Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
05 April 2026
Telemann, "Victoria! Mein Jesus ist erstanden," TWV 1:1746
Michael Burow-Geier, bass, Jonas Hillenmeyer, trumpet, and Siegfried Gmeiner, organ, perform ...
20 April 2025
31 March 2024
Praise.
Creti, Astronomical Observations, 1711
WATCHING the COMET on EASTER EVENING
Yes, quiet as a tomb
this dark surrounding us,
the only moving stone the one
we’ve watched these nights
of early sping, staring
as the brushstroke of its tail
comes clear and clustered stars
bloom into view from what
had seemed the emptiest
of places in the sky.
They light this country road,
converting us to shadows
between the ready fields
where in a few months more
we’ll watch our kids
chase fireflies again,
catching and holding one
in a cupped cave of hands
to show us before letting it go,
its fitful trail the path
of some brief comet
on an earthly scale,
another evening’s praise
for this uncertain, only life.
James Scruton
Always.
Veronese, The Resurrection of Christ, 1571
MATTHEW 28
1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshiped him.10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.14 And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Covenant.
Rabbi Sacks on defeating death ...
Life is good, death is bad. Life is a blessing, death is a curse. These are truisms for us. Why even mention them? Because they were not common ideas in the ancient world. They were revolutionary. They still are.How then do you defeat death? Yes there is an afterlife. Yes there is techiyat hametim, resurrection. But Moses does not focus on these obvious ideas. He tells us something different altogether. You achieve immortality by being part of a covenant – a covenant with eternity itself, that is to say, a covenant with God.When you live your life within a covenant something extraordinary happens. Your parents and grandparents live on in you. You live on in your children and grandchildren. They are part of your life. You are part of theirs. That is what Moses meant when he said, near the beginning of this week’s parsha:It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant and oath, but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today.Deut. 29:13-14In Moses’ day that last phrase meant “your children not yet born.” He did not need to include “your parents, no longer alive” because their parents had themselves made a covenant with God forty years before at Mount Sinai. But what Moses meant in a larger sense is that when we renew the covenant, when we dedicate our lives to the faith and way of life of our ancestors, they become immortal in us, as we become immortal in our children.
09 April 2023
Burst.
See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.
You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring -
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.
Charles Kingsley
Light.
Veronese, The Resurrection of Christ, 1570
No one knew the name of this day;
Born quietly from deepest night,
It hid its face in light,
Demanded nothing for itself,
Opened out to offer each of us
A field of brightness that traveled ahead,
Providing in time, ground to hold our footsteps
And the light of thought to show the way.
The mind of the day draws no attention;
It dwells within the silence with elegance
To create a space for all our words,
Drawing us to listen inward and outward.
We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.
Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.
So at the end of this day, we give thanks
For being betrothed to the unknown
And for the secret work
Through which the mind of the day
And wisdom of the soul become one.
John O'Donohue
17 April 2022
New.
Kurt has Reverend Baker's Easter message from 1990 ...
[W]e love not just what the world can give us, but for what what the world is intended by God to be for all people - a new creation.
Deliverance.
Buoneri, The Resurrection, 1623
Speaking of Easter, do we not attach more importance nowadays to the act of dying than to death itself? We are much more concerned with getting over the act of dying than with being victorious over death. Socrates mastered the art of dying; Christ overcame death as the eschatos echtheos. There is a real difference between the two things. The one is within human capacity, the other implies resurrection.
We need not an art of dying, but the resurrection of Christ to invigorate and cleanse the world today. Here is the answer to dos moi pou stoo kai kinesoo ten gen, give me where I stand and I will move the earth. What a tremendous difference it would make if a few people really believed and acted upon that. To live in the light of the resurrection that is the meaning of Easter. Do you not also find that so few people seem to know what light it is they live by? This perturbatio animorum is exceedingly common. It is an unconscious waiting for the word of deliverance, though the time is hardly ripe yet for it to be heard. But the time will come, and perhaps this Easter is one of the last chances we shall have to prepare ourselves for our future task.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Letters and Papers from Prison
16 April 2022
Biber, Mystery Sonatas
Svetlana Ramazanova,violin, Marina Belova, theorbo, Anastasia Akinfina, harpsichord, Avgust Krepak, cello, perform Sonata No. 10: The Crucifixion ...
Egg-Bearing.
The first known mention of the Easter bunny or Easter hare in print was in a 1682 doctoral dissertation in Latin, the language of academia at the time. Georg Franck von Franckenau (1644-1704), a German medical doctor and botanist, taught anatomy, chemistry and botany at Jena and became Professor of Medicine at the University of Heidelberg in 1679. Following a French invasion in the War of the Palatinate Succession he left Heidelberg for Frankfurt and then the University of Wittenberg. Franckenau later moved to Denmark as the personal physician to Christian V in Copenhagen, where he died on June 17, 1704.
In 1682, while still at Heidelberg, under the name of Johannes Richier, one of his doctoral candidates, Professor Franck published a 16-page dissertation titled “De Ovis Paschalibus. Von Oster-Eyern.” (“On Easter Eggs”), which mentions for the first time the existence of the folk belief in an egg-bearing Easter bunny found in Protestant regions of Alsace and the Palatinate (Elsass und die Pfalz). In some other German-speaking regions the bringer of Easter eggs was a fox, a rooster, or the cuckoo bird. In English translation, part of the dissertation reads: “In Alsace, and neighboring regions, these eggs are called rabbit eggs because of the myth told to fool simple people and children that the Easter Bunny is going around laying eggs and hiding them in the herb gardens."
05 April 2021
Incognito.
We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito.
C.S. Lewis
Thank you, Mr. Wade.
04 April 2021
Connectedness.
Kurt remembers a sermon given by a great man, the likes of which are hard to find these days, his father-in-law, the Reverend John Baker ...
Exercising faithfulness doesn’t come at the cost of our connectedness to the world. We are not of the world…but we are not to be out of it either. The world is the place God-incarnate visited…it is the world he died for…that’s how much he loves it and us.
Always.
Ge, Harbingers of the Resurrection, 1867
28 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
03 April 2021
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