Diary of the Ghetto Priest | Stella Maris Thriller - Father Ho Lung and Friends in concert on Sunday

There is a Five Tenors concert this Sunday, January 28, at 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm called Rejoice My Soul It will amaze and spellbind you! This group of men from the Father Ho Lung and Friends performers will fill you with joy and a sense of celebration. It is new and original. The male singers are like no other Jamaican group. They are bold and strong, and sometimes a gentle ensemble as sweet and rhythmic as Jamaicans can be. Yet the group never loses being deep, soulful, and full of tenderness and love. This group has weaved together harm-onies that are intricate and surprising, and, I hope you will come with your dancing shoes as well as your well-tuned ears. It should be a glorious Sunday afternoon.

As Plato the philosopher says, "Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good and just and beautiful." Music is really the highest form of art. It cannot be explained but can only be described. It soothes the savage beast. It is food for the soul. It dances and floats in the mind and in the heart. It rises from the depths and sweetens the very moods it portray, whether it be sadness, anger, hatred or joy. It carries feelings that are deep within us, melodic and rhythmically expressed. But at all times it purifies and lights the soul and spirit of man.

There is an outreach from me to you, or, from the writer to the audience. For 46 years I have written songs and staged concerts and productions; it is myself and the Lord's way, God's gift given through me, a way of communicating to you my love and God's love for you. God, the Author of life, has given me, His humble servant, this gift of writing to communicate the joy, the struggle, the beauty, the great sadness, and sometimes the ecstasy of life as a Christian in this multicoloured life in Jamaica and in the world. I wrote a song for you. Here is an excerpt:

I love you with the music of my God

Oh! I love you

With the music of my God

Hear the melodies He placed

Within my soul

There are lyrics

He has moulded gifts of gold

There are stories

He has written to be told.

Oh! I love you

With the music of my God

He has drummed our rhythms

Beating in my heart

He has taken chord

In fingers on guitar

He has played a violin

and moves the star.

Oh! I love you

With the music of my God

He has played with me

His instruments of life

And we have harmonised

The Father with His child

We have made sweet music

Celebrating Christ and His life

Now fills my soul

Oh what joy O what perfect joy,

I will sing for joy,

Oooh, sing for joy

Blessed is my heart, my life

For all of us, life is sometimes overwhelmingly difficult and full of despair, but music also covers all these moods. For a moment or more, we should flee into music and find that music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. Even the beautiful psalms of David express so much bewilderment, grief, and sorrow.

"Out of the depths

I cry unto you, O Lord - 2X

Lord have mercy on us, O God,

Lord have mercy on us;

Out of the depths I cry unto you, O Lord."

I weep, I weep, from the depths,

O Lord, I weep, I weep, I weep.

I cry, I cry, from the depths,

O Lord, I weep, I weep, I weep.

Wash me clean,

make me whiter than snow.

Take my sorrows, my sorrows,

my sorrows, wash my sins away.

"Wash me make me

whiter than snow." (Psalm 51)

Come to Rejoice My Soul on Sunday at 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., 28th January, 2018. I promise you, it will be a beautiful evening concert at Stella Maris. Tickets are $2,000 (adult) and $1,000 (child). Telephone 948-6173 / 948-0280 for more information.