Skip to main content

God's Endless Mercies // Jackson Riddle

Liturgical dramas, where have you been all my life? Such poetic history seems like it should be something worth mentioning in the church today, as it holds so much weight in the history of the church. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Ordo Virtutum. Giving each virtue a voice to share their purpose and meaning gave so much depth to each one, and made them more than just a word. I particularly enjoyed how, when the Soul calls out to the Virtues saying "Woe is me therefore, because I fled from you", the Virtues responded with grace and mercy, accepting the Soul (Bingen, 8). Regardless of the fact that the Soul fled from Virtues and served the Devil, Virtues was quick to forgive and take back the Soul.

After this exchange between the Soul and Virtues, the Devil butts in saying "You embraced me, and I led you forth, but now by turning back you defy me. Yet my assault will hurl you down." The Soul, having been rescued by Virtues, has a new vigor, and responds with "I recognized that all my ways were evil, and so I escaped from you. But now, deceiver, I fight against you" (Bingen, 10). I love this. This right here feels like an epic scene in an action movie where the hero, having been beaten down, rises up in defiance of the villain and says, "Not today". This play is symbolic of mankind's relationship with God. We stray from Him, satisfy our earthly pleasures and serve the Devil in doing so, but once we realize our mistakes God is always right there to forgive us and offer mercy. I love it.


Commented on Clabo and Abbie's posts.

Comments

  1. ClaboMarch 30, 2021 at 12:49 AM

    I agree with you man. These dramas are very inspiring and it's sad that we don't see more things like this today. The crazy part is that we can only wonder how inspiring it was to the people back then if it is still able to inspire us today.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...
4 comments
Read more

Honor and Gain; Which Do You Seek?

 Pericles.... thanks? I can only imagine that's what the family and friends were thinking after they heard his historic funeral speech honoring the departed. What do I mean? Well, Pericles briefly mentions the men who have fallen at the beginning of his speech, but then goes on to discuss how great Athens is, and how the contributions the city has made to the world are unmatched.. why? I understand that he is also commending the citizens of Athens and empowering them to continue to make their city greater, but I thought this was supposed to be a funeral speech about dead war heroes, not about Athens. Another thing I found interesting is what Pericles said on page five about honor: "For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness" (Thucydides, page 5). Have you ever watched a show or movie, or read a book, about a duel between two men? There is always an unspoken agre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aristotle Might Not Like Me...Or Jesus//Haylee Lynd

      Aristotle says that the man who does not get angry at the things he should be angry at "is thought unlikely to defend himself; and to endure being insulted and put up with insult to one's friends is slavish" (Aristotle 41). While he states that passivity is preferred to excessive anger, he still gives great criticism to it.  In contrast to Aristotle, the man who Christians believe to be the most just is Jesus who states in Matthew 5:39-40, "...do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Essentially, arguing that one is not to respond in anger when insulted or hurt, to not defend one's self. Most individual's are unable to achieve this. Our natural instinct is to defend ourselves, especially in physical cases. However, Christians strive to be like Jesus in this way. I would also argue that it is a very admirable wa...
2 comments
Read more