What's in a (Holy) Name?

Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The Feast of the Holy Name is listed in the Calendar as one of the Feasts of Our Lord (BCP p. 16). When this Feast falls on a Sunday it is given a special privilege: it takes precedence over that Sunday’s readings. This is because the Holy Name (along with the Presentation on February 2^nd and the Transfiguration on August 6^th) is considered such an important event in the life of Christ that it deserves this honor. This is one of the many times the Prayer Book Calendar helps us understand the key elements of our Faith by ranking and by providing a collect (special prayer for the day) and appropriate lessons from Scripture through which we might learn more about the teaching of the Gospel.

This celebration was called the Feast of the Circumcision in previous Prayer Books. The 1979 BCP adopted the new designation as a way of putting the emphasis on the Name given "by the angel before [Jesus] was conceived in the womb" (Luke 2:21), rather than on the ritual action of circumcision.

This day commemorates the Jewish naming ceremony eight days after the birth of a child. In addition, boys were circumcised (in accordance with the covenant with Abraham found in Genesis 17), thus being subject to the Old Testament Law. As such, it forms the Octave Day (eighth day) of the Feast of the Nativity, eight being a number of Christian perfection (being one more than seven, an Old Testament number of perfection). Many commentators have found the paradox of the Son of God's obedience to the ritual Law a foreshadowing of His complete humility later on the Cross. Thus, like our civil New Year’s celebrations, this day looks back to the past (Christ’s Nativity) and forwards into the yet-to-be of the Church Year. Like Advent, Christmastide has a distinct element of contemplating the mystery of time and eternity.

Today's feast day also reminds us that Jesus' name means "salvation." It is a name of strength, yet also of mercy. The secular year has begun; we in the Catholic Faith commemorate the giving of the Name of Our Lord, a name that puts the focus not on ourselves or on the often wearying cycle of events beginning again each year. The name of Jesus tells us that we are part of a message of salvation, redemption, dignity, compassion, purpose, mercy. For, as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have put on Christ Jesus. We are marked by His Name, washed in His Blood, nourished in His Sacred Mysteries. By His Name we are saved. Let His message be our message – living lives of holiness, joy, strength, and mercy so that every heart may come to know, love, and serve the True and Living God.

The right way to observe Christmas

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God—for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.

--Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)

In Darkest Night, a New Beginning

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

The Icon of the Nativity is a treasure of spiritual learning and insight. All around the edges swirl the events surrounding the birth of Christ: St. Joseph wrestling with the temptation to “put Mary away,” the angels adoring, shepherds tending their sheep, the infant Jesus being given his bath, the Magi bringing their gifts… a kaleidoscopic festival of the Incarnation. Yet, at the still center of this storm of holiness is found the reason for it all: the newborn Christ-child attended by the Blessed Virgin, and those most-privileged animals. The cave in which they reside is a silent, inky black.

This shadowy background stands for the darkness cast over humanity by sin and death. It is this fundamental dis-ease Christ comes into the world to heal. He is the Light of God, and that Light shows forth brightly at the first Christmas, and in every Christmas since. In a few days we will once again gather in the darkness of night to sing the praises of “God-with-us,” Emmanuel. From there we will go forth renewed in the Truth about God and ourselves: God has dispelled the darkness of sin and doubt and we are recipients and messengers of this Good News.

The birth of Christ in the night has another meaning to consider: for the Jews (and for the Church, as well), nightfall is not only the ending of one day: it is the beginning of another. When Jesus was born, it marked the ending of one era – that of humanity’s alienation from God – and the beginning of a New Day of reconciliation. The darkness of this world has been shattered by the Light of Christ. That light resides in each of us through Holy Baptism: cherish it, tend it, and share it this Christmastide and always.

* * *

To all who read this blog:

May you dig more deeply into the mystery of the Word-made-flesh this Christmas, and may you find the stillness at the center all the activity; a stillness inviting us into the silence of God's perfect Being-at-Love, shown forth in the Holy Nativity of Christ.

Blessings on this Christmastide,

Brandon+

O Radix Jesse

O root of Jesse, you stand as an ensign to the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, and nations bow in worship: Come and deliver us, and tarry not.

Some years ago when my wife and I were on pilgrimage to Northumberland, we had a unique privilege. At the tomb of St. Bede (patron of the mission church I then served), we held a service whereby, at the prayers of the Venerable Bede, we asked God’s blessing on the fabric used to make the Processional Banner. At that service was read the passage from Isaiah referred to by part of this evening’s Great O Antiphon: “On that day, the root of Jesse shall stand, as a signal (ensign) to the peoples: The nations shall enquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.” (Isaiah: 11: 10). The direct connection between Jesse, Christ, and us was re-affirmed, as was the direct companionship between an eighth-century monk and those modern-day pilgrims gathered around his tomb.

There, in the midst of that “glorious dwelling,” the Nations – literally, the Gentiles – have bowed in worship, and at least one king (Henry VIII) had to “shut his mouth” and decided not to desecrate St. Cuthbert’s incorrupt body, nor the bones of St. Bede.

The banner made from that fabric is a conscious “ensign” of Christ’s coming to be with us, his triumph on the Cross and through the Empty Tomb, and in the lives of his saints – especially that “winsome example,” Bede.

Tonight’s antiphon was, by the time it had become a Christian liturgical offering, already seen as fulfilled. Yet, it continues to go on being fulfilled. Every time a person hears the Gospel, meets Jesus, and answers the call: “Follow me!,” each time a reconciliation with God and neighbor triumphs over human sin and alienation, whenever failed disciples pick themselves and follow Brother Lawrence-like in the steps of the “Lover of Souls” who bears the burden no one else can – each time, the ensign of God is raised up and his victory signaled.

O Root of Jesse, come to us your frail servants again!

O Adonai!

O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel, you appeared in the bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Strength. When a tiny virus – something too small to see except through the aid of the most advanced microscopes – can lay a person low, it becomes evident that our supposed strength as humans is truly fragile. Yet, we labor so hard to keep the mask of our invulnerability from slipping that we come to believe our own propaganda. When the “crash” comes – in whatever physical, spiritual, or relational form it takes – we often lose our entire sense of faith. This is the final payment on an “Existential Adjustable Rate Mortgage” we should never have entered in the first place.

Today’s “O Antiphon” calls upon God in his strength, as revealed in that burning bush and in the awesome majesty upon Sinai, to come and redeem us. It is an open invitation to us, as individuals and as a Body, to admit our frailty and or absolute dependence on God -- the God who burns with truth, love, energy -- but does not consume in destructive delusions! When we do this, we find that God does not come in punishing wrath, but with “an outstretched arm” of compassion, mercy, and hope. When we make this move from delusion to humility and reality personally, we are then given the capacity to live and share the Gospel with authenticity and lasting strength.

O Adonai, Come!

O Wisdom!

O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reach from one end of the earth to the other, rightly and sweetly ordering all things: Com and teach us the way of prudence.

Tonight is the first of the “Great O Antiphons.” These are short verses drawn from the prophet Isaiah said before and after the Song of Mary at Evening Prayer the week before Christmas. Each verse uses a different image or name for the Messiah, and each verse calls upon the Messiah to come and dwell with us. This yearning is fulfilled with Christmas.

The Latin version of the first antiphon (“O Sapientia”) is available for solo voice here, and as sung by a choir here. A link to an expanded study of these antiphons from an early 20^th century Anglican author may be found here.

The First 'O Antiphon' is sung in praise of Christ as the Wisdom of God. This is often how the Early Church (and Eastern Christianity still) refers to Christ: as God’s Holy Wisdom for the world. Christ is the unique medicine for the illness of sin and alienation.

How much the world needs wisdom, as opposed to only more knowledge or – most especially in our day – more information! The accumulation of data has come to replace the acquisition of wisdom today, resulting in a loss of meaning, context, and coherence in contemporary life. Christ is the Wisdom of God, and by becoming part of his Body and living his Gospel, we enter into that Wisdom and experience his peace.

Try using these antiphons through the coming week as a spiritual preparation for the gift we are to receive at Christmas, and as an opportunity to go more deeply into the Advent season’s rich treasury of resources for prayer and hope.

The Christian reason for the "Secular Christmas"

This article was recently posted on another blog, and I have enjoyed reading and thinking about it. I find myself mostly in agreement with its conclusions.

Many in the Church are deeply critical of the craziness which surrounds our cultural practices at this season, yet it is often the case that Christians are in there with everyone else pushing the "Christmas Machine" into overdrive.

One thing I try to do -- difficult as it can be in our age of opulence -- is really observe Advent as a season of few parties and "exterior" events. While I don't get militant about it, it seems to me that this season, for liturgical and catholically-minded Christians, needs to be a fasting season in all of what this means: a fast from business, compulsion, over-filled stomachs and over-filled schedules. In order to be truly expectant -- one of the key parts of Advent's character and thus pointing to the whole of the Christian life -- a soul requires the capacity to hear. This above-linked article speaks to our own share in the creation of this annual spiritual deafness we call the "Holidays."

May our week contain many moments when the conflict between secular consumerism and the Gospel are highlighted; may we reach for the Gospel and not the remote when those conflicts arise!

Thoughts on an Advent Antiphon

Drop down you heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let it bring forth salvation.

During Advent, those who use The Prayer Book Office (an expansion of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer's Rite II daily prayer services) by the late Howard Galley will be familiar with this antiphon said before and after the Song of Mary (or Magnificat, from the Gospel according to Luke). Like all antiphons, it sharpens the sense of a biblical text according to the time of year or the particular feast day/commemoration being observed.

This particular antiphon, drawn from the Prophets, is cast in the form of a plea to God -- a plea for righteousness and salvation. The image is that these things will come to us both from heaven and earth. This is, in fact, accomplished in the Song of Mary which the antiphon frames. The righteousness of God is poured into the world through the "overshadowing of the Holy Spirit" at the Annunciation, and salvation wells up into humanity through the Incarnation of God in Christ, made possible equally by the gift of human flesh through the Virgin Mary. In the Nativity, this plea to God is brought to fruition, the "fruit" of the Blessed Virgin's womb St. Elizabeth exalts at the time of the Visitation (when the Magnificat was first uttered by St. Mary).

As with so much of the Catholic and liturgical path in Christianity, we have here a rich and complex meditation on great mysteries of the Faith put forth with splendid economy and using the simplest imagery. It is yet another reason to rejoice in the gift of our Anglican heritage, to practice that heritage that we might be formed into better disciples of Christ through it, and to call on the Church's leadership to make that heritage better-known in its common life.

An Antiphon in Advent

Drop down you heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let it bring forth salvation.

During Advent, those who use The Prayer Book Office (an expansion of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer's Rite II daily prayer services) by the late Howard Galley will be familiar with this antiphon said before and after the Song of Mary (or Magnificat, from the Gospel according to Luke). Like all antiphons, it sharpens the sense of a biblical text according to the time of year or the particular feast day/commemoration being observed.

This

The Unassimilated Church

Modern man has an obsession for simplicity and authenticity, and can easily be tempted to sacrifice forms, structures, and symbols which he has not taken the time to assimilate. At a time when disputation is sky-rocketing, he may risk throwing out real values without proposing anything to replace them.

- From “Serving God First: Insights on the Rule of St. Benedict” by Dom Sighard Kleiner, translated from the French by James Scharinger (Cistercian Studies Series, 83), 1985

Once in a while I come upon something that neatly and succinctly expresses an idea or sense of things I previously been unable to put into words. Dom Sighard Kleiner’s words in the above passage are an example.

In our part of the Church, we continue to go through a time of intense and often conflicted change. We see it in liturgy, theology, ecclesiology, ethics, demographics, and myriad other areas. Change is a constant in life and in the Church, of course; but ours is an era which wears change on its sleeve much more proudly than most others, making it (in some quarters) the highest good rather than a necessary but ultimately neutral fact. This has resulted in at least these two interesting consequences.

First, “disputation”(as Kleiner calls it) is now a normal way of “doing business” in the Church. We argue about a seemingly endless number of things, but have very little energy or reserve for meaningful mission. This situation is sadly reminiscent of the Jewish leadership at the time of Christ’s earthly ministry.

Second, the high rate of change (and consequent insistence on novelty to keep things interesting to people no longer “formed” in a meaningful tradition) has produced a culture in our church wherein many of both lay and ordained leaders do not have an “assimilated” faith. “Forms, structures, and symbols” are no longer understood within a context or as part of an organic body of meaning experienced over time by a living community of faith: they are seen as discreet parts, mere “techniques” or the residue of another time – all of which is “fair game” for “updating” and being made “relevant” to a consumer mentality where nothing lasts for long and all is disposable.

The Authenticity of God

Authenticity is a troubling word. So many people seek this elusive “something” in a commercialized, often deeply impersonal world, yet there is no clear definition of it except that old one about “knowing it when we see it.” Many in the Church keep trying to offer programs, life-styles, purpose-driven worship – the list is endless – to the rapidly growing ranks of unchurched and post-Christian members of our society, thinking that somehow the solution is found in getting people into our institution. We seem implicitly to say: “if only they saw what we do, they’d join up instantly.” But would they? Is that really authentic Christianity

The story of God’s coming to be with us in Christ may be called the beginning of God’s authenticity for us. When Jesus was born, God came to us; He didn’t wait for us to come to Him. That’s the first lesson of authenticity in faith. We must go out to where the people are, where their real lives are, not wait for them to come to us so that they may put on what is for them an utterly foreign way of life. Whenever we say “Emmanuel” in Advent or Christmas hymns and readings, we are saying “God with us,” and it means God and whoever would be His ambassador must go out from the walls of Heaven or the Church into the world and show what it is like to be authentically alive – without props or the security of institutional backing.

But this leads to the next (and truly precarious) lesson for those who would be authentic to the Gospel in our time and place: we must become utterly vulnerable, completely available, deeply open to what the unchurched person says. Just as we cannot demand that others come into the Church first, so we cannot assume that we alone have something to say. When Christ was born, God entered into a profound act of listening, being vulnerable, and openness to humanity; God has never said that period was over.

Each Advent and Christmas we run smack-dab into this fact: in Christ, God has bridged the divide between the Divine and the human. God as become completely authentic to us. Now is the time of our response. Now is the season of our looking beyond the narrow habits of our familiar patterns. Now God is with us, Emmanuel. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Are we willing to be like God and walk among others, listening to them, serving them – truly dwelling with them not as “the other” but as fellow-heirs of the God who reached out and became, in the deepest sense, authentic?

Faithfully in the Word-made-flesh,

Brandon+

Keep In It.

“It is the right, good, old way you are in; keep in it.”

-- dying words of Nicholas Ferrar (obit 1637)

In the small church of St. John’s in the village of Little Gidding in rural Cambridgeshire, England, there is a window, on which are written the last words of Nicholas Ferrar, commemorated today in the Church's calendar. Ferrar was the founder of a small religious community in England in the early 17^th century; a kind of experiment in Christian community life made up of his family and some of his relatives. They lived frugally, structured their day and year in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer’s services and pattern for living, taught the children in the area to read and write, visited the sick, and had a scriptorium in which various books we assembled for educational or spiritual purposes. A place favored by King Charles I, the community was broken up by the Puritans during the English Civil War (c. 1640-49). Yet this brief chapter in Anglican history has had, and continues to have, a remarkable impact on our ideals.

For those who know of it (chiefly through T.S. Elliot’s poem “Little Gidding” from the Four Quartets), the story of Little Gidding is often seen as a romanticized dream: a kind of Little House on he Prairie meets The Mitford books picture of being Anglican. Yet the day-to-day reality in that community, when viewed carefully, suggests a life remarkably familiar to us…one of responsibilities to others, the need to get chores done, the unexpected intruding on plans made…with one significant exception: it was a life founded on, and steeped in prayer. Prayerful communion with God was THE priority.

Just saying that sounds remarkably naïve and impractical in our day. How can one possibly base a modern American life on prayer? Isn’t that a luxury? Isn’t exercise, or medication, or even denial more effective? How can we commodify “prayer?” How can something so elusive fit into our "lifestyle?"

Perhaps the answer is simple: we cannot fit prayer into the modern American way of life. We cannot make prayer into a kind of pill we swallow in the morning and then forget about till the next day. Prayer does not cost anything, so it cannot be considered of value in a society that judges most things by their price. In other words, to be a truly prayerful person is to be at odds with our society as it is.

Yet this is true about all aspects of Christian discipleship. No matter how each era and each culture try to domesticate it, the Gospel and the life Jesus sets out for those who would follow Him is so demanding, so difficult, that it is only possible through a radical dependence on God. Usually, good health and favorable circumstances allow us to think we are quiet capable to living on our own terms. But, when our fragility is exposed by trials or loss, we find out just how vulnerable we are. The Christian is called to live in a state of continual dependence on God’s grace. This is the message of the Beatitudes, and a major focus of the Church Year (especially Lent). Our various sins all spring from a fundamental sin: the choice to live apart from God’s will, God’s purpose and love.

Nicholas Ferrar had been a rich man before he founded the community at Little Gidding. He had been a director of the Virginia Company (an early version of today’s multi-national corporations), and had become aware of various abuses in the company and its governance. He helped expose those abuses (one of the first "corporate whistle-blowers"), and after the investigation and dissolution of the company, he decided that the life he had led was no longer of deep meaning to him. He radically simplified his life, took deacon’s orders, and immersed himself in the “right, good, old way” of living found in the Gospels and taught by the Christian Church (in all of its imperfection) since the Apostles. He gave himself to prayer, works of mercy, and a counter-cultural way – yes, even then! – of simple Christian living. To those who would come after him, he had only one piece of advice about this prayer-soaked, Gospel-imbued, Prayer Book-based life: “keep in it.” Much has changed since Blessed Nicholas Ferrar’s time; but the challenge and the key to discipleship remain the same. We have the same tools: the Scriptures, the Sacraments, the Offices in the Prayer Book, silent prayer and contemplation, and the various other tools developed by Christians to carry a conscious sense of God’s presence into each part of their life. When truly lived, they are more radical than any ideology or "-ism."

Living a prayerful life will open our eyes, as it did Nicholas Ferrar’s, to the very real needs in the world around us. We will see with Christ’s eyes (“that awake, we may watch with Christ” from Compline), and will feel a profound tug to be involved in ministering the Gospel. While St. Timothy’s has many limitations, we are a place that teaches the life and art of prayer; let us "keep in it," so that we might see with Christ's eyes and serve as His hands in these confused and troubled times.

An ordination anniversary

The Collect of St. Andrew, my ordination patron:

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

But mark well this: it will not be for the greatest feats of homiletic art, the most astonishing efforts of building new churches, or for having your name on the lips of well-positioned citizens that you will be accounted as a good and faithful priest. No, these things always pass both from men’s minds and from the Church's deepest approval. It will be for the countless hours of honest prayer for, earnest counsel with, and patient tending to the needs and souls of those whom God has called you to serve that you will be remembered and approved by Christians and our God. These are the marks of a true laborer in our Lord’s Kingdom. At His bidding, and in His grace go, and do them. In so doing, you will glorify God who calls you into His service and draw men’s eyes from their fallen condition to their rightful calling and purpose. – from an Ordination Sermon

On this, the 16^th anniversary of being ordained to the Sacred Priesthood, I continue to feel both deeply humbled and extraordinarily joyful in a calling I so imperfectly fulfill but so greatly love. Pray for me.

Drop down, ye heavens

This is the Church’s “New Year.” With the First Evensong of Advent Sunday, we cross the threshold into the gift of a new liturgical year: fresh and as yet untested. For me, one of the great joys of the life of prayer is saying the first words of this evening’s prayers – full of hope, expectation, and the promise of another immersion into the Catholic Faith.

I have been blessed to serve in two congregations which use the Advent Prose. This ancient collection of passages from the prophets, originally connected to the Daily Office, serves as a probing entrance into the particular tonality of Advent. These days are both penitential and joyful in character, and the Prose we use to begin this Sunday’s liturgy expresses it so well:

Drop down, ye heavens, from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: the holy cities are a wilderness, Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation: our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing, and we all do fade as a leaf: and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away; thou hast hid thy face from us: and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know me and believe me: I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior: and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, my salvation shall not tarry: I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions: Fear not, for I will save thee: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.

The antiphon (refrain) “Drop down ye heavens…" may be used before and after the Song of Mary (Magnificat) at Evening Prayer during Advent

These words combine majesty and solemnity, humility and hope in a way unlike anything else in our worship. They are worthy of prayerful consideration throughout these four weeks. I feel both deeply privileged and acutely humbled to offer them in the liturgy. May all of us enter into Holy Advent in peace, with open hearts, that we may hear God’s word to us in this season, joining the Blessed Virgin in preparation to receive the gift of Christ’s coming now and at the end of the ages.

Thanksgiving as an Anglican Observance

Some form of Thanksgiving Observance has been part of the Episcopal Church’s worship life since its first Prayer Book of 1789 – with provision of special readings from Scripture and prayers for both Morning Prayer and the Holy Communion. Indeed, Thanksgiving Day alone was a National holiday officially honored with a Prayer Book service.

The background to American Thanksgiving Day is widely found on the Internet, but it is less commonly known that this commemoration was observed by various churches in our nation as a vital religious holiday until fairly recently. In our current secuarlizing era – to which many parts of the Church are rapidly falling victim – Thanksgiving has joined other observances formerly marked by liturgical worship that have become sterile “consumer events.”

The current Prayer Book’s observance remains rich, with a collect, readings, and appropriate prayers for Morning and Evening Prayer as well as the Holy Eucharist. Along with Independence Day (which had to wait until 1928 for the honor), this is one of our two “National Days” enshrined in the Calendar. Both Feasts can be very moving and helpful expressions of the best relationship between Church and State.

Perhaps one of the best additions to the Book of Common Prayer in 1979 was the new “General Thanksgiving,” found on p. 836. Together with the General Thanksgiving found at the end of Morning and Evening Prayer, this prayer serves as a helpful tool in rounding out our prayer life, giving due place for considering the various gifts from God – some welcome, some not – in our life. In many Episcopal Churches, Thanksgiving Day is the only time this new General Thanksgiving is publicly used, but it certainly bears use, and consideration, throughout the year in our personal prayers.

A good Thanksgiving Day practice is to go around the table and have each person offer one of the petitions, after which those present may share a way that petition speaks to us about a particular experience, thing, person, or idea for which we are thankful. All may then offer the simple “Litany of Thanksgiving” that follows.

Another way to observe this day is to help out in a feeding program in your community, and to make sure you consciously serve the guests at that meal as Christ himself, rather than as a duty, obligation, or (worst of all) a way to earn points with God or expiate one’s own guilt. Offering thanks for blessings and the opportunity to serve Christ would be a good mental practice in this situation or at any time.

Whatever your parish or personal observance, let Thanksgiving Day be a Feast Day in the deepest sense: a feast for the soul as much as a feast for the body. Today is a day to delight in the good things of the Creation, the enjoyment of which is “meet and right.” Indeed, we in a consumerist society must work much harder to enjoy things properly, as we have learned mostly only how to consume them rather than savor them as a gift from God to each one of us individually as well as to all corporately.

As Thomas Traherne once noted in his Centuries of Meditations:

You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.

May your Thanksgiving challenge your understanding of gratitude and enjoyment in new ways, freeing you to “sing and rejoice and delight in God,” the giver of all good gifts.

A Bishop-elect for Oregon

Yesterday, the Diocese of Oregon in Convention elected the Rev’d Michael Hanley to be our next Bishop. Assuming the majority of Diocesan Bishops and Standing Committees in the Episcopal Church give their assent (and that seems highly likely), he will be consecrated the Tenth Bishop of Oregon on the Saturday after Easter. In the coming months we will look at the Consecration Liturgy from the Prayer Book in some detail, learning what the office of Bishop means to us, and what promises Fr. Hanley and we will be making at his ordination to the Episcopate.

For now, please keep him and his wife Marla in your prayers as they begin the often bitter-sweet process of moving from one part of God’s vineyard to another. Pray, too, for our Diocese that we may be given grace and guidance to return faithfully to the normal polity and operations of a Diocese of the Church after many months of operating in an irregular (though canonical) manner. We look forward to ministering the Gospel of Christ the King with our next Bishop.

Thanks be to God.

Christ, the True King

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The last Sunday of the Church Year has become known as “Christ-the-King Sunday,” even though the Prayer Book does not actually call it this (this name is borrowed from the Roman Catholic Church, which designated this Sunday as “Christ-the-King” in the 1920’s, after moving it from the Sunday prior to All Saints’ Day). The Sunday has become particularly familiar to us because of the popular hymns sung to commemorate it, particularly “Crown Him with many Crowns,” “All hail the power of Jesus’ Name,” and “King of Glory, King of Peace.”

The Feast takes up the many references in Scripture to Christ as both a member of the Royal Davidic line of Israel and his Kingship as Messiah, and then juxtaposes our presuppositions of what “royal” means with the reality of Christ’s particular way of being the “King of Glory.” His humility and his power through love rather than violence is made explicit, and we are all challenged to give our ultimate loyalty to Christ the King, rather than earthly claimants. For, no leader, no political party or economic system, no “life-style” or ideology may take the place of Jesus as Lord.

Christ-the-King, born out of the horror and violence of the First World War and the Communist Revolution in Russia, is a deeply relevant commemoration to our time. Our era finds it difficult to surrender ultimate authority to anyone outside the individual. We have become deeply “invested” in our autonomy – literally, in our being a law unto ourselves. This quest for autonomy has deepened the alienation between God and humanity, as well as between people – just when our technological capacity could help us recognize our common humanity, our need for the spiritual completion available in Christ.

Christ came as a totally new kind of king; He rejected earthly kingship’s trappings, the search for an existence apart from the Creation, apart from each other, apart from His Father’s will and love. He did this in order to lead by example, sharing with us the path each person, each family and society and movement of people must take. Until we accept this truth, human history will be the story of the rise and fall of empires built on death. When we as individuals and as nations give our loyalty to Christ the King and no other, we receive not servitude but freedom, the freedom to join Christ in service to others now, and in glory in heaven, where He lives and reigns for ever and ever.

(Picture: Stained glass window at the Melkite Catholic Annunciation Cathedral in Rosedale, Massachusetts, depicting Christ the King with the regalia of a Byzantine Emperor. January 2009 photo by John Stephen Dwyer.)

Presented in Holiness

O God, who on this day didst vouchsafe that blessed Mary Ever-virgin, the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, should be presented in the Temple: grant, we beseech thee; that by her intercession we may be found worthy to be presented unto thee in the temple of thy glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen.

Today is, in the old Western Calendar, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple. This commemoration features an event that is, of course, not found in the Bible. It was a late development in the Western calendar, originating in the Christian East and becoming one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church Year in that tradition. Not being recorded in Scripture, this feast was dropped at the time of the English Reformation and its observance falls among those many aspects of the Faith that cannot be enforced as “central” in Anglican thinking. However, the story of Mary’s presentation in the Temple by her parents in thanksgiving to God for the gift of a child in no way conflicts with the tenants of the Faith, and clearly prefigures Christ’s Presentation in the Temple as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke.

Today’s feast is first and foremost about the Virgin Mary: her growing up in the context of holiness, the model she presents for what it means to live a holy life, and her intercession for us. This is perhaps the best of Marian devotion. Yet, in addition to the Virgin there is the image and language of Temple to consider. The Temple in Jerusalem was the place wherein God’s Holy Name was enshrined. To it, the people came and made sacrifice in accordance with the Law. It was the locus of earthly holiness to the Hebrew people.

This feast recalls that, for us, the Virgin Mary is in some way the fulfillment of the Temple – now made of loving and willing flesh rather than built of cold and hard stone. St. Mary is dedicated, as was the Temple, to be the place wherein the “Holy Name of God” is brought into the world – but now, that Holy Name comes in the Flesh, rather than invisibly. The God-Bearer brings forth the Son of God in seamless continuity with the Law, for He is the very fulfillment of that Law.

As we contemplate all of this, we are inevitably called to consider our own lives: are they “holy places of encounter” with God for others, or is our life just lived as a collection of “to-do” lists, anxieties, or selfish ambitions that will soon pass into the oblivion of death? We were created for glory; our lives must shine with it, inviting others to share with us in God’s true purposes for His beloved people.

A life of great faithfulness: St. Leo the Great

Below are the collect (prayer for the day) for St. Leo’s commemoration and a passage from one of his sermons. He was a great preacher, teacher, and leader (you would have to be in order to face down Atilla the Hun!). His holiness and faithfulness, as well as his decisiveness as a leader, are all part of the reason he was accorded the honorific “Great.” Beyond this, however, was a great intellectual gift; it was his writing on the controversial topic of Christ’s two natures that ultimately carried the day at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

A wise and faithful pastor, one who lives a holy life of prayer and charity, a skilled teacher and theologian, a practitioner of God’s justice, a pillar of dynamic orthodoxy, a worthy successor to the Apostles: this is what the True Church has always sought in its bishops. May such bishops be known in our own day!

O Lord our God, grant that your Church, following the teaching of your servant Leo of Rome, may hold fast the great mystery of our redemption, and adore the one Christ, true God and true Man, neither divided from our human nature nor separate from your divine Being; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

“It is a great thing, no doubt, to have the right faith and possess sound doctrine; and sobriety, meekness, and purity are virtues that deserve high praise; but all these virtues remain vain if they are not coupled with charity. And we ought not to say that an excellent conduct is fruitful if it does not issue from Love.”

- From Sermon 48

(More on St. Leo's life may be found here and here)

Doing the Work of a Christian

Each day we are given the opportunity to live lives of renewed purpose. The gift of each morning begs to be received with joy, for it is a new day in which to pray to God, grow in his knowledge and love, serve our brothers and sisters, and delight in the good things the Lord has made. In some very real sense, the fullness of Christianity is found in this fundamental outlook, this basic attitude which greets life as a supreme gift, a continuous possibility for becoming more like Christ.

In November, we begin the month with the great Feast of All the Saints. These holy people form that “great cloud of witnesses” who intercede for us and show us that human lives are capable of shining with God’s goodness, mercy, and transformative power. The Saints – both the well-known and the little-known – encourage us to take our own lives more seriously, to realize our own calling to become the Holy People of God in our own day, our own circle of activity and contact.

As the month progresses, we recall our basic loyalty to Christ as King; all of the other obligations, priorities, and relationships in our lives must be under that banner: if they are not, our lives will be out of balance, and our capability to hear God’s word to us will be impaired. The communities we are part of desperately need us to be “on message” in the Gospel; this begins with a profound commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior, not “just another priority.”

Then comes the great Holy Day of Thanksgiving: yes, a “Holy Day.” This Prayer Book Feast is an annual reminder that all we have is, in fact, a gift from God. Once a year we make this crystal-clear by devoting an entire day to it. It is a good day to prepare for by thinking of those blessings we most take for granted, and those challenges which make us rely on God more deeply. When we do these things, we are more compassionate, more grateful, and need less “stuff” in order to be happy – for we are secure in the embrace of God. People secure in that embrace are much less likely to become fearful, greedy, and judging.

Doing the work of a Christian starts by being part of Christ’s Body, the Church, in worship and in study of the Scriptures and the Faith. It starts there, but it never stays there. It proceeds to service, witness, and a very special attitude about life: all has been given to us by God; we hold it in trust. The more we share, the more we have; the less we demand, the more we are given. Doing the work of a Christian frees us to be fully alive to God and to each other. It is what we were created for, what a recession-wracked and fearful world needs but does not understand, and what Our Lord made possible.

Today is a new day, a gift from God; let us do the work we have been given in peace and thanksgiving, knowing that we are loved and blessed by the Lord as his children.

A Short Daily Intercession

Having a simple form of prayer for others is a good way to begin a longer period of intercession. For days when we have but little time, remembering such a short list of matters before God keeps us faithful to a fully-rounded life of prayer. This form, taken from St. Augustine’s Prayer Book (Holy Cross Publications, West Park, NY) is a classic of both brevity and clarity. I have updated the language, but would be happy to provide the Jacobean-style English if that is desired. This prayer if often used at the end of the Morning Prayers.

Lord, I pray for all the peoples of the earth, that they may be brought to know, love and serve you. I pray for your holy Church throughout the world, and especially for our own part of the Church, for our Bishop (Name), and for the priests and people of my parish (Names). I pray for the employed, that they may work as for you, and not only as for another person. I pray for the unemployed, that they may find work, and be saved from despondency. Be their strength in adversity. May the sick be healed, the hungry fed, the mourners comforted, the poor succored, and the afflicted in mind and body be firmly held in your deep peace that passes all human understanding (Names). Bless my family, bless my friends, bless my enemies, and grant us all the spirit of penitence that we may receive your forgiveness poured out to all mankind, through the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.

In Praise of God on Fridays

O Lord, when they broke your commandment and fell.

You did not despise nor reject them,

But as a tender Father, you visited them in so many ways,

Granting them your great and precious promise with the life-giving seed,

Opening to them the door of faith, and of repentance into life.

In the fullness of time you sent your Christ

To take on the seed of Abraham,

And in the offering of his life

He fulfilled, in perfect obedience

And in the sacrifice of death,

A ransom for the whole world,

And in his rising again, he gave us life.

O Creator of all things,

Your will is to return us to yourself,

That all should be partakers

Of your divine nature and eternal glory…

Blessed, praised, celebrated,

Magnified, exalted, glorified,

Hallowed be your name, the recalling,

The memory, and every memorial of it,

Now and forever.

Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626, Feast Day Sept. 26),

from the Laud Manuscript of the Preces Privatae,

as translated by David Scott

This portion of Bp. Andrewes' Private Prayers is a glorious example of his deeply scriptural, patristic, orthodox, and joyous understanding of the faith. It expresses well the Classical Anglican view of the Cross as not only the place of Christ's atoning sacrifice and holy sufferings, but also a "theatre of joys" (as Thomas Traherene spoke of it) and the gateway to sharing in the Divine Nature itself. 

Our Friday devotion through the year must be more than a recollection of human sin and the awesome love found on the Cross; it must be a realization of the new life we lead as Christians, and the continuous growth in grace and participation in God made possible through communion with the Risen and Ascended Lord. Only that makes our remembrance of the Crucifixion on Fridays complete and hopeful.

Living in the Kingdom of God Even Now

The below passage is a beautiful meditation on how heaven, for the faithful Christian, is not simply a matter of some future time, but is available by God's grace, in part even now. This is a sample of St. Anselm's particular wisdom, and the depth of his continuous conversation with God -- something we all may enter into through prayer, service, and humility.

Those who have the grace to reign in the kingdom of heaven will see the realization of everything that they desire in heaven and on earth, and nothing that they do not want will be realized in heaven or on earth. The love which will unite God with those who will live there, and the latter among themselves, will be such that all will love one another as themselves, and all will love god more than themselves.

Hence, no one will have any other desire there than what God wills, and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God. All together, and as one single person, will be one sole ruler with God, for all will desire one single thing and their desire will be realized. This is the good that, from the heights of heaven, God declares he will put on sale.

If some one asks at what price, here is the response: The one who offers a kingdom in heaven has no need of earthly money. No one can give God what already belongs to him, since everything that exists is his. Yet God does not give such a great thing unless once attaches value to it; he does not give it to one who does not appreciate it. Hence, although God has no need of your goods, he will not give you such a great thing as long as you disdain to love it: he requires only love, but without it nothing obliges him to give. Love, then, and you will receive the Kingdom. Love, and you will possess it.

And since to reign in heaven is nothing other than to adhere to God and all the saints, through love, in a single will, to the point that all together exercise only one power, love God more than yourself and you will already begin to have what you wish to possess perfectly in heaven. Put yourself at peace with God and with others – if the latter do not separate themselves from God – and you will already begin to reign with God and all the saints. For to the extent that you now conform to the will of God and to that of the others, God and all the saints will concur with your will. Hence, if you want to rule in heaven, love God and others as you should, and you will merit to be what you desire.

However, you will not be able to possess it to perfection unless you empty your heart of every other love. This is why those who fill their hearts with love for God and their neighbor have no other will than that of God – or that of another, provided it is not contrary to God. That is why they are faithful in praying as well as in carrying on a dialogue in their minds with heaven; for it is pleasing to them to desire God and to speak of someone whom they love, to hear that once spoken about, and to think of the beloved. It is also why they rejoice with those who are joyful, weep with those who are in pain, have compassion on the suffering, and give to the poor; for they love others as themselves

- St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury in his Letter 112 to Hugh the Recluse [1109]; from Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church, J. Robert Wright (emphasis mine).

The First Prayer of the Day

A Simple Office of Prime

For Use Upon Waking

First stand in silence, clearing your mind of all else but the gift of this new day and the presence of God. Then pray:

X In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Father...

V. O God, make speed to save us.

R. O Lord, made haste to help us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Except in Lent, add Alleluia.

Hymn

Now that the day light fills the sky,


We lift our hearts to God on high,


That He, in all we do or say,


Would keep us free from harm today;

Would guard our hearts and tongues from strife;

From anger’s din would hide our life;


From all ill sights would turn our eyes,

And close our ears to vanities;

So we, when this new day is gone


And night in turn is drawing on,


With conscience by the world unstained

Shall praise His name for victory gained.

All laud to God the Father be;

All praise, eternal Son, to thee;

All glory, as is ever meet,

To God the holy Paraclete. Amen.

Psalm

Antiphon: Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord.

[On Fridays: You were slain and have redeemed us to God by your Blood.]

54 Deus, in nomine

1 Save me, O God, by your Name; *

in your might, defend my cause.

2 Hear my prayer, O God; *

give ear to the words of my mouth.

3 For the arrogant have risen up against me,

and the ruthless have sought my life, *

those who have no regard for God.

4 Behold, God is my helper; *

it is the Lord who sustains my life.

5 Render evil to those who spy on me; *

in your faithfulness, destroy them.

6 I will offer you a freewill sacrifice *

and praise your Name, O Lord, for it is good.

7 For you have rescued me from every trouble, *

and my eye has seen the ruin of my foes.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Antiphon: Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord.

[On Fridays: You were slain and have redeemed us to God by your Blood.]

The Lesson

On Sundays, Holy-Days, Eastertide.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:17

At other times

Love the truth and peace, thus says the Lord of hosts. Zech. 8:19-20

Responsory

Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon us (Alleluia, Alleluia)

Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon us (Alleluia, Alleluia)

You that sit at the right hand of the Father,

Have mercy upon us (Alleluia, Alleluia)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon us (Alleluia, Alleluia)

O Lord, arise, help us;

And deliver us for you name’s sake.

Lord, hear my prayer;

And let my cry come to you.

Collects

O Almighty Lord, and everlasting God, direct, sanctify, and govern, both our hearts and bodies, in the ways of your laws, and in the works of your commandments; that through your mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord, give me the strength to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely on Your holy will. Reveal Your will to me every hour of the day. Bless my dealings with all people. Teach me to treat all people who come to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unexpected events, let me not forget that all are sent by you. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me the physical strength to bear the labors of this day. Direct my will, teach me to pray, pray in me. Amen.

For Fridays

O everlasting Jesus, who in the early morning gave yourself to be reviled and mocked by your enemies; visit us, we pray you, at this hour with your grace and mercy; that throughout this day we may find peace and joy in all that ministers to you praise and glory; who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

At the Conclusion

Satisfy us with your mercy, O Lord, at this morning hour; that we may go on our way rejoicing, and sing of your glory all the day long; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord bless X us and preserve us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life; and may the souls of the faithful through the mercy of God rest in peace.

The Love that Unites All in All

The love which will unite God with those who will live [in the Kingdom of Heaven], and the latter among themselves, will be such that all will love one another as themselves, and all will love God more than themselves.

- St. Anselm in a letter to Hugh the Recluse

Worship, Liturgy, and Expectations

When I was growing up in the Protestant tradition, I believe the unspoken assumption about worship was that, in the main, we acted upon it. That is to say, the worship service was viewed as a blank period of time, occupying about an hour or so, during which certain things generally happened, but over which the clergy exercised almost exclusive control. The goal was to create a new experience each week, one which delivered a “message” and had a certain “relevance.” We acted on the worship in order for it to be “effective.”

When I encountered liturgy, I found something very different – the reverse, in fact: God, through the historic and largely unvarying Liturgy, acts upon us. The difference is really like that between night and day. In liturgy, the forms are not there first and foremost to be “relevant” or to “delivery effective messages,” but are the appointed portals through which we encounter the Kingdom of God. The eternal message of redemption in Christ is experienced anew each time, and the clergy have but little “control” over the experience.

Over the years I have seen a progressive decay of liturgy in the Episcopal Church; it is gradually being replaced, it seems to me, with the Protestant notion of “worship” I knew years ago. We continually “update” and “enrich” the various formulae and prayers, but in so doing their limited shelf-life is revealed, and we are back to understanding that it is somehow up to us to make worship be “effective.”

The search for novelty is never-ending, and it encourages an ever more aggressive approach to the question of measuring and assessing the “response” and the “product.” This accounts, I believe, for some of the nervousness and agitation in the Episcopal Church these days: we are, in a sense always “looking over our shoulder” with regard to the liturgy (much like the Mega-churches must do in their market-driven church environment) rather than looking forward into the mystery of God the Holy Trinity, and our share in that mystery.

I am thankful that, at least in some places, liturgy rather than generic “worship” continues to be offered, but I honestly wonder at times what room there will be for those of us for whom the difference matters a great deal.