Vespers

The Vesper light is soft and golden. It is the image of this time that I have sought to write into music. The theme chants in measured tones, not hurried or even interpreted. Through the glowing colors of stained glass windows the light of the setting sun stretches eastward across the sanctuary and lands above the altar over the tabernacle. In that tabernacle is the Reserve Sacrament: Here is the Shekinah. In that presence, the fragile light of the dying sun invites our prayers, sung as chants, at once restful and intense, outwardly calm, inwardly moving. So we rest in the work of prayer, refreshment that comes only by ascending a while out of the cares of the world into the presence of God.