FROM GRACE MUDD: TEACHING AS LOVE

Mid-to-late June is a time when teachers are often asked to reflect on their work over the preceding several months, but rarely how work in the very secular public schools reflects God’s call to do His work in the world. The simple answer is love.

I did not originally set out to be a teacher, but when other plans fell through, I realized that I had already been teaching in a few volunteer settings. Around the same time, I was learning a lot about inequities that plague the American education system and becoming more interested in social justice issues. I decided that teaching for a few years in a low-income urban setting would be a great way to love my neighbor as myself and try to share with disadvantaged students some benefit of the excellent education I had been privileged to receive.

As I finish year seventeen of my five-year plan, I think a lot about how my career has surprised me. I’m still, most years, teaching the ancient and medieval world history I love. I teach history content and academic skills, but a lot of what I teach is not spelled out in formal curricula. I help students manage anxiety and even panic attacks. I talk about different kinds of families, biological and otherwise, with students whose home lives are complicated. I try to teach broader lessons about respect, compassion, resilience, and facing life with humor.

There are a lot of cliches about teachers learning from their students and I’ve certainly learned a lot about youth culture! Did you know that it is considered rude to end a sentence with a period in a text message? I’ve learned more important things, too, like how many kids will join a club that they’re not necessarily interested in so they can be with their friends and not have to leave school just yet. I’ve also learned a lot about the lives of students who drop by my office, students who truly don’t have enough at home, whether it’s money or food or acceptance. My office is the go-to spot for any child heartbroken over losing a pet. I see a lot of teenage drama, but I’ve come to appreciate why these episodes are so important in the lives of young people learning who they are and how to be in relationship with other people. It turns out that one of the things I can give kids is taking them seriously. They appreciate sincerity.

It's not surprising that the hardest day in my career was when I had to call protective services for a student who was in physical danger at home. More surprising were the times in loco parentis extended to a hospital trip or seeing off a graduate headed to basic training. There are hard, frustrating days when my students are aggravating, but I know that what I do matters. I don’t habitually use the word, but it is because I love my students that I keep doing this job.

Mrs. Grace Mudd is a social studies teacher and Program Chair at the High School for Arts and Business in Corona, New York, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Pace University. She is a member of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, an active altar server, and a member of the flower guild. Mrs. Mudd also currently serves on our Board of Trustees.

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

Prayers are asked for the sick and for all those for whom prayers have been asked, especially Mavis, Luis, Kate, Margaret, Shay, Ari, Ronan, Andrew, Erin, Sharon, Terra, Ava, Ray, Harka, Carmen, Brendon, Bradley, Louis, Emil, Pat, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Florette, José, David, Frank, Jean, Brian, Abraham, Ethelyn, Gypsy, Robert, and Lucas, religious.

TIMES AND LOCATIONS OF DAILY AND SUNDAY LITURGIES:

Monday–Saturday, June 13–18: Daily Mass 12:10 PM, Church

Monday–Saturday: Evening Prayer 5:00 PM, Choir & Church (no change)

Monday–Saturday, beginning June 20: Daily Mass 12:10 PM, Lady Chapel

The Solemn Mass on Sunday morning at 11:00 will of course be celebrated in the church.

AROUND THE PARISH

We are very happy that we have been able to administer the chalice at Mass once again at Saint Mary’s. We began doing so this past week, and things have gone remarkably well. Members of the parish and our visitors have quickly learned that if one does not wish to receive the cup one may leave the rail or simply cross one’s arms and the minister will move on to the next person. If one wishes to instinct, one may leave the host in the palm of the hand, and the minister will take the host, dip it in the consecrated wine, and place it carefully on the tongue. (Some communicants extend the tongue slightly, others take the host gently in their teeth.)

Dr. Mark Risinger is a member of the parish, a reader and acolyte, a member of the parish choir, a sometime volunteer at Neighbors in Need, and vice president of the Board of Trustees. He also teaches music at Saint Bernard’s School, a school for boys, kindergarten through ninth grade, on East Ninety-eighth Street in Manhattan. He was recently surprised to discover that his students had dedicated this year’s yearbook to him. Their dedication reads, “We dedicate this years Keg to Dr. Risinger [we are pretty sure “Keg” is the title of the yearbook and not a reference to beer]. Thank you for your wonderful music classes. We have learned so much. Thank you for caring about us and guiding us to be the best that we can be. You are a terrific teacher and a loyal and trustworthy friend and colleague. We love your voice, your personality, and your sense of humor. Most of all we admire you for who you are: a person with a big heart! Enjoy the vacation. Travel, read, sing, and dance!” We are very proud of you, Mark, and we are very happy that your students see what we see.

Parishioner Ingrid Sletten was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine, in an article entitled, “Their Solution to the Housing Crisis? Living With Strangers.” In order to read the article, you may follow this link. The Times, however, has a pay wall, and you may have some difficulty accessing the article, if you are not a subscriber.

Ingrid has provided us with some context for the article. She writes, “I wanted to be included in the article to show the grace that is provided by The New York Foundation for Senior Citizens (NYFSC)–Home Sharing Division. (Here is a link to the NYFSC website.) As I grew older as a single person, I began looking for a roommate who was living an energetic and purposeful life. But, finding a roommate is a time-consuming task, which raises liability issues and personal risk, and I was needing to navigate all that on my own. This was daunting. NYFSC takes care of this for residents in the five boroughs. Founded in 1968, the Home Sharing division puts together home-sharing situations, and takes care of such things as interviewing, drawing up a roommate agreement and navigating disputes. There is no charge for their service. To qualify for this service, one of the roommates must be sixty-five or older. After three years, I’ve now had two different roommates, and I am thrilled. My roommates have been thirty-something professional women, and each has had a small dog who lived with us. We live separate lives, but we navigate the home together. And I am surrounded by people who are committed to taking on new challenges in life at 100%. I have been truly blessed.”

Father Sammy Wood, interim rector, sent a message to the parish via e-mail last Thursday in which he announced three important milestones in the life of the parish: 

–  the removal of the scaffolding on the Forty-sixth side of the church;

–  the relaxing of the requirement to wear face coverings while in the church;

–  and the restoration of the chalice at all Masses.

The parish’s AIDS Walk Team had a successful fundraising campaign for the Walk that took place on May 15. The donations deadline runs until June 30 (click here to donate). The current total is $56,878. Thanks to all who supported the team this year!

We hope to receive donations for flowers on the following Sundays: July 3, 10, and 31 and August 7, 21, and 28. In these summer months, the members of the Flower Guild usually find a bountiful array of seasonal blooms at the flower market, lovely things such as larkspur, sweet william, and the last of the spring peonies. They enjoy using these summer flowers while they are able to do so. There are also dates available in the fall and winter. Please contact Chris Howatt, our parish administrator, if you would like to make a donation. If you have any questions about the altar flowers or about joining the Flower Guild, please contact Brendon Hunter.

Father Jay Smith is away from the parish June 14–16 for work. He will be back in church and will assist at the Solemn Mass on Sunday, June 19, Corpus Christi.

Parish administrator Christopher Howatt is away on vacation this week. He returns on Monday, June 20. Messages may be left for him at 212-869-5830 x 10. Parish volunteer Clint Best will also be in the office at various times during the week.

Father Matt Jacobson leaves for vacation on the evening of Sunday, June 19, after Solemn Mass. He returns to New York on Wednesday, July 20. He can be reached by email while away and will be continuing his office work remotely.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Friday, June 17, Neighbors in Need Drop-by Day, 2:00–3:00 PM. See below for more information.

On Sunday, June 19, The Body and Blood of Christ: Corpus Christi, there will be a procession in the church at the end of the Solemn Mass, which begins at 11:00 AM. The procession will end with Eucharistic Benediction. During 2022–2023, in some of our adult-education classes, we will explore the history and theology of the Eucharist. One of the things we will discuss is Corpus Christi—the origins of the feast and the custom of holding processions on that day, and we will discuss Saint Mary’s celebration of Corpus Christi, present, past, and future.

Commemorations this Week: Wednesday, June 22, Alban, First Martyr of Britain, c. 304; Friday, June 24, The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

The Holy Eucharist is celebrated Monday–Saturday at 12:10 PM. The chalice is now being administered at the noonday Mass. Beginning on Monday, June 20, the daily Mass will be celebrated in the Lady Chapel.

Holy Hour. Wednesday mornings 11:00–11:50 AM, in the Lady Chapel. A time for silent prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament. The Holy Eucharist follows at 12:10 PM. We invite you to join us.

The Racism Discussion Group Meeting: The Group meets online on most Tuesday evenings from 7:00–8:00 PM. For more information about this ongoing weekly meeting, please call the parish office, or speak to one of the current members of the group, such as Charles Carson, Charles Morgan, Marie Rosseels, or Ingrid Sletten.

The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group meets online on most Friday evenings at 6:30 PM. If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to this address or speak to Ingrid Sletten or Blair Burroughs.

A Time for Prayer and Preparation Before Mass on Sunday: The acolytes, readers, and members of the audiovisual team are invited to gather in in the Lady Chapel each Sunday between 10:00 and 10:20 AM for a time of silent prayer and preparation before Mass. All are invited to join them. The altar servers will be rehearsing at 10 AM this week for the Corpus Christi liturgy, though others are still welcome to gather during the usual time for silent prayer.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED

The Neighbors in Need program is Saint Mary’s principal outreach ministry. It was founded by members of the parish, along with resident sisters and friars and members of the parish’s clergy staff. We “own” it and run it. We provide clothing and basic, but essential, hygiene items to our neighbors in Times Square. Your cash donations and gifts of new and lightly used clothing make this ministry possible.

The July Drop-by will take place on Friday, July 15.

The August Drop-by will take place on Friday, August 19.

We badly need donations of men’s athletic shoes, sizes 8 to 15. They should be lightly used or new.

If you would like to volunteer for Neighbors in Need, please contact Marie Rosseels.

With the arrival of warmer weather, we are now eager to receive donations of lighter clothes such as shirts, blouses, T-shirts, slacks, shorts, jeans, and socks.

Our goal is to continue to distribute clothing and hygiene items to those in need in the Times Square neighborhood. We are grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Olivier Messiaen is widely regarded as one of the most original voices among twentieth-century composers for the organ. Born in Avignon, son of the poetess Cécile Sauvage, he was a student of Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory where he became professor of musical analysis, philosophy, and aesthetics in 1942. His legendary tenure as titular organist of the L’Eglise de la Sainte Trinité, Paris, began in 1931. The brilliant light and vivid colors of this magnificent church proved a defining stimulus to Messiaen’s musical imagination for sixty years. Messiaen’s Le Banquet Céleste (“The Celestial Banquet”), played for the prelude today, is one of his early organ compositions, dating from 1928 and based upon a movement of an unfinished orchestral work. It bears the quotation “Celui qui mange ma chair et boit mon sang demeure en moi et moi en lui” (“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in them,” John 6:56”. Its slow movement and reflective mood are suggestive of the timeless expanse of the heavenly meal.

The Mass setting on Sunday morning is Missa Aedis Christi which was composed in 1958 by Herbert Howells (1892–1983) for the Cathedral Church of Christ, Oxford. The Christ Church Cathedral setting is one of several liturgical cycles Howells composed for a particular place. Although he also composed extensively for orchestra and smaller instrumental ensembles, he is most remembered for his choral compositions, many of which were composed for Anglican services. Howells had been a student of Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music in London and was a close friend of Vaughan Williams whom he considered a mentor. Extending from this distinguished lineage, Howells is especially recognized for his expressive approach to text setting and his distinctive harmonic vocabulary. Most of Howells’s English church music is composed for choir with organ accompaniment. Missa Aedis Christi, in contrast, is composed for unaccompanied choir, in four voices with liberal division within voices to accommodate his expressive harmonic and textural palette.

The Communion motet at the Solemn Mass is a setting of Anima Christi (“Soul of Christ”) by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. It was composed for the institution of the Very Reverend Leighton J. Lee as Dean and Rector of the Cathedral of the Redeemer, Calgary, Alberta, on February 7, 2016. The English translation of the fourteenth-century Latin prayer of unknown authorship—the text of the present motet—is by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890). The musical setting is homophonic in texture and flexibly voiced from four to seven parts for clear declamation and expression of the text.

The French composer and organist, Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986), was steeped in liturgical chant from his childhood as a chorister at the Rouen Cathedral choir school. He first entered the Paris Conservatory in 1920, becoming Professor of Harmony in 1943, a position he retained for nearly thirty years. He is remembered for his lifelong association with the stunningly beautiful church of St. Étienne-du-Mont, Paris, where he was named titular organist in 1929. The fourth of his Quatre Motets sur des Thèmes Grégoriens (1960) is his setting of Tantum ergo, the final two stanzas of the Eucharistic Hymn Pange lingua, the text of which is attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225?–1274). In his setting, Duruflé quotes the familiar Pange lingua chant melody in the soprano voice and provides elegant harmonic support from three other voices in identical music for both stanzas. — David Hurd

AT THE HISPANIC SOCIETY’S MUSEUM AND LIBRARY . . . American Travelers: A Watercolor Journey Through Spain, Portugal, and Mexico. Featuring the Contemporary Works of Timothy J. Clark. June 17—October 15, 2022. East Building Gallery, Broadway Between 155th & 156th Streets. From the museum website, “Since the days of Washington Irving, Spain has held a fascination for American writers and visual artists.  John Singer Sargent painted at the Prado in Madrid and in Granada, other nineteenth-century North American painters such as William Merritt Chase, Harry Humphrey Moore, and Mary Cassatt, and younger artists such as Childe Hassam and Robert Henri, toured and painted in Spain as an essential part of their artistic development. (Henri’s colleagues George Luks and George Wesley Bellows were also strongly influenced by Spanish art.) When The Hispanic Society of America (Hispanic Society Museum & Library) opened its doors in 1908, the Society itself became a source of inspiration for American artists with Hispanic interests. The current exhibition shares an under-appreciated resource of the Hispanic Society Museum Department collections, the large collection of watercolors by United States artists painted in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. Works by Hassam, Kuehne, Edwards, Peixotto, Robinson, Peets, and Petrovic are presented in conjunction with a suite of recent watercolor paintings by Timothy J. Clark (b. 1951). Clark was inspired by the Sorolla in America exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art—over half of which was provided by the Hispanic Society—to conduct several campaigns in Spain and Mexico. Like Hassam and the others before him, Clark depicted monuments, interiors, and cityscapes, both with figures and as compositions in themselves, as well as still lifes. His works are presented as easel-sized paintings, similar in size to oils, but executed in watercolor.”

FROM THE TREASURER

Planned giving is a vital part of your support for Saint Mary’s. We know that we have many members of our Legacy Society – that is, parishioners and friends who have remembered Saint Mary’s in their wills – and that is a great way to leave a lasting impact. Another way to leave a legacy to the parish is to make Saint Mary’s a designated beneficiary of one or more of your retirement, investment, or bank accounts. The “designated beneficiary” route can have significant tax benefits for an estate, and the parish will receive the assets directly without the funds having to go through the probate process. Designated beneficiary forms are easy to fill out and available from either your employer (if you’re still contributing to your retirement account) or from the plan administrator. Designating Saint Mary’s as a beneficiary of an older roll-over IRA account from an old employer, say, is a great way to give even if you have other plans for the majority of your legacy. — Steven Heffner

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith. Father Matt Jacobson also helps to edit and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.