by Fred Moleck
With Aloe, Myrrh, and Cinnamon
The wonder of poetry is its capability of stirring up sensations one would never associate with an experience or place.Table Talk for Easter Week offers one such poem that, according to its author, “celebrates the often-neglected sensory dimensions of our life of worship, particularly the sense of smell.”
The writer is Mary Louise Bringle, the poet extraordinaire whose two collections of hymn texts grace GIA’s catalogue—Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing and In Wind and Wonder.
Please use this gem to settle yourself back into the regular rhythm of post-Easter music ministry and try to smell the spices.
With aloe, myrrh, and cinnamon,
the gift of fragrant spice,
we greet the rising of the sun,
our resurrected life begun
in loving sacrifice.The oil of clove and cardamom
anoints each shining face.
The Shepherd’s care, inscribed in psalm,
restores our souls with healing balm:
the christening of grace.In glistening dew, the young grass grows,
the valleys gush with springs.
The desert blossoms like a rose.
A blessed cup which overflows
makes glad each heart that sings.
With Mary and with Salome
who hastened to the tomb,
we find our Christ not sealed away
but risen anew this dawning day
in Easter-sweet perfume.
Mary Louise Bringle, 2000
Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing
© 2002 GIA Publications, Inc.Happy Easter, and smell the spices on your way into the Great Fifty Days.
Blessings.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net