Spring flowers from dead leaves. (photo: A.Furchert)
You can now enroll for our Passion Week Consolations 2024 over here. Hope to see you there!
Dear fellow traveler,
On this Holy Tuesday I want to invite you into a holy pause to cradle your heart. The Aria I have chosen from the Matthew Passion offers you an invitation to self-compassion. To be compassionate even with your “bleeding heart.”
Cradling your heart. Making way for
self compassion
I started this day a little less sick than yesterday. So I ventured out into the kitchen. I opened the windows wide to let in the morning sun. I tried to imagine being in our back yard garden at home while instead looking over the streets of Berlin with trees and bushes bordering the boulevard brimming with Spring energy waiting to be released. Finally. I then tended to my little “garden.” Some herb pots on the window sill. I picked some sage and rosemary and brewed a cup of tea from it to soothe my inflamed throat. Cradled in my hands, the tea twinkled in the sun and I imagined myself standing on a broad balcony overlooking the city.
Pick a sign of hope
It is an old tradition to pick a sign of hope at the beginning of Lent or Passion week or when ever you think of it before Easter. I recommend a branch with buds ready enough to bloom on Easter Sunday. It will be a little harder may be in Minnesota (or Florida) but you will find your sign of hope, too. And if they bloom some time later that is just fine. What is important is to watch for the unfolding of “viriditas”, as Hildegard has called this greening life force, permeating all living beings. Passion week is such a strong and earthy metaphor for new growth and new beginnings.
The seed falls in the earth to die – not to die eternally but to be transformed into vivid greening. Our passion journey is such a journey of transformation. We walk towards new life through the tomb.
So if all you do today is to stand at the window taking in some sun or pick a branch of hope and put it into water or simply allow yourself to walk a garden, real or imaginary, where Spring is almost there, that is enough.
The practice is to cradle your heart, to hold it and to care for it. One might say, “But isn’t Passion Week about Jesus’ passion? His dying at the cross and not about your own pity or self care?” Right. You can crawl to Golgatha. Or you can let your heart be moved by a very little thing today. A twig. A bud. A Bach Aria. Meditate on a bud on a bare branch until your heart leaps and holds the whole gospel.
“Bleed, my dear beloved heart…”
For our consolation today, I have chosen an Aria about cradling your bleeding heart. On Sunday we started out with the entrance choral of the Matthew Passion and his invitation into lamentation, and then the heart wrenching Aria “Erbarme Dich / Have Mercy” yesterday.
Today’s Aria comes earlier in the Matthew Passion and describes the anticipation of betrayal which is to follow. Chuck will write tomorrow about Peter and his bitter regret.
I have translated today’s Aria myself, as the translations one can find isn’t quite fitting with the German meaning. So instead of “Bleed out, my loving heart” I suggest: “Bleed my dear, beloved heart.” And as you see the rest of the text anticipates the betrayal of Peter.
But I invite you to concentrate on this very first line, just as Bach emphasizes it.
Bach Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 12 Aria: Blute nur, du liebes Herz - Hana Blažiková, Sopran
Key: b minor
Meter: 4/4
Structure: Da capo
Length: 45 measures
German
Blute nur, du liebes Herz!
Ach! Ein Kind, das du erzogen,
das an deine Brust gesogen,
dröhnt den Pfleger zu ermorden,
Denn es ist zur Schlange worden.
English
Bleed my dear, beloved heart!
Alas! A child that you raised
that nursed at your breast,
threatens to murder its caretaker,
since it has become a serpent.
Translation: A. Furchert 2023
Almost like a lullaby the music dances around that very line:
Blute nur mein liebes Herz. Bleed my dear, beloved heart.
The German “blute nur” is difficult to translate. “Just bleed” does not quite fit, and “bleed out” means almost the opposite. The German “blute nur” is like a Mama would say to her child, “Come here, my dear, it is ok to cry. Just cry a little.” That is the heart movement the lyrics and music try to bring to us here. It is ok, dear heart, to bleed a little, a little longer, too. It is ok, I will hold you while you do.
Can you see, how translation sometimes changes everything? Here this line is so crucial. So crucial, that Bach underlines this invitation for self soothing and self compassion with his repetitive movements. While the overall passion plot tells us the story to the cross, lyrics and music in the Arias always lead us back to our own heart. Back to grief and lamentation, to shock and dismay and betrayal. And over it all lies a tune of consolation: Bleed, my dear heart, do not be afraid. Bleed my dear, beloved heart. I will hold you while you do.
So listen. And listen again. And cradle your heart.
Chuck has written a blessing for us all:
A Blessing
Oh beloved eyes, cry here, with me.
Oh valiant heart, bleed here, I will hold you.
Oh strong arms, rest here, I will caress you.
Oh busy mind, be still here, I will listen with you.Oh desolate, wounded, weary, bewildered
Here, you are beloved, welcome, at ease, unburdened.Come to my arms. And rest.
CH
This post is the third of our Passion Week Consolations 2023. To enter our virtual gathering space click here. To share your thoughts with us, write us here or comment below. To offer your gift, click here. If you are looking for personal consultation, visit our PathFinder.
Peace and Blessings, Almut & Chuck
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