Otche Nash by Nikolai Kedrov
If you started listening to this Hymn before you started reading, you might be a bit confused as to why you see no translation at the top of this article. Well, that’s because you know the words. “Otche Nash” is the Russian translation of the Lord’s Prayer, and it has been set to music and performed in their language about as many times as it has been done in ours.
And as many professional recordings and videos there are on a piece like this one, there is just something special about this video. Maybe it’s the fact that this glorious group of singers is performing in such an intimate setting, or the videographer’s shaky attempts to capture the architecture of the building, maybe it’s the roaring low Ab at the end. Personally, it’s those 3 or 4 seconds at about 2:27 of a couple leaning on one another in total stillness and awe. Somehow, this little video and this little piece, recorded 8 years ago and half a world away, captures what stillness feels like to me.
I wish you that stillness today.
The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.
Habakkuk 2:20
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
1 Kings 19:11-12