Today is the feast of Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, a day to be grateful for those who lead
us in sung prayer and in so many other ways in the liturgy. Find a moment over this weekend to thank your parish music director, your parish
organist, pianist and other instrumentalists, and your cantors and choir members for all the talent, time and effort they invest and shaare in enhancing the prayer of God's people.
I praise and thank you, Lord, for the music of creation:
the harmony of the spheres,
the melody of rain drops,
the percussion of thunder,
the wind, be it wild or whispering,
the staccato of lightening,
the desert's silence
the rushing of waves,
the cyclone's forte,
the diminuendo of icicles
melting in spring...
I praise and thank you, Lord, for sacred music:
for psalms and hymns,
anthems and canticles,
hosannas and chants,
refrains and verses,
tunes and rounds,
carols and dirges,
mantras and litanies,
classical and folk,
praise-and-worshp and jazz,
classical, contemporary,
old and new...
And I praise you, Lord, for the song of instruments:
piano and organ,
violins and guitars,
drums and cymbals,
horns and flutes,
pipes and strings,
solo, orchestral, ensemble...
And I thank you, Lord for those who make music:
conductors and choirs,
cantors and soloists,
quintets, quartets, trios and duets,
composers and arrangers,
cantors and folk groups,
instrumentalists and symphonies,
accompanists and chamber groups,
section leaders, directors
and page turners...
But most of all, Lord, I thank you
for the grand choir of all your people
who open their hearts and lift their voices
in praise of you and all your good works,
your mercy, your grace and your peace...
Protect us, Lord while we're awake
and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace...
Amen.
Tonight's music is Benjamin Britten's Ode to Saint Cecilia. It's lengthy and it
won't suit everyone's taste but it's fitting tribute to the patron of
the songs and sounds of thanks and praise we raise to God in our
prayer. If the Auden's lyrics don't catch your attention, simply listen
for the beauty of Britten's composition.
Hymn to St. Cecilia
Words by W. H. Auden
Performed by Voces8
If a video doesn't appear below, click here!
IIn a garden shady this holy lady
With reverent cadence and subtle psalm,
Like a black swan as death came on
Poured forth her song in perfect calm:
And by ocean's margin this innocent virgin
Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer,
And notes tremendous from her great engine
Thundered out on the Roman air.
Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited,
Moved to delight by the melody,
White as an orchid she rode quite naked
In an oyster shell on top of the sea;
At sounds so entrancing the angels dancing
Came out of their trance into time again,
And around the wicked in Hell's abysses
The huge flame flickered and eased their pain.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
II
I cannot grow;
I have no shadow
To run away from,
I only play.
I cannot err;
There is no creature
Whom I belong to,
Whom I could wrong.
I am defeat
When it knows it
Can now do nothing
By suffering.
All you lived through,
Dancing because you
No longer need it
For any deed.
I shall never be
Different. Love me.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
III
O ear whose creatures cannot wish to fall,
O calm of spaces unafraid of weight,
Where Sorrow is herself, forgetting all
The gaucheness of her adolescent state,
Where Hope within the altogether strange
From every outworn image is released,
And Dread born whole and normal like a beast
Into a world of truths that never change:
Restore our fallen day; O re-arrange.
O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages,
So small beside their large confusing words,
So gay against the greater silences
Of dreadful things you did: O hang the head,
Impetuous child with the tremendous brain,
O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain,
Lost innocence who wished your lover dead,
Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
O cry created as the bow of sin
Is drawn across our trembling violin.
O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain.
O law drummed out by hearts against the still
Long winter of our intellectual will.
That what has been may never be again.
O flute that throbs with the thanksgiving breath
Of convalescents on the shores of death.
O bless the freedom that you never chose.
O trumpets that unguarded children blow
About the fortress of their inner foe.
O wear your tribulation like a rose.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
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| Saint Cecilia by Mickey McGrath |
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