FROM BROTHER DAMIEN JOSEPH SSF: RAZORS, GRATITUDE & HOPE

I was taking our dog, Annie, on her final walk for the day one Monday night, along cold wet streets with a now gently falling mix of snow and rain.  I passed a nearby trash can, mostly full, as they usually are. Atop the pile of trash was a single disposable razor. This is not a very interesting fact, except that the razor was the precise type we distribute through our clothing ministry at St. Mary’s. In all likelihood, it belonged to one of our guests. Apparently, this guest, like many we serve, was not just without a razor when they came to us, but also without the sink, mirror, and running water to go with it. They likely did their shaving nearby on the sidewalk, maybe catching their reflection in the window of a 46th Street building, or perhaps standing right over this very trash can. They shaved in the wet, the cold, and the falling snow. By now, they had likely found a spot to hunker down on the pavement, or perhaps on a subway vent to catch a little warmth. I was reminded to say a quick prayer for our guests, and to be thankful for all I have. 

As Brothers, we observe a vow often called “evangelical poverty.”  We choose not to own personal property, and we rely on our community and on the people of God for our needs. But in no real sense are we in actual poverty. Living in the middle of the theatre district, we try to fit bargain theater tickets into our monthly budget.  We get deeply discounted last minute tickets, and we sit in the nosebleed seats. But we see a show. We saw one on Monday, just before this evening walk. Afterwards, we grabbed a couple sandwiches on our way home, at one of Midtown’s least expensive restaurants. We don’t do five-star, but we ate a full meal. And then we went back to our apartment.  It’s borrowed from St. Mary’s, we have no claim to it.  But there we were, with a roof, and heat, and warm beds, and dry clothes. I shaved in front of a mirror, with soap, and hot running water. 

I have always found it easier to focus on the things that are not how I’d like them to be, than all the things that are right and good and easy in my life. We all do from time to time, I suppose. And comparing my state of life to some who have less doesn’t make my problems insignificant, or my comforts wrong. But it does remind me to keep things in perspective, and to be thankful, and to be generous whenever I can. 

Saint Mary’s doesn’t have roofs and sinks and mirrors for everyone. If only we did. But we’ll keep giving folks razors, and rain gear, and dry socks, and warm coats.  We’ll do it with the help of volunteers, and donors, and financial gifts, and lots of prayer. And with God’s help, it will always come with big helpings of dignity and hope. 

And for all of that, I’ll try to remember to be thankful. A man shaving over a trash can in the snow reminded me. Peace and all good. — Damien Joseph SSF

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Alice, Kristie, Lennon Rae, Brady, Margaret, Murray, Guy, William, Gloria, Samuel, Mel, Richard, Carlos, Ken, Denis, May, Willard, Alexandra, Karen, Marilouise, Takeem, John, Michael, Rita, Ivy, José, Ross, Pearl, and Barbara; for Horace, Clayton, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, and Edgar, priests; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Edward; for all the benefactors and friends of this parish; and for the repose of the soul of Dr. Peter Bullough. . . GRANT THEM PEACE: December 15: 1883 Joseph Henry Bell; 1959 Howard Nugent; 1989 Lore D. Brownell; 2002 John Kemper Cannon.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . A Requiem Mass will be celebrated for Dr. Peter Bullough in the church on Saturday, December 14, at 10:30 AM. Dr. Bullough died of leukemia on November 2, 2019, at his home in Winchester, Virginia. He was eighty-seven years old. Dr. Bullough was an eminent orthopedic pathologist. He wrote several textbooks that are still in use by students of pathology. He was, for a time, a full professor of pathology at the Weill Cornell University Medical School and also served as chairman of the department of pathology at the Hospital for Special Surgery here in Manhattan. He was a great friend of parishioners Leroy Sharer and Michael Merenda . . . Margaret Joann Reynolds, the mother of parishioner Dale Reynolds, died on Monday night . . .Please keep, Peter, Margaret, Dale, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

THE ORDINARY FRIDAYS OF THE YEAR are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the Lord’s crucifixion.

STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN 2019–2020 . . . Our stewardship campaign is well underway, and many pledge cards have arrived in the mail. As of December 4, we have received $251,811 in pledges from 63 households, 59.2% of our goal of $425,000. We still have a ways to go. We encourage all the friends and members of the parish to return their pledge by the end of December. This will help the Budget Committee in its work. However, if making a commitment by that date is not possible, we will gladly receive pledge cards at any point during the coming year. Our needs are urgent. Our mission is clear. We invite your support.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . We are grateful to all those who made the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary a prayerful day, a beautiful day, and a successful day here at the parish. We welcomed many visitors and guests to the Masses at 12:10 and 6:00 PM. We cannot do what we do without the willing, dedicated, and enthusiastic work and ministry of our many parish volunteers, and we are grateful. At the Solemn Mass on the Feast of the Conception, Bishop Andrew M. L. Dietsche confirmed Shalim Peña and Nam Rattan, and received Philippe Corbé into the Episcopal Church. Please keep them in your prayers We are grateful to Bishop Dietsche, who preached and presided at the Solemn Mass on December 9 and encouraged our confirmands with grace, sensitivity, and good humor. It was also good to have the very talented Janet Yieh with us on Monday night. Janet is the organist and music director at Trinity Church, Wall Street. She has been described as a “ferocious” musician, and she lived up to that reputation on Monday evening, playing a powerful, complex, and difficult program during her recital before the Solemn Mass . . . Father Edgar Wells, rector emeritus of Saint Mary’s, was briefly hospitalized this week for tests and treatment. He is now recuperating at home. Please keep him in your prayers . . . Alice Dye, the mother of parish bookkeeper, Kristie Raynor, underwent serious neurological surgery this week in a hospital on Long Island. Kristie has been with her, seeing to her care. Please keep mother and daughter in your prayers . . . Volunteers are needed: If you are interested in helping the Flower Guild decorate the church for Christmas, please speak to Grace Mudd or contact her by e-mail. The decorating schedule is as follows: constructing the crèche, Wednesday–Friday, December 18–20, 5:30–8:00 PM; hanging greens and making arrangements, Saturday–Monday, December 21–23, during the day and into the evening; and Tuesday, December 24, mid-morning until mid-afternoon. One need not be a designer in order to volunteer. There are a variety of jobs and tasks for all who are interested . . . Flowers are needed for Sunday, January 5 (Christmas 2) and Monday, January 6 (The Epiphany); for Sunday, January 12 (The Baptism of Our Lord), 19, and 26; and February 9, 16, and 23. Please be in touch with Chris Howatt in the parish office if you would like to make a donation for one of these dates. Donations to support the work of the Flower Guild during the Christmas season are always welcome . . . Attendance at all Offices and Masses: Last Sunday 191; The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 162.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Saturday, December 14, 10:30 AM, Requiem Mass for Peter Bullough . . . Sunday, December 15, The Third Sunday of Advent, Sung Matins 8:30 AM; Mass 9:00 & 10:00 AM; Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Solemn Evensong and Benediction 5:00 PM. The Adult Forum has begun its Christmas Break. The class meets next on January 12, 2020, at 10:00 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study  . . . Monday, December 16, The O Antiphons Begin . . . Wednesday, December 18, Sung Mass 12:10 PM; The Wednesday Night Bible Study Class will not meet on December 18. The class will meet next on January 8 . . . Thursday, December 19, Advent Weekday, Mass & Healing Service 12:10 PM . . . Friday, December 20, Centering Prayer Group meets at 6:30 PM in the Morning Room, Parish House, 145 West Forty-sixth Street . . . Saturday, December 21, Saint Thomas the Apostle, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Sunday, December 22, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Mass 9:00 & 10:00 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evensong & Benediction 5:00 PM . . . Tuesday, December 24, Morning Prayer 8:30 AM & Last Mass of Advent 9:00 AM.

OUTREACH AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On Wednesday, December 11, 2:00–4:00 PM, our parish volunteers, under the leadership of Brother Damien Joseph and Brother Thomas, welcomed around 70 guests to our the Clothing Ministry’s December  Drop-in Day. The Clothing Ministry’s next Drop-in Day will take place on Wednesday, January 15, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, in the Mission House basement, and in the former Gift Shop. We continue to offer our Grab-and-Go distribution Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:00 PM in the former Gift Shop, just off the church Narthex. Grab-and-go includes essential items like socks, underwear, and hygiene items, and is now open every Wednesday, including when there is a Drop-In in our main clothing room. Please contact Brother Damien if you would like to donate cash, clothing, or toiletry articles, or to volunteer for this important ministry. We have a particular need at the moment for winter coats for both men and women, blankets, and sleeping bags. Sleeping bags and smaller blankets are generally in more demand as they’re easier to carry around. Our number of guests continues to grow, and we are always grateful for your financial contributions to this project, which allow us (among other things) to offer the dignity and hygiene of brand new underwear and socks to all our guests. We can also use a few more volunteers for our once-per-month drop-in days, generally held on the third Wednesday of each month . . . We continue to receive donations of canned goods and other nonperishable food items for the Saint Clement’s Food Pantry. Donations may be placed in the basket next to the Ushers’ Table at the Forty-sixth Street entrance to the church. —Br. Damien Joseph SSF

THE O ANTIPHONS . . . Beginning on Monday, December 16, and continuing every day until Monday, December 23, we will say or sing an antiphon before and after the recitation of Magnificat at Evening Prayer. This has been an Advent practice in the Christian West since at least the eighth century. A different antiphon is recited each day. The antiphon appointed for the day is also used at Mass as the versicle before the proclamation of the gospel. The interjection “O” begins each antiphon and gives the verse a certain joyful solemnity, but the “O” is also a reminder that each verse is an urgent invocation addressed to the One who came among us “in great humility,” the One who is Risen Lord made present to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, the One whose return in glory is anticipated each time we pray, “Lord Jesus, come!” Though the antiphons are addressed to Christ, Our Lord is actually addressed by a different “name,” or title, in each of the invocations: O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Light of Dawn, O King of Peace, and O Emmanuel. The antiphons thus become, in part, a week-long meditation on the identity and meaning of Jesus the Christ in our lives.

Many catholic Christian communities begin to recite the O Antiphons on December 17 and finish on December 23, for a total of seven antiphons, seven being a good biblical number. Here at Saint Mary’s it is our custom to use an old English practice of reciting the antiphons beginning on December 16. In this usage, the final antiphon is, in fact, addressed not to Christ, but to his mother, “O Virgin of virgins,” and so we end up reciting eight antiphons instead of seven, eight also being a good biblical number, as Bishop Dietsche reminded us on December 9. Praying and meditating on the O Antiphons in the days before Christmas can be a useful way to prepare for the commemoration and celebration of the birth of the Incarnate Lord, and we commend them to you. — JRS

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15 . . . The setting of the Mass on Sunday morning is the Short Communion Service by Adrian Batten (1591–1637). Born in Salisbury, Batten was subsequently a chorister and organ scholar at Winchester Cathedral. He moved to London in 1614 to become a lay clerk of Westminster Abbey. He later assumed a similar position at Saint Paul’s Cathedral where he also played the organ. As a music copyist in London, Batten is credited with preserving a great quantity of the significant church music of his time, his copies being the only surviving source. Ironically, much of his own music has been lost. However, Batten’s surviving compositions show him to be a thoroughly skilled composer of liturgical music, even if not especially daring or original. His modest Mass for four voices models the restraint which was typical of Batten’s church music. Maurice Bevan, editor, has produced a liturgically practical edition of Batten’s Communion Service, including a nine-fold Kyrie, Benedictus qui venit, and Agnus Dei fashioned from music found elsewhere in the Service. The Kyrie is in Greek. The other elements of the setting are in English.

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) is the composer of Sunday’s Communion anthem, Rejoice in the Lord alway. Purcell, more than any other composer of his time, defined English Baroque musical style in a variety of vocal and instrumental genres that included works for theater, court, and church. He was born in London, and his family home was virtually in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, where he became organist in 1679. Standing on the foundation of such composers as Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585), William Byrd (c. 1543–1623) and Orlando Gibbons (c. 1583–1625), copies of whose anthems he made at an early age, Purcell forged a musical language of rich harmony and vivid textual expression. His anthem Rejoice in the Lord alway, with text from the fourth chapter of Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, is nicknamed The Bell Anthem; its instrumental opening symphony mimic bells tolling a repeatedly descending major scale.  Purcell’s Rejoice in the Lord alway is as a symphony anthem in that its vocal sections alternate with orchestral sections (strings and continuo). It is also a verse anthem in that its vocal verses for three solo voices alternate with sections for full choir. Today’s performance will be somewhat abridged and organ will be substituted for the strings. 

Sunday’s organ voluntaries are both from the North German Baroque school and are based upon Luther’s chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (“Come now, Savior of the Gentiles”). This chorale (54 in The Hymnal 1982) is Martin Luther’s sixteenth-century adaptation of the fourth-century Latin hymn Veni Redemptor gentium attributed to Ambrose of Milan (55 in The Hymnal 1982). The Prelude is an extended Choralfantasia by Nicolaus Bruhns (1665–1697). Bruhns was a highly regarded virtuoso of both keyboard and stringed instruments of the generation before J. S. Bach. He was known to play the violin while accompanying himself on the pedals of the organ.  His Choralefantasia is a monumental example of its genre. Each of the choral’s four melodic phrases is set for two manuals and pedals in its own separate section and embellished thoroughly. The Postlude today is the third of the three settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland from the Great Eighteen Leipzig Chorales of J. S. Bach. (The first and second of this set of three were played as voluntaries two weeks ago on Advent I.) This third setting, BWV 661, is a vigorous fugue for the hands under which each of the four phrases of the chorale in turn is stated boldly in long tones on the pedals. —David Hurd

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . On three Sundays in January—January 12, 19, and 26—Father Jim Pace will lead the Adult Forum in a discussion of healing ministry, hospice ministry, and end-of-life care. Father Pace is the senior associate dean for academic programs at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where he holds the rank of clinical professor.

COMING UP . . . Tuesday, December 24, Christmas Eve, Music for Choir and Congregation 4:30 PM, Sung Mass 5:00 PM; Music for Choir and Congregation 10:30 PM, Solemn Mass 11:00 PM … Wednesday, December 25, Christmas Day, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM . . . Thursday, December 26, Saint Stephen, Deacon & Martyr, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Friday, December 27, Saint John, Apostle & Evangelist, Mass 12:10 and 6:20 PM . . . Saturday, December 28, The Holy Innocents, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Monday, January 6, The Epiphany, Sung Matins 8:30 AM, Noonday Prayer 12:10 PM, Sung Mass 12:10 PM, Organ Recital 5:30 PM, and Solemn Mass 6:00 PM

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Saturday, December 28, at 8:00 PM, ARTEK: Art of the Early Keyboard, Monteverdi: Mass For the Virgin. Festive Venetian Christmas Mass. A pre-concert talk by Dr. Jeffrey Kurtzman will take place at 7:00 PM. From the ARTEK website, “More magnificent Monteverdi from ARTEK! A monumental Mass of the early baroque master, Claudio Monteverdi, together with Christmas and Marian motets and instrumental music by Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and others in the grand concerted style of Venetian music for the great holidays of the church. Sixteen singers and sixteen instrumentalists will perform under the direction of Gwendolyn Toth using improvised ornamentation on the cutting edge of historical performance practice. Music includes not only the Missa in Illo Tempore of 1610, the companion piece published with Monteverdi’s Vespers, but also Monteverdi’s splendid Gloria a 7, grand sinfonias, echo music, polychoral spatial music, and haunting florid solos, all in the glorious acoustics at Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. Musicologist Jeffrey Kurtzman, who has collaborated in selecting the music for this concert, will give a pre-concert talk on the vocal/instrumental performance practice of Italian Masses in Monteverdi’s time, including their incorporation of non-liturgical motets and instrumental music, as you will experience in the concert itself. If you enjoy Monteverdi’s Vespers, this Mass for the Virgin will not disappoint. Tickets (reserved seating): $75/Preferred Seats; $50/$35/$25/Reserved Seats; $10/Extreme Rear Seats & Partial View. Visit the ARTEK website for more information.

AT THE GALLERIES . . . At the Met Cloisters Museum, 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park New York, NY 10040, Main Hall, Saturday, December 14, 12:00–1:00 PM & 2:00–3:00 PM, Gallery Talk: The Unicorn Tapestries at Advent.

CLICK HERE for this week’s schedule.

CLICK HERE for the full parish calendar.