Glory Road - Exit (1977)

First time I heard this Arizona progressive country rock private press resulted in a jawdrop of silence. Not a shabby cut on here, with several stretching out into exceptional. 'Exit-Glory Road' for instance opens the album with a classic artsy progressive hard rock guitar overture. Several middle-ground rural acoustic songs follow bringing to mind the music of Horizon, The Way, and Sons Unto Glory. Greg Williams delivers some brilliant acoustic and electric guitar solos throughout.  Other instruments include harmonica and and string synthesizer.  'Which Way To Go' and the hillbilly 'Sing And Shout' supply pure country rock moods.  On the quieter side are a pair of dreamy soft-psych tracks: 'Straight Gate' delicately utilizes flute and reverse guitars for an other-worldly texture, while the equally mesmerizing mostly-acoustic 'New Jerusalem' achieves a similar effect with trippy synths and wah-wah guitar.  'Horizon' closes the album with another impressive buildup of electric guitar.  Several songs written/co-written by Bernie Rolfe, who also directed the project.  (Ken Scott - Archivist )


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Easter in the Catholic Church

The Greatest Christian Feast:

Easter is the greatest feast in the Christian calendar. On this Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For Catholics, Easter Sunday comes at the end of 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving known as Lent. Through spiritual struggle and self-denial, we have prepared ourselves to die spiritually with Christ on Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion, so that we can rise again with him in new life on Easter.

The Fulfillment of Our Faith:

Easter is a day of celebration because it represents the fulfillment of our faith as Christians. St. Paul wrote that, unless Christ rose from the dead, our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:17). Through his death, Christ saved mankind from bondage to sin, and he destroyed the hold that death has on all of us; but it is his resurrection that gives us the promise of new life, both in this world and the next.

The Coming of the Kingdom:

That new life began on Easter Sunday. In the Our Father, we pray that "Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven." And Christ told his disciples that some of them would not die until they saw the Kingdom of God "coming in power" (Mark 9:1). The early Christian Fathers saw Easter as the fulfillment of that promise. With the resurrection of Christ, God's Kingdom is established on earth, in the form of the Church.

New Life in Christ:

 

That is why people who are converting to Catholicism traditionally are baptized at the Easter Vigil service, which takes place on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter), starting sometime after sunset. They have usually undergone a long process of study and preparation known as the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Their baptism parallels Christ's own death and resurrection, as they die to sin and rise to new life in the Kingdom of God.

Communion - Our Easter Duty:

 

Because of the central importance of Easter to the Christian faith, the Catholic Church requires that all Catholics who have made their First Communion receive the Holy Eucharist sometime during the Easter season, which lasts through Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. (They should also take part in the Sacrament of Confession before receiving this Easter communion.) This reception of the Eucharist is a visible sign of our faith and our participation in the Kingdom of God. Of course, we should receive Communion as frequently as possible; this "Easter Duty" is simply the minimum requirement set by the Church.

JESUS IS RISEN!

Easter is more than a festival of Enlightenment. Easter is also a prayer of Light. We pray to the risen Christ to lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to the Light and from death to Immortality. On this spiritual journey Jesus makes an invitation to all of us.

Christians celebrate Easter Sunday because Jesus rose from death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the fundamental principles and beliefs of Christianity and a well documented historical fact. Christians celebrate Easter Sunday because they believe, Jesus died for their sin on the Cross on Good Friday. Jesus was buried on Friday and rose from death on Sunday. Christians believe only Jesus can give eternal life, because He overcame death.

The Empty Tomb:

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene:

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" 14 "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

The Date of Easter:

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar (which follows the motion of the Sun and the seasons). Instead, they are based on a lunar calendar like that used by the Jews. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the first lunar month of spring (in theory, the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox). Eventually, all churches accepted the Alexandrian method of computing Easter, which set the northern hemisphere vernal equinox at 21 March (the actual equinox may fall one or two days earlier or later), and the date of the full moon was to be determined by using the Metonic cycle. A problem here is the difference between the western churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The former now use the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of Easter, while the latter still use the original Julian calendar. The World Council of Churches proposed a reform of the method of determining the date of Easter at a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997. This reform would have eliminated the difference in the date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was due to be implemented starting in 2001, but it failed.

The Messengers & Good News - Born Again (1971)

Born Again is an outstanding custom obscurity that showcases the talents of two excellent Jesus music groups from Vermont. Side one belongs to The Messengers, five longhaired chaps who time-warped their sound back to the UK psychedelic garage rock/beat scene circa 1966 and 1967. Man, these guys have got spunk! ‘Not Too Early’ opens with quick-paced jangling electric guitar, surging organ, heavy drums and Merseybeat harmonies – first listen I was absolutely convinced they were British (and it still wouldn’t surprise me if one or two of them actually were). All six tracks are strong, especially the powerful ‘The Right Way’ which opens on a two-note ‘For What It’s Worth’ kind of theme, then building to an explosion of ferocious in-your-face hard rock fuzz guitar. Side two features seven selections by the folk duo Good News. While obviously not as heavy as their buddies on the flip side, Wayne Harvey and David Trombley emerge as one of the better examples of the style, exemplifying much of the depth of Simon & Garfunkel’s acoustic work. Cover uses the same image of Christ as Agape’s Gospel Hard Rock. Eet’z a monstah!!!!!! (Ken Scott - Archivist)

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