Dear Church Family and Friends,
While Holy Week is the most sacred time of the year for us as Christians, it is also a spiritually challenging time. Before we arrive at the exultation of Easter, we must first make our way through a period defined by grief. Because we know what is to come, because we know where the betrayal leads, grief begins to take hold even before we reach Good Friday. While we may not consciously think of it, our faith tradition provides us with the means for coping with this grief. It provides us with ritual and music.
While these thoughts were forming in my head this past week, I happened to stumble across the story of Antonie Brentano. Brentano was a friend of Beethoven, and some have speculated she was also his secret object of love. At one point, Brentano fell ill and almost completely withdrew herself from the company of others. An exception was Beethoven who visited on a regular basis. According to one account, Beethoven would “seat himself in her antechamber without any further ado and improvise; when he had ‘said everything and given solace’ to the suffering one in his own language, he would depart as he had come, without taking further notice of anybody else.”
Music can bring solace to our lives in a way that nothing else can. For this reason, it seemed appropriate to me that the theme for our Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service this year should be “Grief and the Sacred Power of Music.” As in past years, this service will feature the wonderful talents of our choir. We will be additionally guided through our grief by hymn singing, poetry, the sharing of communion, and the extinguishing of seven candles as we listen to the seven last words of Jesus.
I warmly invite each of you to this special service and to the splendid dinner that precedes it.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks