All tagged times of sorrow

A Pandemic, memories of childbirth and JS Bach’s Passion.
Around this time last year, I was carrying a heavy load. Our tender little baby daughter was still growing, but ignoring her due date, making every step and breath more difficult with the hour. When she finally decided to enter this world I was thrown immediately into heavy labor which seemed to stretch for an eternity. Pain beyond any I have known was washing over me, the pangs of labor coming so fast for countless hours that I could barely breath or think. No indeed, it was not the graceful Yoga birth I had envisioned. In the end my baby and I clung to life as my doctor ended our passion by cutting me open, lifting our baby daughter from the wound, and stitching me back together. As they bound me to the operating table, both arms stretched wide open I could not help but remark what that felt like: to be tied to my own cross…

Today we invite you to light a candle for your sorrows. If God Almighty had wanted to send a loud message to the world he could have stuck to Hallelujah choruses and angel choirs. Or a mighty king proclaiming the will of God. But instead God bends down deeply, silently, into the night of our sorrows, where we feel little and vulnerable just as a newborn child…

Remembering sorrow in Spring.

The Christian observance of the days leading up to Easter are not the most popular on the religious calendar.  There are not many oratorios or cantatas dedicated to Lent.  There is some grand music associated with holy week, such as Bach's St. John's Passion. Almut and I attended a moving performance of this a few weeks ago.  These musical works leave one with a profound sadness, and sadness is not a popular emotion in America. We prefer to skip right to the "Jesus is risen" bits, thank you very much, without all the suffering and scourging and sorrow.