Author: william

Once upon a time there lived a man named Rafiq, who was renowned for his immense wealth. He owned vast lands, countless treasures, and had a grand palace that sparkled with gold. People marveled at his riches and envied his luxurious life. One day, Rafiq heard of a wise elder who lived in the mountains,…

“In the Shadow of the Almighty” W. Hartmann (b. 1953) Improvisation First of all, there’s an important (and hopefully interesting) clarification I need to make about last week’s Music Box. That M-Box was about the sentence in the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our EPIOUSIOS bread,” and we explored how “EPIOUSIOS” is a Greek…

Easter Prelude              C. Callahan Susan Addington, Flute Improvisation Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was one of the most renowned Japanese Zen Masters. His father was a Confucian scholar and a samurai who turned to the practice of medicine. In school, Bankei studied the usual Confucian classics, which confused him greatly. So…

Last week I talked about ‘sources’ and ‘sinks’. Namely, that in electronics there is the concept of ‘sources’ and ‘sinks’. That an electronics ‘source’ provides current to a circuit (for example, a battery), while a ‘sink’ consumes electricity (for example, a light bulb). And I talked about a bit about how to metaphorically apply this…

Thomas Merton was a 20th-century Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, and poet, best known for his exploration of spirituality and social justice. Born in 1915, Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky in 1941, where he lived until his death in 1968. His most famous work, “The Seven Storey Mountain,” is an autobiographical account…

Frequently Jesus seems to me to be like a ‘Zen Rabbi,’ making crazy-sounding statements that jolt me out of my conventional ways of thinking. His statement “Unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven” would certainly qualify! (Matt 18:2-5) So, what ARE we to make of this verse? I…

Autumn Rain                             W. Zeitler [PIANO] Improvisation One of Jesus’ more famous sayings is  “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). The Greek word for ‘way’ is hODOS (pronounced “hah-DAHS”), and it has a lovely depth of meaning. The…

“All Glory, Laud and Honor”                           J.S.Bach (1685-1750) (Note: the hymn tune is played by the tuba & organ pedals, in slow motion.) Toccata                                         …

The hymn’s lyrics to “What Wondrous Love is This” were first published in Lynchburg, Virginia in the c. 1811 camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. In most early printings, the hymn’s text was attributed to an anonymous author, though the 1848 hymnal…

Fugue in E minor (BWV 548), “The Wedge” In many ways I think Lent is when the rubber meets the road, spiritually speaking. That is, religion and spirituality are all well and good when things are going well. But it can be challenging to feel their necessity in sunny times. However, when we face adversity,…