Music for the Words From the Cross

“Don’t hurry by the cross on your way to Easter joy!
To accompany Jesus to his end is to discover our beginning.”  
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1516
Matthias Grunewald

“Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do.”
Musical meditation: “My Song is Love Unknown” Words: Samuel Crossman (1624-83)
My song is love unknown, my Savior's love to me;
Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake My Lord should take Frail flesh, and die? (First verse)
Music: John Ireland (1879-1962); King’s College Choir, Cambridge

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me 
in paradise.”
Musical meditation: “Pie Jesu” (Merciful Jesus) from Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) of the Requiem Mass by John Rutter. The Cambridge Singers and The City of London Sinfonia; Solo: Caroline Ashton

“. . . (Jesus) said to his mother, ’Woman, 
behold your son! Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
Musical meditation: J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, “Agnus Dei”, Michael Chance, English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, Conducting

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Musical meditation: Hassler: “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” ('Passion Chorale': English Hymnal No. 102; O Haupt voll Blud und Wunden from the St Matthew Passion BWV244 Nos. 21 & 72); King's College Choir, Cambridge

“I thirst.”
Musical meditation: John Rutter, “The Lord is My Shepherd”; The Cambridge Singers & Quentin Poole & City of London Sinfonia

“It is finished.” 
and 
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Musical meditation: Henry Purcell: “Hear My Prayer, O Lord”; Choir of Clare College Cambridge & Timothy Brown