The Anchoress
:::UPDATE:::: GOAL REACHED! Applaud yourselves for the hand you’ve had in a creative endeavor! :::END UPDATE:::
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. – Saint Augustine, Confessions
That’s perhaps one of the most beautiful, vivid expositions of ecstatic prayer known to us. It gives voice to our common longing for be-longing to the One who is All Love, All Truth, All Wisdom and the Ocean of Mercy into which we each know we must plunge if we are to survive ourselves.
Image those ideas and images, that sense of humility, outreach and consummation given expression through a form other than writing — through music.
It is that typically beautiful and slightly mad project into which Sam Rocha has aspired to put his energies, with an album of original music called “Late to Love.”
What sort of music? All sorts; a prayer with so many facets permits and even encourages a multitude of expressions, so we’re talking Folk Music, Soul Music, Funk. Jazz.
I want to hear that.
A friend and I were talking just the other day about how the church needs to take its profound understanding of Truth as Beauty and Beauty as Christ and impart that understanding through engagement with the media and art forms that people are currently fascinated with — printing, fashion, cuisine, counter-intuitive musical formats. The church has encouraged, sustained and protected beauty throughout artistic venues like no other human entity; she is beauty’s ever-patron, and yet so many who are gifted and called to serve beauty do not know her! How better to evangelize a savvy and easily-bored culture than with something they like, strained through the sieve of signs and wonders and infinite mystery? How better to approach creative communities of people who (because they are artists) understand that there is a Spark of some creative Other involved in the endless possibilities of their art, but have not understood that they can make its acquaintance and learn to live, work and pursue One-ness within it.
This is the greatest use of art.
I want to be part of delivering the brilliance of this ancient Doctor of the Church to a segment of the population that has perhaps never encountered him, and that’s why I’ve contributed to the Kickstarter Project that Sam launched in order to finance production and distribution of his album.
He’s calculated that he needs $8,000 to do the job. Currently, he has raised $6,631.00 and he has four more days to pick up $1,369.00.
What do you think, can we bring this baby home? It’s Lent — season of giving and selfless encouragement! If 133 people contribute $10 each (or 266 contribute $5 each; or if 66.5 people contribute $20 each; or if 1300 people give $1 each) we can have a hand in delivering something very new to a bored, distracted and rather numb world; maybe we can shake it up and in the process awaken a few souls who know — because everyone knows it, instinctively, even if they don’t realize it — that our hearts will not rest until they rest in God.
And we’d keep Sam writing thank you notes for a very long time!
His budget:
Amazon/Kickstarter fees: $800
5 days of studio recording and mix down: $3,000
Musician fees: $2,000
Travel, lodging, meals: $2,000
Perk expenses: $200
TOTAL: $8,000
He’s almost there! You can read Tony Rossi’s interview with Sam, on the album, here.
I really like this:
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