Stirs The Power Of Earth (Audio Sample - 1.56 MB)   A Druidic Song for the Quickening Times of the Year   Deep in our longing stirs the power of earth:   Come, we wait for you!   Voice in our memory, calling us to birth:   Come, we wait for you!   Ancient promise told, future beyond all worth:   Come, we wait for you!     Deep lies the vision, silent in its call:   Voice from the Ages, which I now recall:   Ancient secret told, this love shall conquer all:     Deep is this mystery, timeless, incomplete:   Voice, gentle whisper, pure yet bitter-sweet:   Ancient, dreadful tale, such death, that we should meet:     Deep, crystal laughter, calling me by name:   Voice of creation, endless, dancing flame:   Ancient echoes roll, the "you" they each proclaim:     Deep throbbing thunder, heartbeat of our race:   Voice of another, heard now in this place:   Ancient chorus heard, for now I see your face:   A reflection on Genesis 1:1-2   In the beginning,   when God began to create heaven and earth,   the earth was a void,   without shape or form.     There was darkness over the surface of the deep   and the spirit of God, a mighty wind,   swept over the waters.   Composer's Reflection Bernard Huijbers has written a song about how from whirling galaxies and spinning starry foam, the earth took shape and form . He reflected on how long ago this all happened, and how long the earth had to wait until she brought forth life. In his quest towards ultimate reality, he continues to look through the eyes of the astrophysicist while preserving the curiosity of the theologian. The theologian does not look for a heaven beyond the stars, but contemplates the presence of the Creator within the created order. In more precise terms, the theologian seeks the deity in the memories and stories which have been handed down by generations. These stories are the bed-rock of theology,telling about One who entered our history, who walked and talked with us, and who left us certain guarantees about our future. In the words the poet, Huub Oosterhuis, the birth of no one should ever be in vain. Stirs the Power of Earth teasingly plays with these thoughts of Huijbers. God, we are told, is love. To appreciate this, we must to some extent have experienced love, even in its broadest sense. For example, Paul in Romans 8 portrays the earth as groaning in one great act of giving birth. This birth image begins with the immense powers locked into the core of our planet; the memories stored in the rocks, the juices which flow into the dead wood of spring, the immense gravitational pull exerted by the moon, the deep roots which bond peoples and their lands, the indescribable depths of attraction that we feel towards one another. Somewhere within this mystic, cosmic interplay lurks the playful, impetuous power which is so personal in its intensity that perhaps the word God is inadequate, too remote from the experience. Another outstanding Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, saw the immense powers of God's love at the heart of the waxing and waning of all of these evolutionary forces. Furthermore, he commented the slower the progress, the more significant the outcome. This is a song of awakening, through which comes enlightenment. But who is this you the song celebrates? For some, it may be the traditional God of the Christian. Or it may be the memory of the Jew, about One who said, I shall be there for you. Is it the God of the scientist? The God of the lover? And what is at the heart of such discoveries? Perhaps it is the truth that it is only through some form of death that things ever happen. The stellar explosion which triggers the gas spirals which re-seed the galaxy; the grain of wheat planted in the humble earth; the self-sacrifice of two loving, as yet incomplete people; the list is endless. It is a druidic song, for springtide and for the wintery months, for the quickening times of the year. It is a about rites of passage, from the old year to the new, for the midwinter and midsummer solstices, for the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. It is a song for a crisp clear night, or perhaps a gentle evening, when the galaxies blaze in their ancient skies. It is a song for us to sing to one another; it is most surely a song about one another. It is a song which looks deep into ourselves, into our memories as well as our feelings. And though we may never be able to put into words what we have discovered, the least we may be able to do is sing: Come now, we wait for you. It may be an Advent song of expectation. In this case, the text of the refrain may change on each of the four Advent Sundays, to reflect the growth of the season: Lord, wake your pow'r and come; Come, Lord, we wait for you; Come, Lord, and set us free; Come, Lord, that we may live! After all, does not the God of Advent draw closer every day? Musically, it is an open-form song, integrating ballad and litany. The accompaniment flows freely to weld the various elements of verse and refrain together. The Cantor verses may be sung by alternating soloists or by different sections of the choir. The refrain elements belong to everyone, with optional SATB harmonies. This, the original version of Stirs The Power Of Earth, has grown from my reflections on the primeval longings of humanity for the realms of light. Astrophysicists are detecting glimmerings of light at the furthermost reaches of the Universe, regarded as emanations from the origins of creation. The 'Big Bang' continues to resonate in detectable echoes throughout the Universe since its birth 16 billion years ago. Eternally awed by these immense powers of the Cosmos, we embrace love as the greatest of all of energies, which neither death nor destruction are able to conquer. This is further corroborated by the laws of thermodynamics, which assert that matter can be neither created nor destroyed: it is perpetually transformed. This is adequately expressed in the poetry of the Preface for the Funeral Mass, Life is changed, not ended. This belief is also fundamental to the Native American Indian, for whom the murmur of the streams carries the voices of our grandfathers, and the air we breathe is the same air which has nourished our ancestors since time began. Four refrains have been added, so that this song may be sung on each of the four Sundays of Advent:   Advent 1 Lord, wake your pow'r and come!   Advent 2 Come, Lord, we wait for you!   Advent 3 Come, Lord, and set us free!   Advent 4 Come, Lord, that we may live!   Back