There is a particular setting of Psalm 31 that I love to sing for the Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion:(start at 14:30). It was composed by Rev. Chrysogonus Waddell, OCSO, of Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky, a confrère of Thomas Merton. He set the words very simply, for an a cappella soloist and three-part choir on the refrain. At St. John’s I have the cello play a pedal tone to keep us all in tune. The half-steps Chrysogonus incorporates into the verses make for a haunting melody, bleak but expressive. Every verse ends with an increasingly ornamented keening cry of “Êlî, Eli, lāmâ lăzabhthānî?”
In today’s first reading, St. Stephen invites us back to that Good Friday moment. He expresses the same trust in the face of death that Jesus expressed on the cross. But, instead of asking God the Father to receive his spirit, he asks Jesus to receive it. Stephen, the first martyr, points to Christ in every moment of his life, even the darkest moment. He trusts God-with-us, and invites us to that trust as well.
Rev. Chrysogonus composed another piece that I love to use during Easter, and for funerals. “Jesus Lives” was the last piece he composed before his own death. May we, like the saints, “go where he is gone; rest and reign with him in heaven. Alleluia!”
Jesus lives; thy terrors now can, O death, no more appall us.
Jesus lives; by this we know thou, O death, cannot enthrall us. Alleluia!
Jesus lives; henceforth is death but the gate to life immortal.
This shall calm our trembling breath when we pass its gloomy portal. Alleluia!
Jesus lives; our hearts know well naught from us his love shall sever.
Life, nor death, nor powers of hell tear us from his keeping ever. Alleluia!
Jesus lives; to him the throne over all the world is given.
May we go where he is gone; rest and reign with him in heaven. Alleluia!
Molly Mattingly
I grew up in north of Chicago with my parents, brother, and sister. My parents led the 5:00pm Mass music ensemble at my home parish while I was growing up, so you could also say I grew up in a church choir! Music has always been a part of my life, through school choirs, piano lessons, and music ministry. I accompanied and sang in choirs in grade school and at Carmel Catholic High School. During that time, I also swam on my YMCA swim team and worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor at a local park district.
After high school, I studied Music Education and Music Theory at Ithaca College, with an emphasis in piano and choral direction. There I was also co-director of our Catholic Community’s music ministry. I graduated from Ithaca in ’09, and like many of my classmates who graduated the year the recession peaked, was lucky enough to find a place in grad school. I got my Masters in Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame (go Irish!), where I was involved with the Folk Choir and Notre Dame Vision retreat program. Most recently, I spent two years in Wexford, Ireland as a member and House Director of the House of Brigid, a lay community of young adults dedicated to the renewal of the Church in Ireland through catechesis and music. (Check out their website if you want to see other blog posts I’ve written and see beautiful pictures of Ireland.) And now, my music ministry vocation brought me to Creighton University and St. John’s, where I am the music director at the parish and Campus Ministry!
