Meditation No.2

The Invisible, Now Revealed is a reflection upon the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds and announcing the birth of the Son of God, as recorded in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke. It starts out slow and quiet as an uneventful night on a country hillside might be. Then, suddenly, the music bursts with sforzandos and a flurry of movement like the unexpected appearance of angels with a message of praise and glory. The passage in Luke ends with Mary, the mother of Jesus, pondering all these things in her heart, and the music ends quietly again in pensive wonder. As in the first Meditation, this one incorporates a hymn tune, this time two ancient hymns often sung at Christmas: Of the Fathers Love Begotten and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.