Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Deep Calls To Deep
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Deep Calls To Deep
“How insignificant Earth seems to me when I consider heaven”. - St Ignatius of Loyola
New music from the Distant Spire.
This week’s music for meditation is called Deep Unto Deep. Before finding some quiet time for prayer, I invite you to read below for some context to the music for further reflection.
I recommend headphones or full range speakers both for listening quality and to provide some isolation from the noise and business so you can more easily enter into a quiet time with the Lord. Please leave a comment if The Distant Spire has been a benefit to you.
A Psalm of Longing
Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts;all your waves and your billows have gone over me.By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:7-8
The beautiful poetic imagery of the psalm calls to mind the continual and universal longing of our souls for something greater and deeper beyond this world, which is ultimately a longing for God our Creator.
For CS Lewis longing was a central theme throughout much of his writing. He said that we can all relate to a yearning for something more, and this suggests that there is something more. Regarding this universal longing, he says,
“Now if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object … If a trans temporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy.”
He says that longing is aroused through an appreciation of nature, films, books, and other sources that excite the imagination, but they are ultimately unfulfilling:
“Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter.…The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
“Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavour and human creations.” Albert Einstein
Our enchantment with, and creation of, entertainment, arts and other means demonstrate our attempts at fulfilling of this longing, but they are temporal, and the desire remains. Longing is a sense that we are on an incomplete journey and we are yearning for the completion – our eternal home, so we should not see longing as a negative thing, but an innate desire, placed in us by God and part of our very being, that will lead us closer to Him if we pursue this longing with an equal desire for truth. Longing may just be the strongest creative force known, and its aim should lead us heavenward.
Additional Notes
I continue to seek in prayer to try and discern God’s will in my new found Catholic faith, and I have been greatly helped by regular retreats and day trips to New Norcia Benedictine Monastery. It has been such an integral part of my journey, and the Benedictine spirituality resonates with me so strongly, that I can’t help but sense it will continue to be a part of my Christian life going forward.
If you want to support The Distant Spire
You can help me with my motivation by subscribing to my newsletter, and sharing a link would be the nicest compliment you could give me - it says my work is worthy of not just your time but those that are important to you.
🎵 The Distant Spire is a reader supported project that does not currently receive any financial support and content is free. Music from The Distant Spire is also available through the links below.
I highly value your comments and encouragement so please leave a comment if what you enjoy what you hear, and if it resonates with you or helps you in any way.
You can read more about The Distant Spire and the concept behind it on my About Page.
God bless you and keep you,
D.A SigleyThe Distant Spire
Footnotes and Resources
Music written, recorded and produced by Dale Sigley ©2025
Scripture quotes from Revised Stand Version: Catholic Edition ©1989, 1993.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedistantspire.substack.com
View all episodes
By Original music that provides moments for prayer, reflection and pause in this busy, noisy world.“How insignificant Earth seems to me when I consider heaven”. - St Ignatius of Loyola
New music from the Distant Spire.
This week’s music for meditation is called Deep Unto Deep. Before finding some quiet time for prayer, I invite you to read below for some context to the music for further reflection.
I recommend headphones or full range speakers both for listening quality and to provide some isolation from the noise and business so you can more easily enter into a quiet time with the Lord. Please leave a comment if The Distant Spire has been a benefit to you.
A Psalm of Longing
Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts;all your waves and your billows have gone over me.By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:7-8
The beautiful poetic imagery of the psalm calls to mind the continual and universal longing of our souls for something greater and deeper beyond this world, which is ultimately a longing for God our Creator.
For CS Lewis longing was a central theme throughout much of his writing. He said that we can all relate to a yearning for something more, and this suggests that there is something more. Regarding this universal longing, he says,
“Now if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object … If a trans temporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy.”
He says that longing is aroused through an appreciation of nature, films, books, and other sources that excite the imagination, but they are ultimately unfulfilling:
“Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter.…The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
“Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavour and human creations.” Albert Einstein
Our enchantment with, and creation of, entertainment, arts and other means demonstrate our attempts at fulfilling of this longing, but they are temporal, and the desire remains. Longing is a sense that we are on an incomplete journey and we are yearning for the completion – our eternal home, so we should not see longing as a negative thing, but an innate desire, placed in us by God and part of our very being, that will lead us closer to Him if we pursue this longing with an equal desire for truth. Longing may just be the strongest creative force known, and its aim should lead us heavenward.
Additional Notes
I continue to seek in prayer to try and discern God’s will in my new found Catholic faith, and I have been greatly helped by regular retreats and day trips to New Norcia Benedictine Monastery. It has been such an integral part of my journey, and the Benedictine spirituality resonates with me so strongly, that I can’t help but sense it will continue to be a part of my Christian life going forward.
If you want to support The Distant Spire
You can help me with my motivation by subscribing to my newsletter, and sharing a link would be the nicest compliment you could give me - it says my work is worthy of not just your time but those that are important to you.
🎵 The Distant Spire is a reader supported project that does not currently receive any financial support and content is free. Music from The Distant Spire is also available through the links below.
I highly value your comments and encouragement so please leave a comment if what you enjoy what you hear, and if it resonates with you or helps you in any way.
You can read more about The Distant Spire and the concept behind it on my About Page.
God bless you and keep you,
D.A SigleyThe Distant Spire
Footnotes and Resources
Music written, recorded and produced by Dale Sigley ©2025
Scripture quotes from Revised Stand Version: Catholic Edition ©1989, 1993.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedistantspire.substack.com