Before I begin my writing, which is making slow but steady progress, I usually look for some music on You Tube, which I'm not familiar with. Today I found a piece by Arvo Pärt, the Estonian composer probably best known for his haunting
Spiegel im Spiegel. Today I was listening to a beautiful unaccompanied choral piece called
The Deer's Cry. These are the words:
Christ with me,
Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in me, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me,
Christ with me.
I don't know, but I suspect the title is inspired by the verse from the Psalms 42:
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?"
I think Pärt's answer to that question is that the living God has come to us. If only we would look and see, listen and hear, trust and rest.
