He who joins in singing a chorale, or who listens to the mass, the Christmas oratorio, the passion… wants to make his soul stand with both feet in time, in the most real time of all, in the time of the one day of the world of which all individual days of the world are but a part. Music is supposed to escort him there.
–Franz Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, quoted in this interesting piece. (There’s some unspoken stuff here as well about the interplay between satisfaction and surprise in the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah in distinctly unpromising form….) Link via First Thoughts.