[Salvation]

Advent through Christmas -- 2007

The Mysterious Requiem

Wednesday, December 5, First Week in Advent

On this day in 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died, leaving unfinished one of his most famous and most “mysterious” works, the haunting “Requiem Mass in D Minor.”

The composition fueled speculation and mystery for two centuries after it was anonymously commissioned as a funeral Mass.

Mozart died before he could complete more than half of the composition, but his widow, Constanze, directed Mozart’s pupil, Franz Xavier Sussmayer, to finish the work.

Scholars have since ascribed mythological qualities to the “Requiem” and Mozart himself is said to have viewed the piece’s peculiar genesis as a foreshadowing of his own death.

Mozart died at age 35 of rheumatic fever. Some academics theorize that Mozart was destined to never finish the work.

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Baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfganus Theophilus Mozart, Mozart often signed his name Amadeus, which is the Latin equivalent of Theophilus.

The eight day Jewish feast o Hanukkah begins today.

[Salvation]

Advent through Christmas -- 2007

Wednesday, December 5, First Week in Advent

Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Matthew 15:29-37

Jesus came to reshape human society and create a new order in the world – the reign of God. These miraculous healings are signs of what Jesus came to accomplish.

Jesus isn’t showing off his power. Nor is he scrambling to go around and heal every sick person in the world. He is preaching through signs that show what the reign of God is like. He is showing us the future and calling us to be part of bringing it about.

Even though we can’t perform miracles, we can join in the Lord’s work through acts of kindness, forgiveness, peace. These signs change the world (and us) for the better, and help reveal the reign of God..

Christmas is less than three weeks away. There is a spirit of friendship in the air that actually makes it easier to reach out to others. No one would think us strange if out of the blue we “miraculously” touched another person’s life with a simple note, a Christmas card, a phone call, a visit, a kind gift, a word asking forgiveness…a word giving forgiveness.

It’s in the air, there for the asking.

Spend some quiet time with the Lord.