A Song for All Saints Day, 1st. November.

Not so long ago we had a visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI from the Vatican. Part of the purpose of his Holiness visiting the UK was to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801 – 1890) who, as many will know, converted from the Anglican Church to Roman Catholicism.

I read an article more recently which informed me that beatification is the moment at which the Church of Rome acknowledges that the beatified person has officially been allowed to enter Heaven. Apart from feeling a heaviness of heart that such an idea could exist, I then thought, what hope is there for anyone else, especially me?!

As if one doesn't have all the tests of Purgatory to go through first, before reaching the elevated state of beatification, according to the Roman Church, in order to actually become a Saint, two answers to prayers for miracles would have to be answered by praying to your deceased being. My, what a lot of politics that must involve in Heaven, even God's own intervention may have to be involved at some point. apart from Mary and Jesus being part of the process, or could they be bypassed in some way?

J.H. Newman hasn't been officially made a Saint yet by the Roman Catholic Church, because only one prayer for a miracle has been answered to date, the details of which I am not yet aware. In other words, he's reached the halfway stage of the process.

I was brought up to believe that any person who received Jesus into their life as their Lord and Savior became a Christian at that point and heir to eternal life. In John 1:12 we read "To all who did receive Him (Jesus), who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Further on, in John's Gospel, Chapter 11:25-26a we read "Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." " Jesus then asks, "Do you believe this?" That is the question I would like to leave you to think about and seriously consider today, while you are still alive and able to do so.

I was also given to believe that when one becomes a Christian, Christian=Saint, which is a much easier concept to grasp than the super-structure put in place by the vain traditions of men which thankfully didn't exist in the early Church. Thus, when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, which we find in the New Testament, in Romans 1:7, we see he addressed it "to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints," that is, all the Christian believers in Rome.

I can remember singing the following song at school, which underlines the fact that all those of us who believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us our sins and are called to follow Him, are saints. There is no hierarchy, we are just forgiven Christians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the living God, serving together to uplift Jesus who is the answer to all our problems in today's broken world.

I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew,
And one was a doctor,
And one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God--and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right, for Jesus' sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier,
And one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there's not any reason--no, not the least,
Why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, or
In lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.

Some Poetry from the Book of Common Prayer

To many people today the Book of Common Prayer is unknown territory, especially with the advent of the Alternative Service Book (ASB) in 1980 and more recently the more open, modern and unwieldy Common Worship book.

I was brought up in a village community in Surrey where the only Primary school to attend was a Church of England school. In those dark ages (c.1960-1966) the school and village church were very much intertwined and we were taught the catechism where we had to state that our names were given to us by our God parents at our baptism. My father was quite upset about this, as we were Brethren and didn't practise 'infant baptism' as we would now call it. However, apart from this hiccough, we did learn some very beautiful prayers from the Book of Common Prayer.

In more recent times I have been involved in playing the organ for Morning Prayer in a local Anglican church where I was once again reminded of the beauty of the poetry in the Book of Common Prayer and the skill with which it was crafted. I found this a great enhancement to my own spiritual development, particularly in the area of personal prayer and intercession and reading and studying the Bible as part of my daily Christian pilgrimage. When you find it hard to pray because of overwhelming circumstances in life, the Book of Common Prayer can be a great aid to overcoming a spiritual 'block'. Even though the language may seem old to us now, there is a rhythm and pace to it which calms the troubled soul and helps to put things in an eternal perspective rather than a time/space constraint. Someone reminded me recently, "when confronting a problem, ask yourself the question, Will this be important to me in five years time?"

What a lot of people fail to realize is that the Book of Common Prayer is one of the main pillars on which the modern English language rests, along with the King James Version of the Bible and Shakespeare. The Book of Common Prayer may also be regarded as a cornerstone of the Reformation which was fired by Martin Luther in Germany, the baton being taken up in England by Henry VIII and the Elizabethan Reformers such as John Knox later on.

After a number of revisions, the version of the Book of Common Prayer most widely used is that of 1662, incorporating the book of Psalms which differs slightly from the King James Version in that it was translated from the Latin Vulgate. I want to share with you what I consider to be some real poetic gems from the Psalter, followed by some set prayers which I have found helpful in my own Christian devotion and personal walk with God.

Psalm 95, Venite, exultemus

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving: and shew ourselves glad in Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods. In His hand are all the corners of the earth: and the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is his, and He made it: and His hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is the Lord our God: and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me: proved me and saw my works. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath: that they should not enter into my rest.

Psalm 98, Cantate Domino

O sing unto the Lord a new song: for He hath done marvellous things. With His own right hand, and with His holy arm: hath He gotten Himself the victory. The Lord declared His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and truth toward the house of Israel: and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God. Shew yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands: sing, rejoice, and give thanks. Praise the Lord upon the harp: sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving. With trumpets also and shawms: O shew yourselves joyful before the Lord the King. Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is: the round world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for He is come to judge the earth. With righteousness shall He judge the world: and the people with equity.

Evening Prayer Collect

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by Thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Communion Prayer, for Easter

But chiefly are we bound to praise Thee for the glorious Resurrection of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord: for He is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world: who by His death hath destroyed death, and by His rising to life hath restored to us everlasting life. Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name; evermore praising Thee, and saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory: Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High. Amen.

Crucifixion Resurrection Ascension

More information and history of the Book of Common Prayer can be found on the website of the Prayer Book Society, at http://www.pbs.org.uk/

To hear a high quality sung version of Choral Evensong, where the Psalms are sung to probably the highest standard in the world, try this link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tp7r

Two contrasting Hymns (Old and New)

I am not a tremendous fan of the new style hymns and choruses that are flooding into the singing repertoire of our newer and not so new churches. However, as a pianist in a newer church for a while and later as a church organist, choir master and music group leader I have had to lead people in singing music written in both newer and older styles.

In this article I would like to draw attention to two pieces which have had an impact on me, in terms of the words and inevitably the tunes used in conjunction with these words, which in the case of these items are both very well suited.

First, the older hymn, which is 'My song is love unknown', the words to which were written by Samuel Crossman (1624-83) and which is generally sung to the tune called 'Love Unknown' by the English composer John Ireland (1879-1962).

All Saints, Sudbury Pembroke College, Cambridge

Samuel Crossman was an Anglican minister and hymnwriter born at Bradfield Monachorum in Suffolk. He earned a B.D. at Pembroke College, Cambridge and became Prebendary of Bristol. He then ministered to an Anglican congregation at All Saints, Sudbury and to a Puritan congregation at the same time. He had a great affinity with the Puritan cause and in 1661 attended the Savoy Conference, which sought to update the Book of Common Prayer to make it suitable for use by both Anglicans and Puritans. This project was unsuccessful and the ensuing 1662 Act of Uniformity led to Crossman being expelled with some 2,000 other Puritan inclined ministers from the Church of England. Shortly after this he renounced his Puritan affiliations and was ordained in 1665, becoming a Royal chaplain. He took up a post in Bristol in 1667 and became Dean of Bristol Cathedral in 1683. After he died on 4th. February, 1683, in Bristol, he was buried in the South aisle of Bristol Cathedral. Crossman's most well known hymns are 'My song is love unknown', 'Jerusalem on High' and 'Sweet Place'.

Crossman Quincentenary plaque Bristol Cathedral

John Ireland

My Song is Love Unknown

My song is love unknown,

My Saviour's love to me:

Love to the loveless shown,

That they might lovely be,

O who am I,

That for my sake

My Lord should take frail flesh, and die?

He came from His blest throne,

Salvation to bestow;

But men made strange, and none

The longed-for Christ would know;

But O my friend,

My friend indeed,

Who at my need

His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,

And His sweet praises sing;

Resounding all the day

Hosannas to their King:

Then "Crucify!"

Is all their breath,

And for His death

They thirst and cry.

They rise and needs will have

My dear Lord made away;

A murderer they save,

The prince of life they slay;

Yet cheerful He

To suffering goes,

That He His foes

From thence might free.

In life, no house, no home

My Lord on earth might have;

In death, no friendly tomb,

But what a stranger gave.

What may I say?

Heaven was His home;

But mine the tomb

Wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,

No story so divine;

Never was love, dear King!

Never was grief like Thine.

This is my friend,

In whose sweet praise

I all my days

Could gladly spend.

The second hymn is a modern one which has spoken to me more profoundly than any other new hymn, it is called 'Above All' and is written and performed by a contemporary worship leader, Lenny Leblanc. The theme of the hymn is similar to the Crossman one, dwelling on the price Jesus paid by dying on the cross to bear away our sin.

Lenny Leblanc Lenny (again)

It is possible to listen to this piece on Last FM at the following link.

http://www.last.fm/music/Lenny%2520Leblanc/Above%2520All?ac=Lenny%20Leblanc

Lenny Leblanc is a successful singer and songwriter who wrote the hit ballad 'Falling' which was popular in the 70's. He was an integral part of the musical epicentre known as Muscle Shoals music. He formed a duo known as LeBlanc and Carr after signing to Atlantic Records and success came quickly with 'Falling' which was named one of Billboard's all time favourite Top 40 hits. Lenny then moved on to a solo career with Capitol Records and soon became disenchanted with the music scene but continued to write songs and came to know God in a personal, life-changing way that altered the course of his career for ever.

Today, Lenny Leblanc's name appears on dozens of popular new church songs, notably 'Above All' and 'There is none like You'. His voice and compositions are featured on many classic worship recordings for Maranatha and Integrity.

Lenny continues to write pop and country songs and he still travels nationally and internationally as a Christian artist and worship leader. His recent release, 'Love Like No Other' includes a newly-recorded version of 'Falling', as well as 9 newly written worship songs. Looking back over his career and personal life, Lenny grins and says, "It's amazing what God has done with a life like mine."

Above All

Above all powers, above all kings,
Above all nature and all created things,
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man,
You were here before the world began.

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones,
Above all wonders the world has ever known,
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth,
There's no way to measure what You're worth.

Crucified, laid behind a stone,
You lived to die, rejected and alone,
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all.

© 1999 Hosanna

Quotation

"It's amazing what God has done with a life like mine." ~ Lenny Leblanc

John Donne's Holy Sonnets (17 & 18)

In this blog I want to share with you two poems by John Donne (1572-1631) who is regarded as the leading writer of the 'Metaphysical Poets'. They were a group of British lyric poets of the 17th. century who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and tended to explore them in a similar way. The 'metaphysical' label was, strictly speaking, a misnomer, given to them much later by Samuel Johnson in his 'Life of Cowley'. The thing they have in common is their writing style, which was normally characterized by wit, subtle arguments and the use of unusual simile and metaphor. An example of this is where Andrew Marvell compares the human soul to a 'drop of dew'. John Donne himself, like several other metaphysical poets, was influenced by Neoplatonism, which had its origins with early Christian philosophers such as Justyn and Athenagoras who tried to connect Christianity with Platonism.

John Donne

In his style of writing, John Donne likes to twist and distort images and traditional stanzaic patterns; his speech patterns are colloquial and varied. He sometimes uses traditional verse forms, preferring simple ones, but he is also fond of inventing elaborate and intricate stanzas. In both his worldly and religious poems he often achieves a complex and memorable 'melody'.

One of the main Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry and which is evident in the poetry of John Donne is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved is a reflection or remembrance of perfect beauty which exists in the eternal realm.

John Donne was born into a Roman Catholic family at a time when anti-Catholic feeling was at or near its peak, a time when Catholics were subject to constant harassment by the Elizabethan secret police. Although he attended both Oxford and Cambridge universities and Lincolns Inn (the training ground for lawyers), he never took any degrees or practiced law.

Despite his great education and poetic talents he live in poverty for several years, relying heavily on the subsidy of wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and , in 1621 he was appointed the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

St. Paul, Cathedral, London

The Holy Sonnet 17 was written following the death of Donne's wife Ann More at the age of 33, having just borne her twelfth child. This extremely personal sonnet and Sonnet 18 were not discovered until 1892 and survives only in a single manuscript. In Sonnet 17 Donne seems to imply that God took his wife away from him in order to have a monopoly of John Donne's love. The last lines may even suggest that Donne saw his wife as a possible temptation to deadly sin.

Holy Sonnet Number 17

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt

To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,

And her soul early into heaven ravished,

Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.

Here the admiring her my mind did whet

To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;

But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,

A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.

But why should I beg more love, whenas thou

Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:

And dost not only fear lest I allow

My love to saints and angels, things divine,

But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt

Lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

Holy Sonnet no. 18 expresses John Donne's lifelong distress about the fragmentation of the church ('the bride of Christ'). Some have even suggested that he is also showing doubts about the superiority of the Anglican Church, but this remains a matter of debate. In the first four lines the reference to the painted woman probably refers to the church of Rome and the idea of the ravished virgin could refer to the Protestant church. Neither of these seem very much like the ideal bride. The words 'robbed and tore' may allude to a military defeat suffered by German Protestants in 1620. The final lines echo the Song of Solomon (5:2), which was often interpreted as the song of love between Christ and the church: 'Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.'

Holy Sonnet Number 18

Show me, dear Christ, thy spouse so bright and clear.

What! is it she which on the other shore

Goes richly painted? or which, robbed and tore,

Laments and mourns in Germany and here?

Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?

Is she self-truth, and errs? now new, now outwore?

Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore

On one, or seven, or on no hill appear?

Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights

First travel we to seek, and then make love?

Betray, kind husband, thy spouse to our sights,

And let mine amorous soul court thy mild dove,

Who is most true and pleasing to thee then

When she is embraced and open to most men.

Quotations

'Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.'

Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht, quoted in the Washington Post

'If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.'

Elmore Leonard, quoted in Forbes