Remember

This Sunday is All Saints day. We will remember and light candles for all those we lost in the past year. A little candle for each named person. A large candle for all those we name in silence.

I will remember my grandmother. My cousin. Tierney's father. And grieve for all that is lost. I will look at the sunshine through the stain-glass windows and see the colours, unchanged and bright. And I will hold the pain dearly. The only pain is to feel nothing at all.

This is one of the songs we will be singing, a poem called "Remember" by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) with music by Stephen Chatman:

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

commissioned by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Makes me cry, that one.

The Sunday after we're singing one we did two years ago by Michael Horvit:

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining
I believe in love even when feeling it not
I believe in God even when God is silent

commissioned by congregation Emanu-El, Houston, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Faith and Hope. For me, Faith does not necessarily mean faith that God exists, because - what does that mean? For me, Faith means believing in goodness. Believing in love. Believing that no hurt is intended even when felt. Believing in mistakes rather than malice. Believing that by giving and forgiving, our heart grows. That damage done by holding on to hurt or pain is much larger than any risk you take by opening your heart and trusting.