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A WORD FROM THE RECTOR
Greetings in the Name
of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Beginning
on Monday, 2 June, I will act as one of two supervisors of the Bishop’s Mission
Corps (BMC) Forty Day Experience. The
other supervisor will be Fr. Jeff Reich of St. John’s, Laurel (lately of St.
John’s, Aberdeen), and we’ll be working with one of the graduates from last
year’s program (C. J. Meaders), who will act as abbot
for the Summer corps.
The BMC is an initiative which
arose out of the August 2005 strategic vision statement for the Diocese. It is designed to allow 19 to 26 year-olds to
explore spirituality in an intentional community, to allow a deep, rich vein of
life and wisdom from the Tradition of the Church to be made available to young
people today. In the Summer
program, the participants live at the
This year there are five
people signed up for the Summer program: three men and two women, all in their early
twenties; four Episcopalians and one Methodist.
The forty day period will focus on spiritual growth under the Rule of
St. Benedict. A detailed curriculum of
instruction will include study in depth in Scripture, worship training
(including liturgical chant), and broad areas of theology, all designed to
allow the corps members to explore how God is calling them into further
service.
As these young people explore
their growth in Christ, you may well ask, “How does Benedictine spirituality
relate to my own life of faith?” In
truth, Anglican spirituality is grounded very much in the Benedictine ideal, an
ideal that can be followed “in the world” and not just in a monastic
community. Nine interconnected themes
are found in Benedictine spirituality:
Nine interconnected themes:
a) 3
vows of The Rule b) 3
characteristics c) 3 themes
stability simplicity work
fidelity yearning study
obedience resonance prayer
The three vows:
Stability: accepting
limitations within one’s community.
Fidelity: commitment to following after
God’s will.
Obedience: learning
to “listen” and accept God’s will.
Implications for Anglicans today:
Stability:
Happiness in accepting this place, this time as a
given.
God is not to be found elsewhere, but here.
Fidelity:
Simplifying our life to
get rid of that which gets in God’s way.
Learning to be
where one is, yearning for God.
Obedience:
Learning inner freedom
through outward obedience.
Submitting to authority; opening oneself to God’s
voice.
The Rule of St. Benedict
(which arose in the sixth century), was designed to allow for a balanced life
in a monastic vocation, but can also allow for balance in every life. The themes of work, study, and prayer can apply
in each of our lives: work as prayer
(“To labor is to pray” when all we do is in acknowledgement of God’s gifts and
glory); study to allow us to better know the content of our faith, and to
“listen” for divine guidance in God’s Holy Word; and prayer as a way of life,
allowing God the inner space in which to speak to us.
How can you incorporate
Benedict’s insights into your own life?
Perhaps the easiest place to start is in study, under the practice of lectio divina
(“divine instruction”). This involves
being intentional about how you approach the Bible.
a) Choose the time of day
when you are most alert, least distracted, most relaxed (“prime time”).
b) Choose a place that is
quiet and restful.
c) Lectio (instruction through reading): Select a passage of Scripture or some other
reading or devotional aid:
i) a
devotional booklet
ii) an
icon
iii) The Bible in course (lectio continua, “continuous instruction”) or
by Lectionary.
d) Ruminatio (“chewing”): “Chew” the selected passage:
i) Read
it several times; savor each word.
ii) Record insights, if
recording is helpful.
e) Oratio (“prayer”):
i) Dialogue with God: Listen as well as talk.
f) Contemplatio
(“contemplation”): Silence, stillness, willingness to wait upon
the Lord.
i) “Be still and know that I
am God” (Ps. 46.11).
Whether or not you find a
Benedictine approach to spiritual growth helpful is not the point; the point is
to stay focused on growth in the Lord, in faith, and in knowledge of your
faith. God is focused always on us, on
our salvation, and calls us ever to turn to Him. Regardless of method, let us each turn to
focus on relationship, saying with
Yours in Christ Jesus,
June
Vestry Highlights
VESTRY HIGHLIGHTS
Treasurer’s
Report: $13,
197.20 in the operating account; $15,880.49 in capital, plus
$15,350.00 in pledges.
Project 20/20: The parking lot islands will
now be landscaped. Paving will resume
when the ground is dry enough. After paving is complete the playground
will be finished.
(Fencing will be iron at the entrance, and coated
cyclone
on other sides.)
Church Annex: The former Dobson House is
complete, and will be dedicated when paving is complete. Pending dedication, the annex will be known
as the
“Parish
House”. Uses will include additional Sunday School space and
community
meeting space.
Bishop’s
Grace Notes
Holy
Days: A quick look at a Church
calendar for June reveals a lot of red and a lot of white. Red days commemorate martyrs. These include those killed under Roman
persecution (2 June, the Martyrs of Lyons, ca. A.D. 177; 28 June,
Irenaeus of Lyon, d. 202; and Sts. Peter and Paul, 30
June, transferred from 29 June, both killed under Nero, ca. A.D. 64–66);
those killed for taking the faith into a new territory (5 June, St. Boniface,
d. 754; Barnabas the Apostle, 11 June); and those who died witnessing to the
faith in their own land (3 June, the Martyrs of Uganda, d. 1886; and 18 June,
Bernard Mizeki, d. 1896). The word “martyr” is Greek for
“witness”. Those who
die for the Lord witness to the faith, to the truth that Jesus is Lord; that He
is the Way to salvation.
White days commemorate saints
who were not martyred. In June these
include notable monastics (Columba of Iona, Norbert
of Magdeburg, and Etheldreda of Ely), teachers and
theologians (Antony of Padua, Basil of Caesarea, and Cyril of Alexandria). White days also include “high” feasts, even if
the saint was martyred (Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 24 June).
It is our practice to transfer
an important feast to our Wednesday eucharist,
if the feast falls in the same week and the Wednesday itself is not a
feast. (A day on which no feast falls is
called a “feria”.)
At Morning Prayer the feasts are observed as they fall, with collects
and readings provided either in the prayer book (for high feasts) or in Lesser
Feasts and Fasts, which is an official companion to the prayer book.
Each one of the saints we
remember has much to teach us. If you
are interested in more information about the life and witness of these
spiritual giants, a good source is the hagiographies written by James Kiefer,
which can be found at the Daily Office website maintained by the Mission of St.
Clare, http://www.missionstclare.com/english.
Music:
At Mass in the Grass on 1 June we’ll work with songs that are
easy to sing with guitar accompaniment.
The name of this festival does beg the question, however, of why the
service is called “Mass”. “Mass” is the
term used more commonly in the Roman Church to refer to the service of Holy
Eucharist, but as specified in our own Catechism (BCP 859), the
term Mass is fine in Episcopalian usage.
The term comes from the end of the service, where we say “Go in peace to
love and serve the Lord,” or a similar phrase.
In the traditional service in Latin the service ended with the phrase, “Ite, missa est,” which means “Depart, the service is ended.”
You’ll note that the choir is
singing anthems from With One Voice.
This is a 1992 hymnal supplement adopted by the
The hymns this month are
pretty much all familiar. One which you
might not have sung recently is 565, He who would valiant be, with words
by Pearcy Dearmer. Dearmer paraphrases
sentiment from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, with the hymn set to the
tune “Monk’s Gate,” by R. Vaughan Williams, an adaptation of a