Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today, I’m thinking about the the active word “blessing,” which seems implicit in the readings today.

Psalm 109 suggests that, in contrast to the wicked, or by extension, one’s enemies—that may include the demonic manifestations of sin and death—who takes “no delight in blessing,” God’s orientation to us is different. God, when we cry out to him, treats us as the psalmist pleads: “according to your Name,” delivering us when we cry out in repentance: “but you will bless me.”

One of the ways God blesses us, evident in today's Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians, is by the gift of the Holy Spirit, along with the accompanying spiritual gifts.

The Spirit’s presence brings us into the marvelous dance of the Trinity in it’s perichoretic movement—that sense in which the Persons of the Trinity participate in and an ongoing giving and receiving, in mutual love: the Father gives, the Son receives, the Spirit proceeds, and each participate in and interpenetrate the others. Similarly, Saint Paul described the spiritual gifts as a “manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

The term “dance” has been used in modern discussions of the Trinity and of the interactions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I find it helpful to contemplate this active mode of ‘blessing’ in a musical manifestation.

Take, for instance, the setting of the Latin post-communion benediction by Urmas Sisask (b. 1960), a Latvian composer. This work has repetitive, ritualistic patterns that combine with a kind of narrative arc, with the building and releasing of tension and the stating of central themes, and with of a kind of ecstatic overflowing. This music communicates a human gesturing to the divine together with a liturgical invocation of God’s blessing on us.

Blessings on your day,

—Justin

Benedictio, Urmas Sisask, Trinity College Choir

Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus,
Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus.
Amen.

May the Almighty God bless you,
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.