Sunday, March 31, 2013

Carmen Paschale Easter Sunday

Surrexit Christus sol verus vespere noctis,
surgit et hinc domini mystica messis agri.
nunc vaga puniceis apium plebs laeta labore
floribus instrepitans poblite mella legit.
nunc variae volucres permulcent aethera cantu
temperat et pernox nunc philomela melos.
nunc chorus ecclesiae cantat per cantica Sion,
alleluia suis centuplicatque tonis.
Tado, pater patriae, caelestis guadia paschae
percipias meritis limina lucis: ave.


Last night did Christ the Sun rise from the dark,
The mystic harvest of the fields of God,
And now the little wandering tribes of bees
Are brawling in the scarlet flowers abroad.
The winds are soft with birdsong; all night long
Darkling the nightingale her descant told,
And now inside church doors the happy folk
The Alleluia chant a hundredfold.
O father of thy folk, be thine by right
The Easter joy, the threshold of the light.

                                            Sedulus Scottus trans. Helen Waddesll


3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy Easter Maggie!
We had a wonderful Easter here.
On Easter Monday my thoughts turn to the birth of the church when the disciples were trying to figure out what to do next. Clearly they were able to rise to the occasion or we wouldn’t have known to go to church on Sunday.
Blessings always,
Clara

4:15 pm, April 01, 2013  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Maggie, I have an off-topic question for you:

Do you know anything about Inedia? (From Wikipedia: The alleged ability to live without food.)

Yours,

Nick

7:50 pm, April 01, 2013  
Blogger Maggie Ross said...

Hi Nick,

Afraid I am entirely skeptical about such claims. I realise that yogis are supposed to be able to do this but every exploration of the phenomenon I have read about reveals some sort of nutrition being taken. There are lots of hagiographical accounts; they are often really parables of simplicity: that certain people can do without what other people (the majority of people) would require as essential.

Jains do it when they are ready to die: they restrict their food more and more in a kind of extended suicide. For that matter, so do people who are unable to find more humane ways out of life when they are in extreme pain, etc.

In the end, from a Christian point of view, it's a denial of the Incarnation, a kind of 'angelism', minds-cut-off-from-bodies.

Hope this helps

Maggie

8:49 pm, April 01, 2013  

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