LIFTING THE SPIRITS:

Music is surely one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Like poetry it helps to give expression to all our experiences and feelings. I had a remarkable example of this at Chester Cathedral this Thursday, when the organ recital concluded with a modern piece entitled, Defeating Lucifer, by Thomas Hewitt-Jones. The organist, Angela Sones, explained that it was the final piece of her recital and “we would know when it had finished”! While I am not always in tune with some modern music, this was a stunning composition and I left the Cathedral more convinced than ever that, no matter what may be going on within or around us, the Lord, through his Passion, Death and Resurrection, has definitively conquered sin and evil. That is what we are preparing to celebrate again in two weeks’ time, as we enter what was traditionally called Passiontide.