 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
July
2, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 13Oakland,
CA
COMMENTARY
• St. Paul demonstrates the value of letter writing
• John Michael Talbot’s new album may be his last
St. Paul demonstrates the value of letter writing
On the eve
of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 28, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI
proclaimed a Pauline Year to honor St. Paul in preparation for the 2000th
anniversary of the great apostle’s birth. The Pauline Year will
run from June 29, 2008 to June 29, 2009 to highlight Paul’s contribution
to the spread of Christianity in the first century.
Church historians reckon that St. Paul was born about 10 A.D. in Tarsus,
now located in present-day Turkey. Following his conversion to Christianity,
he became the Church’s foremost evangelizer in spreading the Gospel
among the Jews and the Gentiles.
Pope Benedict XVI, on his first official venture outside the Vatican in
April 2005, visited the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls
to pray at the tomb of the great apostle and to honor his missionary legacy.
On that occasion he reflected that “The Church is by nature missionary;
its primary task is evangelization. At the beginning of the third millennium,
the Church feels with renewed strength that Christ’s missionary
mandate is more pressing than ever.”
St. Paul’s letters
The inspired letters of St. Paul are a primary source of the history and
teaching of the nascent Church and clearly influenced its early development.
With today’s rapid and varied styles of communication, St. Paul
would have a field day with his extensive contacts for the growth and
development of the Church. The awesome ease of electronic communication
would hold spellbound this inveterate letter writer of the New Testament
and master evangelizer.
However, the demanding and rigorous conditions of letter writing in St.
Paul’s day in no way diminished his passion for this labor of love.
In the beginnings of Christianity the “city churches” communicated
with Paul and other leaders of their time and with each other by letters.
Unfortunately, many of these letters have been lost. Some of Paul’s
letters are responses to letters he received, and in his letters he instructs,
solves problems, and offers encouragement to the local Christian communities.
Letter writing in ancient times
Just what did it take to write a letter in the era of the New Testament’s
formation? The biographical study, “Paul the Apostle,” published
in the mid-19th century by the noted Italian scholar Giuseppe Ricciotti,
details some aspects of ancient letter writing.
Usually letters were written on parchment, which was worked leather, or
on papyrus. Papyrus was a composition of thin, crossed strips of an Egyptian
river reed. It varied in thickness and smoothness, and was formed into
sheets measuring about 10 or 12 inches wide. Neither parchment nor papyrus
offered the smooth writing surface we expect in paper today.
A pen was made from a split reed or a goose quill. The sticky ink was
a mixture of carbon and glue or gum. With rough quality, papyrus writing
was very difficult and the scribe struggled intently to form each letter.
Short letter
With a short letter, such as Paul’s message to Philemon (25 verses),
the finished letter was folded, then sealed with wax or pitch. The name
of the intended receiver was written on the outside along with the name
of the bearer and the intermediate stops. A long letter would be rolled
and enclosed in a sealed envelope, or wrapped in another sheet of papyrus,
then tied with a small cord and sealed.
The actual composition and writing of the letter posed some difficulty.
Determining the content of the message, plus the length of the text, required
considerable effort, writing space, and time. On average each papyrus
sheet held about 140 words. To write three syllables required about one
minute, and an hour’s work produced about 72 words.
St. Paul’s earliest letter, the oldest text in the New Testament,
is the First Letter to the Thessalonians. Scholars estimate that this
required about 11 sheets of papyrus and 20 hours of writing.
A labor of love
His letter to the Romans, his longest, needed 50 sheets and 100 hours
to complete. His shortest letter contains 335 words to Philemon, but required
three sheets and more than four hours. Letter writing was not an easy
task. But it was a labor of love.
Because writing was a tedious task, only two or three hours in a working
day could be devoted to a letter. It is estimated that the Letter to the
Romans must have occupied Paul and his secretary at least 32 days at three
hours a day, or a maximum of 49 days at two hours a day.
These approximate calculations hold special importance for a correct interpretation
and understanding of St. Paul’s letters. Apparent interruptions
in the development of thought, abrupt transitions, and repetition complicate
Paul’s theological reflections and exhortations.
Considering the time involved in actually composing and writing, and factoring
in postponements and interruptions, no wonder Paul’s content and
style are not always easy to follow or to read aloud.
Another New Testament letter writer, St. Peter, admitted frankly that
in the letters of “our beloved brother Paul . . . there are some
things hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Value of letter writing
Reviewing these conditions might serve as a reminder for us about the
importance of letter writing. This seems to be a lost art among most of
the young. The known effects of a handwritten or typed personal letter
are remarkable.
We are not all like St. Paul, but we do have the ability and opportunity
to cheer, console, cajole, congratulate, and encourage each other. Letter
writing is a valuable apostolic venture.
Remember that St. Paul inspired and supported Church vocations by his
letters to Timothy and Titus, and in all his letters exhorted all the
baptized to be faithful to their baptismal consecration.
Writing a personal letter is a wonderful and warm expression of thoughtfulness
and courtesy and appreciation. Letter writing is an inspired apostolate
of expressing God’s love for us, and our love for one another. Let’s
take a page from St. Paul and renew this practice in our own lives.
(Marianist Brother John Samaha is a former religious educator in the
Oakland Diocese who served in the diocesan catechetical office. He is
now retired and living in Cupertino.)
 |
John Michael Talbot’s new album may be his last
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- John Michael Talbot’s newest album, “Living Water,”
will mark more than one noteworthy occurrence.
In addition to being his 50th album, it will also be his last recording
for an unknown period of time as he prepares to take a break from recording
and touring.
“I don’t know whether or not I’m going to quit it, but
I am going to pause for a while,” Talbot told Catholic News Service
in an interview about his new album and his writing style. He spoke by
telephone from his Little Portion Monastery in Arkansas.
For the past 15 years, he has performed in four concert tours a year,
traveling back and forth across the country numerous times and also visiting
Europe.
“I’m kind of preferring to spend some time with nothing for
a while,” he said, adding that what God wants him to do after that
is God’s business.
He still plans to tour in the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009 to promote
his new album, which is to be released Aug. 15.
Although touring is a lot of work, he said he loves doing concerts and
would continue them, except, in prayer, he hears God telling him to stop
and “stand still for a while” so God can direct him. That
could be back into touring, doing prayer walks again or even being a recluse
for the remainder of his life.
“It’s up to God,” Talbot said.
“Living Water” contains a variety of new songs orchestrated
in his traditional meditative style, which he hopes will help his listeners
feel at home with the milestone album.
While he worked from his traditional style, he also experimented with
different orchestrations. He said some songs have a more intimate feel
with few instruments beyond his guitar, while others have full orchestration.
His own favorite songs are those that contain a combination of both styles,
with intimate verses and musically expanded choruses.
In the world of Christian music, Talbot said, his music in general is
unique because he does not follow the trends of popular music.
Instead, he listens to a variety of music -- from chant to rock ‘n’
roll -- and then sits down with his guitar and “the music that comes
out is the music that comes out,” he said.
As his songs go from the writing stage to recording, he identifies a theme
for his album, chooses songs that reflect that theme and then begins recording
his songs with his guitar and primary vocals. Then he dubs his own voice
for background vocals -- often six overdubs of each part for a chorus
of 18 voices. Orchestration is added as the final touch.
Talbot said he is influenced by the Scripture of the day, prayers of the
saints and his own current spiritual life when writing lyrics. He is particularly
partial to the Psalms, Isaiah, the books of Wisdom, the Sermon on the
Mount and the sections of Paul’s letters where “he really
lets his heart show.”
In addition to Scripture, Talbot’s new album also contains Mass
parts, although Talbot said he’s writing more for personal prayer
than for its use as liturgical music.
But in writing music, Talbot believes it’s not his job to create
the music but, instead, to let God inspire it.
“In the mind of God, the song has been there forever, and the job
of the composer is to find that song,” he said.
However, he thinks a musical artist can fail by not working diligently
enough to find the song and can also fail by overworking the song. The
key is to find the right balance.
At the monastery that he founded in 1980, the community has recently started
raising free-range chickens -- those raised outside any kind of pens --
in the middle of Tyson chicken country in Arkansas. He wants the community
to be self-sufficient beyond what he provides through his music’s
profits.
In looking at current trends in liturgical music, Talbot doesn’t
think Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments that liturgical music
needs to reflect the traditional sacred music of the Church means the
pope is calling for a change in the style of current liturgical music.
He thinks the pope is referring instead to music of such poor quality
that it hinders instead of helps prayer during Mass.
