Portraying Christ in Music : Fully Human and Fully Divine

Gauguin as Christ in the Garden, 1889

A script of a joint talk given by Henry Lamprecht (my better half!) and me as part of a series on Music and Spirituality at Holy Sepulchre London (The National Musicians Church) on Wednesday 26th March 2025. We veered off script at several points. We were grateful to our friend Ben Schoeman for playing excerpts from Beethoven’s works on the piano.

Start:Stop - Business as usual

Monk (Mönch) by Katharina Fritsch, 1997/1999 (Art Institute Chicaco)

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few moments and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. My name is Phillip Dawson. You can find an audio version of this reflection at this link. This week we begin with a passage from St Paul’s letter to the Romans. Described as his ‘theological masterpiece’ Paul’s reasons for writing the letter - to diverse congregations he did not establish and had not visited - are unclear; but in it, he sets out his view on the demands that living a life in a Christian community entails:

The Practice of the Presence of God. Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence

Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea, c1809

Why do we need to “practice the presence of God” when we know that God is with us at all times?

The answer to that question lies at the heart of four conversations with and fifteen letters by Brother Lawrence, a lay brother of the Discalced Carmelite Order who lived in France in the seventeenth century and were published posthumously, becoming a spiritual classic.

The Cloud of Unknowing

Painting by Ian Fisher (ianfisherart.com)

It has been wonderful to revisit this book recently, which I was first introduced to on a course led by John-Francis Friendship at the London Centre for Spiritual Direction,– an excellent venue for engaging with every aspect of Christian Spirituality with regular events and seminars and well worth looking up. The beautiful paintings throughout this post are by Ian Fisher.

There’s a reason why nearly seven hundred years after it was first written, The Cloud  is still considered a spiritual “classic” and each time a modern translation is released, can still be found on the best-sellers list. The author – anonymous by design - describes an innately complex subject (the unknowability of God) using simple language and images, the like of which you could imagine adorning the best and most engaging modern-day power-point presentation or You-Tube tutorial video!

Start:Stop - It’s all in the cloud

Berndnaut Smilde, Nimbus Sankt Peter, 2013

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson and it is a great pleasure to welcome you to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link.

This week, a great prayer from the Letter to the Ephesians, that we might be strengthened by the fullness of God’s love for us - a love that surpasses knowledge.

New Seeds of Contemplation – Have they taken root?!

This is the transcript of my 30 minute talk on the “contemplative tradition” of Thomas Merton, delivered as part of a course at the London Centre for Spiritual Direction. My talk followed one given by another student, who spoke about Eckhart von Hochheim OP, commonly known as Meister Eckhart.

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 6 - Review of the Week

For our final piece of work on the retreat, Miriam asked me to review the week using two questions, in the form of The Examen. 

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 5 - Seeing as Zacchaeus

This morning after talking with Miriam and reading out my imagined conversation between Jesus and Zacchaeus, I decided to go back to imaginative drawing as an aid to prayer. I wanted to try to draw from the point of view of Zacchaeus - to put myself in his place as I had done in writing. I also wanted to create an image that addressed some of the points I was not so happy with after my sketch on the second day of the retreat. 

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 4 - Zacchaeus answers Jesus

Speaking with Miriam this morning I realised that my natural instinct is to draw or write about imagined scenes as an observer, looking in from the outside. I wonder if that’s the case for most people? Miriam encouraged me to try something different - to go back to the story of Zacchaeus and put myself in his shoes; to see the world from his point of view. In our conversation this morning I also realised I tend to trust my feelings or gut instincts. Miriam encouraged me to reflect on what Zacchaeus felt. 

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 3 - The woman who touched Jesus

After spending some time yesterday reflecting on the story of Zacchaeus - and drawing an imagined scene (rather than drawing from life) for the first time since school (!) Miriam suggested that today I look at another story and see what links, if any, I could make with the story of Zacchaeus. As my picture had prompted me to think of a great deal of images, Miriam suggested that I try to use a time of prayer to distil or refine my reflections on the two stories.

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 2 - Drawing Jesus and Zacchaeus

After reflecting on Isaiah Chapter 43 yesterday, and particularly on the phrase which stood out first (“I have called you by name, you are mine”), Miriam suggested that I look at the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke Chapter 19; Zacchaeus also felt called by Jesus. 

Week of Prayer in Daily Life - Day 1 - Reflecting on Isaiah 43.1-4

I have signed up to be part of the first Week of Prayer in Daily Life, organised by the Adult Learning Team at St Paul’s Cathedral. On Sunday we gathered at the London Centre for Spirituality and met our Spiritual Director for the week. We each have a set time to see them every day, for a thirty minute session. I have chosen a time before work, but after work slots were also available. One of the purposes of the week is to introduce people to different types of prayer and to give the opportunity to speak to a Spiritual Director to help explore our prayer life more fully. 

BOOK REVIEW : Falling Upward - A spirituality for the two halves of life by Richard Rohr