FROM BLAIR BURROUGHS: SOMETIMES GOD GIVES YOU A NUDGE

For almost two years, Saint Mary the Virgin has been livestreaming every Solemn Mass on Sunday and the principal feast days. I am grateful to be a part of this new ministry. Over time, week by week, I have gone from being a complete novice to having some confidence in this new way of bringing Saint Mary’s to people all over the world. I have been asked to write a reflection on my experience livestreaming, and so I will try to convey what this ministry has done for me.

Let me say that my only qualifications for livestreaming have been being a member of Saint Mary’s for many years, knowing something about computers and being somebody who watches television. I volunteered to livestream after being on the Board of Trustees during the COVID-19 pandemic and thinking that having a better online presence than a cell phone on Zoom would be a good thing for all of us. As I reflect on it now, I can see that all that was a nudge from God.

In preparation for writing this article, I looked back at the very first livestream that I did. I can only say that I was terrified. Fortunately for me, before that very first service, the Internet went out and it was not livestreamed. In the beginning, every time I went into the control room and sat down in front of those computer monitors, I was terrified. But slowly I gained confidence. Part of gaining confidence is overcoming challenges. There were always glitches that would come up at the last moment that would increase my anxiety, however, I was able to stick with it and, working with the clergy and the very able technician who installed our system, I was able to confront those challenges and face my fears.

After I got over my dread, I began to explore how best to convey the Saint Mary’s experience through the medium. I do my best. Livestreaming is not the same as being in Saint Mary’s. There is so much going on in every service, and how to convey that over the livestream is a challenge. Being familiar with our liturgy is essential, having a sense of timing is helpful. I realized at some point that there are some things that you can do on livestream that one cannot experience while sitting in the pews. An example is that because of the placement of our cameras, if you are watching the livestream, you can watch the choir and David Hurd singing and playing the organ in the choir loft. So, streaming the musicians is now a regular part of each livestream.

There are things that I found myself doing as a member that you can also do on the livestream. Every week I try to find some aspect or part of the church that catches my attention. Frequently, I will start each service, by going through the building looking for things that I never noticed before. I think that this has helped me appreciate the church interior more. Looking at the details, and trying to convey how wonderful the church is, is an important part of the Saint Mary’s experience.

Some weeks I find myself fascinated with various details of the service and try to stream them. An example would be focusing on the incense. While you can’t smell the incense, you can certainly watch it in all its abundant glory. I try to convey the amount and the visual effect of the smoke during the service.

Within the last year we have added titles to the stream so that we can tell the audience who they are seeing in the service. We also added remote live calls which give an additional dimension to the stream. When fellow parishioner Jennifer Stevens—who has been training to run the livestream—is taking care of things, I have been able to come out front and cover the various services with a call phone. This addition allows us to cover processions in the church or parts of the church which the regular cameras cannot see. We have used these live calls to cover the chapels during various services, processions, and baptisms.

So, over the last two years I’ve grown and have become more excited about this ministry.  When I started, I thought it was ironic that I would come to a beautiful building with amazing liturgy and music and end up sitting in a distant room removed from all of it. However, I soon realized my participation in the service is a service. Usually at coffee hour someone will come up to me and thank me for bringing Saint Mary’s to them. Sometimes it’s parishioners, sometimes it is complete strangers. Sometimes it is clergy or servers looking at a previous service to make adjustments.  Sitting in the back and livestreaming I can tell that there are people watching. Many of those people I will never know. I have no idea why they are watching or what their experience is. But there is always someone watching. Sometimes I watch or just listen to hear the sermon, or music.

Finally, I realized that I don’t have to know who is watching. It is like prayer; I don’t have to know the results of the prayers that I say, I just have to say them. In Centering Prayer, we sit and pray, we don’t judge the prayer or how we feel. We don’t need to know the results of our prayer. I am responsible for praying. God does the work.

Blair Burroughs is a graduate of the City University of New York School of Law at Queens College. He is a Field Representative at the New York State Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO. He has represented the parish at diocesan convention and served on the Board of Trustees. He is a certified Centering Prayer instructor and has served as a guide to the practice of Centering Prayer here at Saint Mary's for many years. He has been the co-convenor of the Centering Prayer Group and, along with parishioner Ingrid Sletten, he managed to keep the practice alive here during the pandemic by finding a way to do Centering Prayer online. His decision to volunteer for our barely nascent livestream ministry was a beautiful surprise, and it has been a great blessing.

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We pray for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, and for all those who have asked us for our prayers. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those who are traveling; for the unemployed and for those seeking work; for the incarcerated and for those recently released from prison; for all victims of violence, assault, and crime; for all refugees and migrants; for those struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction; for those whom we serve in our outreach programs, for our neighbors in the Times Square neighborhood, for the theater community, and for those living with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

The people of Saint Mary’s, located in Little Brazil, pray this week for the Brazilian community as it prepares to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day on September 7.

We pray for those for whom prayers have been asked: For Dorothy, Flannery, Trevor, Rachel, Richard, Aston, Joe, Mary Lou, Mary Barbara, Emily, Marie, John, Humberto, Steven, Blaise, Marie, John Derek, Carl, Emily, Tristan, Ingrid, Liduvina, Frank, Brendon, Janet, Claudia, Joyce, June, Cooki, Sharon, Bruce, Robert, Matt, Carlos, Christopher, José, Brian, Carmen, Susan, Charlotte, Keith, Jennifer, Harka, Suzanne, Quincy, Gigi, Ava Grace, Phyllis, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, and Margaret; for Lind, deacon, and Allan and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Joan Williams Baldridge and of the members of the parish whose year’s mind falls on September 3: Henry Mullins (1916); Nellie F. Knight (1923); Charlotte Riis (1960); Carol Jean Kearins (1965).

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Our regular daily liturgical schedule, Monday through Friday, is Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Holy Hour is offered on Wednesday at 11:00 AM and Thursday’s Mass includes anointing and prayers for healing. On Saturdays, Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM and Evening Prayer is prayed at 5:00 PM. On the third Saturday of each month, a Requiem Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM in the Mercy Chapel. On Sundays, Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Evensong and Benediction will be offered next on the first Sunday in October.

Friday, September 1, 5:30–6:45 PM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in Saint Benedict’s Study.

Sunday, September 3, 9:30–10:30 AM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in the Livestream Control Room, which is located just outside the Sacristy.

Sunday, September 3, The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Proper 17 (Phoebe, Deacon), Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Jeremiah 15:15–21; a portion of Psalm 26; Romans 12:1–8; Matthew 16:21–28. Father Jacobson  is the preacher. The cantor is James Ruff. The Mass setting is Messe Premier Ton by Henri Dumont (1610–1684).

Monday, September 4, Labor Day, Mass in the Lady Chapel at 10:00 AM. The church opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 12:00 PM. Morning and Evening Prayer are not said in the church. The parish offices are closed.

Friday, September 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saturday, September 9, Constance, Nun, and her Companions, 1878

Sunday, September 10, The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Proper 18 (Alexander Crummell, Priest, 1898)

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S: NEWS & NOTICES

From Father Sammy: Nine Days of Prayer for Guidance before Holy Cross Day (September 14) . . In the Western Church, a novena (from the Latin novem, “nine”) is a period of nine days’ private or public devotion, by which it is hoped to obtain some special grace. The general observance of novenas is actually quite modern, dating only from the seventeenth century, but it is modeled on the nine days’ preparation of the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1.13ff). Some sources cite the Church Fathers for assigning special meaning to the number nine, seeing it as symbolic of imperfect man turning to God in prayer (due to its proximity with the number ten, symbolic of God’s perfection). Novenas may be performed in church, at home, or anywhere solemn prayers are appropriate. This year, Saint Mary’s is using the days before Holy Cross Day as an occasion to pray together as a community for God’s vision for our parish. Beginning September 6, and culminating on September 14, Holy Cross Day, I am asking our whole parish family to join me in adding to your daily devotions a particular prayer for Saint Mary’s.

A Novena for Saint Mary’s

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus, who because of your burning love for us willed to be crucified and to shed your most precious blood for the redemption and salvation of our souls, look down upon us and grant our petition:

Pour out your Spirit upon our parish family.

Give us your vision for our common life and bless the work we do in New York City in your name and for your glory.

We trust completely in your mercy. Cleanse us from sin by your grace, sanctify our work, give us and all those who are dear to us our daily bread, lighten the burden of our sufferings, bless our parish, and grant to the nations your peace, which is the only true peace, so that by obeying your commandments we may come at last to the glory of heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father . . .

Glory to the Father . . .

Articles from our guild leadership . . . Over the last month, we have published articles in the Angelus written by the leadership of several of our parish guilds. We asked them to focus on the guilds theologically by reflecting upon how they feel connected to God through serving the parish in these various ways. If you were inspired by any of these articles and would like to explore whether you might be called to help out with one of these guilds, please speak with the authors of these articles or a member of the clergy. As a reminder, in addition to Blair Burrough’s article in this issue on the livestream ministry, there were articles by Marie Rosseels on ushering, Grace Mudd on altar serving, and Brendon Hunter on the flower guild. Thanks to all the members of these guilds for their service to Saint Mary’s!

Brazilian Day 2023 . . . New York’s Brazilian community will be celebrating their upcoming Independence Day this coming Sunday, September 3. Forty-sixth Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues will be closed to vehicular traffic and parking will not be permitted. The festivities take place on the blocks surrounding ours so those coming to Mass on Sunday morning should plan accordingly.

Track Work on the F and M train lines . . . The 47-50 subway stop is one of the stops closest to Saint Mary’s and is often used by friends and members of the parish. Beginning on August 28, 2023, through the first quarter of 2024, F Trains will be rerouted between Manhattan and Queens in both directions and weekday M Trains will be partially suspended. F Trains will run on the  E Line at all times in both directions between 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Center and Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue. On weekdays, M Trains will not run in either direction between 47-50 Streets-Rockefeller Center and Forest Hills-71 Avenue and will terminate at 57 St.

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.

Saint Mary’s is featured in the September issue of The Living Church in their “Partner Spotlights 2023” showcase. Click here to see our parish highlighted along with their other partner organizations.

The Anti-Racism 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.

Looking for Daily Prayer Resources? Take a look at Saint Bede’s Breviary online. Designed by Dr. Derek Olsen, who will be leading a parish retreat for us in January 2024, this mobile app is rich in options and using it is a great way to get in the habit of praying the Daily Office.

The Reverend Deacon Rebecca Weiner Tompkins was a member of Saint Mary’s, and then, after her ordination to the diaconate, she served here as the parish’s deacon. She served the parish in many ways over the years. She helped lead mission trips to El Salvador. She taught our children on Sunday mornings, using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She visited the sick, showed us how poetry could be a source of great spiritual wisdom, and served as deacon during the liturgy. She was a great friend to many here at Saint Mary’s. Rebecca now lives mostly in Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been serving at a local parish, and where she often preaches on Sunday mornings. We are very happy, therefore, that on Sunday, September 17, Rebecca will be returning to Saint Mary’s and will be preaching at the Solemn Mass. We hope that you can be here to hear her preach and to welcome her back to the parish.

Two of our parishioners, Marie Rosseels and Jennifer Stevens, have completed the required diocesan training and are now licensed Eucharistic ministers. They now visit those who are sick in their homes, hospitals, and skilled-care facilities. We will be commissioning them in a formal way at the Solemn Mass on Sunday, October 8. We hope you can be with us that day as we pray with and for Marie and Jennifer, asking the Holy Spirit to be with them as they perform this important ministry.

Donations for altar flowers. If you would like to make a donation to cover the cost of flowers to be placed on the high altar and at the shrines on an upcoming Sunday or holy day, there are many available dates coming up: September 24, October 22 and 29 and many Sundays in November. The suggested donation is $250. To reserve a date and make your donation for the altar flowers, please contact Chris Howatt. If you’d like to explore other dates or have questions about the flowers or the Flower Guild, please contact Brendon Hunter.

Father Jay Smith will be away from the parish next week, September 5–9. He returns on Sunday, September 10.

Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish at the end of the month, September 26–28, attending a clergy conference.

ADULT EDUCATION: THE 2023–2024 SEASON

On Sunday, September 17, at 9:30 AM, the Adult-Education Class will meet once again after the long summer break. (Beginning in October, the class will start at 9:45 AM.) During this program year, the Sunday class comes in two parts, the first is “Conversion, Transformation and Life in Christ.” In 2023, the classes in this first part will meet on September 17 and 24; the Sundays in October; and on December 10 and 17. The focus of the classes will be both historical and experiential. In the fall and winter, we will discuss the Confessions of Saint Augustine and the Rule of Saint Benedict. We will dig deeply into those texts, asking how faith is born, how we choose to move—and are moved by God’s grace—from one thing to another. We will ask what is really happening when we are “converted” and then “transformed.” We will also ask how a new way of life is sustained after the first glow of conversion dims and fades. We will wonder what about us, and in us, endures, and what doesn’t, when we make new faith commitments. We will face the sometimes difficult truth that conversion is not just event but also process, a process that moves in fits and starts and never lives up to our fantasies of spiritual “perfection.” We will use Augustine and Benedict as wise teachers and guides as we ask these questions. But we will also pause on certain Sundays—October 1 and 29 among them—to hear from living guides, who have kindly agreed to share their experiences of conversion, struggle, and faith to help us think about and discuss our own journeys in faith. On October 1 our speaker will be Renee Wood and on October 29 our presenter will be Father Pete Powell. These classes will be led and moderated by Father Jay Smith.

The second part of the Sunday morning Adult-Education Class, led by Father Powell, will be a close reading and study of Isaiah 1–12, a portion of the prophet’s work sometimes referred to as First Isaiah. Father Powell writes, “Beginning on November 5, and continuing on November 12, 19, 26, and December 3, we will be studying a portion of the Old Testament that is all around you in worship but in ways you may not have noticed. The portion we use the most is the Sanctus, lifted entirely from Isaiah 6:5. It reminds us that we pray with the Heavenly Host. Canticle 9 in Morning Prayer draws from Isaiah 12:2-6. We encounter Isaiah in the libretto of Handel’s Messiah written by Charles Jennen. From First Isaiah he draws upon Isaiah 7:14, the prediction of a Virgin Birth. He also uses Isa 9:2 and 9:6. We will be looking at how these passages, and all of so-called First Isaiah function in their original context and then apply them to the world we live in today. Our work on this text will continue in 2024 on Sundays in Lent.”

Stay tuned for more! In next week’s Angelus, Father Smith will announce most, if not all, of the offerings in the 2023–2024 Christian Formation program. We hope it will be a rich and exciting year. We invite you to join us.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

The setting of the Mass at the Solemn Mass on Sunday is the Messe Premier Ton by Henri Dumont (1610–1684). Dumont was born in Belgium. As a child, Henri and his brother Lambert were choirboys at the Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht. Henri was later named organist there and was eventually succeeded by his brother. In 1639, Henri moved to Paris to become organist of the parish of Saint Paul. Beginning in 1652 he was harpsichordist at the court of Phillipe I, Duke of Orléans. From that post he advanced to Master of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles in 1663 and, in 1673, he was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music. He composed mostly religious music including nearly a hundred Petits Motets. His five plainsong Masses, known as Messes Royales, gained currency alongside the anonymous repertory of medieval plainsong Masses. The Gloria in excelsis, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei from Dumont’s plainsong Mass on the first tone will be sung as the ordinary at Sunday’s Solemn Mass.

During the Communion at the Solemn Mass, the cantor, tenor James Ruff, will sing En prière, an art song for voice and piano by Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). The lyricist for this song, which was composed and published in 1890, was the poet Stéphane Bordèse (1847–1919). The song is dedicated to Madame Leroux-Ribeyre to whom Fauré also dedicated at least one other song. Fauré was born in the south of France, the youngest of six children. He lived with a foster mother until, when he was four years old, his father was appointed director of the École Normale d’Instituteurs at Montgauzy and he returned to live with his family. It was on a harmonium in the chapel there that Fauré’s musical inclinations became apparent. In 1854, he began eleven years of study at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, a school focused on training organists, choir directors, and church musicians. After Niedermeyer’s death in 1861, Fauré studied with Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), and they remained lifelong close friends. Fauré’s life was far too varied and complex to be easily described or summarized. He held a variety of positions in a turbulent time both in the church and the French musical academy. He was highly regarded as an organist yet wrote no music for organ solo. While his Requiem (1901) is widely beloved, few of the sacred works he is known to have composed are extant. Yet, his secular songs and piano music are standard repertoire. However, in En prière, secular and sacred overlap. Fauré’s lyric melody floats its prayer over a harp-like accompaniment.

More about the cantor on Sunday: James Ruff has performed as tenor soloist with such early music groups as the Handel and Haydn Society, Newberry Consort, King’s Noyse, Aradia Ensemble, New York Collegium, Early Music New York, and Music of the Baroque. He has toured both in the United States and abroad singing the title role in the medieval Play of Daniel with EMNY and GEMS. He has sung at the Spoleto Festival/Italy, the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Rockport Chamber Music Festivals, and the Boston and Connecticut Early Music Festivals. He has been featured with the New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Saint Louis Opera, and the Boston Academy of Music.

Since 2005, James has focused his energies on researching and performing the early repertoires of Scottish Gaelic Song and the Early Gaelic Wire Harp—the “Classical Music of the Gael”—as well as learning the Scottish Gaelic language. He has presented concerts of this music at the Scoil na gCláirseach Festival of Early Irish Harp in Kilkenny, Ireland—where he has taught since 2017, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, Gotham Early Music Scene Midtown Concerts, Beacon Hill Concerts, Stone Church Arts Concert Series, and the Mount Holyoke and Vassar College Concert Series. He has won awards for Gaelic singing at the US National and the ACGA North Carolina Gaelic Mòd, and the Royal National Mòd in Scotland. His 2018 recording The Gaels’ Honour: Early Music for Harp and Voice form Gaelic Scotland and Ireland” showcases this music. James has taught voice at Vassar College since 2008 and also teaches voice and harp privately. www.jamesrufftenorharper.com.  

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

A Listening Session

Sunday, September 24, 2023, 12:45 PM

Please join us to pray, to share, to listen, and to consider the
movement of the Spirit here at Saint Mary’s both now and in the future.

COMING UP AT SAINT MARY’S

Thursday, September 14, Holy Cross Day

Sunday, September 17, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Adult Education on Sunday Morning begins!

Thursday, September 21, Saint Matthew the Apostle

Friday, September 29, Saint Michael & All Angels

Sunday, October 1, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost,
Beginning of Program Year 2023–2024 & Return of the Choir of Saint Mary’s!

Sunday, October 1, 5:00 PM, Evensong & Benediction

Sunday, October 8, 4:00 PM, Blessing of the Animals

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter 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.