Sabbath Moments
June 5, 2010
Sabbath moments are the moments we rest in God, when we take time to just Be with God rather than Do. Sabbath moments are those times when we live in the moment and find the holy in the ordinary. Join Colleen at Thoughts on Grace to read of other Sabbath Moments.
Ever since I started participating in this theme, the words of the second alto aria from Felix Mendelssohn’s great oratorio Elijah have echoed in my brain. “O rest in the Lord” is one of the most beautiful and simple (not to sing!) in composition, with the melody evoking the feeling of the words.
The setting occurs when an angel has come to Elijah in the wilderness after he has fled Jezebel. He is lying under a tree, exhausted, and asks the Lord to take his life because his suffering is so unbearable. He falls asleep and is awakened by an angel who gives him bread and water. He then falls asleep again and again the angel wakes him, this time giving him enough food to survive forty days (there’s that forty days again) in the wilderness. This aria refers to the second appearance of the angel who encourages Elijah to persevere in doing the will of God in evil circumstances.
Mendelssohn gives the angel these verses taken from Psalm 37: “O rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee thy heart’s desires. Commit thy way unto Him, and trust in Him, and fret? not thyself because of evildoers.”
It seems that the angel’s words to Elijah can apply to all of us in today’s world. Bad news and evil doings abound. We can’t find any media which is not pontificating on all of it, and much of the hot air is ignorant, vicious, and duplicitous. It is tempting to engage ourselves in the fray, but does that not, for some of us, take us away from a focus on God and the mission he has given us individually in this life? The angel sings to us as he did to Elijah: “O rest in the Lord…and fret not thyself because of evildoers.”
If you would like to hear the aria I have embedded a YouTube upload with orchestra so you can hear it as Mendelssohn wrote it except that the conductor is using a faster tempo than usual. The aria should be about 3:40 but this recording comes in under 3 minutes. It was, however, the best of the ones that could be embedded. The one most faithful to Mendelssohn’s prescribed tempo had the embedding code disabled. 
Whenever I listen to oratorios or sacred choral music, for sure I am “resting in the Lord.”
3 Comments to Sabbath Moments
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“O rest in the Lord.” Love it! Great post. God bless you!
“… live in the moment and find the holy in the ordinary.” Beautiful! Much like we do in the Blessed Sacrament and in the sacrament of the present moment. And to “rest in the Lord, to wait patiently for Him, to trust in Him,” for then “He will give us our heart’s desires” — what comfort, what consolation! Thanks for sharing these verses. A local choir will be performing “Elijah” this month. I will see if we can afford to go. Your video has inspired me to see it!
I promise that if the vocalists are good you will enjoy it!