March 31 reflection by Deacon Jerry
Tuesday of the 5th Week of Lent
March 31st 2020
As we continue in this surreal time of our lives, I bet you like most of us we are all filling our time with what we have available to us. Gone are the days of getting ready for work, getting the kids ready for school and catching the school bus.
We may be filling our time with the gift of working from home if we are still blessed with employment, guiding our children in e- learning, or completing some small household projects.
Those who us who are blessed with the gift of work, especially our health care workers hopefully can find some time to unwind, and relax from the long stressful hours as best as we can without all of the options that were once available to us.
Of course there still is the TV with it’s mighty offerings to us, Netflix, video games, sports reruns, and if you have the heart to watch, the news. Praise be to God my wife and I have put a quarantine on how much of the news we do watch.
On those days that are nice we might find laying in the grass in the sunshine a refreshing and welcomed pause but we haven’t had a string of those days yet. We also have the option of reading books, mysteries, historical books, biographies, and hopefully we find some time to read and reflect on scripture while doing this together as a family.
What I have found most relaxing in these difficult days is the gift of music. Music is the universal language that everyone understands and enjoys. Not to throw shade on what genre of music that you might enjoy, I believe that certain types of music can change our mood, bring a smile to our faces, soften our hearts and act as a type of prayer that reinforces God the Fathers love for us and all of creation.
The type of music that has lifted me up lately is a piece of music composed by Gustav Holst. He wrote a seven movement orchestral suite called The Planets. If listened to in its entirety it is an hour in length. My wife and I attended the CSO performance of this piece and the range of emptions and feelings from a light unconsciousness (my wife called it dozing off) to the raucous ending was a musical experience that still sticks with me today. I would recommend that you find version that you like and listen to it as a family.
Today’s Psalm, Psalm 102:2-3,16-18,19-21 I feel is best expressed in Holst’s Jupiter movement. I have added three YouTube versions of Jupiter that have spoken to me in different ways through the many ups and downs of late. Each is a beautiful prayer offering a way to praise God.
I have also included a brief summary on Gustav Holst, along with 2 sets of lyrics.
Listen to any version or all of them and on Easter Morning, pick one, play it loudly and sing along in pray to praise the one who loves us.
May God’s mercy and grace be with you today.
Deacon Jerry
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The Planets-Gustav Holst
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the solar system and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst.
From its premiere to the present day, the suite has been enduringly popular, influential, widely performed and frequently recorded.
The concept of the work is astrological[3] rather than astronomical (which is why Earth is not included, although Sun and Moon are also not included while including the non-traditional Uranus and Neptune): each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche, not the Roman deities.
Holst’s use of orchestration was very imaginative and colorful, showing the influence of such contemporary composers as Igor Stravinsky[9] and Arnold Schoenberg,[3] as well as such late Russian romantics as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. Its novel sonorities helped make the work an immediate success with audiences at home and abroad. Although The Planets remains Holst’s most popular work, the composer himself did not count it among his best creations and later in life complained that its popularity had completely surpassed his other works. He was, however, partial to his own favorite movement, Saturn.[10]
One explanation for the suite’s structure, presented by Holst scholar Raymond Head, is the ruling of astrological signs of the zodiac by the planets:[30] if the signs are listed along with their ruling planets in the traditional order starting with Aries, ignoring duplication and the luminaries (the Sun and Moon), the order of the movements corresponds. Critic David Hurwitz offers an alternative explanation for the piece’s structure: that Jupiter is the Centre point of the suite and that the movements on either side are in mirror images. Thus Mars involves motion and Neptune is static; Venus is sublime while Uranus is vulgar, and Mercury is light and scherzando while Saturn is heavy and plodding. This hypothesis is lent credence by the fact that the two outer movements, Mars and Neptune, are both written in rather unusual quintuple meter.
Lyrics
O God beyond all praising,
we worship you today
and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;
for we can only wonder
at every gift you send,
at blessings without number
and mercies without end:
we lift our hearts before you
and wait upon your word,
we honor and adore you,
our great and mighty Lord.
The flower of earthly splendor
in time must surely die,
its fragile bloom surrender
to you the Lord most high;
but hidden from all nature
the eternal seed is sown –
though small in mortal stature,
to heaven’s garden grown:
for Christ the Man from heaven
from death has set us free,
and we through him are given
the final victory!
Then hear, O gracious Savior,
accept the love we bring,
that we who know your favor
may serve you as our king;
and whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we’ll triumph through our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways,
and make a joyful duty
our sacrifice of praise.
Lyrics & Bible References
O God beyond all praising,
we worship you today
and sing the love amazing
that songs cannot repay;
for we can only wonder
at every gift you send,
at blessings without number
and mercies without end:
we lift our hearts before you
and wait upon your word,
we honour and adore you,
our great and mighty Lord.
Then hear, O gracious Saviour,
accept the love we bring,
that we who know your favour
may serve you as our king;
and whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we’ll triumph through our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways,
and make a joyful duty
our sacrifice of praise.
Bible References
Psalms 8:4
Psalms 27
Psalms 50:2
Psalms 116:1-2
Psalms 116:12-19
Psalms 130:5
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Lamentations 3:41
Matthew 18:21-25
Luke 18:1-8
Hebrews 13:15
James 1:17
1 John 4:10