The Feast of St Andrew the Apostle

I will glory in the Lord, let the humble hear and rejoice.  Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord, let us exalt his Name together. Psalm 34:2-3


St Andrew and St Joseph  and many othersare kind of back seat saints. Andrew's claim to fame is that he brought his brother Peter to Jesus and the rest, as they say, is history. He also provided the "two small fish" without which Jesus could not have fed the thousands of hungry people. Back seat saints are not the ones who stand in the limelight, but the ones who provide the support and underpinnings. Let the humble hear and rejoice. 

Monday Evening Prayer

I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep, for only in you, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8

Monday

we give thanks

 to God for your 

work of faith, and 

labor of love, 

and steadfastness 

of hope

I Thessalonians 1:2

A new year: I Advent

O Lord our God, in this new year, may we be drawn into your humanity that, through it, you may draw us into your divinity.

Eve of I Advent

O Lord my God,...

you are clothed with majesty and splendor. You wrap yourself with light as with a cloak Psalm 104:1-2

Last Saturday morning

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures; Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation  for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven... 

3 of 3, on the cusp of Advent

Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down. 

Psalm 144:5

2 of 3

O Lord, what are we that you should care for us? ... our days are like a passing shadow. Psalm 144:1-2

1 of 3

O Lord, what are we that you should care for us, mere mortals that you should think of us? Psalm 144:1

Saturday a little later

If I forget you, 

O Jerusalem, 

let my 

right hand 

forget its skill 

if I do not set Jerusalem above my 

highest joy.


Psalm 137: 5, 6b 

The commemoration of Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii 1864, 18885

The sea is his 

for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land. The Venite

Friday evening

Let my prayer be set forth in your sight like incense, 

the lifting up of my hands 

as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141: 2

Friday

I tell you, 

if these were silent, 

the stones 

would 

shout out. 

Luke 19:40 

Thanksgiving Day

Gracious Father we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us stewards of your great bounty thy great bounty...

Wednesday sunset

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.... Ephesians 1:3

Wednesday

In all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose 

The Collect for Grace at Morning Prayer 

Clement, third Bishop of Rome and, by tradition, a disciple of the Apostles, c. 100

Our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2

The Feast of CS Lewis, Apologist and Spiritual Writer, 1898-1963

Remember me, O Lord, with the favor you have for your people and visit us with your saving help. Psalm 106:4

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Stapes Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old like. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus...  Collect for the Feast of CS Lewis 

St Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 1093

The Lord is King, let the  earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad.  Psalm 97:1

Monday, the Feast of Francis Asbury (1816) and George Whitefield (1770), Evangelists

Your love, O Lord, forever will I sing; from age to age my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.                      Psalm 89:1

Sunday Vespers

The heaven’s declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork One day tells its tale to another and one night imparts knowledge to another. Although they have no sound or language, and their voices are not heard, their sound has gone out into all the lands and its message to the end of the earth. Psalm, 19:1-4

The 25th Sunday (of 26!) after Pentecost

I will 

stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what God  will answer me. Habakkuk 2:1

Saturday

We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. O, that today you would hearken to his voice!      The Venite

Friday night

We will tell of your kindness early in the morning, O Lord, and of your faithfulness in the night season. Antiphon: Psalm 92

The Feast of Charles Simeon, priest, 1759-1836

Grant us in  all things to see your hand... that.. we may walk with Christ in all simplicity and serve you with a quiet and contented mind. Collect for The Feast of Charles SImeon 

I would certainly have chosen a more bucolic graphic for this quote but for two things: One was the quote from today’s Gospel (Luke 9:8) which really struck me: “The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  Which surely calls us not to la-de-da walking down some country lane or complacency or innocence verging on stupidity, but to using all our faculties to be as astute as are the “children of this generation.” 

Then yesterday at mass Jim Kellett said that Charles Simeon faced a lot of persecution and prejudice in his ministry. This is not mentioned in his little vitae in Holy Women, Holy Men, which makes it seem a whole lot easier for him to have been true to today’s quote. So I looked it up on the internet and found the following quote:  

 “In April, 1831, Charles Simeon was 71 years old. He had been the rector of Trinity Church, Cambridge, England, for 49 years. He was asked one afternoon by his friend, Joseph Gurney, how he had surmounted persecution and outlasted all the great prejudice against him in his 49-year ministry. He said to Gurney, "My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ's sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory" (H.C.G. Moule, Charles Simeon, London: InterVarsity, 1948, 155f.). (anglican library.org) 

And so the quote from Charles Simeon’s collect called forth a cityscape rather than a country lane. 

Nowhere and in no age is it easy in all things to see your hand... that.. we may walk with Christ in all simplicity and serve you with a quiet and contented mind.  Nor is it easy to be astute as the faithless are!  But we have companions and examples in this world and in the church triumphant. Somewhere there’s a prayer that “we may follow the saints in all virtuous and godly living.”  And as they say, All God’s children said A-MEN! 

                           Charles Simeon 1759-1836

Thursday night

whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance  James 1: 2-3

St Martin, onetime soldier and Bishop of Tours, France , d.397 and Veteran's Day

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 

He leads me beside still waters

He revives my soul... Psalm 23 1, 2b, 3a

Legend has it that while still a catechumen Martin was approached by a beggar who asked him for alms in the name of Christ. A soldier in the Roman army, Martin cut off part of his military cloak with his sword and gave it to the beggar. The next night Christ appeared to Martin in a dream clothed in half a cloak.  (From the book Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints)  Happy Veteran's Day

Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome as the Western Roman Empire crumbled, d. 461

   

Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon 
my path.
    Psalm 119:105

Tuesday

We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord, and the wonderful works he has done.       

        Psalm 78:4

Monday

Behold and tend this vine 

Psalm 80:14

The 24th (of 26!) Sunday after Pentecost

  

 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the whole earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; Proclaim the good news of his salvation form day to day. Psalm 96:1-2

Saturday evening

What if I had not believed that I should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? Psalm 27:17

Saturday

God does not judge by what the eye sees but in truth and equity.

     Psalm 75: Antiphon 

Friday vespers

You will guide me by your counsel and 

 afterward receive me with glory. 

     Antiphon: Psalm 73

Friday

...now bless the God of all who everywhere works great wonders, who fosters our growth from birth...Now may he give us gladness of heart, and may there be peace in our days. 

Ecclesiasticus 50:22-23

Thursday evening

      You make the dawn and the dusk 
           to sing for joy. Psalm 65:8

Thursday

... you are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence since I was young. I have been sustained by you ever since I was born, from my mother’s womb you have been my strength.  Psalm 71:5-6a

vesper light, Wednesday

...now as we come to the setting of the sun and our eyes behold the vesper light we sing your praises, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, a O Son of God, of giver of life and to be gloried through all the worlds.

Feast of Richard Hooker, Anglican theologian and priset. d.1600

In God’s time shall the righteous flourish, there shall be abundance of peace til the moon shall be no more. Psalm 72:7

The collect for Richard Hooker is perfect for the day after this election. Or any election  “in the day of bitter controversy.” .... “Grant that we may always maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.” 

Tuesday

Hear my cry, O God, For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 

                 Psalm 62:1a, 3

November Saints and Seasons Article

                                                  

Saints and Seasons

It was simply miraculous watching as the 33 Chilean miners were extracted out of the earth. I waited anxiously throughout the afternoon and evening until the first man was brought up. Bursting forth from the Phoenix 2 rescue capsule, each was such an individual, yet each was one of “the 33.” 

I watched in amazement each time the capsule jerkily appeared a half mile under the earth, surely “one giant step for mankind” and then left to cheers, carrying another man up, up to the surface of God’s earth. Long minutes later it reappeared to more cheers. I watched and wept until the fourth man had been rescued and then went to bed, and began my own little vigil again in the morning with #13.

Throughout those two days, and since, I wondered at their first agonizing 17 days, not knowing if anyone knew they were there alive, whether their meager food would last, and then the long, excruciating time waiting for rescue in the dark, hot, humid earth. Would it work? I thought of being lifted up in the Phoenix capsule, totally helpless and dependent on their rescuers. And I wondered what the days ahead would hold for them - and the nights. 

One man was interviewed over the course of those long hours had been involved in a mining disaster this year in the US. In that one, miners were lost and he spoke with heart wrenching honesty and utter simplicity about his feelings of loss and numbness. Yes, surely some of them would have Post Traumatic Stress, said a psychologist. How could they not? But others would experience Post Traumatic Growth. I marveled as I listened to Mario Sepulveda being interviewed just hours after his rescue. So exuberant at his release from the grave, he sat quietly holding his wife’s hand. I missed the question, but I came in on: “No. I don’t think God tests us. But I am glad it happened to me because it was time to make changes in my life.” 

With nowhere else to turn we often turn toward our God, both our Source and our Goal, and find that His promise is ever true: “I will give you the treasures of darkness, and riches hidden in secret places.” (Isaiah 45:3) Whether figuratively or quite literally, our times of greatest stress and loss and danger can give us treasures that we have never sought or imagined, invaluable treasures that we can then share with others; the knowledge of God’s unfailing presence with us in the darkness. As one of the 33 rescued miners said “There were 34 of us down there because God never left us.”  He never will. 

Louise Buck 

November 2010 

@ Saints and Seasons is a monthly (except for August) column written by

Louise Buck for "The Gospel at Saint David's,"

 the monthly magazine of St David's Episcopal Church,

 5050 Milton St, San Diego CA.

All Saints Day

        The Lord is glorious in his saints, 
                Come, let us adore him. 

         All Saints Day Antiphon on the Venite