21 March 2010

Three pieces of music for Passion Sunday

Patrick Comerford

I was interviewed by the Revd Stephen Farrell on Dublin South Radio (93.9 FM) this evening [Sunday 21 March 2010].

Dublin South Radio is a small, local community-based station, working out of a studio in Dundrum Shopping Centre, and is without a website or facilities for web versions of its programmes.

Stephen, who is a curate in Taney Parish, the local Church of Ireland parish, is a former student at the Church of Ireland Theological College, and was a Scholar of both Jesus College Oxford and Trinity College Dublin.

In the course of this 30-minute programme we discussed my vocation, my previous career as a journalist, my work in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, my involvement in Christ Church Cathedral, my studies in Cambridge, and my regular retreats in Lichfield and in Saint John’s Monastery in Tolleshunt Knights in Essex.

He also asked me to select three pieces of music for the programme.

The first was Leonard Cohen’s If it be your will, which I also used in the chapel on Friday evening as an introduction to discussing how we discern God’s will as we seek to answer his call to ministry.

The second piece was The words of the thief crucified, by the Russian composer Paverl Chesnekov, and sung by the Russian tenor Evgeni Akimov. This was an appropriate piece for Passion Sunday, as we begin to prepare for Holy Week next week.

The third and final piece was Hubert Parry’s I was glad, sung by Lichfield Cathedral Choir: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.” This is a beautiful version of Psalm 122, and is popularly associated with Coronations. But I felt it a very appropriate and joyful expression of responding to God’s call, and I enjoyed the link this provided with what I was saying about Lichfield during the interview.

Canon Patrick Comerford is Director of Spiritual Formation, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

With participants on the residential weekend course at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute this weekend

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