A Moment – an Excuse, a Plee – to Stop, to Listen, to Reflect, and to Pray

When I first joined the ‘blog-o-sphere’, I wrote one of my favorite posts, one about Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Requiem Mass of 1605.

I often return to that video, which I will post below, to listen to the magnificent and stirring music composed some 400 years ago, by none-other than a priest. In fact, it is so moving that I often feel compelled to weep. I am not a crier, and often wish that I could cry more frequently than I do, but the single thing that does make me feel closest to tears is music like this. In that moment, I feel as close to God as I ever have on this earth. Take a moment or two (it’s pretty long) to listen to this music, and let me know below what you think.

The music is actually set in Requiem Mass for All Soul’s Day at Westminster Cathedral in England. I typically passively listen, but today I listened to the priest’s sermon and I was struck to write again about this piece.

For those interested, his sermon starts around: 18:45

I have transcribed what I think are the most profound parts of this sermon. To be quite honest, listening to his sermon with the reverberation of the Cathedral and his British accent just add to the beauty of his message. I strongly recommend listening to it, instead of just reading my transcription!

But All Soul’s Day is a day, with the help of God, to bring a Christian prospective to death.

[…]

And when this earthly dwelling is turned to dust, an eternal dwelling is made for them in Heaven. Sadness and certainty of death, yes. But also a sure conviction that beyond death lies something else. […] Something of consultation, something of immortality, something which gives cause for hope. And that something, that someone, is  worth hoping for, worth praying for. Not just for ourselves, but for others too.

It has long been the Tradition of the Catholic Church to pray for those who have gone before us. Not out of the doubt of the goodness of God, but in a spirit of charity to our departed brothers and sisters, who do not cease to be our brothers and sisters at the moment of death.

Like all of us, they will have had their weaknesses and failures; some known and others hidden. So we pray… that their imperfections may be washed away and they might enjoy the everlasting joy of the presence of God.

That is a consistent theme of the Requiem Mass, sung today in a setting of the composer and priest Tomas Luis de Victoria. We mark the 400th anniversary of his death this year. And it is poignant to note that the music that we hear today is probably the last he wrote before his time came to die.

If our souls can be stirred by the searing beauty of Victoria’s music, perhaps we can too be stirred to prayer for those who have gone before us yet remain precious to us.

[…]

Among the many thoughts that may fill our minds today, one could be, we pray, that there is no contradiction between the grief and anguish of loss on the one hand and the joy and hope on the other. And a part of that hope is that the future glory to which Isaiah looks forward is not just a literary device of brilliant poets, but a reality. A joyful future beyond grief and sorrow, made possible by the utter and sacrificial goodness of God.

The style of this composition is profound. The metaphors, the references and ties to the Mass, the composition, and historical notes are tremendous. I highly recommend listening to it!! It makes me very happy to share this with all my amazing followers, and any visitors who have found or will find this blog.

~God Bless~