Friday 6 April 2012

The Centurion's Prayer. An Ignatian Remembrance


This short personal reflection is offered on Good Friday 2012 as a foil to the crass commercialisation and diversionary spirit that has overtaken the time of Easter throughout much of the Western world. It offers an Ignatian remembrance - an act of conscious imagining and visualisation - of the events that took place in Palestine some 2,000 years ago when Jesus of Nazareth suffered the fate of a common criminal in the act of execution by crucifixion ordered by the Roman governor at that time.

Yet the time of Easter bespeaks more than a Paschal sacrifice. It heralds the regeneration and renewal that emanates endlessly through the opened heart of love and mercy.

The music that accompanies this piece was composed and performed by Nico Di Stefano.




The Centurion's Prayer can be streamed using the media player above. A CD quality mp3 audio file is available for download here.

The Poem

 

The Centurion's Prayer. An Ignatian Remembrance


             The thorny crown thrust hard
             The cheering, the jeering,
             Hot gushes from the lashes
             And the gashes in torn flesh
             But this was not enough.

             Seamless garment rent and sundered
             Golden skin now flayed and opened
             Rubies glisten in the desert
             Water drying in the dust
             And this was not enough.


             The beam that tore your bloodied shoulder
             The nails that fixed your earthly fate
             Your mercy call on those before you
             Mercy call on those to come
             And these were not enough.

             The well run dry, the sap drawn thin
             The bitter gall, the final call
             The trembling and the darkening
             Your greater garment rent again
             Beyond the pillars of the temple.



   Empty now of blood and water
   Empty now of fire and air
   Descend again to she who formed you
   To scent of earth, to breath of wind
   Renew again our ground of being.

2 comments:

  1. Many thanks, Vince. Both offerings leave me with much love, hope and lightness of being.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Felicia. The hope that you yourself transmit is both a light in this present time of darkness and lightens the burden of many.

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