wealthy women who became Christians in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the royal family of the time, instructing them in the truths of the faith. 

It is very unlikely that he drove all of the snakes out of Ireland. He probably did not wear green all of the time. But the historical truths of his life are inspiring, and cause us to give thanks to God for faithful missionaries.

Today's music is St. Patrick's Breastplate, a 19th century hymn based on words attributed to him.

St. Patrick's Breastplate

I bind unto myself today

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,

by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;

His baptism in the Jordan river;

His death on cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spicèd tomb;

His riding up the heavenly way;

His coming at the day of doom:

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today

the power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, his might to stay,

His ear to hearken, to my need;

the wisdom of my God to teach,

his hand to guide, his shield to ward;

the word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me,

Christ within me,

Christ behind me,

Christ before me,

Christ beside me,

Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort

and restore me.

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ in quiet,

Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of

all that love me,

Christ in mouth of

friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself today

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.

Of whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

praise to the Lord of my salvation,

salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Our literary piece comes from the opening paragraphs of the Confession, one of two extant documents written by St. Patrick. The translation from the Latin by Ludwig Bieler.

I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many. My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannavem Taburniæ; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive. 

I was then about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people---and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did not obey our priests, who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought over us the wrath of his anger and scattered us among many nations, even unto the utmost part of the earth, where now my littleness is placed among strangers. 

And there the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my abjection, and mercy on my youth and ignorance, and watched over me before I knew Him, and before I was able to distinguish between good and evil, and guarded me, and comforted me as would a father his son.Hence I cannot be silent---nor, indeed, is it expedient---about the great benefits and the great grace which the lord has deigned to bestow upon me in the land of my captivity; for this we can give to God in return after having been chastened by Him, to exalt and praise His wonders before every nation that is anywhere under the heaven. 

Because there is no other God, nor ever was, nor will be, than God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, the Lord of the universe, as we have been taught; and His son Jesus Christ, whom we declare to have always been with the Father, spiritually and ineffably begotten by the Father before the beginning of the world, before all beginning; and by Him are made all things visible and invisible. He was made man, and, having defeated death, was received into heaven by the Father; and He hath given Him all power over all names in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess to Him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe, and whose advent we expect soon to be, judge of the living and of the dead, who will render to every man according to his deeds; and He has poured forth upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit, the gift and pledge of immortality, who makes those who believe and obey sons of God and joint heirs with Christ; and Him do we confess and adore, one God in the Trinity of the Holy Name. 

For He Himself has said through the Prophet: Call upon me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And again He says: It is honourable to reveal and confess the works of God. 

Although I am imperfect in many things, I nevertheless wish that my brethren and kinsmen should know what sort of person I am, so that they may understand my heart's desire. 

And so I should dread exceedingly, with fear and trembling, this sentence on that day when no one will be able to escape or hide, but we all, without exception, shall have to give an account even of our smallest sins before the judgement of the Lord Christ.

 

Here is a link to the remaining eight pages describing his journey from slave to missionary.

I hope readers enjoyed thia week's posts about Irish culture, especially today's piece on St. Patrick and his place in the history of Chritianity. May you and yours have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
oca.org

Text:

Prange comment, welslutherans site, Facebook
Confessions, catholicplanet.com

Ash Wednesday, The Beginning Of Lent 2025

 

This is one of the most solemn and discomforting days in the Christian world for we are marked with ashes and made so very much aware of our sin. This day also marks the beginning of forty days of prayer and abstinence leading us to Christ's death and resurrection.

Although the ashen cross we bear today will fade over the hours we can take hope knowing that God's love for us will never fade.

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness; According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me. But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.

Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.

Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.

Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew Thy praise. For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.

O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.

                                English Book of Common Prayer, 1662



Here is a legendary performance of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, the Latin setting of Psalm 51 composed around 1638.

Candlemas 2025

Readers undoubtedly will hear something about groundhogs today. They are less likely to learn that February 2 marks a Christian festival day. It is known in the western Catholic tradition as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Candlemas, and more often in the Protestant world simply as the Presentation of Our Lord.

The Presentation at the Temple Menologion of Basil II, ca 1000 CE

The festival marks the fortieth day following the birth of Jesus. Under Mosaic law it was a day for temple rites completing the purification of a woman following childbirth. It was also the day to present the firstborn son for redemption in the rite of pidyon haben.

The Candlemas tradition emerges from Luke 2:22-39 where Simeon prays over Jesus with words that would become known as the Song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

                                                 Book of Common Prayer, 1662



Beginning around the third century following the birth of Jesus, the blessing of candles and their procession about the church on this feast day became a symbol of Jesus as the light of the world. The practice emerged in the western church around 1000 CE.

This day is a Christmas feast day marking the end of the traditional Christmas Cycle in the Catholic calendar. It is also the mid-point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, a cross-quarter day filled with pagan traditions symbolizing fire and the "return of the light." In our house the last Christmas decorations have been removed and stored for another year. Our fireplace seems naked without its trimmings of red, green, gold, silver and glass. But the fire therein brings light and warmth, both spiritual and physical, as this joyous season comes to a close.

Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe;

Down with the holly, ivy, all,

Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas Hall.

Sources


Text:
Candlemas, Book of Common Prayer, wikipedia.com
poem fragment, Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve, Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain, original manuscript in Vatican Library

The First Sunday After Epiphany: The Feast Of The Baptism Of The Lord

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On this day, the First Sunday After Epiphany, many Christians celebrate the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.  

The Baptism of Christ                    William Blake, about 1799

From Mark 1:4-11 (NIV)

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with[a] water, but he will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit.”

The Baptism and Testing of Jesus

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

 And from Martin Luther's 1534 sermon on the baptism of Jesus:

So we should learn to understand baptism and cherish it, because it contains the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—or even just the name of Christ, as reported in Acts.10 It is sufficient to be baptized in the name of Christ, because the Father and the Holy Spirit are there [where he is]. So don’t separate the water from the word, but say, “The water is ordained by God to make us pure for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the Father and the Holy Spirit. They are there in the water to purify us from sin and death.” Whoever is in sin, stick them in the baptism[al water], and their sin will be extinguished. Whoever is in death, stick them in the baptism[al water], and death will be swallowed up. For baptism has divine power, the power to break sin and death. That’s why we are baptized. If later we fall into error or sin, we have not thereby demolished our baptism; we return to it, and say, “God has baptized me, plunged me into the baptism[al water] of his Son, of the Father and the Holy Spirit. There I return, and I trust that my baptism will take away my sin—not for my sake, but for the sake of the man Christ, who instituted it.”

Here is some music for the day, J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 7, "Christ our Lord came to the Jordan." Titles for its seven sections are based on the first line of each stanza of a Martin Luther hymn of the same name.  

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

Wikimedia Commons, File: William Blake - The Baptism of Christ

Text:

 Word & World, Volume XVI, Number 1 Winter 1996

Advent 2024

The word, "advent," comes from the Latin "adventus," meaning "arrival." Today in the western Christian tradition there are two arrivals on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, that of a new church year as well as its first season, Advent. The journey through the season anticipates both the birth of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World, his presence among believers today, and his return at the Last Judgement.

As we enter into the season of Advent today and that of Christmastide beginning December 24 it is time once more to explore almost two thousand years of words, music, and visual arts created for this holy time.

The Descent of Peace                                      William Blake

I give you the end of a gold string.

Only wind it in a ball,

It will lead you to Heaven's gate

built in Jerusalem's wall.

                                        from William Blake's poem, Jerusalem

Today's music is Conditor Alme Siderum (Creator of the Stars of Night), a plainsong dating from the 7th century.

Here is some background on the hymn including its original text and an English translation. For a more detailed exploration of the hymn and its many variations over the past 1500 years, go here.

C. S. Lewis: Aim At Heaven And You Will Get Earth Thrown In. Aim At Earth And You Get Neither

 

Some day you will be old enough to read fairy tales

                                                                            C.S. Lewis

I was introduced to the mind of C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis through a gift from a close friend. He gave me a copy of The Four Loves as medication for some conflicting developments in a relationship with Marti, the girl of my dreams at the time. Eventually, Marti revealed her affection for a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. She moved on and I was left with a life-long literary relationship with Lewis and can only trust that Marti found equal tenure with the prof.

C.S. Lewis, one of the last century's leading scholars, novelists, and Christian apologists, was born on this day in 1898. Many readers likely know his name and even more know some of his work - The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy, Mere Christianity, Surprised By Joy - but many may not be familiar with the depth and breadth of his literary accomplishments.

C.S. Lewis                                National Portrait Gallery, London

Immersed the the world of the university scholar where he was a friend and colleague of J. R.R. Tolkein, Lewis enjoyed the community but also appreciated his privacy. For that reason, very few interviews and recordings of the man survive. One tape still with us is a fifteen-minute talk he gave over BBC Radio during a three part series of presentations between 1942 and 1944. The recording reveals the great warmth, friendliness, and integrity of the man.

The talks soon appeared as three separate books shortly after World War II. In 1952, the series was edited into a single book, Mere Christianity. It's now considered a masterpiece in Christian apologetics.

If you cannot enjoy a Lewis book you simply haven't read enough of his work. And there is enough to accommodate readers as his Wikipedia bibliography has almost eighty entries of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. One or more of those entries will speak to you for a long time.

William Blake: Visions From The Heart

To see a world in a grain of sand

And heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour

                                William Blake

                                from Auguries of Innocence (1803)
                                               

On November 28, 1757, the British artist and writer, William Blake, was born in London. Even after several decades of studying his life and work he continues to make me dream and, for that reason, he remains my favorite anarchist. 

In his own time he was so eccentric his neighbors and friends thought he was a madman. As an engraver and illustrator he was caught between the decline of the guilds and the rise of industrialization. It was a time when men saw the value of their labors swept away from the cottage and into the factory under the watchful eye of the manager. For workers, the loss of autonomy, the shift in control and production, and the helplessness in the face of change led to a revolt against the Age of Reason and a rage against technologies it spawned. Blake was in the forefront of that movement but it would take almost two centuries before he would be recognized as both one whose vision, imagination and sensitivity were unmatched in the age of Romanticism and a truly unique influence in the history of the Western world.

There is one certainty about Blake's work and that is its complexity. He is by far one of the most interesting visionaries to come out of the West and its traditions. I hope you will take time to examine him and his extraordinary contributions to our experience. To explore his work appropriately is beyond the intent of this blog and capability of its author. For readers who want to learn more about Blake, to me there's no finer work available than Jacob Bronowski's A Man Without A Mask, published in 1944, and it's expanded version, William Blake and the Age of Revolution, published in 1972.

William Blake             Thomas Phillips, English, 1807

I have learned much from Blake the artist and philosopher in an effort to find a healthy balance between intellect and emotion. It's been a beautiful, productive, and fascinating journey. These works have been a part of that experience:

In the following illustration, The Ancient of Days, Blake depicts his character, Urizen, [You rising] as reason shaping the world and its experience. This engraving is also interpreted as God the Father - and often God the Son - as divining existence. It is a prime example of the complex and often confounding world of Blake's imagination.

The Ancient of Days                                   William Blake, 1793

In the following engraving Blake depicts Isaac Newton [and the Age of Reason] at the bottom of the sea shaping - the dividers, once more - the world of humankind on the earth. Newton, as a symbol of the Age of Reason and its invention and industrialization, has turned his back on the organic beauty of God's natural world.

Newton                                                    William Blake, 1795

Here, the Angel of Peace descends forcibly out of heaven illustrating God's reason -the dividers - brought into the world in the form of his Son to reconcile Nature (the recline female nude) and a redeemed humanity.

The Descent of Peace                          William Blake, ca. 1815

One of Blake's most familiar pieces is his preface to Milton: A Poem in Two Books. The preface says much about Blake's philosophy opposing the Age of Reason as mbodied in Greek and Roman thought and the dangers a reliance on intellect can bring to a world based equally on emotion. Furthermore, the preface is a perfect illustration of Blake's religious mysticism as well as his veneration of Milton.

The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible; but when the New Age is at leisure to pronounce, all will be set right, and those grand works of the more ancient, and consciously and professedly Inspired men will hold their proper rank, and the Daughters of Memory shall become the Daughters of Inspiration, Shakspeare and Milton were curb'd by the general malady and infection from the silly Greek and Latin slaves of the sword. Rouse up, O Young Men of the New Age! Set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings! For we have hirelings in the camp, the Court, and the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress mental, and prolong corporeal war. Painters! on you I call. Sculptors! Architects! suffer not the fashionable fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works, or the expensive advertising boasts that they make of such works; believe Christ and His Apostles that there is a class of men whose whole delight is in destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are but just and true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever, in Jesus our Lord.

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green?

And was the holy lamb of God

On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among these dark Satanic mills.

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!

Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England's green and pleasant land.

Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets. Numbers xi, ch. 26



Readers may be more familiar with Blake's poem through this medium:

As this tribute comes to a close, I'd like to reference one of Blake's poems that virtually all children read before the end of their middle schools years a half century ago. It's remarkably simple in form yet its questions brim with imagination and wonder. I so hope that The Tyger is still read and heard by young students so they can remember its message over their varied lifetimes.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,

Burnt the fire in thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp.

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger, Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake                              John Linnell, English, 1863

He who binds himself to a joy

Doth the winged life destroy

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity's sunrise

                                William Blake

                                from Eternity, 1803



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
wikipedia.com
Blake portrait, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Newton, Tate Gallery, London, U.K.blakearchive.org/Blake

Text:
wikipedia.com, Blake entry
blakearchive.org/Blake
bartleby.com/235/284.html
Jacob Bronowski, A Man Without A Mask, Seeker and Warburg, London, 1944

All Saints Day 2024

All Saints Day in Krakow, Poland

The remembrance of the departed faithful is an old custom in the Christian church. Here is some commentary on this day taken from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod website:

The Commemoration of All Saints has been observed by Christians since at least the 4th century after Christ, although not always on November 1. Christians then as now desire to follow the encouragement of the writer to the Hebrews: "Remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith" (Heb 13:7).

The original purpose of remembering the saints and martyrs was blurred during the medieval ages, as saints became the objects of prayers and petitions for merit before God. Pointing to Christ as the only source of forgiveness, Luther cleansed the church of this abuse of the saints. Lutherans did not remove All Saints Day from the church calendar, however.

Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517 precisely because he wanted the document to be seen by the throngs that would services on November 1, All Saints Day. Lutherans eventually chose October 31 as the day on which to remember Luther's legacy to the church, and All Saints Day in the Lutheran Church has forever after been overshadowed by Reformation services.

There is no more suitable hymn for the day than Ralph Vaughan Williams's setting - Sine Nomine - for the processional hymn, For All the Saints, written by William Walsham How.

Most versions omit several verses that I believe are most relevant to our time. They are:

For the Apostles’ glorious company,

Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,

Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:

Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,

Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,

Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,

Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,

And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Allerheilegen (All Saints) Johann Koenig, 1599

May you have a blessed All Saints Day as you remember both the faithful who have attained their everlasting glory in the light of Jesus and those who look forward to the light to come.




Sources


Text:wels.org
For All the Saints entry, en.wikipedia.org

Reformation Day 2024

On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted ninety-five theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg, Germany. He could no longer tolerate what he thought were errors within the Catholic church, including the collection of increasingly commercialized indulgences said to reduce the punishment of sinners seeking salvation. Today, Protestants commemorate this event every October 31 as Reformation Day. Luther chose this day, All Hallows Eve, because he knew the church would be filled with influential people within and outside the church as they gathered for a vigil in preparation for All Saints Day on November 1 and on the festival day itself. Luther's action became the tipping point for reformation within the Christian church.

Luther As An Augustinian Monk   Lucas Cranack the Elder, 16th century

Eight years later, Johann Sebastian Bach, the musical voice of the Reformation in the Baroque period, wrote the following cantata for Reformation Day 1725:


Gott der Her ist Sonn und Schild

1. Chorus

God the Lord is sun and shield.
The Lord gives grace and honor,
He will allow no good to be lacking from the righteous.

2. Aria A

God is our sun and shield!
Therefore this goodness
shall be praised by our grateful heart,
which He protects like His little flock.
For He will protect us from now on,
although the enemy sharpens his arrows
and a vicious hound already barks.

3. Chorale

Now let everyone thank God
with hearts, mouths, and hands,
Who does great things
for us and to all ends,
Who has done for us from our mother's wombs
and childhood on
many uncountable good things
and does so still today.

4. Recitative B

Praise God, we know
the right way to blessedness;
for, Jesus, You have revealed it to us through Your word,
therefore Your name shall be praised for all time.
Since, however, many yet
at this time
must labor under a foreign yoke
out of blindness,
ah! then have mercy
also on them graciously,
so that they recognize the right way
and simply call You their Intercessor.

5. Aria (Duet) S B

God, ah God, abandon Your own ones
never again!
Let Your word shine brightly for us;
although harshly
against us the enemy rages,
yet our mouths shall praise You.

6. Chorale

Uphold us in the truth,
grant eternal freedom,
to praise Your name
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Martin Luther Seminary, Mequon, Wisconsin

We can only imagine the exhilaration Luther had on posting his objections. He placed his worldly apprehensions in the hands of Jesus, continued to call for reform within the Catholic Church, and eventually developed a new vision of faith all the while professing he ramained a Catholic. Luther wrote a number of hymns based on scripture during his last three decades. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Ein feste Berg ist unser Gott) is perhaps the best known.

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason-I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other-my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

                                Luther, the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521







Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
Conrad Schmitt Studios, Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Text:
Bach translation, emmanuelmusic,org