May 1: The Feast of the Ascension

Since my May parish newsletter did not arrive in the mail this week, this afternoon I stopped by my church in Lexington to ask if there might be an service tomorrow evening on Ascension Day, May 1. The parish secretary told me (with some sadness in her voice), "No, we used to have one, but not many people showed up, and we no longer have a service of worship on Ascension Day." Although I was disappointed to hear that not-so-good news, I was not surprised. The Feast of the Ascension is a celebration which, always falling on a Thursday, is slowly disappearing from the worship life of many congregations. We keep saying in the Creed that "He ascended into heaven," but we no longer regard that great event as important as the Incarnation, the Passion of Our Lord, and His Resurrection.

That doesn't mean, however, that in our daily prayers we too may forget that forty days after His Resurrection, Our Lord Jesus returned to His Father eternally so that he might live fully everywhere in His Church. To celebrate His return, this evening and tomorrow many Christians turn their thoughts to our Lord’s ascension and what it means to the Church, to the world, and to one personally. In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Today is Ascension Day, and that means that it is a day of great joy for all who can believe that Christ rules the world and our lives.”


Several years ago M. Basil Pennington, a Cistercian monk and one-time abbot visited me in Massachusetts and gave me, after a nearly day-long talk on the porch, a strong five-minute blessing with his big hands solidly on my head. His journals from trips to the Holy Land have just been published. After visiting the spot on Mount Olivet where Jesus is said to have ascended, Basil wrote:

It is good that Jesus ascended. His mission was complete. He gave us all. He deserves to sit on the right hand of the Father in glory. The reality of his Ascension gives us the courage to transcend ourselves and open us to divine contemplation. In Christ’s going ahead, we are assured that there is heaven for all of us humans, there is intimacy and at-homeness with the divine.

Basil’s right. Any desire for Jesus to live in a certain place with a single address is much like that desire of Peter, James, and John to domesticate the Transfiguration. But Jesus would have none of that so that "we can transcend ourselves."

The Ascension tells us that Jesus presents himself to us all at once in a multitude of ways: when we read and hear the Gospel, when we table with Him in our homes and churches, when we meet children, when we visit prisoners, when we put diapers on babies, dresses on women, and coats on men, when we stand for justice, when we work for peace, when we serve the poor, when we reach out to our enemies, when two or three of us come together and name Him. In other words: when we love one another.

And then there's this which Mark Harris announces: "The ascension proposes that Jesus Christ has taken a place above all the principalities and powers in the world. He has become that to which we turn in order to find meaning and fulfillment in living." In this sense the ascension is a key doctrine in these latter days. It is not one that super-patriots of any stripe, those who place their loyalties to nation about that of Christ, will like very much. If we turn to Paul, we see that he speaks of the "spirit of wisdom" by which to discern these things. If we use that spirit, we'll be led to proclaim Christ's absolute rule--not as king, but as one who feeds and sustains. Giving all other powers their due and their respect, in the final analysis we Christians cannot totally and without reservations embrace the flag, support the government, or pledge allegiance to the country for which they stand. Rather we end up having to say with Paul that Christ Jesus is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come." Perhaps the visual notion of the ascension is the movement of the Christ to the place at the head of the table as our great high priest, the head of the true state that is the Church, the Body of Christ of which Christians are all parts.

Image source: Ascension

April 29: Catherine of Siena, Teacher, 1380

On Tuesday, we remember and give thanks to God for the life and witness of St. Catherine of Siena, a remarkable woman. Pope Pius II canonized Catherine in 1461. Her feast day is April 29 in the new Roman calendar and April 30 in the traditional Roman calendar. This date is observed by various Christians including Anglicans and Lutherans. Pope Paul VI bestowed on her in 1970 the title of Doctor of the Church - making her the first woman, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, ever to receive this honor. In 1999 Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints. Saint Catherine is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American sorority, Theta Phi Alpha.

Everlasting God, who so kindled the flame of holy love in the Heart of blessed Catherine of Siena, as she meditated on the passion of your Son our Savior, that she devoted her life to the poor and the sick, and to the peace and unity of the Church: Grant that we also may share in the mystery of Christ's death, and rejoice in the revelation of His Glory, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Rogation Days

The calendar in my prayerbook tells me that April 28, 29, and 30 (that is, today, tomorrow, and Wednesday) are Rogation Days. And here's what the note on the backside of the calendar's April page tells me about Rogation Days:

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before thie festival of the Ascension of Our Lord have long been observed as days of prayer for the fruits of the earth and have been more recently expanded to include prayer for human labor and for peace. Congregations may observe the Rogation Days on these days or, preferably, on days days closer to seed time in their areas. The traditional observance consists of Holy Communion preceded by an outdoor procession. This procession may take place at the fields and other locations where labor is perfomed or out of doors on teh church grounds. At various stoppoing point or "stations,"
appropriate Scripture lessons and prayers may be read. Hymns may be sung during the procession. The Litany is begun as the procession enters the church. Petitions concerning the care and fruitfulness of the earth may be inserted into the Litany following the final set of petitions with the response "We implore you to hear us, good Lord." After the Kyries which conclude the Litany, a prayer for the Stewardship of Creation is said as the Prayer/Collect of the Day.

Now, to be quite honest, I have never participated in a Rogation Day Eucharist with Litany, but I'd surely like to, especially with a bunch of farmers, field laborers, gardeners, nursery workers, and anyone who likes to get his or hands soiled up from planting seeds and flowers. From what I know, it's still done in and around country parishes, especially in the mid-West. If anyone knows of a parish observing a Rogation Day in the area, let me know. For now, however, June and I will most likely go out by the garden one evening early this week and say evening prayers with special thanksgiving for God's gift of plants and trees around the house.

Here's a particularly fitting prayer for your Rogation Day; I found it at the conclusion of an exceptionally fine homily, "An Earth Day Sermon," by Steven Whitney, an Anglican professional environmentalist:

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to reflect on your creation, your covenant with all living things, and our obligation to be good stewards of the gifts you have provided. Help us to understand that each of us has an important role in Caring for Creation, by the choices we make and by the actions we take. Give us the wisdom to choose thoughtfully, and to act with care, in accordance with your will, and your love of this good Earth, our island home.

It's Still Eastertide!

Running my fingers across the calendar days of Eastertide (fifty in all, until we come to the Vigil of Pentecost on May 10th), I calculate that we're now thirty-five days into the Season of the Resurrection, still singing our Alleluias "for the Lord is risen indeed!" Lest anyone tend to disremember, here are two memorable celebrations of the Resurrection joy that I found on YouTube. The first is the Vigil celebrated at St. Gregory of Nyssa, Episcopal Church, San Francisco. The second, a tad less ecumenical, is recommended by Ben Witherington, who says, "Get on up with your Good Self, Kanye and Eminem ain't got nothin' on you." Take a gander, ye geese in the flock of the Risen Lord. Enjoy!

Easter Vigil
Nazbo Rap II

Image Source

Getting Ready for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2008

Again, I urge you to visit Journey with Jesus, a weekly essay on the Biblical lectionary by Daniel B. Clendenin. This commentary for this coming Sunday is titled "From Synagogues and Sanctuaries to Bars and Boardrooms: The Apostle Paul at the Areopagus." In addition to his lectionary essays, be sure also to visit the Book Reviews, Film Reviews, Poetry, and Music Reviews .

Today: Saint Mark the Evangelist

Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

To learn more about the "first Gospel," written by the one whom have come to call Mark, visit L. Michael White's The Gospel of Mark: A Story of Secrecy and Misunderstanding in The Story of the Storytellers. Image Source.

Andy attends the consecration of a new sanctuary

Last Sunday Andy, along with his Gerogia neighbors Gayle and Michael Folkerts, went to nearby Covington to be among friends at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd as their Bishop of the Atlanta Diocese consecrated their beautful new sanctuary, baptismal font, lecturn, pulpit, and altar. June, alas, didn't have the opportunity to attend because she and her daughter Becky were on their way home from Florida, having disembarked from their cruise ship earlier in the morning. Since spending more time in Georgia in the past two years, June and Andy have come to appreciate the parish priest, Fr. Tim Graham and many in the congregation. To show our appreciation, Andy commissioned the two icons that have been installed in the narthex. If you come to visit June and Andy in Georgia and are with them on a Wednesday or Sunday (when the Eucharist is offered), you'll be invited to come and see the church. To see more of the consecration, visit the slideshow!

Getting Ready for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 20, 2008

Be sure to visit Daniel B. Clendinen's Journey with Jesus as you prepare for this coming Sunday's lectionary readings. His commentary on the Sunday Gospel is especially helpful. It begins with this paragraph:

In our politically-correct culture, few opinions generate more hostility than ones like the words of Jesus from this week's readings: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John
14:6). Or consider Peter's words: "There is no other name [than Jesus] under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Truly, Jesus is a stone that causes us to stumble and a rock of offense (1 Peter 2:8).

Interested? Read the rest of his essay!

Image source: //www.crosswoodsgallery.com/sc_images/products/389_large_image.jpghttp://www.crosswoodsgallery.com/sc_images/products/389_large_image.jpg

Praying and Working for the Conservation of Creation

This morning I was privileged to meet Rusty Pritchard, editor of Creation Care: A Christian Environmental Quarterly (visit Your Family Blog for details). I've placed a link to this fine publication and urge you to subscribe. An article by Greg Pitchford, "The Restoration of All Things," is especially fine reading, a superior piece of work; when it becomes available online, I'll alert you to it.

My prayerbook sets aside every Tuesday as a day wherein we might pray for Creation and Providence; it includes this collect for the conservation of natural resources:

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth, you make us workers with you in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Our Parishes: Six New Links

This afternoon I thought it might be a good to add six links to our list of places to visit. Five of these links are to local churches to which friends in our daily-prayer group are communicants: First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, St. Thomas Lutheran Church, and Faith Lutheran Church in Lexington. In hopes that some friends from St. Mark Roman Catholic Church may soon take an interest in our community of daily pray-ers, I’m also placing the parish on our list. You may wish to look around. If you know of another parish we should include in our Praying Daily list of churches, let me know.

April 13: The Fourth Sunday of Easter

By way of a prefatory personal note, our trip to Haiti, scheduled from April 10-17, was canceled because there is considerable civil unrest in Port au Prince and elsewhere on the island. Our friends at Hospice St. Joseph and in Ranquitte, Haiti, strongly recommended on Wednesday, the night before our Thursday flight, that the risk of violence to visitors is too great to ignore. All of us--Pastors Ron Luckey and Barry Neece, along with Dr. Greg McMorrow--are saddened that we are not able to go at this time. We will try to visit Haiti sometime in July or August. Please pray for the people of Haiti that in spite of their poverty, they may receive food to nourish their bodies and the Bread of Life to give them hope and heal their spirits.

I also encourage you to visit Journey with Jesus; Daniel B. Clendinen's commentary on the lectionary readings for this coming Sunday are especially trenchant and on the mark, especially as you become aware of the poverty in Haiti.

Finally this "afterward": my wife June, thinking that I'd be away for the week, had months ago arranged to go on a cruise with her daughter Becky, a mother-daughter outing which I hope will be a wonderfully memorable time for them. Their cruise means, however, that I will be in Georgia by myself for the week. During this time I've decided to enter into a quiet retreat, cultivating and wrapping myself in a good bit on longed-for silence, self-reflection, and prayer. I'm asking therefore that you include me in your intercessions, asking God to bless me with a strong sense of His presence and love so that I may discern what kind of a future God has in store for me as a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

April 9: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today is the anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death.

On this day in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken by his Nazi captors from his cell where he had been imprisoned for treason, and was hanged. Bonhoeffer was a remarkable man -- a brilliant theologian and extraordinary pastor. From the first days of the Nazi accession to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer was involved in protests against the regime, and especially its policies of anti-Semitism.

He was a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church -- the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis -- and worked tirelessly for a peaceful end to the Second World War. After an attempt on Hitler's life failed, documents were discovered which revealed that Bonhoeffer had played a minor role in the assassination conspiracy. He was duly arrested, and spent the remainder of his life in various prison camps, including the infamous Buchenwald.

While imprisoned, he continued to write, to teach, to minister to other inmates, and even to preach and administer the sacraments, as he was allowed. As he was taken to the scaffold on April 9, 1945, he turned to one of his fellow prisoners and said: "This is the end. For me, the beginning of life."


For more information about this life and writings, visit The International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society.

Prayer

Gracious Lord, in every age you have sent men and women who have given their lives for the message of your love. Inspire us with the memory of those martyrs
for the Gospel like your servant Dietrich, whose faithfulness led them in the way of the cross, and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives to your son's victory over sin and death; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Source: Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Linglestown, Pennsylvania, USA

April 4: Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Although the Church, with our nation, remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 15, the date of his birth in 1929, this year many churches also commemorate the fortieth anniversary of his death on April 4, 1968. In your remembrance of Dr. King as Martyr and Renewer of Society, you may wish to pray this prayer:

Almighty God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and that we may reverently use our freedom, help us, like your servant Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your name; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Make a Weekly Pilgrimage to Journey for Jesus

Every week on Monday, Daniel B. Clendinen provides commentary at Journey for Jesus on matters of faith and life, often writing about the lectionary readings appointed for the coming Sunday.

Those of you who make the psalms the centerpiece of your prayer life will appreciate this week's offerng, a solid reflection on what happens in the Psalms.

One of the great "extras" that Daniel B. Clendinen continually provides is his top-of-the-page "Think about it," a quotation often so good that I copy it into my chapbook. Here's one that I found this morning:

Those who once delighted in fornication now embrace chastity alone...we who once took most pleasure in accumulating wealth and property now...share with everyone in need; we who hated and killed one another and would not associate with men of different tribes because of their different customs now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them and pray for our enemies. — Justin Martyr

Hildegard of Bingen's Hymn, "About the Blessed Virgin Mary"

During our Evening Prayers last night as we began our commemoration of the Annunciation of our Lord, my wife June read this beautiful hymn, written by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179); it so wonderfully announces what happened at the Annunciation (and, of course, the Incarnation) that we thought you might like to sing it (however, you might):

Greetings, noble, glorious and chaste beloved.

You image of purity,

You ground of sanctity,

Pleasing to God.

Certainly a heavenly infusion

Pour into you,

Because the highest Word

In you took on flesh.

You are the radiant white lily

Whom God perceived

Prior to all creation.

You the most beautiful and loveliest;

God so delighted in you that he pressed within you

The passionate embrace of his own heat,

So that his own son was suckled by you.

Truly has your body contained joy,

Since without you every heavenly harmony sounded,

Because, Virgin, you carried the son of God,

When your own purity became illuminated in God.

Your womb contained joy

Just as the grass was infused with

Greenness, when the dew sank into it;

Therefore Mother everything joyful has been

Created through you.

Now let the whole Church, dawning rose-red, break the day in joy

And sound in harmony because of the loveliest Virgin

And most praiseworthy Mary, Mother of God. Amen.

Our prayerbook cites Medieval Women's Visionary Literature by E. A. Petroff (Oxford UP, 1986) as the source.

Image source: Heather Williams Durka, Icons and Sacred Images.