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About the Score

In the composition “Love’s Living Flame” (Poetry title: Living Flame of Love), Kira Rugen chose to set the text both from the perspective of St. John of the Cross, during his imprisonment and his intimate struggle to find God’s light, and also in relation to the divine yet turbulent relationship between all humans and God. In this poem, St. John of the Cross emerges from the “Dark Night of the Soul,” where he experienced the absence of God’s light. He now feels of God’s presence, but it is not yet a complete reunion, and St. John finds the relationship is more painful than it is peaceful. Yet, St. John seeks more understanding, climbing higher where he attempts to partake of the Divine Nature. Instead of exaltation, he perceives the pain as a part of his cleansing to fully receive the glory and the light of God. So too in our lives do humans seek the love of God, but like Job and St. John of the Cross, in order to understand the fullness of his glory and mercy, we must first be stripped of ego, earthly materials and honor to find ourselves humbled and in need of His grace. Kira Rugen’s composition uses harmonies, colors and rhythm that present the perpetual human questioning of God’s absence, the need for his love, and the simultaneously mystifying and clarifying nature of God’s answers.

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