the cassandra pages

Celebrating Epiphany in Music and Words

Sassetta, Journey of the Magi, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1435

This Sunday we'll be singing our third and final Lessons&Carols service of the season, in celebration of Epiphany.

Sunday's Evensong will also include familiar hymns and readings, both of the relevant scriptural passages and some innovative poetry selections. I will, in fact, be reading Gerard Manley Hopkins' "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection" -- a rather daunting prospect for which I am practicing! Here's a link to an audio recording I made of the poem:

Download Heraclitean fire_2

Jan Brueghel, Adoration of the Magi, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

A man in our parish keeps a music calendar for the cathedral's services, and publishes it on the web; it includes beautiful art appropriate to the time of the liturgical year, and a full list of the music to be performed with links to online audio, and information about composers and writers of texts. I know it is his labor of love, but I appreciate it so much, and doubt think he gets the recognition his effort deserves! Anyway, here is his listing for Sunday's music, which will be streamed live on Radio Ville-Marie at 4:00 pm Eastern Time (for listeners in the UK, we are five hours different, so that's 9 pm your time.) I hope the whole service will fit within the one hour limit of the broadcast, but if not, you will still hear most of it. (Click the arrow in the blue band at the bottom right of the screen banner, where it says "Nous écouter en direct.")

Starting Up, Starting Over

On New Year's Day I had time (like many of the rest of us, from the statistics) to go around and catch up on blog reading, write a few notes to friends and family, pick up the house a bit...you know, all that stuff that's been neglected or postponed. There's still plenty to do, but I can see the world starting up again. Yesterday as we came up to the studio there was absolutely no one on the streets -- no one! Today, not as much movement as usual, and not all the shops and offices were open, but people were definitely out and about.

I managed to drop my camera sometime near Christmas, and it stopped focussing -- so there will be fewer pictures here for a bit, while my beloved Canon S95 is out for repairs. J. has been generous about lending me his, and I've got my phone...

One of the blogs I visited recently was Seon Joon's. I met her online in the early days of blogging, and then, not long after, she moved to Korea and became a Buddhist nun. She now has a blog again, where she posts near-daily "small stones," an occasional excellent photograph, and longer pieces about her life, and I can't recommend it highly enough: her wisdom, humor, directness, and good sense always delight and inspire me.This quote of hers caught my attention yesterday, and seems a good way to begin the new year:

"I fall down way more than I stand up; but Zen Master Seung Sahn, who is one of my root teachers, always said, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” Well, here I am, falling down again. And laughing, while I get back up. That’s life. That’s living."

And while we're visiting websites, fans of Teju Cole's writing might want to check these links to 12 essays he wrote in 2012.

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I'm not a person who makes resolutions on January 1, but I do spend some time reflecting back, and thinking forward. Here are some of the odd thoughts I've had about the months ahead: 

Continue teaching/leading meditation and developing and recommitting to my own daily practice

Focus my online energy on this blog, and otherwise into real-time life, work, and relationships; either get off social media entirely or limit time spent there

Do something with my Iceland manuscript and drawings

Continue and build on the artwork focus of last year

Just do the best work I can, without comparing, or competing for attention

Get outside and walk every day

Read more this year (I've got a good list started)

Explore some new recipes, and have people over more regularly

Drink more tea, less coffee (it's all decaf for me, anyway)

Take advantage of more cultural opportunities in the city

Get out of the city more often

Be optimistic: "Fall down seven times, get up eight!"

What about you?

2013