For the Chinese Martyrs

Do please read the poem, given below, as you listen. The music and the poem are intimately -- even inextricably - linked.
Poem by James Matthew Wilson
I/Fr. Chrysostom Chang:
A flowering of wire
Binds the bare wrists behind;
The opened skin a fire
He suffers to remind
Of one before who wore a crown of briar.
II/Fr. Francis Tian Tiande:
All other petals fled
As pelting snow descends,
Stiff boughs awash in red
Blossoms the season lends
Blush like the beaten prisoner’s lifted head.
*
Cold breath in air appears
As he toils through the cold,
Exiled these thirty years.
His stiffening arms enfold
A girl who wanders through the snow in tears.
III/ Gertrude Li Minwen
Within the cell she’ll wait
As does the lily’s heart
Beneath the snowfall’s weight,
However unsure what part
She plays within the suffering Church’s fate.
IV/ Fr. Joseph Li Chang
After the lamp-lit Mass,
The corporal stashed away,
He seemed a shattered glass
And now began to pray
That with his suffering his breath might pass.
*
The spring rains come at last
To soften frozen soil.
The heart regrets the past;
The stomach longs for oil.
Green shoots appear where last year’s seeds were cast.
V/ Fr. John Huang Yongmu
They are too long, the days
Of laboring iron and stone.
Our food a bowl of maize,
Our prayers a silent moan,
We, the afflicted, are yet full of praise.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Copyright ©2024 by Lumen Verum Music. Text used with permission of the poet.

[@aseeker4219]

Thanks for sharing this with me! Yes, it is very BEAUTIFULLY WELL SANG VOICES WITH EMOTION........... GOD BLESS!

[@theresamariedeckerartist8678]

This is hauntingly beautiful, and the text with music should make us all pause for a moment in respect for those who died for Christ and His Church. We should ask: Will I be resolute if asked to die for my faith? Thank you, Frank, for giving us this necessary and sublime meditation.

[@giorgioagnelli5677]

signor La Rocca,ascolto solo canti gregoriani o Hildegarda......sono in opposizione al modernismo....detesto quelle oscene chiese che i massoni impongono per distruggere la nostra bimillenaria religione,ma la sua composizione è bellissima,toccante e nuova,.......ancora i miei complimenti La Rocca....le garantisco che sono sinceri

[@FrankLaRocca]

Questo è un commento molto gratificante. Grazie mille.

[@deborahcorey3548]

So beautiful but one must read the poem as well. I love it.

[@TrialAndError8713]

Hauntingly beautiful, and sad. May Our Lord's love comfort and protect the Faithful in China.

[@med4kmd]

Powerful!

[@IreneDeemwinechocolatehorses]

Thanks so much for posting the poem. This is so beautiful! God bless you and JM Wilson!

[@jimkeith2335]

This choir is awesome spiritual inspiration.

[@MarcoDonner-ii1ui]

Bellissima ...💛🙏💕🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷