Meditation to begin our Way of the Cross

Cardinal Ratzinger's Meditations for Way of the Cross

At Rome's Colosseum on For Good Friday

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the meditations and prayers that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger prepared for the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum this Good Friday.
Meditations and Prayers

By Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Presentation

The leitmotiv of the present Way of the Cross appears immediately, in the opening prayer, and again at the Fourteenth Station. It is found in the words spoken by Jesus on Palm Sunday, after entering Jerusalem, in reply to the question of some Greeks who sought to see him: "unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).

In this saying, the Lord compares the course of his whole earthly existence to that of a grain of wheat, which only by dying can produce fruit. He interprets his earthly life, his death and resurrection from the standpoint of the Most Holy Eucharist, which recapitulates his entire mystery. He had experienced his death as an act of self-oblation, an act of love, and his body was then transfigured in the new life of the Resurrection. He, the Incarnate Word, now becomes our food, food which leads to true life, life eternal. The Eternal Word -- the power which creates life -- comes down from heaven as the true manna, the bread bestowed upon man in faith and in sacrament. The Way of the Cross is thus a path leading to the heart of the Eucharistic mystery: popular piety and sacramental piety of the Church blend together and become one. The prayer of the Way of the Cross is a path leading to a deep spiritual communion with Jesus; lacking this, our sacramental communion would remain empty. The Way of the Cross is thus a "mystagogical" way.

This vision contrasts with a purely sentimental approach to the Way of the Cross. In the Eighth Station our Lord speaks of this danger to the women of Jerusalem who weep for him. Mere sentiment is never enough; the Way of the Cross ought to be a school of faith, the faith which by its very nature "works through love" (Galatians 5:6). This is not to say that sentiment does not have its proper place. The Fathers considered heartlessness to be the primary vice of the pagans, and they appealed to the vision of Ezekiel, who announced to the People of Israel God's promise to take away their hearts of stone and to give them hearts of flesh (cf. Ezekiel 11:19). In the Way of the Cross we see a God who shares in human sufferings, a God whose love does not remain aloof and distant, but comes into our midst, even enduring death on a cross (cf. Philippians 2:8).

The God who shares our sufferings, the God who became man in order to bear our cross, wants to transform our hearts of stone; he invites us to share in the sufferings of others. He wants to give us a "heart of flesh" which will not remain stony before the suffering of others, but can be touched and led to the love which heals and restores. Here, once again, we return to the words of Jesus about the grain of wheat, which he himself laid down as the fundamental axiom of the Christian life: "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25; cf. Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24 and 17:33: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it").

We also see more clearly the meaning of the words which, in the Synoptic Gospels, precede this summation of Christ's message: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Jesus himself interpreted for us the meaning of the "Way of the Cross"; he taught us how to pray it and follow it: the Way of the Cross is the path of losing ourselves, the path of true love. On this path he has gone before us, on it he teaches us how to pray the Way of the Cross. Once again we come back to the grain of wheat, to the Most Holy Eucharist, in which the fruits of Christ's death and Resurrection are continually made present in our midst. In the Eucharist Jesus walks at our side, as he did with the disciples of Emmaus, making himself ever anew a part of our history.

OPENING PRAYER

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

R. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake you became like the grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies, so that it may bear much fruit (John 12:24). You invited us to follow you along this path when you told us that "the one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25). Yet we are attached to our life. We do not want to abandon it; we want to keep it all for ourselves. We want to hold on to it, not to give it away. But you go before us, showing us that it is only by giving away our life that we can save it. As we walk with you on the Way of the Cross, you lead us along the way of the grain of wheat, the way of a fruitfulness which leads to eternity. The cross -- our self-offering -- weighs heavily upon us. Along your own Way of the Cross you also carried my cross. Nor did you carry it just at one distant moment in the past, for your love continues to accompany every moment of my life. Today you carry that cross with me and for me, and, amazingly, you want me, like Simon of Cyrene, to join you in carrying your Cross; you want me to walk at your side and place myself with you at the service of the world's redemption. Grant that my Way of the Cross may not be just a moment of passing piety. Help all of us to accompany you not only with noble thoughts, but with all our hearts and in every step we take each day of our lives. Help us resolutely to set out on the Way of the Cross and to persevere on your path. Free us from the fear of the Cross, from the fear of mockery, from the fear that our life may escape our grasp unless we cling possessively to everything it has to offer. Help us to unmask all those temptations that promise life, but whose enticements in the end leave us only empty and deluded. Help us not to take life, but to give it. As you accompany us on the path of the grain of wheat, help us to discover, in "losing our lives," the path of love, the path which gives us true life, and life in abundance (John 10:10).

Previous Way of the Cross posts:

Way of the Cross, Station 1, Station 2, Station 3, Station 4, Station 5, Station 6, Station 7, Station 8, Station 9, Station 10, Station 11, Station 12, Station 13, Station 14, Station 15

Without a Script - Dr Robert Moynihan

Letter #11: Without a Script

February 14, 2013 by trey

February 14, 2013, Thursday — Without a Script

“Only a permanent formation of the heart and mind can actually create intelligibility and participation which is more than one external activity, which is an entering of the person, of his or her being into communion with the Church and thus in fellowship with Christ.”—Pope Benedict XVI this morning, in his annual address to the clergy of Rome, in the Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City; the talk was delivered without a written text, as in a conversation, or university seminar.

Pope to Rome’s priests: The Second Vatican Council, As I Saw It

The remarkable thing about Pope Benedict’s talk today to the clergy of Rome, several thousand strong, was that he did not speak from a prepared text. He spoke freely, familiarly. It was an impressive performance.

For nearly 50 minutes, the 85-year-old pontiff — who on Monday stunned the world with the abrupt announcement of his decision to leave the papacy on February 28 — spoke “a braccio” (“off the cuff”) somehwat as a professor may speak to his students in a university seminar.

It seemed that this “professor Pope” has, in the final days of his papacy, in fact truly become the “professor Pope.”

It is as if the weight of speaking with magisterial authority, which already in the past seemed to make this Pope occasionally uncomfortable (as when he issued his books on Jesus under the names both of “Joseph Ratzinger” and of “Pope Benedict XVI”) is already, two weeks before his resignation, being lifted off of his shoulders.

His manner of speaking today reminded me of several conversations I was able to have with him in the 1990s, when he, as Cardinal Ratzinger, spoke with me, a young journalist, about some of the matters he discussed today.

Benedict seemed very much at ease, though he was evidently a bit tired (one of his eyes sometimes almost closed as he spoke).

The Pope offered a personal account to Rome’s clergy of his own experience of the Second Vatican Council, and of what the Council intended.

Because it is one of the last times he will speak publicly to a large audience as Pope, the talk was closely followed by Vatican watchers.

What was the Pope’s “message” as he prepares to renounce his office on February 28?

Essentially, that the documents of Vatican II were works of great value which responded to real concerns and problems facing the Church, but which were later distorted, often by the world’s media, which had their own agenda, leading to much confusion and “misery.”

In particular, Benedict said that the popular understanding of Vatican II has been distorted presentations of the Council as a political struggle for “popular sovereignty” in the Church. This “Council of the media” was responsible for “many calamities, so many problems, so much misery,” the Pope said. He listed the miseries: “Seminaries closed, convents closed, liturgy trivialized.”

But the Pope said that the “true Council” is today “emerging with all its spiritual strength,” and he called on the priests to “work so that the true Council with the power of the Holy Spirit is realized and the Church is really renewed.”

At the very beginning if his papacy, almost 8 years ago, Benedict called for a reading of Vatican II “in continuity” with the Church’s 2,000-year doctrine, not as a “rupture” with that past. His talk today was a re-emphasis of this teaching.

Make sure to link HERE to read Pope Benedict's entire "message".

Benedict XVI: Conversion is putting God first

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

POPE: DO NOT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION TO INSTRUMENTALIZE GOD

Vatican City, 13 February 2013 (VIS) – Benedict XVI dedicated the catechesis of today's General Audience to the season of Lent, which begins today, Ash Wednesday. "Forty days," he said, "that prepare us for the celebration of Easter. It is a time of particular commitment in our spiritual journey. … Forty days was also the period that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning his public life, when he was tempted by the devil."

Reflecting on Jesus' temptations in the desert, is "an invitation to each of us to respond to a fundamental question: What is truly important in our lives? … The core of the three temptations that Jesus faced is the proposal to instrumentalize God, to use Him for personal interests, for self-glory and success. In essence, it is putting oneself in God's place, eliminating Him from our existence and making Him seem superfluous. … Giving God the first place is a path that each Christian has to undertake. 'Conversion' … means following Jesus, so that His Gospel becomes the practical guide of our lives. … It means recognizing that we are creatures who depend on God, on His love ...This requires us to make our decisions in light of the Word of God. Today it is no longer possible to be a Christian as a simple consequence of living in a society that has Christian roots. Even those who come from a Christian family … must renew daily their decision to be Christian, to give God the first place in the face of the temptations continuously suggested by a secularized culture, in the face of the criticism of many of their contemporaries."

"The tests that Christians are subjected to by society today are numerous and affect our personal and social life. It is not easy to be faithful to Christian marriage, to practice mercy in our everyday lives, or to leave space for prayer and inner silence. It is not easy to publicly oppose the decisions that many consider to be obvious, such as abortion in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, euthanasia in the case of serious illness, or the selection of embryos to avoid hereditary diseases. The temptation to set one's faith aside is always present and conversion becomes a response to God that must be confirmed at various times throughout our lives."

The Holy Father recalled that in history there have been "great conversions such as St. Paul's on the road to Damascus or St. Augustine's. But also in our age, when the sense of the sacred is eclipsed, God's grace acts and works wonders in the lives of many people … as was the case for the Orthodox Russian scientist Pavel Florensky who, after a completely agnostic education … found himself exclaiming, 'It's impossible without God.' He completely changed his life, even becoming a monk." The Pope also cited the case of the intellectual Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), "a young Dutch woman of Jewish origin, who died in Auschwitz. Initially far from God, she discovered Him by looking deep within herself, writing: 'There is a well deep within me. And God is that well.' … In her scattered and restless life, she rediscovered God in the midst of the great tragedy of the twentieth century, the Shoah."

"In our age, there are more than a few conversions that are seen as the return of those who, after a Christian education, perhaps a superficial one, have turned away from the faith for years, then later rediscover Christ and His Gospel. … In this time of Lent, in the Year of Faith, we renew our commitment to the path of conversion, overcoming the tendency to be wrapped up in ourselves and to make room for God, seeing our everyday reality with His eyes. Conversion means not being wrapped up in ourselves in the search for success, prestige, or social position, but rather of making each day, in the small things, truth, faith in God, and love, become what is most important," the Pope concluded.

Pope Benedict's last public Mass

Applause, tears as pope offers last public Mass

Benedict thanks supporters for prayers, support

By Nicole Winfield

 |  ASSOCIATED PRESS   

  FEBRUARY 14, 2013

VATICAN CITY — With a humble ‘‘Grazie’’ as bishops doffed their mitres and applause echoed through St. ­Peter’s Basilica, a frail Pope Benedict XVI began his long farewell by presiding over Ash Wednesday services in a tearful, final public Mass.

‘‘We wouldn’t be sincere, Your Holiness, if we didn’t tell you that there’s a veil of sadness on our hearts this evening,’’ said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict’s longtime deputy, his voice breaking.

‘‘Thank you for having given us the luminous example of the simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord,’’ Bertone said, quoting Benedict’s own words when he first appeared before the faithful above St. Peter’s Square after he was elected pope.

Smiling and clearly moved, Benedict responded, ‘‘Grazie. Now let us return to prayer’’ — his words bringing to an end the resounding applause that had grown in intensity over several minutes.

Then, in a rare gesture and sign of respect, the rows of bishops, some with tears in their eyes, removed their mitres. One prelate dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief.

‘‘Viva il papa!’’ someone in the crowd shouted as the pope slowly made his way down the steps of the altar, assisted by two clergymen.

He then departed St. Peter’s for the last time aboard a wheeled platform, sparing him the long walk down the aisle.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the most solemn season on the church’s liturgical calendar that ends with ­Holy Week, when the faithful commemorate the death of Christ and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

By this Easter, on March 31, the church will probably have a new pope.

In his final homily as pontiff, Benedict sent a clear message to his successor and those who will elect him of his hope for the future: a united church that isn’t ‘‘defiled’’ by internal rivalries.

Earlier in the day, the scene was festive as Benedict took the extraordinary step of speaking directly to the faithful about why he had broken with 600 years of tradition and decided to retire on Feb. 28.

‘‘As you know, I have decided to renounce the ministry that the Lord gave to me on April 19, 2005,’’ Benedict told thousands gathered for the traditional Wednesday general audience.

‘‘I did this in full liberty for the good of the church.’’

He expressed gratitude for the prayers and love of his flock, which he said he ‘‘physically felt in these days that ­haven’t been easy for me.’’

And he asked them to ‘‘continue to pray for me, the church, and the future pope.’’

Benedict was greeted with a standing ovation when he entered the packed hall, and his speech was interrupted repeatedly by applause.

‘‘He gave us eight wonderful years of his words,’’ said Ileana Sviben, an Italian from the northern city of Trieste. ‘‘He was a wonderful theologian and pastor.’’

The Rev. Reinaldo Braga Jr., a Brazilian priest studying theology in Rome, said he was saddened when he first heard the news of Benedict’s retirement.

‘‘The atmosphere was funereal,’’ he said. ‘‘But then I realized it was a wise act for the entire church. He taught the church and the world that the papacy is not about power, but about service.’’

It was a sentiment Benedict himself emphasized Wednesday, saying the ‘‘path of power is not the road of God.’’

Benedict’s decision has placed the Vatican in uncharted waters: No one knows what he will be called or even what he will wear after Feb. 28.

The Vatican revealed some details of that final day, saying Benedict would attend a morning farewell ceremony with his cardinals and then fly by helicopter at 5 p.m. to the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo.

That means he will be far from the Vatican when he ceases being pope at 8 p.m. — a deadline Benedict himself chose because that’s when his normal workday ends.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said no formal or symbolic act was needed to make the resignation official, because Benedict has already done all that was required by affirming publicly he had taken the decision freely.

Benedict’s final official acts as pope will include audiences with the Romanian and Guatemalan presidents this week and the Italian president on Feb. 23. His final general audience is Feb. 27.

It is beautiful to be old! - Pope Benedict XVI

With yesterday's news this address that Pope Benedict XVI gave to the residents of “Viva Gli Anziani” (Long Live the Elderly), an old-age home in Rome, last November seems appropriate to revisit.

Dear Brothers and Dear Sisters,

I am really glad to be with you in this "casa-famiglia" of the Sant'Egidio Community for the elderly. I thank Prof. Marco Impagliazzo, your President, for his friendly words. With him, I greet Prof. Andrea Riccardi, Founder of the community. I thank you for coming, Bishop Matteo Zuppi, Auxiliary for the Historical Centre, and Archbishop Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family and all the friends of the Sant'Egidio Community.

I come to you as Bishop of Rome, but also as an old man visiting his peers. It would be superfluous to say that I am well acquainted with the difficulties, problems and limitations of this age and I know that for many these difficulties are more acute due to the economic crisis. At times, at a certain age, one may look back nostalgically at the time of our youth when we were fresh and planning for the future. Thus at times our gaze is veiled by sadness, seeing this phase of life as the time of sunset. This morning, addressing all the elderly in spirit, although I am aware of the difficulties that our age entails I would like to tell you with deep conviction: it is beautiful to be old! At every phase of life it is necessary to be able to discover the presence and blessing of the Lord and the riches they bring. We must never let ourselves be imprisoned by sorrow! We have received the gift of longevity. Living is beautiful even at our age, despite some "aches and pains" and a few limitations. In our faces may there always be the joy of feeling loved by God and not sadness.

In the Bible longevity is considered a blessing of God; today this blessing is widespread and must be seen as a gift to appreciate and to make the most of. And yet frequently society dominated by the logic of efficiency and gain does not accept it as such: on the contrary it frequently rejects it, viewing the elderly as non-productive or useless. All too often we hear about the suffering of those who are marginalized, who live far from home or in loneliness. I think there should be greater commitment, starting with families and public institutions, to ensure that the elderly be able to stay in their own homes. The wisdom of life, of which we are bearers, is a great wealth. The quality of a society, I mean of a civilization, is also judged by how it treats elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life. Those who make room for the elderly make room for life! Those who welcome the elderly welcome life!

From the outset the Community of Sant'Egidio has supported so many elderly people on their way, helping them to stay in their own living milieus and opening various "casa-famiglia" in Rome and throughout the world. Through solidarity between the young and the old it has helped people to understand that the Church is effectively a family made up of all the generations, where each person must feel "at home" and where it is not the logic of profit and of possession that prevails but that of giving freely and of love. When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary (cf. Homily for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry, 24 April 2005).

Today's visit fits into the European Year of Active Aging and of Solidarity between the Generations. And in this very context I would like to reaffirm that the elderly are a value for society, especially for the young. There can be no true human growth and education without fruitful contact with the elderly, because their life itself is like an open book in which the young generations may find precious indications for their journey through life.

Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: "when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go" (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace! This is important in every stage of life: no one can live alone and without help; the human being is relational. And in this case I see, with pleasure, that all those who help and all those who are helped form one family, whose lifeblood is love.

Dear elderly brothers and sisters, the days sometimes seem long and empty, with difficulties, few engagements and few meetings; never feel down at heart: you are a wealth for society, even in suffering and sickness. And this phase of life is also a gift for deepening the relationship with God. The example of Blessed Pope John Paul II was and still is illuminating for everyone. Do not forget that one of the valuable resources you possess is the essential one of prayer: become interceders with God, praying with faith and with constancy. Pray for the Church, and pray for me, for the needs of the world, for the poor, so that there may be no more violence in the world. The prayers of the elderly can protect the world, helping it, perhaps more effectively than collective anxiety. Today I would like to entrust to your prayers the good of the Church and peace in the world. The Pope loves you and relies on all of you! May you feel beloved by God and know how to bring a ray of God's love to this society of ours, often so individualistic and so efficiency-oriented. And God will always be with you and with all those who support you with their affection and their help.

I entrust you all to the motherly intercession of the Virgin Mary, who always accompanies us on our journey with her motherly love and I willingly impart my blessing to each one of you. I thank you all!

–Pope Benedict XVI

Visit to the "Viva Gli Anziani" (Long Live the Elderly) Home

Rome, 12 November 2012

Simon & Garfunkel - Mining for Old Friends

from a Dangerous Mind post: OLD FRIENDS: SIMON & GARFUNKEL, ‘LIVE AT THE KRAFT MUSIC HALL’ 1968

Simon & Garfunkel live on NBC’s The Kraft Music Hall, as originally broadcast on January 3, 1968.

They perform “A Poem On The Underground Wall,” “For Emily Whenever I May Find Her,” “Overs,” “Anji,” “Patterns,” “The Sounds Of Silence” and “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” joined by Nancy Wilson and Victor Borge, host of The Kraft Music Hall that evening. They’re also joined by Paul Simon’s brother, Ed, on guitar during “Anji.”

This was obviously sourced from a scratchy 16mm kinoscope, but the quality is fine. It’s not like there’s a lot of live Simon & Garfunkel material from the 1960's, so this is a treasure.

FOR EMILY, WHENEVER I MAY FIND HER

What a dream I had
Pressed in organdy
Clothed in crinoline of smoky burgundy
Softer than the rain
I wandered empty streets
Down past the shop displays
I heard cathedral bells
Tripping down the alley ways
As I walked on

And when you ran to me
Your cheeks flushed with the night
We walked on frosted fields
Of juniper and lamplight
I held your hand

And when I awoke and felt you warm and near
I kissed your honey hair with my grateful tears
Oh, I love you, girl
Oh, I love you 

OVERS

Why don’t we stop fooling ourselves?

The game is over, over, over

No good times, no bad times

There’s no times at all

Just the New York Times

Sitting on the windowsill

Near the flowers

We might as well be apart

It hardly matters

We sleep separately

And drop a smile passing in the hall

But there’s no laughs left

‘Cause we laughed them all

And we laughed them all

In a very short time

Time

Is tapping on my forehead

Hanging from my mirror

Rattling the teacups

And I wonder

How long can I delay?

We’re just a habit

Like saccharin

And I’m habitually feelin’ kinda blue

But each time I try on

The thought of leaving you

I stop…

I stop and think it over

It is in the Sounds of Silence where the words of the prophets are heard

Sounds of Silence (original title)
This is the original version from 1964 from the album "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM." Just Simon's guitar and the vocals. The famous version was released in 1966. After "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" flopped, they split up. Without either their knowledge, electric guitars and drums were added and that version of The Sound of Silence became very popular, reaching #1 on the charts in America on New Years Day, 1966. Because of this, Simon and Garfunkel teamed up again and created three more studio albums, one of which one a Grammy award for album of the year and song of the year 
(Bridge Over Troubled Water). 

Lyrics: Hello darkness, my old friend 
I've come to talk with you again 
Because a vision softly creeping 
Left its seeds while I was sleeping 
And the vision that was planted in my brain 
Still remains 
Within the sound of silence 

In restless dreams I walked alone 
Narrow streets of cobblestone 
'Neath the halo of a street lamp 
I turned my collar to the cold and damp 
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 
That split the night 
And touched the sound of silence 

And in the naked light I saw 
Ten thousand people maybe more 
People talking without speaking 
People hearing without listening 
People writing songs that voices never shared 
No one dared 
Disturb the sound of silence 

"Fools," said I, "you do not know 
Silence like a cancer grows 
Hear my words that I might teach you 
Take my arms that I might reach you" 
But my words like silent raindrops fell 
And echoed in the wells of silence 

And the people bowed and prayed 
To the neon god they made 
And the sign flashed out its warning 
In the words that it was forming 
And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls 
And tenement halls 
And whispered in the sound of silence"

Background: Simon began working on the song sometime after the Kennedy assassination. He had made progress on the music but had yet to get down the lyrics. On 19 February 1964 the lyrics apparently coalesced, and Simon showed the new composition to Garfunkel the same day. Shortly afterward, the duo began to perform it at folk clubs in New York. They recorded it for the first time on March 10, and included the track on their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., released that October.[2] The album flopped upon its release, and the duo split up, with Simon going to England for much of 1965. There he often performed the song solo in folk clubs, and recorded it for a second time on his solo LP in May 1965, The Paul Simon Songbook.

In the meantime, Simon and Garfunkel’s producer at Columbia Records in New York, Tom Wilson, had learned that the song had begun to receive airplay on radio stations in Boston, Massachusetts and around Gainesville and Cocoa Beach, Florida.

On June 15, 1965, immediately after the recording session of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Wilson took the original track of Simon & Garfunkel, and overdubbed the recording with electric guitar (played by Al Gorgoni), electric bass (Bob Bushnell), and drums (Bobby Gregg), and released it as a single without even consulting Simon or Garfunkel.[3] For the B-Side Wilson used an unreleased track he cut with the duo a few months earlier on which they had tried out a more “contemporary” sound. “Sounds of Silence”/”We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Going” entered the U.S. pop charts in September 1965 and slowly began its ascent.

Simon learned that it had entered the charts minutes before he went on stage to perform at a club in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in the later fall of 1965 he returned to the United States. By the end of 1965 and the first few weeks of 1966, the song reached number one on the U.S. charts. Simon and Garfunkel then reunited as a musical act, and included the song as the title track of their next album, Sounds of Silence, hastily recorded in December 1965 and released in January 1966 to capitalize on their success. The song propelled them to stardom and, together with two other top-five (in the U.S.) hits in the summer of 1966, “I Am a Rock” and “Homeward Bound,” ensured the duo’s fame. In 1999, BMI named “The Sounds of Silence” as the 18th-most performed song of the 20th century.[4] In 2004 it was ranked #156 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the duo’s three songs on the list.

The original acoustic stereo mix of the song had the duo’s vocals on separate channels, spotlighting the delicate harmonies. When the ‘rock’ version was mixed to stereo, Wilson mixed the vocals in the middle, which is not as clear sounding as the original acoustic version.

The opening line of the song is “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”.

On the duo’s 1968 album Bookends, the track “Save the Life of My Child” features a distorted sample of Art Garfunkel’s “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you” line from the original recording of The Sounds Of Silence).

Check out the SIMON & GARFUNKEL home page HERE