The other night, as my choir was practicing the ancient hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, I thought about the current craze for vampires.  Vampire books, vampire movies, etc.  Which is really about our human need to grapple with the mysteries of life and death. We long to see and even to enter those veiled places between the realms.  Yet here, in this haunting melody and ponderous text, it is – the mystery and majesty, the call to stand hushed in the face of that ultimate mystery, what some call God.  The hymn conjures up heavenly powers, the hosts of heaven, and even seraphim and cherubim.  Majestic, awesome, unearthly.   So who needs vampires?