The Beatles

I knew it was Paul McCartney's birthday yesterday. Something I read got me reminiscing...

I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. I loved the Beatles and still love their songs. They were at our local Red Rocks amphitheater that same year too I think. I was looking at all the memorabilia/history of Red Rocks and the ticket prices were ridiculously cheap - like maybe $4. Today you pay more than $30-50+ depending on who's performing. We lived in Denver in those early years and could hear the music from Red Rocks when at our friends house.

I sang the song "Yesterday" alone (McCartneys most recorded song ever), in front of the whole grade school when I was in 6th grade (and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are made for walking" with my white go-go boots and long sweatshirt, along with other gals in our classes' music production for the school). I still have the 45 LP of the song "Yesterday" (besides their albums).

The first song I played when learning to play the guitar was "Puff the Magic Dragon"...

Happenings

I've been gone all day and about to leave again. Monte, Dawson and me, along with his girlfriend "Splara" and her parents are about to eat sushi, and then going to a Small Potatoes concert, at Denver's Swallow Hill.

Jacquie and Rich are great writers and musicians of true Folk music. They are always fun. I had to download this picture from their website since it's a great visual of their song, "Time Flies".

I've listened to this song over the years, but until now, seeing the picture, it really hit me! ... Monte has written a song about wishing we could slow down time and capture 'right now' ...

My favorite song of theirs is "Waltz of the Wallflowers" which Jacquie won an award for. And too, I love Rich's powerful song: "1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes".

"Spuds Rule!" 

Women In Art

A friend of Monte's and mine sent us this link thinking we'd appreciate it. It's beauty. It's art. Watch the eyes.

Loosing Myself

I so love John 12. I love the image of Mary anointing Jesus' feet with costly perfume just before the week of passion. A couple gave Monte and me a picture of this scene and I have it hanging in my office and can see it as I sit in my favorite chair reading.

For this Holy Week I'm reading a little book by NT Wright called Christians at the Cross - subtitled Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Wright leads you with the theme of music through this week's story. When Christians say "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures", Wright says according to the scriptures could be considered the bass part, the foundation of the tune. Karaoke recordings have everything but the melody - the song itself, because you're supposed to know the song and sing it. The Gospel Story is the melody. All the other parts create the totality of the harmony and whether it's major or minor, happy or sad.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he knew all the Old Testament prophecies and what was ahead of him that week. John 12 mentions that Jesus' followers didn't put the pieces together until later. Isaiah said that God will send his servant, with his eyes fixed on his strange work of setting the world right through his own death.

"Unless a grain of wheat is buried, dead to the world, then it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over...If you let your life go, reckless in your love, you'll have life forever..." And this is what Mary did in anointing Jesus' feet. Judas thought it a reckless extravagance. Jesus said, "She has done a beautiful thing to me - preparing me for burial." The fragrance filled the house. The fragrance probably stayed with him through his trial and beating and death.

Who are you in the story: Martha, Mary, or Judas? Because of this scene I ponder: It is very easy for me to 'lose' myself in God, but can I 'loose' myself, as did Mary?

Calendar

So, what day is today? Everyone knows it's St Patrick's Day. What do we wake up thinking? or maybe even plan ahead for? Wearing something green ("so I won't be pinched!"). Oh, that's really important! I'll say something about him later.

The 15th of March is The Feast of Saint Longinus. Do you know him? I wonder who even remembered his name, or did they just give him a name. I took a picture of a picture from one of my Saint books - and who do you see? John Wayne! not his typical western look. What movie is this?

Tradition merges the soldier whose spear pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with the centurion who later acknowledged him to be the Son of God. According to legend, Longinus was baptized by the Apostles and eventually died, a martyred bishop, in Cappadocia.

Why not take a day each year to think about the crucifixion scene and all those witnesses. How might it have touched so many people's lives. We don't know all the stories ... but just imagine!

Another person remembered from that whole story is the man who offered his tomb for Jesus to be buried. March 17 is the Feast of Saint Joseph of Arimathea. According to a legend, Joseph was Jesus' wealthy uncle, and after his nephew's (did you ever think of Jesus as a nephew?) Resurrection and Ascension, Joseph accompanied Mary Magdalene to France. Then, alone, he made his way to Britain, bringing with him the chalice drunk from at the Last Supper, which became an ornament of the church he established at Glastonbury, Somerset. And that is how the Holy Grail ended up in England and why King Arthur was so concerned with it!

So from this legend we have so much literature - from the tales of King Arthur (and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" movie - I'm grinning) and on to the more current The Da Vinci Code (I read that Novel and the book that followed. Good writer of a good story, but remind yourself - it's a novel). I think Dan Brown knew of this legend and extrapolated! All I'll say is, "He's an angry-at-the-church man, and doesn't know his history."

Everyone knows bits of the St Patrick story so I don't want to say much. Of all that's written, my favorites are How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Celtic Way of Evangelism. I came away from having read those books realizing my faith is more Celtic than Roman based. Celtic writings are much like the Hebrew Psalms and very inclusive of the Trinity. (My favorite book for exposure to this is The Celtic Way of Prayer.) What must have overflowed from Patrick (born Succat) was the Celtic based monasteries that were very inclusive of the surrounding community, focusing on relationship and embracing the common people. They loved people into The Kingdom. The Europe they evangelized to life, kinda died again, returning to the Roman cold, exclusive (exclusion) monasteries and nitty-gritty detail focus and rules.

A Palladius or Pallagious was actually the first missionary to Ireland. His name was mentioned in the newest King Arthur movie, and because I know something of him, I made the connection in the movie. He preached that people can take the 1st step to salvation without the grace of God. Augustine took steps against his followers.

St Patrick, with a satchel full of books, including Augustine's writings, like City of God and his Confessions, returned to Ireland with its un-invaded tranquility by the barbarians who were ransacking Rome and all of Europe. Thus literature was preserved until Europe was ready to take them back.

Hasn't Patrick's Breastplate prayer been put to music?
Make Irish Soda Bread!

Bach

On this day in 1829, Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion. Bach was still relatively unknown, even though he had died almost a century before. More than one thousand people were unable to get tickets, so two additional concerts had to be scheduled.

It was only then that scholars began to analyze and appreciate the artistic majesty of Bach - one century from his first, long-forgotten performance of this piece! 

So great was the sensation that composer Hector Berlioz marveled, "There is but one God--and Bach and Medelssohn are His prophets."

Loreena McKennitt - The Lady of Shalott (LIVE)

The dark night of the soul

I love this artist and her rendition of the poem by St John of the Cross.