Magnum Mysterium

One of my best discoveries in music recently was a CD dedicated to the memory of Ingmar Bergman. I found it in the bookshop of the Bose Monastery, which by the way is a most beautiful place and community. The beauty of Magnum Mysterium fits perfectly with the beauty of Bose. Jan Lundgren, grand piano and keyboards, and Lars Danielsson, bass and cello, with the Gustaf Sjökvist Chamber Choir have created a treasure of sacred choral music intertwined with the rhythm and harmony of jazz.

Ingmar Bergman said of himself that he was not a believer, "yet I believe that music has been given to us to give us a glimpse of realities and worlds beyond the one we are living in."

Jesus the incapable manager

The recent issue of Neue Wege - Beiträge zu Religion und Sozialismus* - right, the socialist ideal is not dead - features an interview Ina Praetorius did with Alphonse-Marie Bitulu from Kinshasa, who wrote a book entitled "Jésus, le mauvais gestionnaire" - Jesus, the incapable manager. The title and approach intrigue me. It points to a discrepancy of an ever more managed church and christian or religious service which at the same time often seems to drown in dilettantism and mismanagement. But the myth that good (today meaning results-based) management automatically yields good results grows steadily and threatens to suffocate true vision, creativity and authentic care for each other.

By the way, Bitulu wrote the book in the late Mobutu years, that's quite a while ago. He tells Praetorius that he was pressured to put a question mark behind the title, or change it. Bitulu has written other books, none of which were published because he does not have the means...

* Neue Wege Nr 9, 2009

Snow and flowers

On Monday morning I visited a lonely elderly farmer in the Jura. As I drove up to his house he stood on a heap of snow that had come down from the roof and shoveled some of it off, so it would not block the view from the kitchen window. Upon my arrival he stepped down and showed me the other side of the old farm house - at least one meter of snow still. Then yesterday as I walked out of the Geneva train station I was surprised by a range of shining daffodils in full bloom, strong and tall. Now this morning as I walked out of the house - it is below the Jura farm but higher up than Geneva - I found crocus and perce-neige, literally: snow-drills by the house - they had appeared over night just as soon as the snow was gone.

The contrast between the Jura mountains and Geneva is striking this year. My friends up there must wait weeks before they can plant, while down below the planting season is off to a quick start. Nature is curious, strange, surprising, eccentric, persistent, strong. It can't be fooled, but it fools us regularly. It has done so many times this past winter, which up here is not quite over yet. I love snow - the more the better and it doesn't bother me that it brings high-tech civilization to a halt once in a while. There is something very reassuring and comforting in natures "caprices" in times where so much is intended, assumed or pretended to be under control. Essentially things made by humans are not so much under control as they are hectic, pretentious and incapable of producing real and profound comfort.

Poverty and Paradise

Yesterday I was at the House of Religions in Bern - a wonderful place where cultures and religions meet, where people of different faith traditions get to know each other and understand something more about each other. I find the place beautiful primarily because it makes me realize and appreciate the beauty in the other's life and history, and I assume the same happens to others. I attended a meeting of Ecumenical Accompaniers, who spent several weeks or months in Israel and Palestine. That in itself is worth a book of blogs. As I arrived at the House of Religions my eyes were drawn to a brochure "Armut und Paradies" - Poverty and Paradise. An intriguing pair of terms, and that at the House of Religions. The exhibit ponders the notions of poverty and paradise in different cultures and religions. The brochure also prepared me mentally for the meeting with the EA's - people who I regard as Saints - they gave time and themselves to a people living mostly in utter poverty in a land where the idea or perspective of paradise has been present for ages. Contrasts, complexities, terror and beauty all at once. Paradise is not exactly what comes up in the context of Gaza. But I'm fascinated and intrigued by the pairing of the terms poverty and paradise.