JOYFUL PASSAGES
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THE WORDS THAT INSPIRE US
SPRING 2021
WORDS, MILLIONS OF THEM, SWIRL AROUND US EVERY DAY. Some are frivolous, some provocative, some hurtful, some kind. They can inform us, inflate us, deflate us, carry us to faraway places or forgotten times. They may be spoken, sung, printed, broadcast, handwritten or displayed on a glowing screen, and we can read, hear or ignore them.
Amid the torrent, we look for passages – readings, songs, poems, fragments of text or verse – that we can circle back to: the ones that inspire us, enlighten us, center us, bring us closer to God. These are words we lean on. They run through our heads when we’re out for a walk or doing chores or drifting off to sleep.
Archways wants to know your go-to texts of wisdom, faith and joy. To get you started, we gathered some springtime suggestions from priests, religious and music directors.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8:26–39Recommended by: Fr. George Hafemann
Pastor, St. John the Evangelist, Goshen“This favorite Scripture passage tells the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch. Would that we all had the fervent faith of this man.”
The Baptism of the Eunuch by Rembrandt, 1626.Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
“A PRAYER POEM” BY C.S. LEWIS*
Recommended by Fr. Anthony Mastrolia
Pastor, St. Clare, Staten Island
Christian novelist C.S. Lewis.
Master, they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream
– One talker aping two.They are half right, but not as they
Imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! the wells are dry.Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The Listener’s role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus, while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.* Copyright © C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1964. Reprinted by permission.
FROM LETTERS: BOOK 7,
BY BLESSED CLELIA MERLONIRecommended by Sr. Cora Lombardo, ASCJ
Director of Religious Education, Immaculate Conception/Assumption, Tuckahoe“Blessed Clelia captures the challenge we all face of not just finding Jesus in other people, but of really loving them, even when they don’t return the favor of doing good for good. She focuses it for us and identifies this as the Way of the Cross that becomes the Way to heaven.”
Cardinal Dolan before a portrait of Blessed Clelia Merloni at a Mass in her honor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, February 2019.Apply yourselves then with a generous heart to do all with the greatest perfection gazing on the image of God in your neighbor whoever he or she may be, who because of this, will become in your eyes the object of your most tender concerns even to feeling the joy of rendering them good for evil. Endure everything, forgive everything, love always even though they may hate us. You can be sure that if you do this, you will advance, with giant steps, along the narrow way of the great Saints.
FROM MAXIMS AND SAYINGS OF ST. PHILIP NERIRecommended by Br. Steven Neier
New York Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Sparkill
San Filippo Neri (Cingoli) by Carlo Maratta.“The essential thing to do is to give oneself totally to God. He who wants anything other than Christ does not know what he wants.”
“The Holy Spirit is the teacher of prayer. He enables us to live in constant peace and constant joy, which is a foretaste of paradise.”
“My Jesus if you want me, cut the fetters that keep me from you.”
“One should not wish to do everything in one day,
or to become a saint in four days, but step by step.”
“NOW THE GREEN BLADE RISETH,”
BY JOHN MACLEOD CAMPBELL CRUMRecommended by Dr. Jennifer Donelson
Director of Liturgical Music, St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers“The strong ties between Easter and the coming of springtime in the Northern Hemisphere lend themselves to rich imagery that augments our natural anticipation for the end of winter and for the victory of Christ over death. This hymn wonderfully illustrates the analogy between the death and resurrection of Our Lord and the promise of Jesus that if the ‘grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies … it produces much fruit”’(John 12:24). The text is commonly set to the charming and evocative French carol tune ‘Noel Nouvelet,’ which has elements of both major and minor keys, capturing the giving way of shadow to light in the spring and the conquering of life over death in the resurrection.”
Dr. Jennifer Donelson at the chapel organ of St. Joseph’s Seminary.Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,
Thinking that He never would awake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,
Jesus who for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Jesus’ touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.
“VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS” (“COME HOLY SPIRIT”),
ATTRIBUTED TO POPE INNOCENT IIIRecommended by Dr. Jennifer Pascual
Director of Music, St. Patrick’s Cathedral“On Easter and Pentecost Sundays, sequences (nonbiblical, sacred poetic texts) are required to be sung or recited just prior to the singing of the Alleluia and Gospel verse during Mass. While in the 16th century hundreds of sequences were in use, only a handful are still permitted today. For Pentecost, ‘Veni Sancti Spiritus’ caps off the Easter season and helps draw the faithful more deeply into the mysteries celebrated on this important day of the Church year. Click to hear it as a chant (start at 54’11”) and in a choral setting by Mozart.”
A detail from the carved wood facade of the great pipe organ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.Come, Holy Spirit,
and send down from heaven
the ray of your light.
Come, father of the poor,
come, giver of gifts,
come, light of the hearts.Best consoler,
sweet host of the soul,
sweet refresher.
Rest in work,
cooling in heat,
comfort in crying.O most blessed light,
fill the innermost hearts
of your faithful.
Without your power
nothing is in man,
nothing innocent.Clean what is dirty,
water what is dry,
heal what is wounded.
Bend what is rigid,
heat what is cold,
lead what has gone astray.Grant to your faithful
who trust in you,
your sevenfold holy gift.
Grant us the reward of virtue,
grant us final salvation,
grant us eternal joy.
Amen. Alleluia.