Art & Worship
POETRY AND MUSIC
Now the Silence Now the Peace Jaroslav J . Vajda , 1919 - 2008
Now the silence , now the peace , Now the empty hands uplifted Now the kneeling , now the plea , Now the Father ’ s arms in welcome Now the hearing , now the power , Now the vessel brimmed for pouring Now the body , now the blood , Now the joyful celebration Now the wedding , now the songs , Now the heart forgiven , leaping Now the Spirit ’ s visitation , Now the Son ’ s epiphany Now the Father ’ s blessing , Now , now , now .
Then the glory , then the rest Then the sabbath peace unbroken Then the garden , Then the throne Then the crystal river flowing Then the splendor , Then the life Then the new creation singing Then the marriage , Then the love Then the feast of joy unending Then the knowing , Then the light Then the ultimate adventure Then the Spirit ' s harvest gathered Then the Lamb in majesty Then the Father ' s Amen , Then , then , then .
Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour Wallace Stevens , 1879 - 1955
Light the first light of evening , as in a room In which we rest and , for small reason , think The world imagined is the ultimate good .
This is , therefore , the intensest rendezvous . It is in that thought that we collect ourselves , Out of all the indifferences , into one thing :
Within a single thing , a single shawl Wrapped tightly round us , since we are poor , a warmth , A light , a power , the miraculous influence .
Here , now , we forget each other and ourselves . We feel the obscurity of an order , a whole , A knowledge , that which arranged the rendezvous .
Within its vital boundary , in the mind . We say God and the imagination are one ... How high that highest candle lights the dark .
Out of this same light , out of the central mind , We make a dwelling in the evening air , In which being there together is enough .
From The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens , by Wallace Stevens . Copyright © 1954 by Wallace Stevens and copyright renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens . Used by permission of Alfred A . Knopf , an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group , a division of Penguin Random House LLC . All rights reserved .
In early August , I was the Celebrant at a 10:30 a . m . Eucharist when St . James ’ Canterbury Choir sang a setting of these words as an offertory anthem . I know I ’ ve heard them before , but I heard them anew that day . I love the juxtaposition of the “ now ” and the “ then ,” what we do in worship as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet . �
The Rev . Brenda Husson Rector
“ The Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour ” is a kind of prayer-poem or poem-prayer that I often return to . Stevens ’ “ interior paramour ” ( his imagination , his muse , his God ?) seems to be the one uttering the words of this “ soliloquy ,” the poem itself . To my Christian ears , the reference to an “ intensest rendezvous ” sounds like a mystical communion with God , especially as experienced through the Eucharist . �
Brad Whitehurst Parishioner
16 · FALL 2018