Listening in the Busy-ness of Life
Eleven days is almost an eternity in the electronic media world. How do you evoke a desire for stillness through a media that abhors anything seemingly blank or empty? In fact, that explains in some way my absence from this electronic diary about music and spirituality. Over the last couple of weeks I have been visiting a variety of parishes helping out with confessions. There really isn't anything that is more priestly, except perhaps when we attend the dying and their families. Yesterday I anointed one of our elderly priests, Fr. Alex Takacs, who was ordained almost 61 years. He died this morning. So, in the last two weeks I have walked on a great deal of holy ground. Please keep Fr. Alex and his family close in prayer.
In what is assuredly a musical extreme, the modern American composer, John Cage, "wrote" a piece called 4'33", which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. I don't know how you would handle the copyright or the royalties. It is interesting to think, however, that our modern life is so noisy and busy that someone actually thought of composing silence. Well . . . maybe that's what we need to do sometimes. Compose some silence for ourselves.
In the Latin Rite of the Church in which I minister the liturgical rites contain within them an explicit structure built on the use of silence. There was a film, "Into Great Silence", released originally in 2005 that followed the lives of monks at a monastery in the Chartreuse mountains of France. Filmed alone by the director over a 6-month period in the monastery it captures a view of the "inner" life of the monastery. There is an invitation in it, as we all long for peace and tranquillity.
As I along with Christians and Catholics all around the world prepare for the celebration of the Easter Mysteries, let us find in the stillness the unfolding of life, death and resurrection.
In what is assuredly a musical extreme, the modern American composer, John Cage, "wrote" a piece called 4'33", which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. I don't know how you would handle the copyright or the royalties. It is interesting to think, however, that our modern life is so noisy and busy that someone actually thought of composing silence. Well . . . maybe that's what we need to do sometimes. Compose some silence for ourselves.
As I along with Christians and Catholics all around the world prepare for the celebration of the Easter Mysteries, let us find in the stillness the unfolding of life, death and resurrection.
