Forsythia already blooming in the cloister garden.
Dear fellow traveler of our Passion Week Consolations,
Today one could watch people getting to work here at the city cloister. Some baked Easter bread. Some planted flowers into the big containers in-front of the church- all in anticipation of the Easter night, when hours of contemplation will lead onto the threshold to Easter, when a fire will be lit and trumpets will lead us into new beginnings.
And so, dear pilgrim, we are coming full circle. We started out on Palm Sunday with pondering the wholesomeness of repetition as we find it in rituals and church seasons and surely in JS Bach’s Passion as a way to deepen the heart.
Now we arrive at “Silent Saturday, ” (as the Germans have it), a day of waiting, pregnant with possibility, straining in hope toward Easter.
Retreating into Deepening
On this "Silent Saturday" , we offer you an invitation to retreat into time suspended. This week we have lamented, held our sorrows gently in compassion, and offered them in hope. Now we pause before taking the step into life renewed.
If you have been walking with us all week, you might want to just retreat into silence or some rituals which involved the whole you. Bread baking, gardening, anything which invites you into a time suspended.
Or you want to use some time for deepening a consolation. One which left you with resistance or which moved you particularly. Use your meditation time today to walk through the week of consolations as you might walk the stations of the cross -- pausing at each one to reflect, then moving on. Revisit some of them, remember and re-read a thought you want to deepen, a piece of music you want to listen to again. Listen with the ears of your heart to the music and the poetry. Sit still and remember the movement and feel your way through it again. Let Bach help you silence your worried or busy heart. Or retreat from music and word altogether and let nature speak to you instead on a short slow walk. May be you want to meditate on the Easter mystery by baking a bread or some gardening :-)
If you have recently joined our pilgrim band, you might take today to scroll back through the daily Consolations and find those points in the movement of the week that best fit your need. Rather than reading through them all quickly, create your own retreat by spending some time with two or three that seem best fitted to your need now.
You can think of them almost like stations of the cross, one visits and revisits quietly, walking by some with a nod, but sitting down with, pondering on, sinking into some others.
Ending with a lullaby
Bach himself ends the Matthew Passion with a lullaby to the weary soul. After the stone has been rolled in front of the tomb, the choir sets the mood and enfolds us in the emotion: "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder" (We sit down in tears).
You might want to finish your movement through this Saturday with this simple chorale:
68. Chorus I & II
We sit down in tears
And call to thee in the tomb:
Rest softly, softly rest!
Rest, ye exhausted limbs,
Rest softly, rest well.
Your grave and tombstone
shall for the unquiet conscience
be a comfortable pillow
and the soul’s resting place.
Rest softly, rest well.
In utmost bliss our eyes shall then fall asleep.
68. Chor (I, II)
Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder
und rufen dir im Grabe zu:
Ruhe sanfte, sanfte ruh!
Ruht, ihr ausgesognen Glieder!
Ruhet sanfte, ruhet wohl!
Euer Grab und Leichenstein
soll dem ängstlichen Gewissen
ein bequemes Ruhekissen
und der Seelen Ruhstatt sein.
Höchst vergnügt
schlummern da die Augen ein.
The choral ends the Passion in a place of suspension and mourning. But what kindness Bach shows in offering the exhausted mourner a place to sit down and rest, and a lullaby for the grieving soul. Rest softly, rest well, oh my soul. And…
A Blessing on Holy Saturday
May the peace of God,
the infinite lover,
be with you on this Silent Saturday
Walking into the Easter night.
And may Bach's graveyard lullaby
give rest to each exhausted heart,
CH
PS: We will be back tomorrow with our last Consolations for this Passion Week season.
This post is the 7th of our Passion Week Consolations 2020. To enter our virtual gathering space click here. To share your thoughts with us, write us here. To Offer Your Gift, click here. If you are looking for personal consultation, visit our PathFinder.
Peace and Blessings, Almut & Chuck