This might be worth a commute for some of you, so I am sharing it early!

I am very pleased to announce that the Anerio Institute will be presenting what we hope to be our first-annual Musical Oratory of Lent at Old St. Mary's Church, 123 East 13th Street, Cincinnati, OH on Tuesday, March 5th, at 6.30pm.

The Oratory Singers & members of the Parish Orchestra will be presenting an extraordinary work -- Membra Jesu Nostri Patientis Sanctissima (the Most Holy Limbs of Our Suffering Jesus), by the North German composer, and major influence of J.S. Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude (d. 1707). This work sets to exquisite and moving music large portions of a mediaeval Latin verse, Salve mundi salutare, which is an extended meditation on the crucified Body of Christ. This text is, ultimately, the source of the beloved Passiontide hymn, 'O Sacred Head Surrounded'. It is often attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, but was more likely written by the Cisterican abbot Arnulf of Leuven.

Both the poem and the music are divided into seven sections, each focusing on a different wound of Christ -- the feet, the knees (torn by the falls), the hands, the side, the chest, the Heart, and the Face.

In addition to the choral music of Buxtehude, translations of verses of each of the seven sections of the poem will be sung by the whole congregation at different moments throughout the Musical Oratory, to help those attending take these beautiful meditations to heart in an even more powerful and personal way.

There is no cost for admission, although freewill donations will be gratefully accepted. Free parking is available in the church lots, and an attendant should be in place to assist you if there are problems or questions about parking.

Please mark your calendars and invite anyone you think might be interested, or whom this might help to have a fruitful Lent.