|
t
This is from a really great
CD titled: Let Me Fly:
Music of Struggle, Solace, and
Survival in Black America.
The choir is called Counterpoint,
and the director is Robert Dr
Cormier. It came out in '05
on the Albany Records label.
|
t
This is the Cambridge Singers,
under the direction of John
Rutter, on their '99 album
from Collegium Records -
Hail, Gladdening Light.
It's absolutely stunning.
|
r
The complete title ends with
"...the Soul from the Body."
This is the Sirin Choir, with
Andrey Kotov as choirmaster,
on their Spiritual Chants and
Canticles for Lent CD,
released in'97 on the
Russian Season label.
t
|
|
This is another cut from the
Passion - Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ
soundtrack CD by Peter Gabriel.
|
|
|
From THE URANTIA BOOK
Part IV, 187, 5-6
The sandstorm grew in intensity and the heavens increasingly darkened.
Still the soldiers and the small group of believers stood by. The soldiers crouched near the cross, huddled together to protect themselves from the cutting sand. The mother of John and others watched from a distance where they were somewhat sheltered by an overhanging rock. When the Master finally breathed his last, there were present at the foot of his cross John Zebedee, his brother Jude, his sister Ruth, Mary Magdalene,
and Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris.
It was just before three o'clock when Jesus, with a loud voice, cried out,
"It is finished! Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And when he had thus spoken, he bowed his head and gave up the life struggle. When the Roman centurion saw how Jesus died, he smote his breast and said: "This was indeed a righteous man; truly he must have been a Son of God." And from that hour he began to believe in Jesus.
|
|
|
|
Jesus died royally—as he had lived.
He freely admitted his kingship and remained master of the situation throughout the tragic day. He went willingly to his ignominious death, after he had provided for the safety of his chosen apostles. He wisely restrained Peter's trouble-making violence and provided that John might be near him right up to the end of his mortal existence. He revealed his true nature to the murderous Sanhedrin and reminded Pilate of the source of his sovereign authority as a Son of God. He started out to Golgotha bearing his own crossbeam and finished up his loving bestowal by handing over his spirit of mortal acquirement to the Paradise Father. After such a life—and at such a death—the Master could truly say, "It is finished."
|
|
|
|
Because this was the preparation day for both the Passover and the Sabbath,
the Jews did not want these bodies to be exposed on Golgotha. Therefore they went before Pilate asking that the legs of these three men be broken, that they be dispatched, so that they could be taken down from their crosses and cast into the criminal burial pits before sundown. When Pilate heard this request, he forthwith sent three soldiers to break the legs and dispatch Jesus and the two brigands.
When these soldiers arrived at Golgotha,
they did accordingly to the two thieves, but they found Jesus already dead, much to their surprise. However, in order to make sure of his death, one of the soldiers pierced his left side with his spear. Though it was common for the victims of crucifixion to linger alive upon the cross for even two or three days, the overwhelming emotional agony and the acute spiritual anguish of Jesus brought an end to his mortal life in the flesh in a little less than five and one-half hours.
|
|
|
|
In the midst of the darkness of the sandstorm,
about half past three o'clock, David Zebedee sent out the last of the messengers carrying the news of the Master's death. The last of his runners he dispatched to the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany, where he supposed the mother of Jesus stopped with the rest of her family.
After the death of the Master, John sent the women, in charge of Jude,
to the home of Elijah Mark, where they tarried over the Sabbath day. John himself, being well known by this time to the Roman centurion, remained at Golgotha until Joseph and Nicodemus arrived on the scene with an order from Pilate authorizing them to take possession of the body of Jesus.
Thus ended a day of tragedy and sorrow for a vast universe
whose myriads of intelligences had shuddered at the shocking spectacle of the crucifixion of the human incarnation of their beloved Sovereign; they were stunned by this exhibition of mortal callousness and human perversity.
|
|
"It Is Finished"
Below are three pieces of music all having the same title - a simple
declarative sentence spoken by Christ before he died.
On the left is the Norwich Cathedral Choir from their '01 release
on Priory Records - Complete New English Hymnal Vol. 5.
In the center is a classical piece from the CD Vivaldi, Haydn/Oratorium,
released in '05 on the Eroica label. And on the right is a short piece
of musical interpretation with natural sounds, from Randy Knowles'
album Glow, released in '09 on the Catapult label.
|
|
Must then Christ perish in torment
in every age to save those that
have no imagination?
George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
Irish Playwright, Essayist, Critic
.
|
|
