Memento Mori: If you desire life, prepare for death

St. Alfonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death: Considerations on Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell A Popular Abridgment(TAN Books, 2009).

Don't you just love being Catholic! I do! People think we're flippin' NUTS! So smile. God loves you. Have a nice day!

Related: Antonio Salieri's "De Profundis" (Musings, November 7, 2009):


Most of you will probably remember Antonio Salieri from the character played by the Academy Award winning F. Murray Abraham in the movie about Mozart's life and music, entitled Amadeus. In reality Salieri was a composer of considerably more talent than the film gave him credit for, composing operas in three different languages, absolutely dominating Italian opera in Vienna where he was appointed director of opera by the Habsburg court, winning appointments such as the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, and having among his students such luminaries as Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Liszt.

It is hard to put into words the compelling power of this musical setting of this lament, Penitential Psalm 130. Out of the depths, the psalmist cries out to God, beseeching His mercy. In Catholic Tradition, this lament becomes part of the liturgical prayers for the faithful departed.

As our liturgical Master of Ceremonies describes it, the composition expresses compellingly the obligation that we on earth have to pray for the departed souls in Purgatory. In Salieri's setting, the piece progressively builds until it swells to a moving crescendo. The interplay of the organ and the singers is gripping.

Psalm 130

¹Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

²Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

³If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

⁴But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

⁵I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

⁶My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

⁷Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

⁸And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.