Join in The Dance - "and I am The Lord of The Dance said He"

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BarbaraTherese

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http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/rolheiser/2007/rolheiser110507.shtml

***Accept hurt, grieve it and move on to rejoin the dance. ***
We are dutiful and moral, but bitter underneath and are unable to enter the circle of celebration and the dance. Everything about us is right, except for the lack of real warmth in our hearts.
Julian of Norwich once described God this way: “Completely relaxed and courteous, he himself was the happiness and peace of his dear friends, his beautiful face radiating measureless love like a marvellous symphony.”
That is one of the better descriptions of God written, but it can make for a painful meditation: Too often, for too many of us, far from basking in gratitude we feel instead the bitterness, self-pity, anger, and incapacity to let go and dance that was felt by the older brother of the prodigal son.
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To be fit for heaven we must let go of bitterness.
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This is a very good article.

Justice will always be done by the just God, but it’s not for us to worry.

Heaven is a pure, happy, and holy place. Bitterness surely is not compatible with heaven.

A good man like the older son, may possibly enter heaven directly, or at least only stay in Purgatory a fairly short period. However, such bitterness may become a disservice to him.

Is it worth it to delay one’s own reward due to the desire for another’s punishment?
The answer is apparent.

Once we realize this, we may be more cautious about any bitterness resulted from self-righteousness in our own heart. 🙂
 
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BarbaraTherese:
…“and I am The Lord of The Dance said He”…
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I’ve heard this shaker hymn used at Mass a few times. With no disrespect intended, who is “he”, and where did “he” say this?

The question is rhetorical, of course. I know “he” is supposed to be Christ, but where is Christ supposed to have said this? I know of no place other than in shaker theology. Who decided that this song is suitable for Catholic liturgical use and why?
 
Lord of the Dance is a hymn with words written by Sydney Carter in 1963. He adapted the tune from the famous American Shaker dance song “Simple Gifts”. The hymn is widely performed in the United Kingdom and the United States, and is often mistakenly thought to be a much older traditional hymn…
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Interesting. I was under the impression Simple Gifts and Lord of the Dance were both shaker hymns. I stand corrected.
…I danced on the sabbath when I cured the lame,
The holy people said it was a shame;
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high;
And they left me there on a cross to die.

Some Christians have expressed the view that this stanza should be omitted because it suggests that the Jews killed Jesus. For example, a prominent Quaker publication[1] stated that although “Lord of the Dance” is “one of our most popular and widely sung” modern hymns, this particular stanza should not be sung, because “[e]ach time we sing this verse together we lend emotional power and the appearance of support for what is in fact a lie” Similarly, one religion/philosophy professor at a Methodist-affiliated college expressed concern that “one of [her] favorites” in The United Methodist Hymnal, "‘Lord of the Dance,’ is full of antisemitic notions…
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Doubly interesting. These critics object to certain parts of the song because they “lend emotional power and the appearance of support for what is in fact a lie” to what is in fact a historical truth: that Jesus died and that some Jews were among those persons directly responsible for the events of his execution. Not that this should be taken to mean that all Jews were directly responsible, that no non-Jews were responsible, or that Jesus’ death was not a necessary part of His salvific mission for all peoples.

But they seem to have no problem with lending emotional power and the appearance of support for quoting Jesus as saying “I am the Lord of the Dance” when that is in fact a lie.
 
I have a CD of Robert and Robin Kochis which contains LORD OF THE DANCE. I really love the song, for private listening & singing
or for singing in a group-sing in a PARA-liturgical service.
It’s quite nice.

I agree, however, with those who question it’s appropriateness for use in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
That article is me. I wept as I read it.

Thank you Barbara. I think you may have just set me onto the path to freedom.
 
When I sing a hymn, my focus personally is not the history of it if there happens to be one, rather what it means to me…and it reminds me of “and The Lord takes delight in His People” and also “His Delight was to be with the children of men”. I am not one to dance any more for sure, other than if something has really sent joy through my roof and then I may get up and give a strange little jig that has to pass for me dancing!😃 …I feel deeply that The Lord truly abundantly delights in us for some weird reason:o …as Julian of Norwich said “God dances for the joy of us”…

The above is not at all to detract from those who really are interested in the history of hymns and in “Lord of The Dance” in particular in this instance. And the Wikipedia entry was interesting to read.

I really do like this hymn “Lord of The Dance” which in our Church we sometimes sing as a final hymn during Father’s procession out of the Church at the end of Mass. I like the tune and also the lyrics. I hope it is sung at my funeral!😃

After posting this thread, I did take time to remember those who are passing through great sadness and conflict, crisis in their lives and all our troubled spots in one way or another in our world.
I can feel and empathize with them!

Blessings all…Peace and Joy…and dancing (or a strange little jig of sorts perhpas when joy goes through the roof!)…Barb:)
 
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