Back to the Garden

Locus iste a Deo factus est,  inaestimabile sacramentum, irreprehensibilis est. This place was made by God, a priceless sacrament; it is without reproach. This text, set to music by Anton Bruckner in the 19th century for the dedication of a German cathedral is forever associated, in my mind, with the memory of Dr. Henry Schellenberg. I met Henry in 2010 when I auditioned to sing in the Providence University Chamber Choir. One of the first songs we learned was "Locus Iste" - a choir favourite that we would sing regularly for the rest of the time I was with the group. I love this text. It is simple, short, and elegant. I even scrawled the Latin text on the foundation of the new building that my church constructed around the end of 2014. The text names an irreducible truth about the goodness of materiality and the importance of discrete places in our lives as embodied humans and the varied relationships we have in these discrete places with God. Yet in ord...