Tuesday, April 26, 2011

"Mercy"

"Mercy" 
August 15, 2010 at 2:24 pm


http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/13657056 
punch up "Lyrics" to see the words that go with the melody.

The Divine Mercy devotion has always meant a lot to Julia and I.  [It's a set of prayers and attitudes based on the writings of the newly canonized St. Faustina of Poland who lived in the early 20th century.]  We really liked it because it's a sort of 'back-to-basics' theme:  Love God and love your neighbor.  God is love.  You must learn to forgive in order to forgive.  Get mercy in Confession; give mercy in the Works of Mercy.  We Catholics have tended to add a lot of devotions.  Individually, they're usually just fine and most people settle on a healthy emphasis of some kind but the danger is 'cluttering up' your spirituality or losing your prayer relationship with God as in the late Middle Ages, which helped cause our tragic split in the Body of Christ.  Julia and I gravitated to the make-it-real simplicity of Divine Mercy.  So we started sharing the devotion as we started 'courting'.

Then one of Julia's mother's best friends found out he had extensive internal cancer of the face.  We prayed a Novena of the Little Flower for him (her attitude was sort of a precursor to Divine Mercy) and we took a pilgrimage out to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, run by the Marians.  After that, we found out the cancer had inexplicably disappeared!  From that time on, since we got married, we have been making an annual pilgrimage to the Shrine to pray for all our family and friends, and we know now that the power of the Holy Spirit has to be in this Devotion!  Most prayers I pray with my classes in school, I end with the aspiration, "Jesus, I trust in You" (the motto found on the image Faustina had painted).

In 1992, I wrote this song.  The Chaplet of Divine Mercy prays:  "Eternal Father...for the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world..."  In the song, I could just picture and feel the Lord in the midst of his Agony and Carrying the Cross, marching on, determined to show Mercy to each of us AND ALL of us, no matter how much it cost Him.  I did perform this song ONE time:  Divine Mercy Sunday at the Fatima Shrine.  [The Polish Pope John Paul II officially declared the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.  The readings had always been about Mercy, but, everyone understood he was emphasizing the Devotion that had begun in Poland.]  I did it very simply with an acoustic and voice.

Here, I decided to add all the instruments and contrapuntal strands I hear in my head by writing it up on the Noteworthy Composer midi software tool.  I don't usually have horns and harps handy, but this device lets me present the song as if I did!  My first version came out a little too upbeat, so I have tried to tone it down a bit in this second version.  I hope you enjoy the song and I hope you are able to put all your trust in Jesus.

Jesus, I trust in You!
Mark Lajoie

 

No comments:

Post a Comment