April 1: Joy Everlasting
♫ Music:
WEEK EIGHT
April 1 - April 7
BRIGHT WEEK
The doctrine of the cross is that a full atonement is made for sinful humankind. What was once our curse (to die for our sins) becomes a curse for Jesus Christ wherein he dies in our place. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (cf. Gal. 3:13). The new Adam has undone that which was done by the old Adam. The wood of the Edenic tree that was the tree of transgression is now the redeeming wood of the cross. Called to live his resurrection life, we go forward in faith, trusting in the once-for-all self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ on behalf of all people. Whereas the holy disciplines of self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial, reading and meditation were preparatory in Lent, they are now the Easter fruit of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Soli Deo Gloria!
Day 47 - Sunday, April 1
Easter Sunday
Title: Joy Everlasting
Scripture: Isaiah 51:9-11
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.
Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces,
Who pierced the dragon?
Was it not You who dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
Who made the depths of the sea a pathway
For the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Poetry: Resurrection
By John Donne
Moist with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul
Shall (though she now be in extreme degree
Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly,) be
Freed by that drop, from being starved, hard, or foul,
And life, by this death abled, shall control
Death, whom thy death slew; nor shall to me
Fear of first or last death, bring misery,
If in thy little book my name thou enrol,
Flesh in that long sleep is not putrefied,
But made that there, of which, and for which 'twas;
Nor can by other means be glorified.
May then sin's sleep, and death's soon from me pass,
That waked from both, I again risen may
Salute the last, and everlasting day.
THE LUCULENCE OF THE RESURRECTION
I need to share a word with you that I have enjoyed immensely, so that you can enjoy and understand the word, when I use it: Luculent which means brilliantly shining, resplendent, filled with light, easily understood, lucid.
Easter Sunday to me is so much about the luculence of the Resurrection.
When I think of the Resurrection, I think of light that spills forth; the physical and spiritual light that brilliantly splays out from the source, and overwhelms the darkness of death, and has overcome both sin and shame. My musical selection is John Tavener’s composition, The Protecting Veil. It’s quite lovely. I often listen to the whole long composition, and have put it on to go to sleep, many times. I would usually fall to sleep during the slow section in the beginning.
But later in the music, there is a section that would pierce the veil of my sleep, and wonderfully. This section of the music is at about 6:30 minutes, where the strings would pierce the veil of my sleep, bringing me back to the conscious world. This always amazed me, and I would dwell on this piercing of the veil of my sleep, and think of the piercing of the veil of Christ’s resurrection from the spiritual dimension back into the physical dimension. I would just visualize that in my mind, and feel it deeply in my soul and being, in the music.
The strings piercing the dimension of my sleeping state always brought me the joy of visualizing the resurrection of Christ. Of Light. Of the grand Glory. Of the state of change in dimensionality. In the restoration of our relationship with God, freed of our chains of sin and bondage. Of pure unblemished-ness. Of the pure Joy of existence. Of the perfect Light shining in the new world again. New again, because it was now free from the weight of the sin of Man, a new path of freedom filled with love was established. Fresh, dewy; bright flashes; brilliance - positively and evocatively luculent.
I am a Perfumer. Once a client asked me to make a perfume based on the William Blake poem, “Eternity”. Which is really about “Eternity’s Sunrise.” The Sunrise of Eternity is what the resurrection is about to me, the dawn of the new reality.
Perfect.
A new golden dawn of presence and grace that pierces the veil of the darkness to share God’s great glory and peace for all of humanity.
Luculence.
Eternity
By William Blake
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.
When I dwell on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, on the sunrise of the new and justified eternity, on Light, on Love, on Holiness, I smell the newness of the dawn of sunrise, of fresh grass, of wet earth, of the fruit of creation; the smell of new hope, and the regained freedom of grace.
And I marvel at them, the new hope, the great grace, and the perfect peace. And am so thankful.
“As we go about the world everything we meet
and everything we see and hear and touch… plants in us…
something of heaven.”
From “Words and Pictures” by Thomas Merton
Prayer:
I pray that you will be filled with the perfect and heavenly luculence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Amen
Paul Kiler
Artist
Director of Art as Servant Ministries
Perfume Composer of PK Perfumes
About the Artwork:
Holy Women at the Tomb
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
1876
Oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Antwerp, Belgium
The Holy Women at the Tomb, depicts the three Marys; Mary the Mother of James, Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Cleophas, gathered at the tomb of the resurrection. Bouguereau's use of a delicate palette and dramatic lighting to create nuances of personality and mood, make this image believable and intriguing. The viewer can only catch a glimpse of the "angel of the resurrection" with his arm raised. This causes us to become part of the group of women leaning in wonder to look into the empty tomb. Most of Bouguereau's 800 works were life-size, and their unique style and subject matter gained him a passionate following. He was a member of the French Academy, which he single-handedly opened to women.
About the Artist:
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905) was a French realist painter, and a dominant figure in his nation’s academic painting during the second half of the 19th century. Bouguereau entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1850. Bouguereau received many honors in the 1860s and ’70s and he exhibited regularly at the Salon for several decades. After four years’ study in Italy, he attracted a wide following with his allegorical paintings, although in the early twentieth century he fell out of favor due to public taste and rivalry with the Impressionists and Avant-garde. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. In his later years he decorated the chapels of several Parisian churches and painted religious compositions in a Pre-Raphaelite style. He exerted a wide influence, not only in France but also in other countries, particularly the United States.
About the Music:
“The Protecting Veil: I The Protecting Veil” from the album John Tavener: The Protecting Veil
Completed in 1988, “The Protecting Veil” was composed by John Tavener in response to a request from cellist Steven Isserlis for a short composition. It soon developed into a more substantial work, and was subsequently commissioned by the BBC for the 1989 Proms Season. Like many of Tavener's compositions, this work reflects the composer's Russian Orthodox religious faith. The inspiration for the piece comes from the Orthodox feast of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God, which commemorates the apparition of Mary the Theotokos in the early 10th Century at the Blachernae Palace Church in Constantinople.
About the Composer:
Sir John Kenneth Tavener (1944-2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of religious works, including “The Protecting Veil,” “Song for Athene,” and “The Lamb.” Tavener first came to prominence with his cantata “The Whale,” which premiered in 1968. Then aged 24, he was described by The Guardian as "the musical discovery of the year." During his career, he became one of the best-known and most popular composers of his generation, particularly for “The Protecting Veil,” which as recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis, became a bestselling album. He is also known for “Song for Athene” which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana. After Tavener converted to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1977, Orthodox theology and liturgical traditions became a major influence on his work. While Tavener's earliest music was influenced by Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen, his later music became more sparse and minimal. Tavener recognized Arvo Pärt as "a kindred spirit" and shared with him a common religious tradition and a fondness for textural transparency.
About the Performers:
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), founded in 1904, is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history, it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among conductors with whom it is most associated are Pierre Monteux, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, and Valery Gergiev. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London. The LSO claims to be the world's most recorded orchestra; it has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema. It is probably best-known for recording John Williams' score for the Star Wars movies. This film and its sequels attracted a new group of admirers and consolidated the period of film music activity for the Orchestra, which continues unabated to this day. The LSO also recorded other Williams’ film scores including Superman, Harry Potter, and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (b. 1931) is a Russian conductor. He studied music with his father, a noted conductor, at the Moscow Conservatory. Already known for having conducted Tchaikovsky's “The Nutcracker” ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre at the age of 20, he quickly established his reputation. He premiered many works of Soviet composers, as well as giving the Russian premiere of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Western premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's “Fourth Symphony” at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival. In 2000, he became general artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre. Rozhdestvensky is considered a versatile conductor and a highly cultured musician.
Steven Isserlis (b. 1958) is a British cellist. He is distinguished for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound deployed with his use of gut strings and command of phrasing. Isserlis performs solo, in chamber concerts, and with orchestra. He is a staunch advocate of lesser-known composers and of greater access to music for younger audiences. Isserlis is committed to authentic performance and frequently performs with the foremost period instrument orchestras. Isserlis has premiered works by composers including Lowell Liebermann, Carl Vine, David Matthews, John Woolrich, Wolfgang Rihm, Mikhail Pletnev and Thomas Adès. Composer John Tavener wrote “The Protecting Veil” especially at the request of the cellist.
About the Poet #1:
John Donne (1572-1631) was one of England’s most gifted and influential poets, Donne was so respected by his followers that they thought him “a king that ruled as he thought fit/the universal monarchy of wit.” Raised a Roman Catholic, Donne later converted to Anglicanism, though his sensibility, as indicated in his late Christian poetry, seems always to have remained with the Roman Church. Unable to find civil employment, Donne was eventually persuaded of his calling and took Anglican orders in 1615. Acclaimed for his brilliant sermons, he was soon appointed Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets.
About the Poet #2:
William Blake (b 1757 –1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Blake was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. In defiance of 18th-century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature, but from inner visions. Although Blake was considered possibly mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work.
About the Devotional Writer:
Paul Kiler is a pastor to artists and the Director of “Art as Servant Ministries” which is called to encourage and teach creative people how to have a deep intimate relationship with Christ from an artistic/creative perspective. As an artist and professional photographer, he is particularly interested in the symbolism and design of the Cross, and it has become his most frequent artistic subject matter. Kiler is also Perfume Composer of PK Perfumes.