Michaelmas

                                                                                       Job 38:4.7  

where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth; when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted  for joy? 

Pray for: 
an enlarged sense of Gd’s creation

awe before the immensity of creation

an awareness of the unity of the praise of heaven & earth 

St Michael, leader of the angelic host, which comprise seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels .

      Collect

                may they always help and defend

                                                             us here on earth

"St Michael is known as the helper of armies, guardian of the church, protector of individual Christians 

in the face of evil, and the one who accompanies

 the departed on their journey home. " 
(from the wonderful Lutheran New Book
of Festivals and Commemorations) ) 

St Michael amd all Angels (transfered from yeterday)

                                                          Collect of the day

        grant 

        that 

        your 

        holy 

        angels 

        may 

        always

        help 

        & 

        defend us here on earth 

Sunday evening

                                                             I Timothy 6:6

There 
is 
great
gain in
godli-
ness 
com-bined with contentment. 

Sunday, Proper 21 (of only 29!!)

                                                                                  Psalm 66:3 

All 
the earth bows down before you, sings to you, sings out your Name. 

Saturday evening

                  Antiphon: Psalm 90 

Teach 
us 
to
num-ber 
our days, 
that 
we 
may 
apply 
our 
hearts 
to 
wisdom.

Saturday

Psalm 87: 6

All 

my 

fresh 

springs 

are 

in 

you

"Well done, good and faithful servant" Rest in peace, Ned.

    Psalm 90:11                          

 He will give his angels charge over you,  

                 to keep you in all your ways. 

Vincent de Paul, 
(1581- 1660)
Renewer of the Church and Society 

Evening Prayer

                                                                             Psalm 85:8

I will listen 
to 
what 
the
Lord 
God 
is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people 
and to those who turn their hearts to him. 

Our friend Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of WInchester (1555-1626) Author of Private Prayers, (Preces Private) he spoke 15 languages, 16 if you count the language of prayer.

Morning Prayer
The General Thanksgiving  

We bless 

you.. 

above all 

for your

inestimable 

love in the 

redemption 

of the world 

by our Lord 

Jesus Christ 

                                      “Conform

                                        our lives, 

                                        like his, 
                                        to the 
                                        image of 
                                        Christ..” 
                                       (Collect 
                                        of the day) 

Sergius of Radononezh (1314-1392) Abbot of Holy Trinity, Moscow

    Psalm 119:105

You 

are 
a 
light 
upon 
my 
path. 

                                              

                              

                                                                 St Sergius

A Tuesday in Fall

                                                                      Morning Prayer: 

                                               The General Thanksgiving  

     We 

     bless

     you 

     for our 

     creation, 

     preservation 

     and all the 

     blessings 

     of this 

     life... 

     for the 

     means of grace and the hope of glory 

The First Monday in Fall

                                                                            Psalm 80:14 

O God 

of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right 
hand has planted. 

Sunday evening

Psalm 34:14

Turn

from 

evil 

and 

do 

good; 

seek 

peace 

and 

pursue 

it. 

The first day of Fall

                                                                            Collect of the Day 

 

Grant 
us
Lord, 
not 
to be 
anxious
about 
earthly 
things,  
but... 
even now, 
while we are placed among 
things that are passing away, 
to hold fast to those that endure...

St Matthew and Henri Nouwen

                                         Romans 10: 14-15

how are they to 
call on 
one in 
whom they have not believed?   And how are they to believe in one in whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear 
without someone to proclaim him? And how are  they to proclaim 
him unless they are sent?

Today in 1996, Henri Nouwen, priest, seeker and and spiritual guide, died at the age of 64. Nouwen “ invited his readers to intimacy with Jesus and solidarity with a wounded world. Much of his impact came from his willingness to confide his own woundedness...” (Give Us This Day) 

International Peace Day, A UN International Celebration, and the Feast of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

                                                              Psalm 119:64

          
          
          The 
          earth 

          O 

          Lord, 

          is

          full 

          of 

          your 

          love, 

          instruct me in your statutes. 

Join us for a march to St Paul's Cathedral from the Museum of Art in Balboa Park at 4pm today! Car pool from St David's at 3:15. 

Friday evening

                                          I Corinthians 3:22-23   

... the world, or 

life 

or 

death 

or 

the 

pres-

ent 

or the 

future - all belong to you, and you belong to christ, and Christ belongs to God.  

Friday

                                                       Psalm 73:24 

     You 
     will 
     guide 
     me 
     by
     your 
     counsel, 
     and 
     afterward 
     receive me with glory. 
                                      This is the Friday autumnal ember 
                              day, a day for prayer all people in their
                              vocations, in whatever we are called
                              to do in our lives. 

Theodore of Tarsus (yep, THAT Tarsus!) Archbishop of Canterbury, 690

   Psalm 70:4a

Let 

all 

who 

seek 

you 

rejoice 

& be 

glad 

in 
you

Autumnal Ember Days

                                                                                   Psalm 119:76a

Let your loving-kindness be my comfort

Emnber Days are a series of  3 days throughout the Church year,  specifically Wednesday  Friday and Saturday, set aside to pray for the ministry of the church:  See BCP Page 256-7 for the collects for each day.  Wednesday’ s focus is  For Those to Be Ordained. Friday, For the Choice of Fit Persons for the Ministry. And the last in this 1979 Prayer Book gives witness to the broadening of the idea of ministry to include not just those who are ordained,  but the 99%, lay people, For All Christians in their Vocations. 

All this to get to what I wanted to say, which is that today begins the Autumnal Ember Days, the key word being Autumnal. Regardless of the weather or our hearts clinging to Summer, Autumn Equinox comes this year on 

September 22, 4:44 P.M. EDT

Fall officially begins and the days continue to shorten. I love Fall, but it is a bittersweet time: the year, which was waxing is now waining ; always a bittersweet time.... 

Dag Hannerskjold Peacemaker, 1905-1961

                                       Psalm 72:7

In God’s time shall 

the right-eous flourish, there shall be an abundance of peace 

till the moon shall be no more. 

                          Thou art over us.

                          Thou art one of us. 

                           Thou who are - 

                                    - Dag Hannerskjold

I vaguely remember him as Secretary General 

of the United Nations when I was a kid.  I had forgotten that he died in a plane crash, 

Evening Prayer

   Psalm 68:19

Blessed 
be God 
day 
by day, 

the God 
of our 
salvation 
who 
bears 
our burdens. 

Hildegarde, Abbess of Bingen and Renewer of the Church, 1179

                                                                    The Venite

Come, 
let 
us 
sing 
to the Lord... 

Pray for those who have visions of Divine things, for musicians who rejoice in the natural world,  for those in the medical pro-fession and for the courage to speak 

the truth. 

                       See Hymn 9 if you are a singer.... 

Monday at Evening Prayer

Give to us that peace which the world cannot give

The Collect

 for Peace 

St Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr at Carthage, 258*

                                           Psalm 56:3-4

When- 

ever 

I am 

afraid, 

I put 

my 

trust 

in you; 

in God 

whose 

word

I praise,

 in God I 

trust  

& will 

not be 

afraid.        

Ignatius Kattey, the Anglican Archbishop, kidnapped him last week in the Niger Delta, has been released . (BBC Africa) 

                                           The Lutheran Book  suggests praying today for Africa and Christians in Africa. 

Also today in our Anglican tradition we remember St Ninan, c430, Bishop of Galloway and Misisonary to Scotland  He, along with Patrick, is one of the links between the ancient Roman-British Church and the developing Celtic Christianity of Ireland and Scotland. (Holy WOmen, Holy Men) 

  

Sunday Evening Prayer

  Psalm 84:1 

How dear 
to me
is your 
dwelling, 
O Lord 
of hosts! 
My soul 
has a desire 
& a longing  
for the courts 
of the Lord; 
my heart & 
my flesh 
rejoice 
in the
living God. 

Sunday

                                                               Collect of the Day 

grant that 
in all things your Holy Spirit may direct and rule our hearts 

Eve of Sunday (My 1600th post!)

                                                                               Eucharistic Prayer C 

At your com-mand, all things came 

to be: 

the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile 

earth, our island home. 

Yom Kippur on the Jewish calendar, Holy Cross Day on ours

                                                               Benedictus Dominus Deus 

       Blessed be 
       the Lord ....  
       for he 
       has come 
       to this 
       people 
       and set 
       them free. 

Eve of Holy Cross Day

Saints and Seasons

I have been feeling of late that life is holey, as in full of holes. “It’s not FAIR!” is the perpetual lament of children. And it’s no t fair.  To paraphrase:  “Life happens.”  A lot. That’s just the nature of life. There is so much that is broken, lacking, sullied in our world, either through our social and political choices, our personal sins, or by the blind hubris of unintended consequences. A spouse dies. A son becomes  mentally ill.  Personal relations are strained and broken. Climate change results in shrinking glaciers, rising seas, fire and floods. In Washington, our  politics are frozen in gridlock, and at home, there is brokenness and strife.  

Heartache is a reality in our lives.  But, so is joy. Life is not just holey, but holy as well, if we have the eyes to see. It’s a matter of focus. Sin, suffering and death seem woven into the very fabric of life. But as the music director at my childhood church always said,  don’t put the em-PHA-sis on the wrong sy-LA-ble. 

I am grateful that on 14th of September, year after year,  just as life begins to rev up again after summer. the church pauses to celebrate Holy Cross Day  - to take stock, to once again get the em--PHA-sis right. Otherwise, life becomes burdensome, unbearable. 

Here we are reminded that life is not primarily about me and my plans, pleasure or desires. We are reminded that Jesus told us, then showed us, that the Way of the Cross is, paradoxically,  the “way of life and peace.”  The cross remains a stumbling block and foolishness for others - and sometimes for us  as well. But as followers of Christ, and as people filled with his Spirit, what we profess and know it to be true, is that with his life and in his death, Jesus “destroyed death and made the whole creation new. (Eucharistic Prayer D)

Somehow, suffering accepted is transformed and suffering united with the suffering of Christ is life-giving. I can only know this a little, and with my heart and not my head, but when I do, life is transfigured with the light of the cross. 

 We go on waiting, knowing You have come,

Yet we are not ready to be transformed. 

Send us Your Spirit and we’ll carry on. 

The day is long ahead of us and 

we’ll carry on, and we’ll carry on.

 

From Calm is the Night 

by the Monks of Weston Priory 

Louise Buck 

September 2013