"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Sunday Meditation: The Time of Judgement

Last week we heard Jesus telling us that He must be lifted up to bring eternal life.  He said this in the third chapter of John in a conversation to Nicodemus, the elder at the Temple.  It was a mysterious comment that is picked up again and elaborated on nine chapters later, this time to a crowd in Jerusalem who had come for Passover.  But as a lead in to that, Jesus first speaks of life and death as a grain of wheat.

 

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast

came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,

and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

Philip went and told Andrew;

then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

Jesus answered them,

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

it remains just a grain of wheat;

but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it,

and whoever hates his life in this world

will preserve it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there also will my servant be.

The Father will honor whoever serves me.

 

“I am troubled now.  Yet what should I say?

‘Father, save me from this hour’?

But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven,

“I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”

The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;

but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

Jesus answered and said,

“This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.

Now is the time of judgment on this world;

now the ruler of this world will be driven out.

And when I am lifted up from the earth,

I will draw everyone to myself.”

He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

~Jn 12:20-33

This is a complicated passage.  There is much going on.  First the Greeks coming to Philip, and him and Andrew taking them to Jesus; then the grain of wheat metaphor; then the embracing of death; then the glorification and the voice of the Father; then announcing the time of judgement; and finally the lifting up description.  This will require more than one exegesis to grasp it all.

First let’s listen to Brant Pitre to get the gist of the Gospel reading.

 


Second, Bishop Robert Barron provides the more theological implications of the passage.

 


Finally Jeff Cavens provides a connection to our personal lives.

 


Gosh, I think I have in the past missed the voice of God the Father, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”  There is so much in this passage that it must have never sunk in that the Father actually speaks.  The voice of God enters here to verify His approval of the glorification. 

Another striking element to the passage is that Jesus seems to ignore the Greeks.  They come to greet Him and what does He say?  Tangentially He announces the hour has come for Him to be glorified.  Does the crowd now understand the lifting up image?  I don’t think so.  I think one can only understand that after one sees His crucifixion.

So this week I gave you a triple play, but if you want a grand slam search out Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s homily on this passage.  That’s worth watching as well.

 

Meditation: “Now is the time of judgment on this world.”

 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Part 5

This is fifth post of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s historical novel, Quo Vadis.

You can find Post #1 here.  

Post #2, here.

And Post #3 here.  

And Post #4 here

 


Chapters 28 thru 34

Summary

Petronius writes another letter to Vinicuis.  He is shocked about the recent happenings with Vinicius, especially of the ability of Ursus to so easily defeat Croton.  But he cannot understand the Christians and their religion.  He asks Vinicius to meet him in Beneventum with the rest of Nero’s entourage.  Vinicius, now back to his home, feels no desire to reply.  He is torn about staying in his home or going back to that Christian abode he was nursed.  He rejects going to Beneventum entirely and writes to tell Petronius that Christian kindness and forgiveness has moved him, and this has increased his love for Lygia.  He tells Petronius that Lygia has run off again because of the impossibility of their relationship.  He tells him also of meeting another leader of the Christians, Paul of Tarsus.  He tells Petronius that he is thinking of embracing Christianity but there is something in him that revolts at the idea.  He tells him of the little crosses Lygia has left for him made out of twigs.  He concludes with a confession that the Christians have changed his soul.

Vinicius now lives in his house shut off thinking only of Lygia and the Christians.  He senses that Lygia loves him in return, and contemplates receiving baptism to join their community.  At home, his soul struggles between his life as a Roman and his potential life as a Christian.  In an excursion into the countryside he meets Chrysothemis, a loose upper class Roman woman, who tries to seduce him but which he rejects.  In time Petronius returns to Rome and tries to get Vincius to travel abroad to break these doldrums he is in.  But Vinicius has no desire.  Petronius gets angry at what the Christians have done to him.  Petronius, as an Epicurean, tries to entice him with other women.  He even shows him the pleasure he receives from his woman slave Eunice.  But all this just deepens Vinicius’ desire for Lygia, and he rejects all of Petronius’s enticements and tells Petroinus they no longer understand each other.

Nero, upon returning back to Rome, wants to travel again and yet can’t, wants to change the buildings of Rome and yet can’t.  He has become even more of a megalomaniac.  He is now infatuated with Rubria, the young Vestal Virgin.  A conversation ensues where Vinicius tells Nero of how Ursus killed Croton, and Nero wants to see this barbarian.  He asks of Lygia, and Vinicius does not respond.  But he invites Vinicius to another of his feasts. 

At this feast, held at the pond of Agrippa, on a raft in the pond, all sorts of entertainment was provided: music and song, dancers, mock naval battles on the pond, exotic foods, and wines.  Poppea seemed to be infatuated with Vinicius, who was seated next to her.  At dusk the raft touched land and all the entourage scattered into the woods where tents were arranged for illicit wanton liaisons.   Vinicius too was stirred into lust and ran into the woods, but his recall of Lygia held him back, and when he was about to get away a masked woman approached him.  She pushed herself on him and he rejected her.  At that moment Petronius approached and the veiled woman ran off.  When the two could speak privately, Petronius tells him that Nero has committed the grave sin of having sex with the Vestal Virgin Rubria.  Vinicius wondering who that veiled woman could be is told it was Poppaea.  Filled with disgust, Vinicius wishes to leave Rome.

Afterward, Petronius contemplates the trouble Vinicius is in.  If Vinicius succumbs to Poppaea’s advances, Vinicius will be under Nero’s wrath.  If he continues to resist Poppaea, he will be under Poppaea’s wrath.  It would be safer for Vinicius to leave Rome altogether.  In addition he plans to suggest to Nero that he expel all the Christians from Rome, and so Lygia would be away from Vinicius.  Hoping to meet again with Lygia, Vinicius rejects leaving Rome.   Despite Petroius explaining all the dangers around him, Vinicius can only think of finding Lygia.  As it turns out, Chilo returns to Vinicius’ house and informs him he knows where Lygia is now.  He could take her to this new house where she was staying with a priest named Linus.  Passion took Vinicius again.  He realized he could go to this house and seize her.  But this would never allow Lygia to love him.  He felt the tension again between his Roman consciousness and a Christian one.  At that moment, Chilo standing before him disgusted him.  He ordered that he be whipped with three hundred lashes.  Begging, Chilo pleaded.  But Vinicius’s Roman heart was unmoved and his slaves pulled Chilo away to be whipped.  Chilo begged “in the name of Christ.” And while Chilo was being flogged, Vinicius repented, also “in the name of Christ.”  When Chilo revived, Vinicius had him lead to the house where Lygia was staying.

At the house, Vinicius finds Miriam, her son, Peter, Glaucus, Crispus, and Paul.  He greets them in the name of Christ.  He explains to them that his love for Lygia has been a suffering, and that he cannot take her by force but through Christianity must have her love him.  Christianity he explains has changed him.  Though it be unnecessary to ask, he requests her hand in marriage through them.  He acknowledges he has an incomplete understanding of the faith but is predisposed to accept it.  He even sees thorough the misconception of Christianity bringing no joy of life.  Peter especially is pleased and welcomes him.  Lygia then arrives and is surprised to find Vinicius.  Peter asks her if she loves Vinicius, and she says she does.

Together in a garden, Vinicius and Lygia express their love for each other and plan to marry.  As they go over the events that led to their initial meeting and their final betrothal, Lygia points out it was the hand of Christ that had shaped the circumstances, and Vinicius agrees.  He envisions them in the future living at his home in Rome.  They plan the wedding and sit to eat with the others.


###

My Comment:

I think Chapter 33 is just about the midpoint of the novel, and there the conversion of Vinicius is completed.  So the main thrust of the first half is to bring Vinicius from a young, Roman aristocrat and soldier to his conversion to Christianity.  He is clearly the hero and central character of the novel.  I am surprised to find that we see the Christianity from an outsider’s perspective.  Sienkiewicz has done a superb job of credibly creating the ancient Roman consciousness and worldview and then looking at Christianity through that worldview, capturing both what would repulse the Romans about the Christians and what would make the pagan world attracted.  And also he’s created a credible love story of what would seemingly be impossible two to bring together.

Michelle’s Comment:

Vinicius' conversion was so wonderfully written. It wasn't an instantaneous light switch, but an ongoing struggle with him toggling back and forth between the two sides of himself.

 

I also started to like Petronius more by this point. He was genuinely upset about the effect of Christianity on his nephew's state of mind.

Kerstin’s Reply and Comment:

Manny wrote: "I am surprised to find that we see the Christianity from an outsider’s perspective.”

Isn’t this the way most people encountered Christianity at the time? Very few at the time were born into the Christian faith. We get to discover and explore what is so special about the faith from the perspective of someone who truly has never encountered the Christian world view. That’s no small feat, since we’ve been so inculturated over the millennia we often no longer recognize many aspects of Western Culture originating in Christianity.

My Reply to Kerstin:

Yes, that is true and perhaps that is why Sienkiewicz wrote it that way. I was pondering if my approach to the subject would have gone that way. If I had sat down to write a novel where the early Christians are the subject I might have written it from the perspective of a Christian. The novel Ben-Hur is written from the perspective of a Jew who becomes Christian in Roman times. Sienkiewicz makes it work because Vinicius is so integrated into both worlds and converts over. If Sienkiewicz had written this from the perspective of say Petronius, for instance, I think it would have faced a lot of obstacles. I don't know if it then could have worked. You would not get a sympathetic view of the Christians.

Kerstin’s Reply:

Manny wrote: " If Sienkiewicz had written this from the perspective of say Petronius, for instance, I think it would have faced a lot of obstacles. I don't know if it then could have worked. You would not get a sympathetic view of the Christians."

I agree. Petronius has no reason to look at the Christians in any other way but as a group of people with strange and questionable beliefs. With Vinicius we have a young man in love who wants to know everything he can about Lygia and who she is. His heart is already open. When he finds out that the rumors peddled about the Christians are not true he is liberated to see and learn what this religion is all about.

Kerstin’s Comment:

The decadence at the feast at the pond of Agrippa was masterfully done. The whole affair is so over the top that one gets repulsed by it, and that is long before the lascivious events of the evening. 



###

Excerpt from Chapter 31, Nero’s floating feast on the Pond of Agrippa:

 

But the "floating feast" pleased Cæsar, for it was something new. Besides, such exquisite dishes were served that the imagination of Apicius would have failed at sight of them, and wines of so many kinds that Otho, who used to serve eighty, would have hidden under water with shame, could he have witnessed the luxury of that feast. Besides women, the Augustians sat down at the table, among whom Vinicius excelled all with his beauty. Formerly his figure and face indicated too clearly the soldier by profession; now mental suffering and the physical pain through which he had passed had chiselled his features, as if the delicate hand of a master had passed over them. His complexion had lost its former swarthiness, but the yellowish gleam of Numidian marble remained on it. His eyes had grown larger and more pensive. His body had retained its former powerful outlines, as if created for armor; but above the body of a legionary was seen the head of a Grecian god, or at least of a refined patrician, at once subtle and splendid. Petronius, in saying that none of the ladies of Cæsar's court would be able or willing to resist Vinicius, spoke like a man of experience. All gazed at him now, not excepting Poppæa, or the vestal virgin Rubria, whom Cæsar wished to see at the feast.

 

Wines, cooled in mountain snow, soon warmed the hearts and heads of the guests. Boats shaped as grasshoppers or butterflies shot forth from the bushes at the shore every moment. The blue surface of the pond seemed occupied by butterflies. Above the boats here and there flew doves, and other birds from India and Africa, fastened with silver and blue threads or strings. The sun had passed the greater part of the sky, but the day was warm and even hot, though in the beginning of May. The pond heaved from the strokes of oars, which beat the water in time with music; but in the air there was not the least breath of wind; the groves were motionless, as if lost in listening and in gazing at that which was happening on the water. The raft circled continually on the pond, bearing guests who were increasingly drunk and boisterous.

 

The feast had not run half its course yet, when the order in which all sat at the table was observed no longer. Cæsar gave the example, for, rising himself, he commanded Vinicius, who sat next to Rubria the vestal, to move. Nero occupied the place, and began to whisper something in Rubria's ear. Vinicius found himself next to Poppæa, who extended her arm and begged him to fasten her loosened bracelet. When he did so, with hands trembling somewhat, she cast at him from beneath her long lashes a glance as it were of modesty, and shook her golden head as if in resistance.

 

Meanwhile the sun, growing larger, ruddier, sank slowly behind the tops of the grove; the guests were for the greater part thoroughly intoxicated. The raft circled now nearer the shore, on which, among bunches of trees and flowers, were seen groups of people, disguised as fauns or satyrs, playing on flutes, bagpipes, and drums, with groups of maidens representing nymphs, dryads, and hamadryads. Darkness fell at last amid drunken shouts from the tent, shouts raised in honor of Luna. Meanwhile the groves were lighted with a thousand lamps. From the lupanaria on the shores shone swarms of lights; on the terraces appeared new naked groups, formed of the wives and daughters of the first Roman houses. These with voice and unrestrained manner began to lure partners. The raft touched the shore at last. Cæsar and the Augustians vanished in the groves, scattered in lupanaria, in tents hidden in thickets, in grottos artificially arranged among fountains and springs. Madness seized all; no one knew whither Cæsar had gone; no one knew who was a senator, who a knight, who a dancer, who a musician. Satyrs and fauns fell to chasing nymphs with shouting. They struck lamps with thyrses to quench them. Darkness covered certain parts of the grove. Everywhere, however, laughter and shouts were heard, and whispers, and panting breaths. In fact Rome had not seen anything like that before.

A second excerpt from Chapter 33.  Vinicuis professes before Peter and Paul that he loves Lygia and is moved to the faith of Christ.  Vinicuis first speaks of his difficulties with Christianity.

 

He spoke with head erect and decisively; but still he was moved, and his legs trembled beneath his mantle. When silence followed his words, he continued, as if wishing to anticipate an unfavorable answer,—

 

"I know what obstacles exist, but I love her as my own eyes; and though I am not a Christian yet, I am neither your enemy nor Christ's. I wish to be sincere, so that you may trust me. At this moment it is a question of life with me, still I tell you the truth. Another might say, Baptize me; I say, Enlighten me. I believe that Christ rose from the dead, for people say so who love the truth, and who saw Him after death. I believe, for I have seen myself, that your religion produces virtue, justice, and mercy,—not crime, which is laid to your charge. I have not known your religion much so far. A little from you, a little from your works, a little from Lygia, a little from conversations with you. Still I repeat that it has made some change in me. Formerly I held my servants with an iron hand; I cannot do so now. I knew no pity; I know it now. I was fond of pleasure; the other night I fled from the pond of Agrippa, for the breath was taken from me through disgust. Formerly I believed in superior force; now I have abandoned it. Know ye that I do not recognize myself. I am disgusted by feasts, wine, singing, citharæ, garlands, the court of Cæsar, naked bodies, and every crime. When I think that Lygia is like snow in the mountains, I love her the more; and when I think that she is what she is through your religion, I love and desire that religion. But since I understand it not, since I know not whether I shall be able to live according to it, nor whether my nature can endure it, I am in uncertainty and suffering, as if I were in prison."

 

Here his brows met in wrinkle of pain, and a flush appeared on his cheeks; after that he spoke on with growing haste and greater emotion,—

 

"As ye see, I am tortured from love and uncertainty. Men tell me that in your religion there is no place for life, or human joy, or happiness, or law, or order, or authority, or Roman dominion. Is this true? Men tell me that ye are madmen; but tell me yourselves what ye bring. Is it a sin to love, a sin to feel joy, a sin to want happiness? Are ye enemies of life? Must a Christian be wretched? Must I renounce Lygia? What is truth in your view? Your deeds and words are like transparent water, but what is under that water? Ye see that I am sincere. Scatter the darkness. Men say this to me also: Greece created beauty and wisdom, Rome created power; but they—what do they bring? Tell, then, what ye bring. If there is brightness beyond your doors, open them."

 

"We bring love," said Peter.

 

And Paul of Tarsus added,—"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass."

 

But the heart of the old Apostle was stirred by that soul in suffering, which, like a bird in a cage, was struggling toward air and the sun; hence, stretching his hand to Vinicius, he said,—"Whoso knocketh, to him will be opened. The favor and grace of God is upon thee; for this reason I bless thee, thy soul and thy love, in the name of the Redeemer of mankind."

 

Vinicius, who had spoken with enthusiasm already, sprang toward Peter on hearing this blessing, and an uncommon thing happened. That descendant of Quirites, who till recently had not recognized humanity in a foreigner, seized the hand of the old Galilean, and pressed it in gratitude to his lips.

 

Peter was pleased; for he understood that his sowing had fallen on an additional field, that his fishing-net had gathered in a new soul.

 

Those present, not less pleased by that evident expression of honor for the Apostle of God, exclaimed in one voice,—"Praise to the Lord in the highest!"



The novel is far better than any of the movies.  

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Sunday Meditation: The Son of Man Lifted Up

This week’s Gospel takes a turn from where to meet God (the desert, the mountain, the temple) to preparing us for the crucifixion and Holy Week events.  Today we have the famous conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, the elder Pharisee at the Temple.  The Gospel passage comes in mid conversation, but it would behoove you to read the previous thirteen lines of John, Chapter 3.  Here is only the Gospel reading.

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come toward the light,

so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

~Jn 3:14-21

This week, Bishop Barron has the best homily. 

 


In listening to Bishop Barron, it dawned on me why we Catholics put a crucifix up in the sanctuary of every church, and why we put crucifixes in our homes.  I remember a Protestant woman asking this once.  She said Protestants emphasize the Resurrection, and so the cross should not have the corpus on it.  I responded that the crucifixion shows our redemption and the love Christ showed for us, and that is true.  In the future I think I should add to this analogy that Christ makes Himself, that is, just as the bronze serpent was raised in desert that saved the Jews, Christ raised on the cross saves us!


Meditation: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”




Thursday, March 7, 2024

750th Anniversary of the Death of St. Thomas Aquinas

I almost let this day pass by without commemorating the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas. I have a special love for St. Thomas, not only because I love all things Dominican and St. Thomas is probably the most famous of the Dominican friars.  But he comes from a town roughly an hour and half north of my family’s home town in Italy.  And he taught at the University of Naples for a time which is the main city of my region.  I won’t say I feel related but he feels like a paisan. 


One could write for hours on the achievements of St. Thomas Aquinas, so I’ll just refer you to his Wikipedia entry.  He is the preeminent theologian of the Catholic Church and a Doctor of the Church.  He is commonly referred to as the “Angelic Doctor.”  A procession of his relic was held in his honor at the Italian town of Priverno, less than 50 miles from his birthplace.  From the Catholic News Agency

 

On the eve of the 750th anniversary of St. Thomas Aquinas’ death, a skull revered as a relic of St. Thomas Aquinas was carried in a solemn procession through the cobblestone streets of the southern Italian town of Priverno.

 

Bishop Mariano Crociata led the procession to honor the medieval philosopher and theologian widely considered one of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization who died in the nearby Fossanova Abbey on March 7, 1274.

I find that somewhat remarkable, that a man who had travel all over Europe and had made many a college town his home would die so close to his home town.  He also died at the age of only 48, which was not unusual but his written output for a man of that age is stunning.

The article also recites the famous anecdote of how Thomas stopped writing.

 

Three months before he died, Aquinas experienced an intense revelation while offering Mass when he was nearly finished with his most significant work, the “Summa Theologiae” or “Summary of Theology.” After experiencing this revelation, Aquinas told his friend and secretary Brother Reginald of Priverno: “The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me,” and he never wrote again.

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of the Thomistic Institute provides a succinct biographical video.

 

 

Vatican News also put out an article of the anniversary where Pope Francis points out what I think is St. Thomas’s most important insight.

 

Pope Francis sent a message to the academics participating in the conference to mark the 750th anniversary.

 

“The Angelic Doctor was profoundly convinced that since God is the truth and the light that illumines all understanding, there can be no ultimate contradiction between revealed truth and the truths discovered by reason,” the pope wrote.

 

“Central to his understanding of the relationship of faith and reason was his conviction of the power of God’s gift of grace to heal human nature weakened by sin and to elevate the mind through participation in God’s own knowledge and love, and thereby to enable us to understand and correctly order our lives as individuals and in society.”

 

“Here, Thomas points out, we see the heart of the Christian life as an act of priestly worship aimed at the glorification of God and the sanctification of our world,” he added.

To sum up, Aquinas points out that there cannot be a difference between scientific (or natural) truth and Biblical and Spiritual truths.  There cannot be a distinction between physical truth and truths of faith, and it is up to the theologian to harmonize what might appear to a contradiction.

EWTN News Nightly had a segment on the anniversary.

 

Bishop Robert Barron is a long admirer of St. Thomas.  Here he is from quite a few years ago, before he was made a bishop I think, speaking on his love of Thomas and why Thomas was so important.

 

In this Jubilee year of Thomas’ death (750th anniversary) and of his canonization (700th anniversary) Pope Frances has granted a plenary indulgence by visiting “any church, shrine, or chapel currently entrusted to the Dominican Order.”  The detailed requirements can be found here.    

Finally, I want to conclude with St. Thomas Aquinas’s final words from his deathbed after having taken last rights.

 

“I receive you, price of my soul’s redemption. I receive you, viaticum of my pilgrimage, for love of whom I have studied, watched and labored. I have preached you. I have taught you. Never have I said anything against you, and if I have done so, it is through ignorance, and I am not stubborn in my error. If I have taught wrongly concerning this sacrament or the others, I submit it to the judgment of the Holy Roman Church, in obedience to which I now leave this life.”

His humble submission to God and the Church is something we all need to model and uphold. 

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.




Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Music Tuesday: Prayer of St. Gregory

I haven’t had a Music Tuesday post in a while.  I came across this piece on my local classical music station (WQXR, you can get it on the internet) while driving.  I had never heard of it, nor of the composer, Alan Hovhanass

Alan Hovhanass (1911-2000) was an American composer of partial Arminian ethnicity, and he would eventually embrace that ethnicity and compose from that cultural perspective, at least at first.  He would later expand into other world musical perspectives.  His music embraces many international forms and styles.  I probably should be embarrassed I had never heard of him.  He was immensely prolific—67 symphonies!—with over 500 known compositions.  And he destroyed over a thousand pages of youthful compositions which he didn’t consider worthy.  He wrote his first composition at the age of four!



Prayer of St. Gregory is a trumpet piece with accompanying strings.  There is an alternate arrangement with an organ replacing the strings.  I’ll embed both and we can decide which we prefer.

The Prayer of St. Gregory piece is part of Hovhannas’s opera, Etchmiadzin.  Etchmiadzin is an alternate name to the Armenian city of Vagharshapat where the holy Etchmiadzin Cathedral resides.  It is not clear to me whether the opera refers to the city or the cathedral.  The Cathedral dates back to the fourth century.  Construction is supposed to have begun back in 303 AD, and attributed to St. Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of Armenia’s Apostolic Church, which is currently not in communion with the Catholic Church.   As an aside, I should add that there is currently an Armenian Catholic Church which is in full communion with the Bishop of Rome and is one of the 23 Eastern Rite Catholic Churches.

 


The Armenian Apostolic Church was in 301 the first official Christian religion of a national state in history.  The Catholic Church was still being persecuted under pagan Imperial Rome and would not reach toleration under the Emperor Constantine until 313 but not made the state religion of the empire until 380 by the Emperor Theodosius I.  Armenia had last been part of the Roman Empire in 117 under the Emperor Trajan but Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, decided to not defend it in 118.  Parts of Armenia in subsequent years would both be incorporated and then fall away from both the Roman and Parthian Empires which were in struggle against each other.  But Christianity took root in Armenia in as early as the year 40, supposedly under the apostles Jude and Bartolomew. 

 


Gregory the Illuminator, however, is credited with evangelizing the country in the late third and early fourth centuries.  Prior to the conversion of the country, Gregory is to have spent fourteen years in jail for refusing to sacrifice to a pagan goddess, a jail cell which sounds like it was not much different than a well.  He would eventually be released and then convert the king, and the country followed.  I am guessing that the Prayer of St. Gregory is alluding to the prayer Gregory must have made while in the desolation of the jail pit.  The trumpet solo voice represents the prayer of desolation, sadness, and appeal of the saint toward providence.  The strings (or alternative organ) establishes the context and ambiance of Gregory’s predicament and perhaps represents the voice of God.  On that you will have to judge for yourself.  Let’s listen first, and then I’ll try to describe what my amateur ears hear.  Of the various orchestra versions on the internet, I prefer this orchestra version with David Krauss on trumpet and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (The Met) accompanying. 

 

 

There are three trumpet entries into the piece.  I think that is the key characteristic in conceptualizing the score’s structure.  The strings—the first voice—initiates the piece and sets the context of what feels like prison walls.  At about thirty seconds the trumpet makes its first entry and plays what I’ll call the desolation melody.  The phrasing seems to emulate a vocal prayer.  The first trumpet entry lasts for about 40 seconds.  That diminishing phrase that concludes the trumpet melody seems to be the defining fragment of the melody and expresses the emotional core.

Then the strings have a short moment of prominence picking up what I think is part of the desolation melody.  In just 20 seconds, the trumpet enters for the second time, again with the desolation melody but this time the prayer developing to a greater appeal.  It reaches a higher pitch of notes with more dynamism and longer note duration.  The energy momentarily surges but then retreats to the melancholy phrasing of the first entry. 

Then the trumpet goes silent for almost two full minutes, almost 40% of the piece.  In this stretch, the strings develop its melody, what seems to me a response to the desolation melody.  This second melody seems to pick elements of the trumpet phrasing but its ebbing and flowing feels like this is a voice of comfort, or trying to comfort, perhaps even a voice of explanation.  Is the trumpet comforted?  I feel a tension in the extended silence, and when it comes in for its third entry the melody has not changed and its appeal seems even greater.  It returns to the dynamism of the second entry only with even higher pitched notes.  But after its burst of energy the trumpet returns to its desolation phrasing, but, it should be noted, the piece concludes with the strings and trumpet ending on an extended harmonic note together.  While desolation melody has remained prominent, the piece does seem to conclude in intimacy.

But these are all my reactions.  You could make the argument that it ends in an unanswered appeal.  That is for you to decide.

Now let’s hear the version with organ as accompanying voice.  Wynton Marsalis is on trumpet and Anthony Newman on organ.  This alternate version is a shade shorter, the forty seconds taken from the trumpet’s silent section.

 


Marsalis is magnificent on trumpet but I have to admit, the organ seems to be lacking in the response.  It’s just not a fuller voice than the strings, and it doesn’t feel equal to the trumpet voice.  I definitely prefer the version with the strings.  How about you?