He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6



Knowles Shaw, who wrote the great hymn on that text, was born in Ohio on this date in 1834.



Bringing In The Sheaves



Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,

Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;

Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.



Refrain



Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,



Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,

Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;

By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.



Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,

Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;

When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Franco Corelli, one of the great tenors of the twentieth century, has died in Milan at 82. Corelli made his La Scala debut in La Vestale with Maria Callas. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera was as Manrico in the landmark and storied performance of Il Trovatore that was also the house debut of the incomparable Leontyne Price.

It's a pity that this article was published in The Washington Post on a Saturday, the least-read issue of the week. There are insights here, and some powerful words.



"He is telling people something he has believed his entire life: Suffering is part of the human condition. He embodies a basic teaching and he's doing it by not being ashamed of his illnesses," said George Weigel, an American biographer of the pope.



"There is no question this is preaching done with the body," said Vittorio Messori, an Italian writer who interviewed the pontiff for a book on his teachings. "Death is not something to flee. He forces us to look at it right in the face."



The article is also perhaps evidence of a dawning and respectful appreciation of the richness and gift of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.



The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the invisible mystery hidden since time immemorial in God.



Thanks to Zoe Romanowsky at Heart Mind & Strength who posted the article earlier today.

Speaking to the assembled cardinals last weekend, Pope John Paul said that Courage in proclaiming the gospel must never diminish. Indeed, until the last breath it must be our principal duty.



His ability to speak at length is failing quickly, and there is deep sadness in watching his infirmity, in being a witness as he bears witness, and as he is poured out.



There is a treasure house of the Holy Father's writings, reflections, and exhortations, and to spend time there and read is always to hear his urgent and powerful voice proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ and the Cross of our salvation.



But another time is come. In the words of Tadeusz Styczen, rector of Lublin University: The time for speeches is over. Now we must listen to the silence of the Pope. He speaks to us fully in those silences. Eloquent silences.

... et evasi ego solus ut nuntiarem tibi.



The Vulgate's rendering of the recurring phrase from the first chapter of Job. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.



The phrase is in my mind because of a very fine performance yesterday of Historia di Job, a rarely heard oratorio from the pen of the first great composer in that form, Giacomo Carissimi.



Job did not, of course, as urged by his wife, curse God and die. And Job's hymns of assurance have been echoed by other men and women down the centuries as they faced severe and heart-rending loss. Among the most moving of those stories of aching pain met with noble and Christian resignation is that of Horatio Gates Spafford, who died in Jerusalem on 16 October 1888 and who was born on this date in 1828.



Although their own losses in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 brought them near to financial ruin, Horatio Spafford and his wife worked selflessly to aid other victims and to help in rebuilding lives. Months later, after the sudden death of his son, Spafford sent his wife and four daughters abroad on the S.S. Ville de Havre. Two ships collided in the North Atlantic and Spafford received his wife's telegram with the grim message Saved alone, the words unconsciously echoing the phrase from Job.



Crossing the Atlantic to be with his wife, Spafford's own ship sailed past the site of the collision, the site of his daughters' graves. And he set down the words to one of the greatest of hymns of assurance and hope, It Is Well With My Soul.



When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.



Refrain



It is well, with my soul,

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.



Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.



My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!



For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:

If Jordan above me shall roll,

No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life

Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.



But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,

The sky, not the grave, is our goal;

Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!

Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!



And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

Christ is the first 'exegesis' of the Father; he is his 'Word,' the one who manifests him. All other words on God and Christ are based on that prime revelation of the Father. The Word - Verbum - was manifested historically in the flesh, and consequently in the assumption of human language. His words, those of the first witnesses and servants of the word, whom the Spirit moved to give authentic expression to the mystery of his appearance among men, will therefore always remain the fundamental norm for everything that will be said about Christ down to the end of time. The incarnation of the Word, his lowering of himself by assuming a temporal form in a certain historical period and within a certain culture, is a fact which has repercussions for all subsequent cultures, and obliges them to turn continually and loyally to that privileged moment and let it work in them as the indispensable formative principle. But fidelity to the Incarnate Word demands, by virtue of the dynamics of the Incarnation, that the message shall be made present whole and entire, not just to man in general but to man of today, to whom the message is announced now. Christ made himself the contemporary of some men and spoke their language. Fidelity to him demands that such contemporaneity should continue. This is the Church's whole task, with its Tradition, the Magisterium and preaching.



Pope Paul VI, Address 25 September 1970, in L'Osservatore Romano, 8 October 1970. Quoted in Magisterium, Scripture and Catholic Exegetes by Rev. Thomas McGovern.



UPDATE and ADDITIONAL: I've just visited Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli, one of the indispensable sites. He posted the following excerpt from St. John of the Cross earlier today. The passage above could now almost be read as a gloss.



From The Ascent of Mount Carmel Book II Chapter 22.



In giving us, as He has done, His Son, who is his only Word, He has spoken to us once and for all by His own and only Word, and has nothing further to reveal.

In a few weeks, we'll mark the anniversary of the birth of Augustus Montague Toplady, born on 4 November 1740 and best known as the author of the great hymn Rock of Ages, written in 1776. The tune to which we sing the hymn is named Toplady in his honor and was composed in 1830 by Thomas Hastings, who was born in Connecticut on 15 October 1784.



Hastings, who in his long life wrote dozens of books and musical treatises, trained the voices of scores of choirs, and composed many hundreds of hymn texts and melodies, is far less known and remembered than his contributions warrant.



His memoirs, A History of Forty Choirs, published in 1854, remain well worth reading and are the record of a disciplined and productive Christian life during formative years for America.



Here is the text of his hymn Gently Lord, O gently lead us.



Gently Lord, O gently lead us,

Pilgrims in this vale of tears,

Through the trials yet decreed us,

Till our last great change appears.

When temptation’s darts assail us,

When in devious paths we stray,

Let Thy goodness never fail us,

Lead us in Thy perfect way.



In the hour of pain and anguish,

In the hour when death draws near,

Suffer not our hearts to languish,

Suffer not our souls to fear;

And, when mortal life is ended,

Bid us in Thine arms to rest,

Till, by angel bands attended,

We awake among the blest.

The hunger for freedom passes through the heart of every man, and the richer the heart, the greater that hunger.





Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, in his homily at the International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia, 3 August 1976.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?



The Sombrero Galaxy

John Burwell reports from the epochal meeting in Dallas, A Place to Stand, organized by the American Anglican Council:



46 Bishops in this room

There are 46 deacons in this room

There are 799 Priests

There are 1,413 lay persons in the room

There are 103 seminary students

2,674 people from 600 parishes and missions in every single diocese.



.....



We sang "Shout to the Lord," "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus," and "Come thou Font." We heard Scripture, proclaimed our faith with the Apostles Creed and had a time of opening prayer.



Commentary and reflections also from, among others, Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon, Will Sulik, Midwest Conservative Journal, Ben Domenech. And an article considering ecumenical implications, and quoting the words of Pope John Paul II to the Archbishop of Canterbury: New and serious difficulties have arisen.



Dr. Harmon's site is named for a touchstone and clarion passage of Scripture, Titus 1:9, on the character and quality demanded of a bishop.



Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able both to encourage others by right teaching and to confute those who contradict it.



Joined with our Anglican brethren.

All the way to heaven is already heaven, because Christ says: I am the Way.



Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue

Daniel Brink Towner, music director at several Methodist Episcopal churches and for many years head of the music department at Moody Bible Institute, died on this date, 3 October, in 1919. He was the editor of several hymnals and the composer of hundreds of tunes, among the most familiar being his music for William Reed Newell's hymn At Calvary. You'll remember the opening words and the refrain:



Years I spent in vanity and pride,

Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died, on Calvary.



Mercy there was great, and grace was free;

Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.



Towner was born in 1850 in Rome, Pennsylvania and shares the honors of that town with the great hymn composer Philip Paul Bliss, who is memorialized by a cenotaph in the cemetery there and whose home is maintained as the site of the Gospel Songwriters Museum.

See that you despise not one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.



Matthew 18:10



The Feast of the Guardian Angels is celebrated on 2 October.