FROM FATHER PETER POWELL: WORSHIPING & FOLLOWING THE HOLY ONE

Isaiah 6:4: “The sound of their voices made the foundation of the Temple shake, and the Temple itself became filled with smoke.” (Good News Bible)

Did Isaiah in the eighth century BCE predict the establishment of Smoky Mary’s? This verse from the Prophet Isaiah would at least give us the impression that he approved of our style of worship. We have a mighty organ that brings the building alive and we’re famous for our smoke!

Join us on February 18, the First Sunday in Lent, when this will be explained. We meet from 9:45 AM until around 10:40 AM in Saint Joseph’s Hall.

The sound that shakes the building is the Sanctus, verses we sing every time we celebrate the Mass:

“Holy, holy, holy! The Lord Almighty is holy! His glory fills the world.” (Good News Bible)

Two amazing characteristics of our Lord are sung by the Seraphim in the Sanctus. They sing them continuously throughout all of time. We join their unending song when we sing the Sanctus. They are announcing that YHWH is holy, meaning that God is entirely different from the profane or the secular. God is wholly other and holy other. At the same time, YHWH is glorious, that is, the presence of God overwhelms us. In other words, the combination of Holy and Glory tell us that God is at once wholly other and wholly present.

Many years ago, I heard the quote that the Mass should be as intimate as a kiss and as overwhelming as an opera. I’ve searched in vain for the source of this quote. I have been told that it was in a sermon at the Church of the Advent, Boston. I’ve always found it to be true.

Studying Isaiah is to confront that which is overwhelming and other while at the same time being timely and meaningful to our life together.

In the eighth century BCE, Judah was in danger of being overwhelmed by Assyria or by other kingdoms opposing Assyria including Ephraim (Israel). Isaiah seeks to reassure the king by telling him that a young woman, a woman of marriageable age, in his court is pregnant and when she delivers her baby the threat will be gone. Isaiah assumes a perfectly normal conception. He is simply saying that the threat will be gone in less than nine months. The Hebrew knows nothing of a virgin birth but when the Bible was translated into Greek the Hebrew word for young woman, עלמה / ̔almah was changed in the Greek to the word for virgin, παρθενος /parthenos. Perhaps we should be grateful since it would be awkward to belong to the Church of Saint Mary of Marriageable Age. But this raises the question of what does the language of the bible mean in its setting? If Isaiah wasn’t predicting the birth of our savior, does it make a difference? If he was, then are we saying that the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek) was more inspired than the Hebrew?

As we read further into these few chapters of Isaiah, we will encounter the image of the Garden of Eden in which carnivores and prey can be together without the prey having fear.

Isaiah 11:6. The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion will feed together, and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and a lion will eat straw like an ox. 8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole; toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den. 9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain. The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the water covers the sea. (CEB)

Isaiah looked forward to a time when God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. That time didn’t come so Isaiah’s word was remembered and preserved and used by the Church to understand who Christ Jesus was and is.

We continue to look for that time despite all evidence that it will not happen soon. In our study we will look to understand what it means to be faithful to Isaiah’s prophecy and to the birth, death, and resurrection of our Savior. Isaiah’s prophetic words continue to have meaning for our lives today.

Each class can stand on its own, so you will find it useful even if you missed the study of Isaiah 1-6 last fall. Of course, each class builds on the preceding and anticipates the next, but there is truth in studying even one week. To return to the Sanctus: In our opening class we’ll be discussing the portion of Isaiah you hear every time you attend Mass. I imagine you’ve sung or said the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts) so many times that you can sing and say it from memory. Have you ever thought about its context? Is the liturgy saying something to us by commanding us to repeat it at every Eucharist? If so, what might that be

The setting has the Seraphim (Flaming Creatures) singing the Sanctus ceaselessly. The Seraphim are mentioned only here in the Bible. Where did they come from, and why does Isaiah see them? Why can’t they look on the Face of God? Are they dragonfly inspired creatures with six wings? What relevance might any of this have for us in the twenty-first century? We will explore these questions in detail, among other things to relate the ancient to the present. Isaiah is putting into words an experience that is ineffable. How can he at once describe the awesome nature of being in the presence of the Holy One which is overwhelming and not only live but believe that he, Isaiah, is crucial to carrying out the wishes of YHWH?

We come to Saint Mary’s to be overwhelmed and inspired. I doubt many of us can state clearly why we worship here in words that convince most of the people we meet. To them our commitment to this practice of worship in this liminal space is as strange as Isaiah’s vision. Without trying to express in words that which is overwhelming, much of the reason for studying Isaiah 1-12 is to understand what it means to follow the Holy One and not simply worship. God is at once holy other and wholly and intimately involved with our lives as individuals but most especially as a people.

Isaiah goes from the smoke-filled vision, an especially apropos observation for Smoky Mary’s, to tell the people that God is with them despite the current situation, whatever that situation will be. They are overwhelmed by war and political violence. Isaiah reassures them that they have not been abandoned.

His reality has much in common with our reality and this will be obvious. Prophecy is about making clear the consequences of our actions if we fail to act differently. My hope is that studying this will give us the ears to hear God’s will for us in the many challenges we face now. We are as much the people of God as Judah was and Isaiah is speaking to us today as meaningfully as he did then. God continues to love us. Your presence will help us in our exploration. — Peter R. Powell

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for peace in the Middle East, in Ukraine, Russia, Mali, Iran, the Red Sea, and Myanmar. We pray for an end to violence and division in our neighborhood, city, and nation.

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 migrants and those seeking asylum, especially those sheltering in our neighborhood; 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.

We also pray for the Right Reverend Matthew Heyd, XVII Bishop of New York:

To you, O Father, all hearts are open; fill, we pray, the heart of this your servant, Matthew, whom you have chosen to be a bishop in your Church, with such love of you and of all the people, that he may feed and tend the flock of Christ, and exercise without reproach the high priesthood to which you have called him, serving before you day and night in the ministry of reconciliation, declaring pardon in your Name, offering the holy gifts, and wisely overseeing the life and work of the Church. In all things may he present before you the acceptable offering of a pure, and gentle, and holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and power and glory in the Church, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 521)

We pray for those for whom prayers have been asked, for Celia, Rolf, Sharon, Victor, Murray, Jan, Frank, Charles, Maureen, Elizabeth, Ruth Ann, Barbara, Cindy, Tom, Avdi, Larry, Violet, Eleanor, Eugene, Quincy, Claudia, June, Joyce, Robert, Bruce, Christopher, Carlos, Liduvina, Susan, Carmen, Brian, Antony, Manuel, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, Margaret, John Derek; Thomas, religious; Lind, deacon, Robby, Allan, and Stephen, priests; and Michael, bishop.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Greg Boyle, Bill Jacobson, and of those whose year’s mind is on Sunday, February 18—Katherine Wood, Mary Overing Sinclair Newell, William Langhorst, John Boyd, Charles Reamer, Harry Livingston, Nena Freeman, Harty Hopkins, Gertrude Jentz, Rosetta Miller, and Emil Denworth, religious.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Gregory Boyle, the uncle of Professor Meredith B. Linn, the wife of Father Matthew Jacobson, died on Thursday, February 15. His funeral will take place on Monday, February 19, in Bayonne, New Jersey. As we were going to press on Friday, February 16, Bill Jacobson, the uncle of Father Matt also died. Father Matt was able to be with Bill in Florida during these last days. Please keep Gregory, Bill, Meredith, Matthew, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

COMING UP AT SAINT MARY’S

Stations of the Cross
Friday, February 16, 2024, 6:00 PM

Lenten Quiet Day
Saturday, February 24, 2024, 10:00 AM–3:00 PM

Saint Joseph
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Mass 12:10 PM

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
March 24, 2024
Procession to Times Square & Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2024, 6:00 PM

Good Friday
March 29, 2024, 12:30 PM

Holy Saturday/Easter Eve
March 30
Holy Saturday Liturgy 9:00 AM
The Great Vigil of Easter 7:00 PM

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S

Our regular daily liturgical schedule: Monday through Friday, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:30 PM. On Wednesdays, Holy Hour is also offered at 11:00 AM and an additional Mass is said at 6:00 PM. Thursday’s Mass includes anointing and prayers for healing. On Saturdays, Confessions are heard at 11:00 AM, 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 normally celebrated at 12:10 PM in the Mercy Chapel. On Sundays, a Low Mass (Rite One) is celebrated in the Lady Chapel at 9:00 AM. Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Evensong and Benediction (E&B) is normally offered on the first Sunday of every month and will next be offered on March 3.

Friday, February 16, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM & Stations of the Cross 6:00 PM

Saturday Confessions at 11:00 AM . . . The priest-on-duty can be found in one of the confessionals at the back of the church, near the 46th Street entrance, at 11:00 AM on Saturdays to hear confessions. Once nobody is left waiting, if it is after 11:15 AM, the priest will return to his office. If you arrive later, the sexton will be able to call him if it is not too close to the midday Mass.

Saturday, February 17, 12:10 PM, Monthly Requiem Mass in the Mercy Chapel

Saturday, February 17, 8:00 PM, The Miller Theatre at Columbia University presents The Gesualdo Six in their concert “Lux Aeterna.”

Sunday, February 18, The First Sunday in Lent, Mass (Rite One) in the Lady Chapel at 9:00 AM, Adult Formation 9:45–10:40, Confirmation Class 9:45–10:30 AM, Solemn Mass (Rite Two) 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM

Monday, February 19, Weekday in Lent, Federal Holiday Schedule (Washington’s Birthday). The church is open from 9:00 AM until 12:00 PM. Mass 10:00 AM in the Lady Chapel.

Wednesday, February 21, Weekday in Lent, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Holy Hour 11:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Bible Study 12:45 PM, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM, Mass 6:00 PM. The Anglicanism 101 Class will not meet today.

Friday, February 23, Eve of Saint Matthias the Apostle, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM, Stations of the Cross 6:00 PM

Saturday, February 24, Confessions 11:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM
Quiet Day 9:30 AM Gathering and Refreshments, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Addresses, Mass, Lunch, and Final Address & Departure

NEWS & NOTICES

The Observance of a Holy Lent . . . As you think about the shape of your Lenten practices this year, we hope that you will consider the following:

Lenten Practices: A Message from Bishop Heyd . . . Blessings as we prepare for . . . the beginning of Lent this week. I hope that you’ll identify a reading or spiritual practice that can help deepen your experience of God over these forty days. If you’re considering a reading for Lent, here are three possibilities: The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous; A Quilted Life: Reflections of a Sharecropper’s Daughter by Catherine Meeks; Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, & Love by Padraig O Tuama. (This book was published in collaboration with Church of the Heavenly Rest.) As always, please share what you’re reading with me. I’m eager to learn from our diocesan community. — Bishop Matthew Heyd

The Saint Mary’s Shape of Lent Booklet . . . The electronic version of this year’s guide to Lent at Saint Mary’s can be downloaded here. Hardcopies will also be available at the usher’s table starting this Sunday. The booklet contains suggested prayers, readings, and devotions for the parish community during Lent.

Wednesdays at 12:45: Brown Bag Bible Study. The class resumes on Wednesday, February 21, at 12:45 PM, in Saint Benedict’s Study. We have been reading the Gospel of Mark in this class, and during Lent we will jump ahead to read the Passion Narrative in Mark (14:1–16:8). This is the gospel text appointed to be chanted at Mass on Palm Sunday. It is the text that begins our Holy Week journey.

Wednesday Nights in Lent: “Introduction to a Rule of Life” . . . In his homily two weeks ago, Brother Ephrem Arcement quoted Mark Twain: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” We’ve thought a lot about our why around Saint Mary’s this year, and on Wednesdays in Lent we have a chance to continue that conversation. Join Father Sammy and others, including our own Brother Thomas Steffensen, as we examine the concept of a Rule of Life as a “trellis” to help us grow toward our God-ordained purpose. The class meets on four consecutive Wednesdays (February 28 and March 6, 13, and 20) from 6:30–7:30 PM in Saint Benedict’s Study right after Evening Prayer at 5:30 PM and the 6:00 PM Mass. All are welcome!

Fridays in Lent at 6:00 PM . . . Please join us at 6:00 PM on February 16 and 23, and on March 1, 8, 15, and 22, for Stations of the Cross in the church following Evening Prayer. This devotion, by using the words and images of Scripture, helps us to meditate on God’s sacrificial love for the world as we move towards Holy Week and Easter.

Please Join Us for a Lenten Quiet Day: Praying the Psalms in Lent . . . on Saturday, February 24, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (coffee served beginning at 9:30 AM). The day will be led by Sister Monica Clare Powell, CSJB, the superior of the Community of Saint John Baptist in Mendham, New Jersey. Sister Monica Clare is well known to many Saint Marians—she lived and worked here for several years not too long ago. She is an experienced spiritual director and retreat leader and is known for her kindness and compassionate pastoral care. Sister Monica is preparing for ordination to the priesthood in the Diocese of Newark and recently completed her coursework at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. If you would like to attend the Quiet Day, please send an e-mail to Father Jay Smith—this is to keep track of numbers for set up in Saint Joseph’s Chapel and for lunch. We hope you will join us!

Preparing for Holy Week . . . Please see the following from MaryJane Boland about upcoming dates to save for helping with Holy Week preparation. All are welcome and we would love your help.

Saturday, March 16, morning starting at 10 AM. We will be veiling the church and polishing many, many things.

Saturday, March 23, after the 10 AM rehearsal required for servers the next day, Palm Sunday. For those not serving, let's say 11 AM. We will be stripping palms, bringing things up from the basement, polishing many things and an array of other tasks. Big work day!

Holy Week, March 24-30.  This is when the flower people go into high gear. Whether you are skilled at arranging flowers or a broom pusher like me, we can use your help!

Thanks to everyone who will help Saint Mary's! — MaryJane Boland

OTHER NEWS . . .

We are again collecting non-perishable food items for those in need in our neighborhood, who have access to kitchen facilities. We are looking for canned soups, canned vegetables, tuna fish, and stews, in addition to breakfast cereals, pasta, bottled sauces, peanut butter, jams and jellies, and bottled condiments. Please place these items in the basket at the ushers’ table or take them in a bag to the parish kitchen. Please label the bag “donation” and tell us who the donor is. And we thank you!

Adult Formation on Sunday mornings . . . On Sunday, February 18, Father Peter Powell will resume his series, begun last fall, on Isaiah 1–12. See Father Powell’s article above for more information.

Confirmation Preparation for Young People 13-18 . . . Father Sammy is leading a confirmation class for young people on Sundays. The class will meet on Sunday mornings at 9:45 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study, January 14 to May 5. The class will not meet on Palm Sunday (March 24) or Easter Day (March 31). If you are interested in the class, please speak to Father Sammy.

Donating Flowers for Altar and Shrines . . . We are looking for donations for flowers for the many Sundays in Eastertide. In order to make a donation and reserve a date, please contact the parish office. In addition, we always welcome donations to support the ministry of the Flower Guild during Holy Week and at Easter.

Neighbors in Need . . . Our latest Drop-by took place on Friday, February 16, 1:30 to 3:00 PM. The March Drop-by will take place on Friday, March 15. Please speak to Father Jay Smith or MaryJane Boland, if you are interested in volunteering. Warm-weather clothing is a particular need at the moment. In addition, we have been providing food support to a number of folks in our neighborhood in recent months, including many recent immigrants. We do this through a voucher system. We welcome financial donations so that we may continue this work. You may donate online or with a check—when making the donation please be sure to indicate that your gift is for “Neighbors in Need.”

Father Sammy Wood will be away on retreat, Wednesday, February 21, until Friday, February 23.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT: FEBRUARY 18, 2024, 11:00 AM

The organ prelude on Sunday morning is a setting from the Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”) of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The Orgelbüchlein is a collection of forty-six chorale preludes mostly composed between 1708 and 1717 when Bach was organist at the ducal court in Weimar. Although the original plan was for a collection of 164 settings of chorales for the church year, the realized collection spans the yearly liturgical cycle impressively. Seven of the forty-six chorales illuminate chorales sung in Lent and Holy Week. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein setting of O Mensch, bewein dein Sünden groß (“O man, bewail thy grievous sins”) is particularly distinctive and especially suited to the beginning of the Lenten season. The melody is attributed to Matthias Greitter and dates from 1525. The chorale, text by Sebald Heyden dating from 1530, has associations with both Bach’s Saint Matthew and Saint John Passions. The organ setting, BWV 622, is one of Bach’s most poetic ornamented melody chorale preludes. The final phrase, which references the crucifixion, is expressed with slower tempo and striking chromatic harmony. Sunday’s postlude is Bach’s four-voice harmonization of the same chorale, cataloged as BWV 402.

The setting of the Mass on the First Sunday in Lent was composed in 2018 by Robert Pound (b. 1970), Professor of Music at Dickinson College and Director of the Dickinson Orchestra in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dr. Pound received degrees from the University of North Texas and New York’s Juilliard School, and his career has included several residencies with orchestras, universities, and music centers across the country for which he has conducted and composed. He has received commissions from such distinguished ensembles as the Corigliano Quartet, the Timaeus Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, the Florestan Recital Project, and the Murasaki Duo. His works have also been featured by the Verge Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and at Fondation Bemberg (Toulouse, France). His Lenton Ordynary is a setting of the Rite II Kyrie (English), Credo, Sanctus & Benedictus, and Agnus Dei for unaccompanied four-voice choir. Dr. Pound has written the following of his setting:

“Lenton Ordynary is the first of a series of masses to be composed for the complete liturgical calendar of the major feasts and occasions. A pure diatonic, modal palette strictly circumscribes the mass’s Renaissance choral style to convey a staid, undecorated affect for the great penitential season of Lent. Word sounds and musical pitches are intricately entwined through relations established in an original plainchant setting of the psalm for Ash Wednesday (51), which prefaces this mass. This work was created to the glory of God and in honor of and gratitude to Joseph Golden, organist and choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, Georgia.”

Lenton Ordynary, minus its Creed, received its liturgical premiere on March 8, 2020, at Saint Mary’s.

The motet at Communion was composed in 1980 by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s, and was first sung in the chapel of the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, where he was a faculty member at that time. It is a reflective setting of Psalm 130:5–7 for choir of four voices. Dr. Hurd recycled this music as the closing section of a later setting of the entire De profundis psalm. It was first sung at All Saints Church, East Sixtieth Street, Manhattan, where he was director of music from 1985 until 1997. Both versions of this music are intended as movements of a larger work which remains incomplete at this time. — David Hurd

A SERIES OF FIVE EDUCATIONAL FORUMS ON FACING CHRISTIAN ANTI-JUDAISM

Guest Speakers: Dr. Ellen Charry & Prof. Matthew Glandorf

Visit the diocesan website for more information: https://dioceseny.org/24forums
Session 3, Thursday March 14, 2024: Sacred Music and Hymnody (register)
Session 4, Thursday March 21, 2024: Preaching: John’s Passion Gospel (register)
Session 5, Thursday April 18, 2024: A Peace Proposal for Jews and Christians (register)

7:00 to 8:30 PM on Zoom. Free of charge.

Sponsored by the Episcopal-Jewish Dialogue Committee of the Ecumenical & Interreligious Commission of the Diocese of New York

We need your help to keep holding our services.
Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s.
We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

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.