[ by Charles Cameron — cross-posted from Zenpundit ]
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It is the evening of another Maundy Thursday — in the western Christian tradition, the day on which Christ washed the feet of his disciples:
The inherent poetry of the gesture — and no matter your opinion of the edifice that Christianity has become, it is a gesture of simple humility, possessing and transmitting the poetic power that humility alone affords us — that poetry, for me, will always be associated particularly with the paragraph I have dropped into the image above.
It is a paragraph from my mentor Fr. Trevor Huddleston‘s book, Naught for Your Comfort, and I believe it sums up his life’s work.
Today I remember him: monk and teacher.
Tomorrow is Pesach — in the Christian west, Good Friday and the Crucifixion: I shall listen to Bach.
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Inset image of the eyes of Christ from an icon by Andrei Rublyev
If you are listening to Bach, I would suggest shelling out for the Apollo’s Fire version of the St. John Passion. The professors at Cleveland Inst. of Music did an English translation for their group.