Music as Prayer - Part 1

To chill out tonight, I'm listening to Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." The CD (on the budget Naxos label) is actually quite good. The choir sings in Hebrew, and I find it stirring to hear people pray in a language that I don't understand. It enlarges my spirit to think that God comprehends every human voice, regardless of language, and these old Jewish texts are washing away the dust that I accumulated today.

I confess - as much as music is a holy gift from God, I haven't always thought enough of it as a form of prayer. My Presbyterian faith has been shaped by word-mongers and the texts that they publish. Silence is frequently uncomfortable. Most of my own prayers are full of babbling syllables, quietly uttered and intentionally intelligible. Left to my own devices, prayer is usually quite wordy.

Tonight the music speaks to me and for me. I am tugged into God's quiet presence by a soprano voice in a language I don't know very well, and energized by Bernstein's unpredictable intervals and haunting harmonies.

The internal theologian inquires of Bernstein's faith, and I say, "hush!" In the shadows of this evening, it is enough to let his God-given talent give me access to the Holy One.