The last day of February, 2011

It's the the beginning of a new week and a new day and so it begins as it has for centuries of  monastics (and Episcopalians) with the Invitiroy at Morning Prayer.

Lord, open our lips.

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise. 

Sunday

God makes the woman of a childless house the joyful mother of children.      Psalm 113:8

Sunday Evening

Light shines in the darkness for the upright. Psalm 12:4a  

May no clouds of this mortal life hide from us the light of that love which is immortal and which shines on us in your Son Jesus Christ.     

                   Collect for the Eighth SUnday after the Epiphany, adapted 

Saturday Vespers

You send forth your Spirit and we are created, and so you renew the face of the earth. 104:31 

Saturday

Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew... Storm clouds and thunderbolts glorify the Lord, praise him and highly exalt him forever.  Saturday Canticle

Friday Vespers

                                                              
                                                        


Let my prayer be 
set forth 
in your 
sight as incense, 
the lifting up 
of my hands 
as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

Friday

we are...

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.  

         II Corinthians 4:10

Vespers of St Matthias

One day tells its tale to another, 

     and one night imparts knowledge to another.

Although they have no words or language, 

     and their voices are not heard,

Their sound has gone out to all lands

     and their message to the ends of the earth. 

                       Psalm 19:2-4

Although they have no sounds or language and their voices are not heard,Their sound has gone ou to all ands

and their message to the ends of the earth. Psalm 19:2-4

St Matthias, Apostle

                                                       St Matthias  Church, Budapest 

The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart. I Samuel 16:7

Almighty God, who in the place of Judas chose your faithful servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve.; Grant that your church, being delivered from false apostles, may always be governed by faithful and true pastors

Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna, 156

Great peace have they who love your law, 

for them 

there is no stumbling block.  

Psalm 119:165

Even though, as my friend Earl used to say, “Shit happens. A LOT.”  And it sure does.  It doesn’t mean that all is hunkey dorey There’s a famine and Naomi, her  husband and 2 sons go to Moab to survive. There her sons marry and then her husband and both sons die. She says to her daughters-in-law “Call me not longer Naomi, but Mara (meaning bitter) for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.” (Ruth 1:20) She urges her 2 daughters-in-law to return to their father’s house, which makes sense, and Orpah does, but Ruth refuses to leave, saying  “Where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, your God will be my God, Where you die I will die...” And so,  Naomi “said no more to her” and they continued on together to Naomi’s  own country where they glean the left-overs of the wheat harvest to stay alive. Instead of giving up in despair they “keep on keeping on” as recovery folk would say. 


Then there is Polycarp, an old man  whom I love. At the end of his long life,  he is asked to curse Christ or die. Polycarp makes the amazing reply: “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”  


“Great peace have they who love your law...” 

Tuesday Evening Prayer

Our help 

is in the Name 

of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 

                                       Psalm 124: 8

Tuesday

I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth.       Psalm 121:1-2

The

 Corizzo Gorge Wilderness in east county and the amazing wooden trestle crossing the gorge, built by the SD&AE, 

The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad. 

Monday, a new week

Remember me, O Lord, with the favor you have for your people.... That I may...be glad with the the gladness of your people, that I may glory in your inheritance. 

Psalm, 106:4-5

            The first time I published this I put glory IN  your inheritance, then I became aware that it is that we may glory WITH your inheritance which I like a lot better!  Words matter... 

The Seventh Sunday after he Epiphany

Give thanks to the Lord 

for he is good, 

his mercy endures forever. 

         Psalm 118:1

Saturday

     

There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into this world, so we will take nothing out of it. I Timothy 6:6-8

Friday

We bless you for our creation, preservation and all the blessings of  this life... for the means of grace 

                            and for the hope of glory. 

Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda, Martyred under Idi Amin in 1977 (And birfday of Richard Crawford Lief!)

Search 

for the 

Lord and his 

strength: 

Continually 

seek his 

face. 

Psalm 105:4

Wednesday

grant that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you.... 

Tuesday

Glory 

to you, 

beholding 

the depths; 

in the high 

vault of heaven, 

glory to you. 

Valentines Day

Saints and Seasons 

One year my late husband Gordon gave me a paint can for Valentine’s Day. (Hey, it was better than the adding machine he’d given me early on in our marriage!)  Luckily it was not any old paint can - on a pink background in darker pink letters it said One gallon LOVE.  “It’s not just a paint can” he said “It’s a music box.”  And sure enough there was a key sticking out of the lid. 

Opening the can I found it was not empty. Inside was a piece of the ubiquitous yellow lined paper folded in half and on each side he had written: wind the music box - then open. I wound the key and the music box began playing “Feelings.”  I unfolded the piece of paper, and found a poem he’d written:

Sweetheart, 

The paint can is kinda dumb

but it made me think of you

and how much I love you.

The can may look empty 

But it - and love - surround and 

encompass a space.

And that space becomes a

Love Field 

Capable of tender effect to all 

who are open to its emanations. 

So, if you ever feel surrounded by emptiness

Listen for the tune of the Love Field .

You are Loved.

Gordon  

The can sits mostly unnoticed, a little worse for the years, on a shelf by the bed, our bed. My eye fell on it again recently; I wound the key and read again the poem that was written in his own dear hand long before the 1989 accident which resulted in his quadriplegia. The paper is old now and has moth eaten edges.  But it worked its magic, even beyond the grave, maybe especially so. Suddenly Gordon's love for me was physically here, enfolding me with its warmth, the past made wonderfully present.  And I knew in a way I never had before what Jesus meant when he assured his first disciples, and us, that He would not leave us comfortless, but would send the Holy Spirit to remind us of His love, to be his love among us. I had heard it all my life, and I had believed it; more than that, I had banked on it. But I had known it only in my head. Now, thanks to Gordon, I know it with my heart as well, with me very self. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in us the fire of your love. 

Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, 

and you shall renew the face of the earth. 

Louise Buck

February 2011

@ 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.

Cyril and Methodius, "Apostles to the Slavs." And Valentines Day.

Your 

love, 

O Lord, 

forever 

will I 

sing  

Psalm 89:1a

Cyril  & Methodius, (869, 885) brothers born in Thessalonika, were both monks and bishops, apostles to the people of Moravia and the southern Slavs. Cyril developed the cyrillic alphabet and they wrote, taught, preached and prayed in Salvonic, which was bitterly opposed by some as a "barbarous tongue," although the Slavonic liturgy was finally approved. (To these Western ears, that sounds like the pot calling the kettle black, given the surrounding languages! ) Methodius actually finished a translation of the Bible into Slavonic. His funeral was celebrated in Greek, Latin and Slavonic. His collect appropriately reads, in part, “Overcome all bitterness and strife among by the love of Christ..."  

Sunday toward night

  

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have 

the light of life.” John 8: 12                                                     

The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

All the earth bows down before you, sings to you, 
      sings out your Name.  Psalm 66:3

Saturday evening

Jesus, 

Son

of David,

      have mercy on me! 

Saturday

                                 Oh that today 
you would hearken to His voice! 

Friday Evening Prayer

He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all thy ways. Antiphon: Psalm 91

Friday Morning Prayer

Grant that we, walking 

in the 

way of the cross, 

may find it none other than the way of life and peace 

Collect for Friday 

Thursday, another day

Happy are they whose hope is in the Lord their God; who made heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them... He counts the number of the stars and calls them all by their names. 

         Psalm 146:4-5, 147:4

Wednesday

You word 

is a 

lantern 

to my feet 

and a light 

upon 

my path. 

Psalm 119:105    What you have heard from me and through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to reach others... II Timothy 22

Tuesday morning

That which we have heard and known and what our forefathers have told us we will not hide from their children. We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the powerful works and the wonderful things he has done. Psalm 78:3-4

Monday Evening Prayer

Give to      us,     your servants, that peace 

                which the world cannot give 

                Collect for Peace at Evening Prayer 

Cornelius the Centurion, the first Gentile converted to The Way

 Behold and tend this vine, preserve what your right hand has planted.
Psalm 80:14  

According to The Acts of the Apostles, chapters 10 & 11,  Cornelius was a Roman centurion who was converted to the new faith  in response to the preaching of the Apostle Paul. The experience of Cornelius’ household was seen as a new Pentecost, which had  huge ramifications for the future of Christianity. It was "a primary precedent for the momentous decision of the apostolic council, held in Jerusalem a number of years later, to admit Gentiles to full and equal partnership with Jewish converts in the household of faith. According to tradition, Cornelius was the second Bishop of Caesarea, the metropolitan see of Palestine. "(from Holy Men, Holy Women...) 

The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Sing 

to the Lord 

and 

bless his Name, proclaim the good news 

of God’s salvation from day to day. 

Psalm 96:2

Still Saturday morning

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

 Antiphon: Psalm 75

Saturday

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout with joy to the rock of our salvation   The Venite 

Anskar (801-865) Archbishop of Hamburg and Missionary to Denmark and Sweden

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness     

                           and self-control 

If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided  by the Spirit.       Galations 5:22,25   
                         Anskar’s missionary efforts totally tanked in his lifetime - they didn't bear fruit for a 100 years. But I'm grateful for his life and example and for his collect: "Keep your Church stedfast in the day of little things,  knowing that when you begin a goo work, you will bring it to a fruitful conclusion” - even if we may not see it.

Commemoration of the Dorchester chaplains, (1943) and "all who serve and recognize God's /Yahweh's/ Allah's presence in the midst of peril and are models of steadfast, sacrificial love in a tragic and terrifying time." (Based on the collect/prayer for today)

You strengthen me more and more,you enfold and comfort me. Psalm 71:21

The Dorchester chaplains were the ideal held up in army chaplain school.   They are also a model for ecumenical ministry.  One was Catholic, two Protestant and one Jewish.

The Presentation

Send out your light and your truth that they may lead me and bring to your holy hill and to your dwelling. That I may go the altar of God, 

to the God of my joy and gladness. 

Psalm 43:3-4a

Light and truth, sent to be companions on my either side on this long journey, to both lead and guide me; (You can almost feel the progression of the journey, can't you, like freeze frames of an old movie)  first to God's holy hill. then into God’s dwelling. Once there, to the altar of God and finally to God himself.  

Almighty God, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so may we, at the end of our journeying, be presented to you by Christ out Lord. 

Eve of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, “Lord,  you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised...” 

The Nunc dimitis or the Song of Simeon