John Koza
Dear Siblings in Christ,
If you pray the Daily Office you know that most days we celebrate/remember a saint or someone of significance in the history of the church, or a well-known devout follower of Christ.
Today we remember the English priest and poet John Donne (c. 1571-1631).
(Incidentally, if you are interested in following this portion of the lectionary, all the saints are listed in the book, Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell and Christopher L. Webber—thank you Fr Matthew for the referral—or in the Daily Office at www.forwardmovement.org.)
Although I knew a little of Donne’s poetry, I was not aware that he was born into a Roman Catholic family, nor did I know he became a priest in the Church of England and was made Dean at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1621.
“The people of London flocked to his sermons.” One source states: “Donne could write, with equal facility and depth, passionate poems of secular love and passionate poems of sacred love, both sorts informed by large-minded wit.”
Interestingly, a devotee of Donne’s poetry was J. Robert Oppenheimer, the atomic bomb physicist. In the opera Dr. Atomic, composer John Adams set the text “Holy Sonnet” (Batter my heart) for the Oppenheimer tenor at a point of major conflict in the opera. That text is below.
Batter my heart, three person’d God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me me should defend,
But is captiv’d and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me; for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Given the years between Donne and me, and differences in our language, I may never fully comprehend all the words he penned. But thanks to John Adams, they will always give me reason to pause and ponder.
You can hear a recording at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQQC-XgZQY
In Christ,
—John