Early Dawn

It was still dark as I arrived at the parish this morning. There is a wonderful stillness when you enter the church in the early morning, a gentle sense of hospitality surrounds you as you move from the outer door toward the chancel. You can feel almost a mysterious invitation to come, pray, sit awhile. The altar guild, who had feverishly worked so hard yesterday making sure that everything was just so for the Easter liturgies were now gone, everything is readied. I don't think I ever remember the church looking so beautiful and so inviting to guest and parishioner. The bird's song is beginning to break the stillness, announcing the first Allelulia of the new day. Soon people will begin to gather, most likely it will be a larger congregation than most Sundays: visitors from out of town, grandparents or children visiting, occasional worshipers will make their way in through the narthex as they did at the time of the celebration of our Lord's birth. Many will have come, expecting to hear some good news, and yet they were not present on Good Friday, they don't really know the story of their own rebirth into God that took place on a Cross near the city. It is only when they understand the profound terror and grief that took place on that day that they will begin to understand the fresh newness and power of the resurrection to transform mortal lives. I can only pray that they will leave with just a glimpse of renewed hope, faith, and love; that they will awaken to the beauty around them, that they will begin to know a God who without partiality embraces even the most unloved. May this Easter fill us with eternal joy!

Easter Day

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

BCP, page 222

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 55

On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren

For bedding let this suffice:
a mattress, a blanket, a coverlet and a pillow.

The beds, moreover, are to be examined frequently by the Abbot,
to see if any private property be found in them.
If anyone should be found to have something
that he did not receive from the Abbot,
let him undergo the most severe discipline.

And in order that this vice of private ownership
may be cut out by the roots,
the Abbot should provide all the necessary articles:
cowl, tunic, stockings, shoes, belt,
knife, stylus, needle, handkerchief, writing tablets;
that all pretext of need may be taken away.
Yet the Abbot should always keep in mind
the sentence from the Acts of the Apostles
that "distribution was made to each according as anyone had need" (Acts 4:35).
In this manner, therefore,
let the Abbot consider weaknesses of the needy
and not the ill-will of the envious.
But in all his decisions
let him think about the retribution of God.

The Use of Incense in the Liturgy

Incense has been part of Christian worship since the beginning; today, it is carried in procession, and is employed to prepare both priest and people for worship, at the reading of the Gospel and the preparation of the altar for celebration of the Eucharist. At the moment of offertory, the people along with their gifts of bread, wine, and financial offering for the mission and ministry of the church are incensed signify that they have been set apart for a holy use.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, said that whenever the Holy Eucharist is celebrated Christ comes to a place where he already is: the Body of Christ is given to the Body of Christ. Holy Communion is given to the Holy People of God. It is in and through the eucharist that the Christian comes to recognize him or herself, not simply as an individual, but a participant in the redeemed community.

Preparing for the Great Vigil

Dear friends in Christ, On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus Christ passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer. For this is the Passover of the Lord, in which, by hearing his Word and celebrating his Sacraments, we share in his victory over death.

Saint Augustine of Hippo called the Easter Vigil the "mother of all holy vigils". The sights, sounds, smells, texture and tastes of the vigil are a vibrant celebration of the Resurrection coveying that deep sense of movement - from the tomb of Holy Saturday to the Garden of Easter, movement from darkness to light, from death to life. It is the turning point, the pivotal moment.

Paula Bailey quoted in the TABLET, 7 April 07

The liturgies of the Triduum, the Great Paschal Days, are not for the faint-hearted. Only the most committed parishioners will gather for these sacred moments, moving from passion, death, to resurrection. These days are central to our faith for they express the saving acts of God through Christ. May our alleluias that ring forth from the tomb continue to brighten our days that we may experience the utter joy that reaches to heaven.

Who are we?

To be a Christian is to be signed with the mark of the cross, the baptismal mark of incorporation into Christ. To bear the cross in solidarity with Jesus is not to endure some mysterious kind of suffering which is thrust upon us, still less is it a way of describing an interior psychological attitude or orientation. It is a path freely chosen, the social reality of committing oneself in this world to the values of the world to come. This is clearly a call to lose one's life for the sake of the gospel. It is not a call to imitate Jesus as a figure form the past but to follow the risen and present Jesus today. Christians do not maintain the memory of a dead Jesus: grieving over the body was prevented by the very large stone which was rolled away from the tomb before the grief could get under way. To respond to the cross is to follow, to share; it is to be a disciple. It is to respond to a new and amazing relationship of co-operation with God which is utterly different from the relationship of slave to master. We are sealed not as slaves but as children, as inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

Kenneth Leech

Awaiting Resurrection

This is our Day of rest, the true Sabbath. Christ entered into His rest, and so do we. It brings us, in figure, through the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham's bosom. We have had enough of weariness and dreariness, and listlessness, and sorrow, and remorse. We have had enough of this troublesome world. We have had enough of its noise and din. Noise is its best music. But now there is stillness, and it is a stillness that speaks. We know how strange the feeling is of perfect silence after continued sound. Such is our blessedness now. Calm and serene days have begun; and Christ is heard in them, and His still small voice, because the world speaks not. Let us only put off the world, and we put on Christ. The receding from one is an approach to the other. We have now for some weeks been trying, through His grace, to unclothe ourselves of earthly wants and desires. May that unclothing be unto us a clothing upon of things invisible and imperishable. May we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, season after season, year after year ...
John Henry Newman

Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life, who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

BCP, page 283

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 55

On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren

Let clothing be given to the brethren
according to the nature of the place in which they dwell
and its climate; for in cold regions more will be needed,
and in warm regions less. This is to be taken
into consideration, therefore, by the Abbot.

We believe, however, that in ordinary places
the following dress is sufficient for each monk:
a tunic, a cowl (thick and woolly for winter,
thin or worn for summer), a scapular for work,
stockings and shoes to cover the feet.

The monks should not complain
about the color or the coarseness of any of these things,
but be content with what can be found
in the district where they live and
can be purchased cheaply.

The Abbot shall see to the size of the garments,
that they be not too short for those who wear them,
but of the proper fit.

Let those who receive new clothes
always give back the old ones at once,
to be put away in the wardrobe for the poor.
For it is sufficient if a monk has two tunics and two cowls,
to allow for night wear and for the washing of
these garments; more than that is superfluity and
should be taken away.
Let them return their stockings also and anything
else that is old when they receive new ones.

Those who are sent on a journey
shall receive drawers from the wardrobe,
which they shall wash and restore on their return.
And let their cowls and tunics be somewhat better
than what they usually wear.
These they shall receive from the wardrobe
when they set out on a journey,
and restore when they return.

Reflection on the Cross, Salvation, and Community

One of the great blessings of the Great Paschal Days is the recognition of our unity within the Body of Christ, the deep intimacy that comes in knowing that our Lord died for us and has given us life through the power of the cross. We are drawn together as a believing community in love and witness. Unlike any other time of the year, the Triduum brings God's family together to remember, to celebrate, and to support one another in this time of solemn and ecstatic joy.

Anglicanism and Saint Benedict

Recently, someone asked about why the daily readings from the Rule of Saint Benedict are presently on the blog. After all what does the founder of monasticism have to do with the Episcopal Church?

Benedict of Nursia, the Abbot of Monte Cassino, in 540 has greatly influenced the Anglican Communion. By its very nature, Anglicanism, with its emphasis on corporate worship, the ongoing recitation of the psalter in the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, the prayerful and reflective reading of Holy Scripture, and the necessity of personal prayer and discipline are grounded in Benedictine spirituality. The parish system, in most provinces of the Anglican world evolved from the monastic community which gathered tenant farmers around it.

Historically, our church is rooted in the monastic life of English Christianity. Those who influenced the faith and spiritual life, in the early centuries were Ninian, who brought a missionary form of monasticism to England before the end fo the fourth century, Germanus, Patrick, Columba, Augustine of Canterbury, etc.

The Reformation in the sixteenth century did not eliminate the essentials of the Benedictine spirit. With the Book of Common Prayer, 1549 and following, the influence of the Benedictine life became accessible. It is extremely important to recognize that the English Reformation had no towering reformer, like Luther or Calvin, not a theological doctrine or a moral code, but a book of liturgical prayer. In this fundamental respect alone, the Anglican Reformation had a clearly Benedictine spirit.

Dom Robert Hale, O.S.B. Cam.

Good Friday

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We glory in your cross, O Lord,
and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;
for by virtue of your cross
joy has come to the whole world.

Collect of the Day, BCP, 276
Anthem 1, BCP, 281

The Rule of Saint Benedict

Whether a Monastic Should Receive Letters or Anything Else

On no account shall a monastic be allowed
to receive letters, blessed tokens or any little gift whatsoever
from parents or anyone else,
or from his brothers,
or to give the same,
without the Abbot's permission.
But if anything is sent him even by his parents,
let him not presume to take it
before it has been shown to the Abbot.
And it shall be in the Abbot's power to decide
to whom it shall be given,
if he allows it to be received;
and the brother to whom it was sent should not be grieved,
lest occasion be given to the devil.

Should anyone presume to act otherwise,
let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.

Love III

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

George Herbert

Maundy Thursday

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one god, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect of the Day
BCP, page 274

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 53

On the Reception of Guests

Let there be a separate kitchen for the Abbot and guests,
that the brethren may not be disturbed when guests,
who are never lacking in a monastery,
arrive at irregular hours.
Let two brethren capable of filling the office well
be appointed for a year to have charge of this kitchen.
Let them be given such help as they need,
that they may serve without murmuring.
And on the other hand,
when they have less to occupy them,
let them go out to whatever work is assigned them.

And not only in their case
but in all the offices of the monastery
let this arrangement be observed,
that when help is needed it be supplied,
and again when the workers are unoccupied
they do whatever they are bidden.

The guest house also shall be assigned to a brother
whose soul is possessed by the fear of God.
Let there be a sufficient number of beds made up in it;
and let the house of God be managed by prudent men
and in a prudent manner.

On no account shall anyone who is not so ordered
associate or converse with guests.
But if he should meet them or see them,
let him greet them humbly, as we have said,
ask their blessing and pass on,
saying that he is not allowed to converse with a guest.

Preparing to enter the Triduum

As we stand at the threshold of the Triduum, the Great Paschal Days of our Salvation: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (the Great Vigil of Easter) there are somethings to hold in mind:

Many people alienated from the Church are unable to bare their souls before they experience acceptance, welcome, and love.

Sins are Christians' failure to respond to Christ's call to holiness, their infidelity to their baptismal pledge as members of the covenant community, and obstacles to the Church's mission of signing salvation to all the world. It can no longer be enough for the sinner to feel forgiveness by God; penitents must experience and strive for reconciliation with their brothers and sisters as sign of reconciliation with God.

The need for reconciliation is for the believer, Christ's challenge to his Church to be converted, and the support that is needed to meet that challenge is present in his Spirit. In every case, the power of that Spirit, reconciling us to God in Christ, offers both challenge and support. The future of a reconciling community is ours to shape.

The Church ... must work for global peace and justice as well as respond to individual's needs for healing. It must struggle to eradicate all forms of division and discrimination and transform sinful social structures - within itself first - as well as strengthen individuals to bear up under oppression and resist sinful influences. Community rituals must be a prophetic protest against social evils and a means of sensitizing participants to the part they play in causing, perpetuating, or tolerating such evils.

Sacramental revitalization requires a sense of the Church as a reconciled and reconciling community, a community in which all members are coresponsible for mission and worship.

from James Dallen's The Reconciling Community

The Gospel for Holy Wednesday

Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me," The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. John 13:21-32

who is betraying our Lord;
is it one of them,
those who sit close,
who enjoy his friendship,
who dips his morsal
into the wine?

who is betraying our Lord;
is it one of those,
who is so very faithful,
who say their prayers,
who eats the Bread
and drinks the Wine?

who is betraying our Lord;
is it truly me;
how does he know,
who told him?

failing to follow,
I succeed in denial.

you are unworthy to come
under my roof.

Wednesday in Holy Week

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect of the Day
BCP, page 220

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 53

On the Reception of Guests

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,
for He is going to say,
"I came as a guest, and you received Me" (Matt. 25:35).
And to all let due honor be shown,
especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims.

As soon as a guest is announced, therefore,
let the Superior or the brethren meet him
with all charitable service.
And first of all let them pray together,
and then exchange the kiss of peace.
For the kiss of peace should not be offered
until after the prayers have been said,
on account of the devil's deceptions.

In the salutation of all guests, whether arriving
or departing, let all humility be shown.
Let the head be bowed
or the whole body prostrated on the ground
in adoration of Christ, who indeed is received
in their persons.

After the guests have been received
and taken to prayer, let the Superior or someone
appointed by him sit with them.
Let the divine law be read before the guest
for his edification, and then let all
kindness be shown him.
The Superior shall break his fast for the sake of a guest,
unless it happens to be a principal fast day
which may not be violated.
The brethren, however, shall observe the customary fasts.
Let the Abbot give the guests water for their hands;
and let both Abbot and community
wash the feet of all guests.
After the washing of the feet let them say this verse:
"We have received Your mercy, O God,
in the midst of Your temple" (Ps.47:10).

In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims
the greatest care and solicitude should be shown,
because it is especially in them that Christ is received;
for as far as the rich are concerned,
the very fear which they inspire
wins respect for them.