From the Rector: Lives Unfolding

Many years ago I encountered a presentation in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for six year-olds called “The History of the Kingdom of God.”  The presentation involves a ribbon and three words.  The grosgrain ribbon is on a spool and perhaps there’s a hundred feet of it.  The words are written on paper cards.  They are: Creation, Redemption and Parousia.  Parousia [One pronunciation: pear-rou-SEE-ah] is a Christian term for the end of time when God will be all in all.  Yes, this is a presentation for six year-olds.

As part of this presentation they are given this proclamation: “Since before the beginning of creation there has been in the mind of God a plan to bring all people to himself.”  This plan is the History of the Kingdom of God.  My experience has been that children love the presentation and they get the proclamation.  Their lives and the lives of everyone they know are part of God’s history.  This is not the last presentation they receive on the History of the Kingdom.  But it is a marvelous beginning.

When asked what distinguishes Anglo-catholic Episcopalians from our more Protestant brothers and sisters within our Church family, one might say that Anglo-catholics have a strong sense of living within the unfolding of God’s reign.  Our tradition seeks to strengthen its communion with the living and the dead.  The saints are the baptized: past, present and future.  The great saints of the past and the present help us to know God’s plan for his creation.

On All Saints’ Day the Church commemorates in thanksgiving the witness of holy Christian men and women whose names are known to God but are unknown now to us.  We thank God for his providence.  We ask the holy saints to help us with their love and prayers.  We keep their witness before our eyes as we continue our own journeys in Christ.

On All Souls’ Day the Church prays especially for those whom we have known and who are now in the nearer presence of God.  This day gives a particular focus to love and reconciliation with those whom we no longer see but whose faces, voices and touch are alive in our beings.  It is a day of love, of bonds between us that cannot be broken by death because death itself was conquered for eternity by Christ.

Back to that ribbon for a moment.  Most of the ribbon in that presentation material is blue.  Then comes a bit of gold.  It’s when Jesus was alive, died and rose.  Then the ribbon turns white for a long stretch.  At the end, there is gold again.  If I recall correctly, there are separate presentations when the children can locate other events in the history of God’s kingdom.  (From age nine to twelve they work on a huge and detailed version of the history with the biblical narrative.)  The children love that they are living in God’s special new time, the time after God showed all people his plan for his creation in Christ.  I invite you to turn to the saints when you are in trouble or when you are in love.  I invite you never to stop loving those whom you have known and to look forward to God’s plan to reconcile all people to himself and to each other at the Parousia.  Stephen Gerth

 

ALL SAINTS’ DAY is Tuesday, November 1.  The celebration begins on its Eve, October 31, with Evening Prayer at 6:00 PM and Mass at 6:20 PM.  On All Saints’ Day, Morning Prayer will be sung at 8:30 AM.  At 12:00 PM the Noonday Office is prayed.  The 12:10 PM Mass will be a Sung Mass.  There is an organ recital at 5:30 PM.  There will be a Solemn Pontifical Mass at 6:00 PM.  The rites of Christian initiation will be celebrated.  The Right Reverend E. Don Taylor , vicar bishop for New York City, will be celebrant and preacher. 

 

ALL SOULS’ DAY is Wednesday, November 2.  Morning Prayer is at 8:30 AM.  At 12:00 PM the Noonday Office is prayed.  The 12:10 PM Mass will be a Sung Mass.  There will be a Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM.  The Rector will be celebrant and preacher.  This year the parish requiems, when we pray for our departed by name, will be on November 3, November 4, November 5 and November 8.

 

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Emil, Will, Michael, Ray, Betty Ann, Mikhail, Matthew, Donna, Lloyd, Deborah, Charlton, Virginia, William, Mary, Tony, Ibo, Gilbert, Robert, Gloria, Marion, Mamie, Rick, Henry, Thomas, priest and Charles, priest, and for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Marc, Joseph, Timothy, Christopher, David, Timothy, Nestor, Freddie, Derrick and Christina . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . October 31: David Hessing; November 1: 1997 Mark Hamilton; November 2: 1957 Elsinore Janmott, 1958 C.Y. Wong, 1960 Mabel Amelia Hoover, 1970 John Arthur Schwartz, 1973 Howard Montague Smith, 1973 Doris White, 1976 Winona Clare Peterson, 1982 Robert William Kennedy, 1983 Marie Anne Andokian, 1987 Clasine A. Van De Geer.

 

AROUND THE PARISH  . . . The concert by the Choir of Gloucester Cathedral is Friday, October 28 at 7:30 PM . . . Daylight Savings Time ends at 2:00 AM this Sunday . . . Brother Emil Denworth is at the Hospital for Joint Disease for therapy and recuperation.  Please keep him in your prayers . . . Thanks to the saints who helped with the All Souls’ mailing, George Handy, Esther Kamm, Dennis Smith and Eileen Whittle . . . Flowers are needed for Sunday, November 6 and Sunday, November 20.  Please contact Sandra Schubert, sschubert@stmvirgin.org   . . . Attendance Last Sunday 312.

 

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the prelude is Chorale Prelude on ‘St. Peter’, Opus 20/1 by Harold Darke (1888-1976).  The postlude is Master Tallis’s Testament from Six Pieces (1940) by Herbert Howells (1892-1983).  The setting of the Mass ordinary is Darke’s Communion Service in F.  An English composer and organist, Darke was organist of Saint Michael’s Church, Cornhill, London for 50 years.  He was acting organist of King’s College, Cambridge during the Second World War, substituting for Boris Ord.  Darke’s Communion Service in F is one of his best-known compositions (though not as widely sung as his setting of In the bleak midwinter) and often is heard in Anglican churches and cathedrals in England and abroad.  The motet at Communion is Let all mortal flesh keep silence by Edward C. Bairstow (1874-1946) . . . The recital at 4:40 is by Timothy J. Brumfield . . . On Tuesday, All Saints’ Day, the recital at 5:30 is by Camille Bishop of Macon, Georgia.  Ms. Bishop was my first piano and organ teacher; I am thrilled to welcome her to Saint Mary’s! . . . The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa ‘Mille regretz’ by Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500-1553), who is considered the most important Spanish composer of his generation.  Born in Seville, his career included posts in Rome (for ten years he was a singer in the papal choir) and, after returning to Spain, as maestro de capilla of the cathedrals at Toledo and Málaga.  This setting is a “parody mass” based upon Mille regretz, a chanson by Josquin Desprez (c. 1440-1521).  The motet is O quam gloriosum by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) . . . On Wednesday, All Souls’ Day, the setting of the Requiem Mass is Victoria’s Missa pro defunctis (1583).  This setting, for 4-part choir, is the first of two Requiems by Victoria (the second, for 6-part choir, was composed in 1605 and was last sung by our choir in 2002).  As is the case with many other polyphonic Requiem settings, it is a “paraphrase mass” and adheres very closely to the plainsong Missa pro defunctis.  Robert McCormick

 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION THIS WEEK . . . Sunday School for children meets in Saint Benedict’s Study from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM . . . On Sunday October 30, Father Mead will lead Part II of his class on the Holy Eucharist at 3:00 PM in Saint Benedict’s Study.  The second class will focus on the theology of the Eucharist.  The Tuesday Night Bible Study does not meet on November 1, All Saints’ Day.

 

HILDEGARD OF BINGEN LECTURE . . . The Visual Arts Program will sponsor a lecture on Thursday, November 10 at 7:00 PM in Saint Joseph’s Hall.  Dr. Caterina Pierre will be speaking on the 12th century illuminations and music of Hildegard.  Not only will you get a chance to learn about this remarkable woman, but you will see her illustrations and hear her music!  More information is available on the ushers’ table at the back of the church and on the Saint Mary’s website in the Visual Arts section. There is a $10 suggested donation which ensures the quality of future presentations . . . . Also look for the new exhibition in Saint Joseph’s Hall, November 6 through December 17.  Erica Mapp, an abstract painter and friend of Saint Mary’s, shares prints of her recent work inspired by the Psalms, the Fibonacci number series and the color studies of German American designer Josef Albers.

 

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday                The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

 Monday                     Weekday

 Eve of All Saints’ Day 6:00 PM

Tuesday                    All Saints’ Day

Wednesday             All Souls’ Day

Thursday                     Parish Requiem, Last Names A-G

Friday                          Parish Requiem, Last Names H-M                              Abstinence

Saturday                     Parish Requiem, Last Names N-R

 

 

Sunday: 8:30 AM Sung Matins, 9:00 AM Mass, 10:00 AM Sung Mass, 11:00 AM Solemn Mass,

5:00 PM Solemn Evensong & Benediction.  Childcare from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Monday – Friday: 8:30 AM Morning Prayer, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass,

6:00 PM Evening Prayer, 6:20 PM Mass.  The 12:10 Mass on Wednesday is sung.

Saturday: 11:30 AM Confessions, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass, 4:00 PM Confessions,

5:00 PM Evening Prayer, 5:20 PM Sunday Vigil Mass