Songs and Sonnets for Holy Week

For those unable to get to services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday (see earlier post)...an offering from English priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, and Canadian singer-songwriter, Steve Bell, that carries us from Palm Sunday through Good Friday...the Vigil...and leaves us with a taste of Easter joy.

Local Holy Week Services

These services are available for those who wish to attend on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil, jointly held between St. Leonard's and St. Luke's, Red Deer:

March 29th - Maundy Thursday Service 

with Seder Supper at 5:30 pm

at St. Leonard's Anglican Church

4241 - 44th St., Red Deer

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March 30th - Good Friday Service

at St. Luke's at 11:00 am

4929 - 54th St., Red Deer

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March 31st - Easter Vigil 

at St. Leonard's Anglican Church at 8:00 pm.

4241 - 44th St., Red Deer

Poetry for Holy Week - Part I

Palm Sunday

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,
The seething holy city of my heart,
The Saviour comes.  But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won.  Too soon they'll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune.  I know what lies behind
The surface flourish that so quickly fades;
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,
The hardness of the heart, its barricades,
And at the core, the dreadful emptiness
Of a perverted temple.  Jesus, come
Break my resistance and make me your home.

- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

To hear the poet read this aloud, click HERE.

Ride On, King Jesus!

- Steve Bell

Poetry for Lent V: Malcolm Guite

Photo credit: "Off the Grid Theology"

Temptations

2. All the Kingdoms of the World

'So here's the deal and this is what you get:
The pent-house suite with world-commanding views,
The banker's bonus and the private jet,
Control and ownership of all the news,
And "in" to that exclusive one per cent,
Who know the score, who really run the show,
With interest on every penny lent
And sweeteners for cronies in the know.
A straight arrangement between me and you,
No hell below or heaven high above,
You just admit it, and give me my due,
And wake up from this foolish dream of love...'
But Jesus laughed, 'You are not what you seem.
Love is the waking life, you are the dream.'

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

You can hear the poet read this aloud by clicking HERE.

Poetry for Lent IV: Malcolm Guite

Photo: Sunday Education.com

TEMPTATIONS

1. Stones to Bread

The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here,

The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.

When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.

Now he must dare, with us, to make a choice.

In a distended belly's cruel curve

He feels the famine of the ones who lose,

He starves for those whom we have forced to starve,

He chooses now for those who cannot choose.

He is the staff and sustenance of life,

He lives for all from one sustaining Word,

His love still breaks and pierces like a knife

The stony ground of hearts that never shared,

God gives through him what Satan never could;

The broken bread that is our only food.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

You can listen to the poet reading this aloud HERE.

Get Thee to the Church on Time!

Just a reminder that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend.  Set your clocks before bed Saturday so you'll be on time for worship on Sunday...and for the Lenten lunch that follows the service!

Poetry for Lent III: Malcolm Guite

Jesus Cleansing the Temple
El Greco - 1568
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Cleansing the Temple

Come to your Temple here with liberation
And overturn these tables of exchange,
Restore in me my lost imagination,
Begin in me for good the pure change.
Come as you came, an infant with your mother,
That innocence may cleanse and claim this ground.
Come as you came, a boy who sought his father,
With questions asked and certain answers found.
Come as you came, this day, a man in anger,
Unleash the lash that drives a pathway through,
Face down for me the fear, the shame, the danger,
Teach me again to whom my love is due.
Break down in me the barricades of death
And tear the veil in two with your last breath.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Hear Mr. Guite reading this poem aloud HERE.