Sonata for Voice and Silence
Meditations
Mark Belletini
Ah, it’s true.
When our ancestors spoke of heaven,
they were speaking of this moment.
When they went on about nirvana
they imagined a time like this.
When they sang of paradise,
it was this morning they imagined.
A time where all the mysteries of life and death
are blended in a community of praise,
where the bones of ancient lovers
are given flesh again in our own bodies,
teachers of long ago speaking of love and truth
once more in lives so ordinary they are
extraordinary.
—from "In Heaven"
The UUA meditation manual for 2008. Mark Belletini is the senior minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, OH. He has thirty years of experience in parish ministry, both in Ohio and California, and was chair of the commission that produced the Unitarian Universalist Association hymnbook, Singing the Living Tradition.
Praise for Sonata for Voice and Silence
"Weaving words, music and silence into a tapestry of delight, Belletini spins his magic (which is our magic) ever so gently here."
—Forrest Church, author, So Help Me God
"This is a gift for the spirit and mind and heart. Harry (were he here) would caution us not to use these fierce and exquisite words but to live with them in the silences found in the depths of our souls. Thank you, Mark."
—Laurel Hallman, minister, First Unitarian Church of Dallas
"In joy and in struggle, Belletini’s psalms ask us to engage—to leap up singing, plumb our own silences, and to lean into the fullness of a friend’s final days. And, in each paean, we hear his insistence that we trust the conversation unfolding among us—poet-friend-reader-Thou."
—Barbara Pescan, minister, Unitarian Church of Evanston
For more information contact skinnerhouse @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, June 6, 2008.
