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Presents and overindulging it are often used in an attempt at feeding the soul and quenching the thirst for that indefinable something that we know we need but can't put a name on. We strive continually to fill a hole in our being, but never realize that it is not material things but spiritual ones that fill it.
So come with me to St. James, Monkton and remember Easter Sunday. The music began with a small orchestra and choir singing for twenty minutes before the service began. Handel with choir and orchestra can certainly get your emotions ready for joy. Our choir director has honed a bunch of amateurs into a truly professional bunch who give as a gift to us, the congregation, soaring sounds that fill that hole in our soul.
Anthems lifted us to the rafters and above. The two hundred and fifty year old walls fed on extraordinary sound and bounced it back at us. Hymns with descants kept us so emotionally charged that as "I Am The Bread Of Life" climaxed in the last two verses, we were on our feet singing our lungs out. We were transported as we tethered the melody to the ascending descants.
The alleluia chorus was almost overshadowed by "I Am The Bread Of Life". Our priests had closed eyes and heads thrown back to absorb this amazing love pouring from choir, strings, horns, tympani, and congregation. This truly is the gift of love. Material things can never replace the gifts of the spirit.
"Jesus said 'the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’"John 6:33-34
Auds Riker
April, 2006
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