Eastertide - Let All Creatures Praise the Lord
Antiphonal Morning Prayer with Nature, plus a brief chant tutorial
Easter Greeting: Christ is risen!
Response: Indeed he is risen. Alleluia!
With Easter and the arrival of Spring, I have taken my Benedictine Morning Prayer outdoors. I do so on the mornings when we don’t meet down the road at the Burton Community Church.
As well as in sanctuary spaces, Morning Prayer, I believe, is meant to be recited in nature. Especially now!
I head outdoors to the spot below a roof overhang, where I face East. This place has been my “sit spot,” where I have actively cultivated naturalist skills and nature connection. Now it is my “prayer spot.”
I find my place, joining those who are already gathered.
In circle around me, the birds have already begun their morning song. The succession of melodies and calls are their proclamation that “all is well, all is beautiful.” The trees and shrubs uplift their new leaves in prayer, and, at my feet, Purple Archangel (more commonly called purple dead nettle, or henbit) heralds the new day.
And the scent! The air is suffused with the blossoms of Spring, an incense of viriditas offered to help carry our prayers to heaven. Wild cherry adorned with flowery poofs, and plum and apple beginning to join in with similar finery are accompanied by the abundant scattering of small suns throughout the field, dandelions in flower.
I listen and observe. Dawn is underway, yet the sun remains unseen. Then, standing, I open my psalter. I make the sign of the cross, and begin cantoring Morning Prayer.
I pause often - mostly to soak in how the natural world is in chant and song. When the Liturgy of the Hours is chanted by people, we alternate verses. One side of the aisle sings one verse, the other side takes up the next. We chant back and forth through the psalm or canticle.
Outdoors, I (the lone human), chant all the verses, but pause after each one, to allow nature to express the verses as written in their psalter. In this way we chant antiphonally.
So, thus, I chant with nature the Canticle, Daniel 3:47-88.
From the Mundelein Psalter, it begins:
Antiphon 2: Our Redeemer has risen from the tomb; * let us sing a hymn of praise to the Lord our God, alleluia.
The words are chanted to the tones notated as above. Here is a very brief tutorial:
The “C” clef indicates the “do” pitch (as in do-re-me, or solfege).
The open notehead of the first measure is the reciting tone. You chant all the words on the same pitch.
When you reach the italicized syllable or word, you shift to the new tones, one per syllable.
The asterisk in the text indicates the end of the first measure or phrase, and signals your movement to the second measure. The tones of this second measure work the same way: chant all the words on the pitch indicated by the open notehead. At the italicized word or syllable you chant each syllable on a new pitch per syllable.
It’s easier to understand when you hear the words chanted. Listen to my audio of the Canticle, Daniel 3:47-88, and you’ll catch on. Note that the audio, while recorded outside, is a straight-through chanting by me, with no pauses for nature’s recitation. Another time, maybe, I’ll record differently!
Antiphon and Daniel 3:47-88 chanted
Here are the first two lines of the canticle:
Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.* Praise and exalt him above
all forever.Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,*
You heavens, bless the Lord.
When chanting antiphonally with nature, you might pause after each verse and notice. How is nature expressing the words? How do you discern heaven here on earth, or Jewish history in our modern events?
Specific to the two verses above, right here and now, where do you experience the angels, the heavens?
Fairly soon in the canticle is this verse:
Sun and moon, bless the Lord.* Stars
of the heaven, bless the Lord.
Notice where and how the sun is present, visible or below the horizon. Where is the moon, or or where do you imagine the moon to be? Which stars might be in the sky right now, but obscured by the dawn?
Every shower and dew, bless the Lord.*
All you winds, bless the Lord.
I notice the dew on the grasses, perfect tiny orbs or worlds, reflecting and embodying the perfection of God’s created world. I recall the showers that have passed in the night or may be coming soon. April showers are plentiful in the Pacific Northwest!
And what about the breeze against my skin? The winds taking hands with the clouds or the trees? Are they strong or gentle? What is their movement and from which direction?
Other verses in turn focus my attention on various expressions of creation, from fire and heat to cold and chill, to the earth, mountains and hills to the springs, seas, and rivers. Eventually Israel and the people are included. And indeed, this verse …
All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord.*
You sons of men, bless the Lord.
… places us all within this succession of praise. We are all created works of the Lord. And, like the flow of night into day and the seasons, the birds in their song and activities, and the parade of leaf, blossom, fruit, and shedding with the trees, we are to give praise, to glorify God, in the sweep of the thoughts and emotions, and actions of our lives. In how we care about one another and the earth and love God.
The beings and movements of nature follow their design. It is beautiful to witness their morning praise, doing what they do, in inborn trust to the flow of their lives. Our wonder, awe, and deep attention and delight in the magnificence of creation, is praise of God - if we recognize it as such. Our faith, hope and charity - expressed in right conduct, words, and actions and other things we do and embody, are the design by which we glorify God, and deepen into love.
Appreciating the beautiful morning is natural to our hearts. It takes only one more alignment for our delight and awe to become prayer - and that is our realization that we are facing God, and our decision to keep facing God. A reordering of our day and our life follows. It’s a decision we make each morning, and one to make again and again throughout the arc of one small day into night and back: this - this - this!
Our continued praise of the Lord and surrender to this exquisite relationship is nothing short of Springtime after a long winter, ourselves as tiny plants unfurling and rooting into a rich, in-tune music, or as song birds singing into a previously unperceived weave of harmonies and rhythms. And more than that of course, for we as children of God, created in God’s image, have specific ground to till within this spread of continuing story.
Sing to the Lord a new song - let us go forth and greet the day!
Yours in Christ,
Jane
You inspire me to get up at Birdsong and sing praises either aloud or in my heart.