Somewhere I read someone describing Bach’s music as spiritual medicine. I guess it depends what ails you, but I couldn’t agree more that his music is sometimes balm for the soul, and often, in the fugues and preludes of the Wohltemperiertes Kalvier, torture for the brain and fingers. On net, it rules!

Today’s oratorio is probably one of his most often played compositions, sending a message of hope with both text and music.

Since we need all the hope we can gather, this will serve us well over the holidays.

Wishing you peace and joy and enough rest to enter the next many months fortified so you can engage in what needs to be done to keep the darkness at bay.

Otherwise we’ll listen to Henryk Gorécki’s third symphony for an unspecified number of years….

Merry Christmas!

Photographs are European church doors admired across years of travel.