FROM FATHER JACOBSON: PRAY FOR US O HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

“O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.” (BCP, 243)

The first thing one may notice in this collect for the Assumption from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer is that it doesn’t say anything about the Blessed Virgin Mary being assumed bodily into heaven. Given that the day is simply entitled “Saint Mary the Virgin” in the BCP, it is consistent with the Episcopal Church seeming to sidestep somewhat this aspect of Marian tradition, while leaving enough room for each to interpret “O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary” as they see fit.

That said, looking back on some of the more important historical liturgical texts for this feast, none of them specifically mention her assumption either in their collects of the day. For example, in the Sarum Missal, which was the predominant liturgical manual in England prior to the Reformation, the collect reads:

“We beseech you, Lord, let us be continually aided by the sacred feast of this day on which the holy mother of God, who brought forth incarnate from herself your son our Lord, underwent temporal death yet could not be held in the bonds of death.” (Translated by Marion Hatchett in his Commentary on the American Prayer Book, 204).

The same collect is also found in the Gregorian Sacramentary, a manuscript that dates back to the tenth century. The oldest example for the Latin Church, however, comes from an eighth-century manuscript known as the Gelasian Sacramentary, which offers two different collects for the Assumption. Similarly, neither of them mentions Mary being assumed into heaven. The first focuses on asking for Mary’s intercessory prayer. The second alludes to her intercessions by referring to what one asks for in venerating her, which may possibly also relate to the idea of being “aided by [celebrating] the sacred feast,” the somewhat more transactional sounding language found in the Sarum/Gregorian texts.

What can be concluded from these older manuscripts? Overall, the emphasis in the collects isn’t about how she got to heaven, whether she took the local or the express, but rather they stress the fact that she is there and they then turn to the implications for us of Mary being with God. Putting some of the transactional-sounding language aside, which would be more at home in the medieval period, the key point is that Mary can intercede for us with her prayers.

Our BCP collect is also clear about where Mary is, but if there is something missing relative to these older collects, it wouldn’t be mentioning her assumption (even if the title of the feast in the BCP could use some tweaking in my view). Rather, the historical collects show how it is helpful to be reminded on this day about how the Queen of Heaven intercedes for us.

At this parish, we ask for Mary to pray for us regularly. We recite the Angelus at noon before the weekday Masses and then again at the start of Evening Prayer. The Angelus includes praying the Ave Maria three times, which contains the well-known petition: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

On Monday, August 15, we will celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to the 12:10 PM Said Mass in the Lady Chapel, a Solemn Mass will be offered at the High Altar at 6:00 PM. The Solemn Mass is the one liturgy during the summer when we have the full choir back ahead of the choir season that begins in early October. The Mass setting will be Messe en style ancien by Jean Langlais and the choir will also offer William Byrd’s Assumpta est Maria. I hope that you will be able to join us!
— MDJ

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

Prayers are asked for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week, for those who are travelling, and for BG, Mary, Maggie, Reha, Barbara, James, Claudia, Ben, Allen, Marjorie, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Florette, José, Laverne, James, Frank, Abraham, Gypsy, Margaret, Emil, Pat, Carlos, Loretta, Ken, and Robert; for Scott, priest, and for the repose of the soul of Constance Coles, priest.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

The Reverend Canon Constance Coles, who served the diocese of New York as Canon of Ministry for many years, beginning in 2001, died on Wednesday, August 10, at Yale New Haven Hospital, after a brief illness. During her years on the diocesan staff, she shepherded many of the diocese’s deacons and priests through the ordination process, including Father Jacobson, and was a kind, wise, and calm mentor for many. Please keep Constance, her husband, Bill McKeown, their children, Sarah and Isaiah, and all who mourn in your prayers.

TIMES AND LOCATIONS OF DAILY AND SUNDAY LITURGIES:

Monday, August 15, The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Said Mass in the Lady Chapel, 12:10 PM
Procession and Solemn Mass 6:00 PM in the Church

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

Monday–Sunday: Evening Prayer 5:00 PM, Choir and Church

The Solemn Mass on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM is celebrated in the Church

AROUND THE PARISH

Keeping up to date with pledge payments: It is not uncommon for us to experience cash-flow problems during the summer months, we urge all our members and friends to stay current with their pledge payments, and we welcome donations in support of the parish’s mission during this time. If you have questions, please contact the parish treasurer, Steven Heffner. We are grateful to all those who continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Father Peter Powell will preach at the Solemn Mass this coming Sunday, August 14. Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish on vacation August 12–14. He will preach at the Solemn Mass on Monday, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, at 6:00 PM. Father Jay Smith returns to the parish from vacation on Monday, August 15.

On Friday, August 19, the parish office will be closed. We will return any messages left on the voicemail as soon as possible on Monday.

If you have been thinking about baptism, confirmation or reception into the Episcopal Church, please speak to Father Wood or Father Jacobson. They would be happy to talk to you about preparing for these sacramental rites of initiation.

There are plenty of dates available in the fall and winter months for flower donations. Please contact Chris Howatt, our parish administrator, if you would like to make a donation.

Take a self-guided tour of Saint Mary’s by scanning the QR codes found throughout the church that remain up following the Sacred Sites open house last weekend. They link to recordings by our sisters and brothers in Christ describing the architecture, sacred objects, and much more about our parish and its history. Thanks again to Mary Robison for all her hard work on this project!

Saint Mary’s Book Club: Our first book, which we will read this summer, is Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Gilead (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004). We’ll meet in September, either in-person or over Zoom, depending on what works best for the group. If you would like to join us, please send Father Jay an e-mail.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Sunday’s organ voluntaries continue a series, begun last Sunday, of the eight “Little” Preludes and Fugues traditionally attributed to J. S. Bach (1685–1750). These pieces are now widely believed to have been composed by one of Bach’s pupils, very likely Johann Tobias Krebs (1690–1762), or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780). Of these eight relatively short preludes and fugues, four are in the major keys of C, F, G, and B-flat, and the remaining four are in their relative minors of A, D, E, and G. The standard ordering of these eight pieces begins with BWV 553 in C Major and progresses up the scale to BWV 560 in B-flat. This morning’s prelude is BWV 559 in A minor and the postlude is BWV 553 in the relative Major key of C. BWV 559, for the prelude, is probably the most dramatic of the eight preludes and fugues, displaying elements of the stylus fantasticus (“fantastic style”) of north-German Baroque keyboard music. BWV 553, numbered first in the collection and played for the postlude, is a bright and innocently straightforward piece. Both preludes and fugues have stylistic similarities to larger works, BWV 543 and BWV 545, in the same respective keys and more certainly authentic works of J. S. Bach.

The musical setting of the Mass on Sunday is Grosse Pointe Service by David Hurd. This setting was commissioned by Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to honor Frederic DeHaven at the time of his anticipated retirement as organist and choirmaster of that parish. This unpublished setting is for unison voices and organ and was premiered at Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, in 2007. It was subsequently sung as the setting for daily Eucharist at the 2008 Sewanee Church Music Conference. It utilizes the Rite II Eucharist texts and includes Kyrie and Trisagion in addition to the Gloria in excelsis, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei to be sung at Mass today.

The cantor at the Solemn Mass on Sunday is soprano, Joy Tamayo. During the Communion she will sing They cast their nets in Galilee by David Hurd. The words, inspired by Jesus’ calling of his first disciples as related in Luke 1, are from His Peace (Enzio’s Kingdom and Other Poems, 1924) by William Alexander Percy (1885–1942). This poem first appeared as a hymn in The Hymnal 1940 and was retained in The Hymnal 1982 (#661) with music composed by David McK. Williams (1887–1978). Williams was organist and choirmaster at Saint Bartholomew’s, Park Avenue, at the time. The musical setting sung on Sunday, however, was composed in 1999 by Dr. Hurd. This setting was commissioned in honor of the Reverend Richard and Mrs. Shirley Lindner who, in retirement, were parishioners at the Church of Saint Philip in the Hills, Tucson, Arizona. Father Lindner had been a missionary in Brazil between 1958 and 1972, and he was very fond of Percy’s poem. The Hurd setting, with fluid accompaniment evocative of the movement of the disciples’ fishing boats on the sea, is like an art song with interludes seamlessly connecting the poem’s four stanzas.

More about Sunday’s Cantor: As an artist, Joy Tamayo expresses herself as a performer, a writer, and an educator. She is a graduate of both the University of the Philippines and the Crane School of Music. The Fates seem to have determined that most of her life takes place near a stage wherever that might be, perhaps at a barangay singing competition at the foot of an active volcano or in a medieval church. Her New York artistic life has continued this penchant for the all-venues approach to performance. Highlights include the premiere of Chaitanya Sangco’s Subway Atmos (for soprano, cello, piano, chorus, and electronics) at Opera America; the Calf in Kento Iwasaki’s portable opera Beloved Prey at Flushing Town Hall; Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble; lead soprano for Pete Wyer’s opera, Spring Street, which premiered online at jeeni.com. For collaborative works, Joy Tamayo performed for Tino Seghal’s This You, a 2016 Public Art Fund’s exhibit called The Language of Things at City Hall Park; a recording with C4 Ensemble of Jonathan David’s Blue Planet Blues/The Time Is Come, commissioned by Zsuzsanna Ardo for an art installation at Skopje, Northern Macedonia; and chorus for National Sawdust’s project with composer Sxip Shirey’s The Gauntlet at Rockefeller Center. As one half of the duo an outskirt, she is pursuing the stage with the most eyes on it. She wrote, danced, and performed the opera Mga Stasyon as part of the 2021 Exponential Festival. She was composer and vocalist for Tanika I. Williams’s film Sanctuary which was featured at the BAMcinemaFest 2021 Shorts Program. Joy was born and raised in the Philippines.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Sunday: August 14, The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15C), Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Jeremiah 23:23–29; Psalm 82; Hebrews 12:1–7, 11-14; Luke 12:49–59. As on August 7, Father Jacobson will celebrate, and Father Powell will preach the sermon. Note, Sixth Avenue will be closed from 12-4 PM for the Dominican Day Parade.

Monday, August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Said Mass 12:10 PM, Procession and Solemn Mass 6:00 PM. The readings are Isaiah 61:10–11Galatians 4:3–7; Psalm 34:1–9; and Luke 1:46–55. Father Jay Smith is the celebrant and Father Sammy Wood will preach the sermon.

Upcoming Commemoration: Saturday, August 20, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Mass 12:10 PM.

During the Prayers of the People this coming Sunday, August 14, we will commemorate one of the Lord’s servants, a modern saint, Jonathan Myrick Daniels. From the website of the Episcopal Church, “Jonathan Myrick Daniels (March 20, 1939–August 20, 1965) was an Episcopal seminarian killed while working in the civil rights movement in Hayneville, near Selma, Alabama. Daniels was born in Keene, New Hampshire. He had a profound conversion experience on Easter Day 1962, at the Church of the Advent, Boston. He entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In March 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr., made a televised appeal for people to come to Selma to seek voting rights for all citizens. King’s appeal persuaded Daniels to work in Selma under the sponsorship of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU). Daniels and three companions were arrested and imprisoned on August 14, 1965, for joining a picket line. They were unexpectedly released six days later. They walked to a small store. As Ruby Sales, a sixteen-year-old African American woman, approached the entrance of the store, a deputy sheriff appeared with a shotgun and cursed her. Daniels pulled her to one side and was killed by a single blast from the shotgun. His life and witness are commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on August 14.”

The Holy Eucharist is celebrated Monday–Saturday at 12:10 PM 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.

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

The September Drop-by will take place on Friday, September 16.

The October Drop-by will take place on Friday, October 21

We welcome cash donations and donations of athletic shoes, jeans, socks, and underwear for both men and women.

Beginning in the autumn, we will gladly receive donations of cold-weather clothing such as coats, scarves, gloves, and thermal underwear.

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

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.

AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, FIFTH AVENUE

The Assumption of the Virgin
c. 1337–39
Bernardo Daddi, Italian
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 952

From the Met: “Bernardo Daddi may have trained in the Florentine workshop of Giotto, a pivotal figure in the history of European painting. Daddi fused Giotto’s grandeur and monumentality with a refined grace and lyricism. It has been suggested that while Daddi was responsible for the design of this panel, it was executed by a leading member of his workshop. The panel is likely the upper half of an important altarpiece painted for a chapel in the Cathedral of Prato, near Florence, which houses the highly venerated girdle, or belt, of the Virgin Mary. As evidence of her Assumption, the Virgin lowers her girdle to Saint Thomas, whose hands are visible at the panel’s lower edge and who was depicted in the missing lower section of the painting.”

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Matt Jacobson and Father Jay Smith. Father 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.