Musical Reflection :: Easter | Psalm 150 Praise Ye the Lord

"Psalm 150 Praise Ye the Lord" by Jessi Colter

I found this album thanks to an All Songs Considered episode with Lenny Kaye, who produced it. He got the idea when he came over to Waylon and Jessi's house, and Jessi was sitting at the piano. She was just playing whatever popped in her head and singing from a Bible open on her lap. In our Church, we have a long tradition of chant. Chant allows you to sing anything - and just like I said in my Holy Thursday reflection, singing adds another dimension to your prayer. Jessi Colter, whether she realizes it or not, participates in that.

I suppose I always knew that about chant, but I didn't really enjoy it. I was visiting my great-aunt one weekend at the Mount St. Scolastica convent in Atchinson, Kansas, when I got up for morning prayer with the community. I had prayed the liturgy of the hours before, but never chanted the entire thing. It took a long time, but it gave space to really internalize the words. And singing them gave a whole new dimension. I felt like I really understood chant for the first time, but more importantly, I really felt chant for the first time.

What better day do we have to praise the Lord than today? In our feelings, our own words, in the words of the psalmists, in dance or music or cooking or whatever we do to make our space more beautiful. Because today is beautiful. Our God loves us so much He died. God loves us so much He conquered death and brought us eternal life. How else do we respond?

Psalm 150 (King James Version)

1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

How will you bring some beauty to the world today? How will you express this psalm today? 

Triduum Musical Reflection #3 :: Holy Saturday | One More Night

"One More Night" by Michael Kiwanuka

One of the great gifts of our faith are the rituals that bring us together and give meaning to the big moments in life. Our entrance to the Church in Baptism, our community in Eucharist, our pain in Anointing. Today we ritualize the most mundane of activities: waiting.

We spend so much time waiting. We wait in line. We wait for the page to load. We wait for the new Star Wars movie. While there are good arguments to be made about our inability to wait created by our smartphones, we still spend a lot of time in the in-between. Today we wait in hope for our savior.

If you attend the Easter Vigil, it's the longest Mass for us Catholics. We usually get antsy at 60 minutes, and this is at least two hours, if not four. People who have been waiting to enter the Church join tonight. Our waiting is rewarded with the lights going on and Gloria.

This song is all about waiting. One more night, he sings. But I believe it, one more night til the morning. It's hopeful, but the repetitiveness keeps you there. He sings the same phrases, or variations on the same phrases, over and over. We're waiting, and hopeful, but we're still waiting. We're still here.  

Triduum Musical Reflection #2 :: Good Friday | All These Things I've Done

"All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers

This song is about a life lived, and searching for acknowledgement of that life. Things have gotten desperate but not hopeless. I imagine Jesus singing this song on his last day. 

Today I participated in my local church's Stations of the Cross, which takes two hours and is a full passion play though the streets. There were estimated about 2,000 people taking this walk, this pilgrimage, in the streets of Chicago. The police were blocking the streets and I could not help but think this walk had to be similar to the one Jesus took, with onlookers and questionable law enforcement everywhere. What was going through Jesus's mind during that walk?

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son

I want to shine on in the hearts of men
I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand

I am so much older than I can take

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner

While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done

Listen to the song, and think of the Stations of the Cross. Think of Jesus's journey, not just today but through his life - coming to this moment, his death. Jesus made his sacrifices for us, for the unimaginable love of God for us. What do we make sacrifices for? What do we think about on the road to those sacrifices?

Triduum Musical Reflection #1 :: Holy Thursday | American Tune

The lyric video was terrible, so you can find the lyrics here. You'll need them. 

"American Tune" by Paul Simon

There's a two-fold reason I chose this song, the lyrics and the melody. Perhaps that seems obvious, but they are almost not connected. Almost.

First, the lyrics. This song was written about the American experience, and all the contradictions and hope included in that. We live in a country built and sold on dreams, and reality can sometimes be a sharp and harsh contrast. Immigrants were told the streets were paved with gold, but the reality was a struggle in a housing project. The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, but those words were written by slave owners. Tired and poor are welcomed here by the Statue of Liberty, and find derision and suspicion even from and immigrant people, sometimes only a generation removed. We are sold the dream that working hard can get you anywhere, but sometimes factory work is outsourced and the student debt can never be paid.

We are, however, an extremely hopeful people. And I can hear these words from Jesus's perspective on this night. He gathers with his friends to celebrate a beloved holiday that remembers the love of God for his people that saved them. He knows what will happen, and though his friends may not grasp the precariousness of their position, many were probably worried. Every act of that Last Supper is colored with the joy of the now, fellowship, love, service and the sorrow of the future, the uncertainty, pain, death.

Imagine Jesus, washing his disciples' feet:

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And a little later, giving them his body and blood to eat and drink:

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
...
Oh, it’s all right, it’s all right
It’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest

That sorrow and hope are all mixed together, like it was to live then, as it is to live now.

Then, the melody. You probably recognize it, as we tend to sing it this time of year with the words "O Sacred Head Surrounded" (or "Now Wounded," in some circles). It's one of my favorite melodies, one that when I sing in church it usually brings tears to my eyes. Simon took it from JS Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and it was a Hans Leo Hassler German tune before that. The melody's origins in the Passion of Jesus cannot be coincidence. The Passion is a story of sacrifice, pain, and love, one that should sound familiar when we look at our own lives - very few of us escape without those being part of our existence. 

That brings both of these together. St. Augustine said that singing is praying twice, and I think he would have appreciated this song. The words and the music express two different but connected ideas, and if a prayer then we pray two ways, in two ideas. We truly pray twice. 

With this song today give it another listen, to the words and then to the music. Where do the two take you? Is it the same place, or different places? Imagine Jesus sharing earbuds with you. What would He say about it?