Thursday, November 04, 2010

one equal light: one equal music

I'm enjoying this year, and every year it comes around, a prayer for All Saints-tide from Prayer During the Day in Common Worship:

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
  but one equal light;
no noise nor silence,
  but one equal music;
no fear nor hopes,
  but one equal possession;
no ends or beginnings,
  but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of your glory and dominion,
world without end.
Amen.

The reference for this text is to Eric Milner-White (1963) after John Donne (1631). I guess an additional reference now, naturally, would be Vikram Seth too.

I had a rummage: found a musical setting of the prayer here:
http://www.pelagosmusic.com/Current/pages/Sheet%20Music%20Pages/SheetMusicTitles/Bring_Us_O_Lord.htm

The original text comes from a sermon by John Donne, hence the credit going to Eric Milner-White (a former Dean of York Minster) for turning Donne's words into a prayer.

A helpful reflection of the prayer comes from a short Church Times article (in a regular series)
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=20503

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