My current favourite song

Posted in music by

I didn’t know him well or long, but Isaac left a huge impact on me last year when we were together at SMBI for 6 wks. Now he’s in heaven, and that’s nothing to be sad about, but I’m still sad. There’s a loss of a vibrant, intense, gifted life, and I can’t seem to talk myself out of grieving that loss. Then there’s his family’s loss, and that of his friends, that makes me sad again for their sakes. I cried today when I read Isaac’s brother in law’s tribute to him, and how Isaac can now run without tiring, and see music, and hear sunrises. And I suddenly feel like the little girl who wails because her friend went to the zoo without her, and she’s left behind…

Some may say I have a boring music diet because nearly all I listen to is choral music. Well, I still say it’s likely the closest to what we’ll enjoy in heaven, but we’ll leave that aside. I want to share my favourite hymn here. It was translated from an old Greek text, and was what the Greek Orthodox brothers sang when they buried one of their priests. The music was composed by John Tavener who wrote it in memory of his beloved music master. So there’s a lot of history and meaning behind all of this, which makes it a very heavy piece of music, but I LOVE it and it makes me cry every time I hear it.

In the last phrases, the Clare College singers from Cambridge, England increase in carefully- controlled power and intensity and volume til it nearly blows you away and lets you peak into heaven and what singing there must be like.

(sorry about the weird font changes below)

Funeral Ikos

Why these bitter words of the dying, O brethren,
which they utter as they go hence?
I am parted from my brethren.
All my friends do I abandon, and go hence.
But whither I go, that understand I not,
neither what shall become of me yonder;
only God who hath summoned me knoweth.
But make commemoration of me with the song:
Alleluia.

But whither now go the souls?
How dwell they now together there?
This mystery have I desired to learn,
but none can impart aright.
Do they call to mind their own people, as we do them?
Or have they forgotten all those who mourn them
and make the song:
Alleluia.

We go forth on the path eternal,
and as condemned, with downcast faces,
present ourselves before the only God eternal.
Where then is comeliness? Where then is wealth?
Where then is the glory of this world?
There shall none of these things aid us,
but only to say oft the psalm:
Alleluia.

If thou hast shown mercy unto man, O man,
that same mercy shall be shown thee there;
and if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion,
the same shall there deliver thee from want,
If in this life the naked thou hast clothed,
the same shall give thee shelter there,
and sing the psalm:
Alleluia.


Youth and the beauty of the body
fade at the hour of death,
and the tongue then burneth fiercely,
and the parched throat is inflamed.
The beauty of the eyes is quenched then,
the comeliness of the face all altered,
the shapeliness of the neck destroyed;
and the other parts have become numb,
nor often say:
Alleluia.

With ecstacy are we inflamed if we but hear
that there is light eternal yonder;
that there is Paradise,
wherein every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth.
Let us all, also, Enter into Christ,
that all we may cry aloud thus unto God:
Alleluia.

I am loved

Posted in life by

I was heading out the shopping centre car park and stopped to let Eamon and Nora cross in front of me. They are good friends of ours, and important, appreciated members of the community–he is a police, and she a nurse at the hospital. He didn’t walk across but came to my window and informed me that a back tyre was soft. He said it’s ok enough to drive to the nearest petrol station. I thanked him (I rarely check my tyres because dad always does, but he’d been gone) and drove gingerly to the station–but their air hose was broken.

Thankfully, I had grabbed a mobile phone before leaving (I’m still holding out on buying one for myself; I don’t want to bother with it) and called dad who I’d just seen in the same shopping centre I’d left. Told him my perdicament, and he said to come back to his vehicle. So I drove carefully and prayerfully again, took his van, and left my flat tyred car with him and found a parking space at the dentist–all  of this15 min. before the appt.

Even though I feel alone sometimes, I loved this reminder that I do travel with/live with angels. I am protected and looked-out-for and loved, not just by people but by the Living God, and for this I am stupendously grateful.

In which she gains permission to be wordy

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Sometimes I wonder if I’m one of those women Paul talked about when he wrote about those who are ever learning and never able to come to the truth. Really, I do know Truth, but I love learning and being a student. I love having time and permission to read and research and memorize stuff and then be able to ace the test and do something with the knowledge. I’ve been drilling myself on skin and skeletal systems, and this eve. at the test, I knew more than I needed to, but that’s ok because I’ve been making disgraceful grades up to now. Who knows, maybe knowing the 8 carpal names will come in handy sometime afterall.
It was funny this eve when I asked my teacher to critique my first case study report. She said it was too brief and I need to pad it with more words. “You need to put in more details, and you can be repetitive, and waffle around like I do.” I wanted to laugh. Sure, I can add more words, no problem. I’m the student who held her book in her hands for the first time today. Adding words is never a problem. It’s the paring down that is the job, which has by now become 2nd nature for me, but the case studies are going to be a breeeeeeze!! (The book has approx. 56,493 words in case you wanted to know.)
Mom asked how it feels to have my name on a book. I said I think it’s someone else’s name. It’s a Very Odd sensation, paging through it and having it look so familiar.
Last week my friend said she’ll pray that God will wrap me up in a big huge fluffy soft blanket and feed me cups of nourishing spiritual broth. I said I need armor instead of a blanket, and she said the armor will be soft and fluffy inside, but protective and hard outside to keep away satan’s arrows. God answered her prayer copiously. I was carried and covered with a loving power that gave peace in the storm. Spiritual battles are the price to pay for being in the King’s service, but that’s ok. There are higher prices to pay for doing otherwise.

to explain the title

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While writing my book that is at the printers’ now, I kept asking God for a good title, and it seemed He was ok with Tis a Gift to Receive. But no one else was happy with it. I like that it has an Irish lilt to it (tis) and is a flashback to a lovely song (Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free..)  So now I have a blog that needs a name, so I can use the title I wanted but didn’t get. The book title is Life is For Living (Not for Waiting Around).” It’s currently at press. A very exciting stage, and yet scary. Writing/publishing is not for the faint-hearted. But that’s another subject.
    This post is to explain the title. The idea is that everything is a gift. But a gift isn’t any good to you until you receive/embrace/accept it. So here’s to receiving many gifts from the Father who delights in His children.