I came across the term Sursum Corda in my reading a few years ago, and I didn't know what it meant (we're low church). As often happens, looking up the definition brought me to another unfamiliar term. Looking up the definitions to both terms brought me to a goose-bumpy, breath-holding, sense of holiness.
The definition for Sursum Corda said it was part of a versicle, which made me no wiser, so I hunted further. Here are the results:
In Episcopalian and other ‘high church’ services, there is something called a ‘versicle.’ This is, according to the 1913 Websters, “ a little verse; especially, a short verse or text said or sung in public worship by the priest or minister, and followed by a response from the people.’ (emphasis added)
Sursum Corda is the name of a particular versicle in the service- it is the ‘lift up your hearts’ versicle. So Sursum Corda refers to the portion of the service when the minister says to the church “Lift up your hearts” and the congregation responds “We lift them to the Lord.”
It appears in the Book of Common Prayer and is used for thanksgiving for the Eucharist.
I read the phrase in a passage about math in volume six of Miss Mason's six volume series, Towards a Philosophy of Education.
On page 231 Miss Mason says that we should communicate to our children the beauty and truth of mathematics. They should understand that it is a
"great thing to be brought into the presence of a law, of a whole system of laws, that exist without our concurrence, -- that two straight lines cannot enclose a space is a fact which we can perceive, state, and act upon but cannot in any wise alter..."and this
"should give to children the sense of limitation which is wholesome for all of us, and inspire that sursum corda which we should hear in all natural law.”
Miss Mason is pointing out that all natural law is God’s law, and is part of God’s voice to us. Whenever we learn of one of God’s natural laws, whether it be that two and two make four and never three or five, or that apples fall down and not up, or that all things reproduce after their own kind, or that a blade of grass produces food from sunlight in a process we now call photosynthesis, or that the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter is Pi- it should be to us as though that natural law were the voice of God (which it is) saying to us
“Lift up your hearts,”and we should feel our hearts naturally, gratefully, and willingly responding to the voice of God in affirmation-
“We lift them up to the Lord.”
This is a magnificent approach to math and to all other natural law. We should greet new information, new ideas, the opportunity to learn something new with an eager uplifting of the hearts.
Enlightened curiosity is our Sursum Corda. Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord.
This post is also linked at Spiritual Sundays.
As long you're here: Though today was the last day to vote for 10 favorite poems at Semicolon http://bit.ly/9HaiJN She will take votes thru the weekend. She's not gotten that many entries, so send her your favorite ten poems published before around 1924 NOW!
Hope you'll look around, see who we are, and come back Thursday! Pin It
I'm Jewish...wasn't raised in a church..never heard of this word...but I have learned to come to Him with praise...lifting His name up....knowing He hears and blesses. Have a great day...
ReplyDeleteYou may be more familiar with it as phrased in what we call Lamentations (I don't know if it's the same in the Jewish scriptures, where chapter 3, verse 41 says "Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens. " That's what I meant when I told JMR it was much older than he realized.=)
ReplyDeleteThank-you for commenting.
What a challenging post. I learned something new today and that is always good. I learned from your post and also from some of the comments. Much of what was in some of the comments I couldn't understand. It gives me something to think about. I like your thought, "We should greet new information, new ideas, the opportunity to learn something new with an eager uplifting of the hearts." Thank you for posting.
ReplyDeleteWOW! This is so interesting, I learned something new today.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Ginger
This was very interesting. I had never heard that word but one thing for sure.....our God is the same yesterday, today and forever!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is so neat! I home school my 8th grader, and math is always and issue. From now on I will think of this when we come to our ends and let it be a moment of praise instead of frustration!
ReplyDeleteWe attend my in-laws high church service twice a year and it is so very different. I didn't know what that word meant but we've experienced it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. Have a blessed Easter week.
We can see God everywhere in his creation , And when we do,his spirit (In Christians )always gives an Amen ! back to him .
ReplyDeleteGreat, very thought providing Post !
Blessings,
~Myrna