Scott Ordway

PREMIERE

Commissioned by DeSales University Schola Cantorum

Premiere: April 2025 at DeSales University (Center Valley, PA)
DeSales University Schola Cantorum; Ryan Mullaney, conductor

MEDIA

NOTE

In his 2015 encyclical, Laudato si' (on care for our common home), Pope Francis makes a forceful case for the interrelation of our spiritual lives and the natural world in which we live, all in the context of the ongoing climate crisis. In doing so, he draws on a long tradition of philosophers, writers, and religious leaders who emphasize the importance of connection with the environment as an integral aspect of our personal and communal lives.

Among other sources, Francis cites St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth-century Spanish mystic who asserts that “these mountains are what my Beloved is to me.” In addition to locating the divine presence in the landscape itself, John refers to this presence as the “beloved”, a rhetorical device used by writers in a wide range of global faith traditions. This kind of porous, ecumenical language for the mystery of creation invites contemplation by those of all beliefs—and those of no belief—of the idea that the spiritual and psychological crises of our age are directly related to the ecological changes through which we are living.

After a brief introduction based on the John’s words, I present a litany of the landscape features to which Francis refers in his encyclical. The work closes with a passage cited by Francis from the writing of Ali al-Khawas, a ninth-century Sufi Muslim poet, which reinforces the concept introduced by John: the divine presence can also be heard in the sound of wind, trees, water, the creaking doors, or the cries of the sick.

For me personally, this idea is deeply resonant. The divine is fundamentally unknowable, but to the extent that we can connect with it, we must seek it through engagement with and care for the natural world in which we flourish and perish as a species.

TEXT

Text adapted by Scott Ordway after Pope Francis, Ali al-Khawas, and St. John of the Cross from Laudato si' (on care for our common home) (2015)

These mountains are what my Beloved is to me. [St John of the Cross, Cántico Espiritual]
These valleys are what my Beloved is to me.
These are what my Beloved is to me: 

the air
the land
the fish
the crab
the sun
the moon
the stars

the sun and the moon.

the bird
the cloud
the wind
the field
the hill
the tree
the light
our life

the cedar and the little flower.

the creatures and
the oceans,
the water and
the insect,
the landscape and
the mountain,
the rivers and
the soil

the eagle and the sparrow,

the animals,
the atmosphere,
the lonely valleys.

The universe unfolds, and
I hear you when the wind blows,
when the tree sways.
I hear you when the water flows,
when the bird sings.
I hear you when the flies buzz,
when the doors creak,
or in the sound of strings or flutes or the sighs of the sick.

These are what my Beloved is to me.