Oh Beloved, I just now have watched the first video below which was posted on the website of the Association of Hebrew Catholics (www.hebrewcatholic.net/
chained-melody-a-violin-recital-in-auschwitz/) in commemoration of Yom Kippur the holiest day of worship given to the Jewish People of the Old Covenant by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This year, for me, who grew up in a Jewish home celebrating this most Holy Day (Yom Kippur = the Day of Atonement), it is deeply moving.
So why am I sending this out as an email to you, most of whom do not come from a Jewish background? Because, dear ones, it is your heritage as well. There is nothing Catholic that does not stem from the Jewish roots of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is what Our God, the only God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God Who sent His Son into the world, has given – to the Jewish People and to us, both Jew and Gentile, who would, by faith and baptism, be grafted and regrafted onto the Root which is Israel (Romans 11:11-24). And the only reason we can be grafted onto the Root is because that which Our Lord gave the Jewish People as a promise of redemption was fulfilled – after 1,500 years of the Mosaic Law – in the once-for-all sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. (cf. Leviticus chapter 16, especially vv. 29-34; also 1 Corintians 5:7, 1 Peter 2:4, Hebrews 9:8-14).
The first video below does not reveal the title of the song until the end. And because, at the end, it goes on to play just the first few lines, I have included below it a video from the concert which Pope Saint John Paul II insisted be held at the Vatican in honor of the Shoah.
I don’t know that you will find it as moving as it was and is for me, but I pray that you will grow to love more deeply the People of God who brought us the Savior – the only Savior of the world – and pray for those of Jewish heritage who still do not know the Messiah they gave to the world.
God bless you,
Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B.
Chained Melody:
A Violin “Recital” in Auschwitz
Here then is the full and most beautiful rendition of “Kol Nidre” from the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah – the first official Vatican commemoration of the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II. It took place, again, at the request of Pope Saint John Paul II in the Sala Nervi at the Vatican on April 7, 1994. Lyrics to the song (in Hebrew and in English) are below the video.
Text of Kol Nidrei Prayer
(Note: The “chazzan” is the cantor.)
