The author of the poem, St. Silouan the Athonite (1866–1938), was an Eastern Orthodox monk of Russian origin.  At the age of twenty-seven, after a period of military service, he left his native Russia and came to the monastic state of Mt. Athos, a Greek peninsula, where he became a monk at the Monastery of St Panteleimon, an Orthodox monastery that houses Russian monks yet is, as all the Athonite monasteries, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.  An ardent ascetic, he received the grace of unceasing prayer and saw Christ in a vision. After long years of spiritual trial, he acquired great humility and inner stillness. He prayed and wept for the whole world as for himself, and he put the highest value on love for enemies.  The composer, Arvo Pärt, has been reported to say that the fallen Adam of the work represents "humankind in its entirety and each individual person alike, irrespective of time, epochs, social strata and confession.”

Someone accidentally picked up Cullie Mowers music folder at Wednesday night’s rehearsal.  If you have it, please call Cullie at 539-6527.