Wow

It didn’t rain in midtown Manhattan between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM on Sunday, August 15, 2004.  It threatened.  Sometime during the 11:00 AM Mass the rain came, but our procession through Times Square was spared.  The sky may have been gray.  There was one huckster yelling at us.  But the square was filled with joyful Christians who seemed to genuinely welcome the witness of this community.  One doesn’t expect people who are driving cars to slow down and so obviously sing along, but many did.  It was just great.

The Assumption of Mary

The Episcopal Church observes August 15 as the “Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Here at Saint Mary’s we name the feast by its more usual title, “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”  We celebrate God’s work in Mary’s life and we pray that we may share with her in the glory of God’s kingdom.

Response to Evil

Walking home through Times Square on Monday night, August 2, I saw the NASDAQ MarketSite surrounded by police and police cars.  It touched a nerve.  My emotions kicked in big time.  I generally try to keep my memories of September 11 and its aftermath sanely and appropriately in a part of my brain where I don’t think about them.  But occasionally, as on Monday night, something can trigger the memories and the emotions.  Once triggered, I’m off to the races, emotionally speaking.

Midsummer at Saint Mary’s

Worship is the mission at Saint Mary’s all year long.  In August, in addition to the daily and Sunday services, two important feasts are observed.  On August 6 the Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.  On August 15 the Church celebrates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This year the Transfiguration falls on a Friday.  As is our custom, there will be a Sung Mass at 6:00 PM. 

Signs

Three times a week I try to jog in Central Park.  Occasionally there are witnesses to this; I have been spotted more than I wish.  I’m almost used to being recognized by people – something I didn’t think would be so common when I first moved here.  Frankly, a couple of years ago I thought I would be giving up on jogging.  Then, I discovered the bridle path in Central Park.  My knees love it.  And as long as I don’t push them too much, it seems as if I’m going to continue to be able jog for some years to come.

Confidence

In the winter of 1978 I was a participant in the Berkeley Urdu Language Program that was held in Lahore, Pakistan.  At the time I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago in South Asian history.  Urdu language and literature was one of my fields.  The program and living in Pakistan for three months was a great experience.  I haven’t been back to Pakistan or India since then.  Someday I very much want to go back.  But I know that the experience I had in 1978 would not be possible today for a young unmarried Christian American male.

Flavor

I finally got to the greenmarket in Union Square a few Saturdays ago.  I didn’t buy much – eggs (just a half-dozen, no notes to my physician, please), potatoes, zucchini and garlic.  It’s still early in the season for a lot of things.  I don’t know where the potatoes were from but they were freshly dug.   I had almost forgotten how good new potatoes can taste.  Even more, I really had forgotten how good zucchini can be – yes, zucchini, that was the real surprise.

Getting It

Some months ago I heard a leadership presentation on a Confederate general, who isn’t thought of too highly in the American South because after the Civil War he went over to the Yankee side.  The speaker followed the general’s career and talked how decisions during and after the war affected others and how he himself was affected.  During the presentation I found myself thinking about something else, slavery.  That general had been wrong about the single greatest moral issue of his day. 

From Father Beddingfield: Worshiping with our Eyes

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”  Just before he speaks these words in Matthew 13, Jesus quotes Isaiah’s prophecy regarding those who don’t perceive the things of God.  Their hearts are dull, their ears heavy and their eyes are closed.  “But blessed are your eyes, for they see.”  Jesus encourages his disciples to keep looking that they might see more deeply.   They will see still greater things.  They will see God.

Singing God’s Praises

I have been working on and off for the past two weeks to draft a list of hymns for the rest of the Church year for our music director to review and make suggestions about.  I begin my work with the lectionary, and in particular with the gospel lesson for a given Sunday.  The most useful reference work I have, in addition to the lists of what we sang on a given Sunday in recent years, is A Liturgical Index to The Hymnal 1982 by Marion J. Hatchett. 

Rich Fare

The Solemn Mass last Sunday was pretty extraordinary at several points, perhaps most remarkably during the singing of the Te Deum following the ministration of Holy Communion, as is our custom on Trinity Sunday, in place of the usual postcommunion hymn.  The choir sang Benjamin Britten’s (1913-1976) Festival Te Deum, Op. 32, the assembly standing, the clergy at the foot of the altar.  Two thurifers stood inside the altar rail swinging in rhythm.  The Lord’s house was filled with smoke.  The music, the setting, the Mass, the worship – all were glorious.

Trinity

Christians had many heated arguments and even fisticuffs during the first millennium about how to speak correctly and believe correctly about God’s revelation of himself to humankind as one God in Three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The subject is huge.  Most members of the clergy have reference books on their shelves to follow the centuries-long debates. 

From Father Beddingfield: Praying for Peace

Over the last few months several people have asked me if we could pray for peace.  Could we include something special in the liturgy, have particular prayers for peace, or perhaps have a “peace candle” and invite people to pray near it?  While I think I’ve understood what each person meant in asking the question, these questions have helped me to realize just how deeply we are praying for peace. 

For Everyone

From time to time I hear people remark that Saint Mary’s is not for everyone.  I’m always interested in that remark because from my perspective the breadth of the parish community is tremendous.  Everyone is not only welcome, in some real sense everyone is already here.

Ascension

The Prayer Book, following the account of the Acts of the Apostles, has a very strong focus on Ascension Day as a single event that happened forty days after the resurrection.  Yet, the Ascension as one event that happened on the fortieth day is not recalled this way in any of the four gospels.  In Mark, Luke and John Jesus ascended to the Father on Easter Day.  Matthew concludes his gospel with the commissioning of the disciples and the promise that he is with them always until the close of the age.

A Place of Worship

Almost always when I speak with people who are new to Saint Mary’s or just learning about Saint Mary’s I am asked about Saint Mary’s mission.  And almost always a puzzled look follows when I respond, “Worship.”  Of all the things Christian churches can do or be, the idea that a church is primarily a place of worship is too often surprising in our day.  My guess is that any layperson who tries to answer the same question in the same would also receive a similar puzzling look.

From Father Beddingfield: Regina coeli

Sometimes after celebrating the midday Mass, I stop in a nearby deli and I see the same man.  He usually asks me something like, “So, Father, when are you going to get those bells fixed at the church?  They still don’t ring correctly on the hour.”   He laughs and I explain one more time that we ring the tower bell during the Angelus and during the Eucharistic Prayer, but he likes to continue the joke, wondering why the bell never rings twelve times at noon. 

Easter Spirit

Jesus’ resurrection gift to his disciples was the Holy Spirit.  In the presence of the risen Lord the disciples are able to accept this gift and to let it transform their lives.  In Luke’s gospel it is a gift that has always been present, almost always unclaimed, with people all their lives.  In John’s gospel it is a gift given from the cross and on the evening of the first Easter Day.  There is a unity of Easter and the gift of the Spirit that is like the unity of Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Easter at Saint Mary’s

Sometimes I have trouble explaining to people what makes Saint Mary’s so special.  To say that the liturgical rites of the Church are prayed and lived out with enormous integrity would not be the most helpful way of introducing us.  Yet that is who we are.  We are a place where our lives our shaped by the message of the gospel and celebration of liturgy.  In our midst people are reborn to eternal life and Jesus Christ still rises from the dead.

Holy Week II

Easter

One service of the year proclaims the Christian Gospel as no other, the Great Vigil of Easter.  This service is celebrated at Saint Mary’s on Saturday, April 10, beginning at 7:00 PM.  This newsletter is going to be dedicated to some details about the other services of Holy Week and Easter, but I want to begin with some remarks about the principal service of the year.