I am jumping out of sequence for the songs from my new song cycle “A Paschal Journey”, but I submit a song from that cycle for Mother’s Day this year (a day late, but I was busy celebrating Mother’s Day with my bride). The song is inspired from the Passion of John in which Jesus entrusts his mother to the “beloved disciple” (who is never identified in John’s account), and from the many images of what we call the “Pieta”, in which Mary, Mother of Jesus, cradles his lifeless body in her arms. This piano song/prayer begins in the key of e minor, then segues into a simple lullaby in D major, then segues back into the key of e minor and ends.
I tried to simulate in the music the deep sorrow of a mother mourning the death of her child with her mind in a stream of consciousness going to the lullaby she used years before to coax her child back to sleep, to a sudden reawakening to the tragedy of the death of her child.
I know that this is not the normal “happy, roses are red violets are blue” kind of Mother’s Day remembrance of which we are familiar. But I think it speaks to the experiences of many mothers, including my own mother, who mourned the death of my sister back in 1997. For my mom, as she healed from the loss of my sister, her healing had this bittersweet quality about it, for ever thankful for the life of my sister at the same time missing my sister greatly.
Where does this fit in in our own Paschal Journeys? In undergoing a Paschal journey we will mourn losses, perhaps the loss of something we once had done, or who we were once. We cradle these losses in our arms, embracing them, and then, like Mary, must let go of them, letting them slip out of our arms. Then we stand up and move on transformed, hurting, and in need of more healing.
Here is the song upon which to meditate.
