Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day
from
“Godspell”; it opened
off-Broadway
on this date, 1971
I was in seminary at the
General Theological Seminary in NYC from 1971 to 1973. Somewhere in there,
Trinity Institute happened. And they “bought out” a night at Godspell. It’s hard for me to imagine it
was over 40 years ago! The theatre was sold out that night, with layfolk and
huge numbers of priests. I was a monk at the time, and I went in my white habit
… which rather made me stand out in all that clerical black.
My absolute favourite moment
was the song “Turn back, O Man, forswear thy foolish ways”. In the Hymnal, it
is of course one of our staid metrical hymns. But in Godspell it was superbly rewritten as a vamp song. Mary Magdalene
appeared from the side of the stage, singing it as a torch song; as she sang, she
wandered through the aisles, having a great time plopping herself in the laps
of clergy, including Bishop Stephen Bayne, who was Dean of the seminary at the
time. It was a great evening! I kept thinking of all the people who were seeing
Godspell, and hoping that they saw a
whole new side of God and the Gospel.
How we get caught up in the
complexities of “Religion”! Doctrine, the Trinity, etc. “Day by Day” goes to
the heart of the Gospel … and to the simple heart of all great religious paths.
The lyrics come from a prayer written by the 12th C English Bishop,
Richard of Chichester.
Three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
“God” is Love … Compassion …
Justice … Kindness … Openness to new truths as revealed by Life and Experience …
all those things that St. Paul said about Love.
To spend our lives on the Path
of seeing God more clearly, Loving God more dearly, Following God more nearly …
this would make a wonderful World for us human beings to live in.
Brian+
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