Letter from Fr. Allen: The Third Sunday in Lent & the Annunciation of the Lord, March 21, 2019

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+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

I feel like each of these little weekly epistles could begin with "Time flies!" Or, as Ferris Beuller said, "Life comes at you fast." And indeed it does. Below you will see notices for our Lent, Holy Week, and Sacred Triduum liturgies, as well as for this month's Evensong and Benediction, and also a Penance service.

Another exciting day I ask you to place on your calendars is Sunday, May 19th, when Bishop Lopes will join us for First Communions and Confirmations. I will have more information soon regarding the Bishop's visit and attendant celebrations, but for now I want simply to ask you in your charity to pray for those who are to receive the Sacraments at his hands:

First Communion: Henry A.; Ian C.; Juliana J.; Poppy M.

Confirmation: Lucy A.; William C.; Sean G.; Nathaniel H.; Beckham H.; Joshua J.; Elizabeth J.

Reception into Full Communion, Confirmation, and First Communion: Betsy S.

This is an exciting time in the life of our community as each of these dear ones moves "further up and further in" in his or her life in Christ. And it is a time for us to renew within ourselves the graces of these Sacraments, by giving ourselves to prayer, penance, and the practice of charity, sharing in their joy.

God bless you,
Fr. Allen
 
A prayer for those being prepared to receive First Holy Communion: 
O JESUS, who hast loved us with such exceeding great love as to give us the ineffable gift of the Holy Eucharist, inflame us with a burning zeal to promote Thy glory by preparing worthily the little children who are to approach Thy holy table for the first time. Protect, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, these young souls from the assaults of evil, strengthen their faith, increase their love and endow them with all the virtues that will make them worthy to receive Thee. Amen.

A prayer for those being prepared for Confirmation:
O GOD, who through the teaching of thy Son Jesus Christ didst prepare the disciples for the coming of the Comforter: Make ready, we beseech thee, the hearts and minds of thy servants who at this time are seeking the gifts of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands and anointing, that, drawing near with penitent and faithful hearts, they may be filled with his power; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Evensong 31 March 2019

Choral Evensong & Benediction

of the Blessed Sacrament

Sunday, 31 March October, 4.30PM

a small reception will follow

Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense;

and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.

RSVP for Wednesday School: 27 March 2019

Joining us for Wednesday School on March 27th? Please RSVP using the form below so that we may adequately prepare. If you’re one of our regularly Wednesday School families and you’re not able to make it this week, would you please also respond and mark the number of people coming as 0? This also helps us prepare. Thank you!

Letter from Fr. Allen: The Second Sunday in Lent & St Patrick’s Day, March 14, 2019

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+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

This Sunday is the Second Sunday in Lent, but it is also my "onomastico" - my Name Day, St. Patrick's Day. We associate St. Patrick with all things Irish, or at least with Irish-y marketing gimmicks - green beer, Shamrock Shakes (bless ye, McDonald's), and more or less anything that can be dyed green. But of course behind all of that, and behind the legends about snakes (or the absence thereof), there is an actual saint; that is to say, an actual man so transformed by the love of Christ that he himself was "conformed to the image of Christ" and made a remarkably faithful herald of the Gospel of Christ.

We know the outlines of Patrick's biography from his own hand, his Confession, a sort of defense of his methods, teaching, and intentions, written near the end of his life. He was born on the western coast of Roman Britain in the latter half of the 4th century. Patrick's father was a deacon, but Patrick himself was, he tells us, entirely uninterested in the things of God when, as a sixteen year old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he was set to work tending sheep in the wilderness. For six years he labored as a shepherd - cold, alone, hungry, and often brutalized. But in that time he began to pray - and pray and pray and pray. And even in the midst of his suffering he began to rejoice in the Lord's goodness and mercy. After six years, and goaded by an angel who spoke to him in a dream, he escaped, walking some 200 miles to the coast where he found passage on a boat to Gaul. There he entered a monastery where he lived for probably 20 years and was ordained a priest and discovered within himself a desire to return to Ireland, to the people who had enslaved and abused him, to share with the the good news of Jesus Christ. Patrick was then ordained a bishop and returned to Ireland, where his preaching - augmented by the holiness of his life and the goodness and beauty of Christian culture he came bearing - was remarkably effective. Without bloodshed, without martyrs, Ireland was converted to the Catholic faith by Patrick's ministry.

It is a remarkable thing: he returned to what was for him "the land of Egypt, the house of bondage." As he said himself, "I have sold my patrimony, without shame or regret, for the benefit of others. In short, I serve Christ on behalf of a foreign people for the ineffable glory of life everlasting which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

Sadly, the situation in Ireland is very different today, and the slide back into paganism with its inevitable sacrifice of children is well advanced. But we cannot climb the high horse of self-righteousness: the failure of the Church to be the bearer of the truth, beauty, and goodness, and especially the horrible sins and crimes of priests and religious, have turned the Irish from Christ. Ireland awaits "another - doubtless very different" St Patrick to speak again the tender mercies of our God; indeed, the blood of her children cries out.

So, this St. Patrick's Day let us of course celebrate all those good and charming (intoxicatingly so!) aspects of Irish culture. You might even join me at St Patrick's Church at 8AM on Saturday morning where I will concelebrate with Bishop Guglielmone (I think it's O'Guglielmone this weekend) the St Patrick's Day Mass (transferred) and then enjoy the parade afterward. But let us also pray that, at the intercession of St. Patrick, the Lord will call Ireland back to himself, and also that we will grow in that same zealous love that compelled Patrick to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28.19)

God bless you,
Fr Allen

The Stations of the Cross

Join us at 12.30 on Fridays in Lent 2019 for the Stations of the Cross. In this simple and solemn devotion, walking hand-in-hand with the Blessed Virgin Mary, we retrace the steps of Jesus as he was led through Jerusalem on Good Friday, from Pilate's court to Calvary to the tomb. Short meditations and prayers are read at each of the fourteen stations. Click here to learn more about the history of this beautiful devotion.

RSVP for Wednesday School: 20 March 2019

Joining us for Wednesday School on March 20th? Please RSVP using the form below so that we may adequately prepare. If you’re one of our regularly Wednesday School families and you’re not able to make it this week, would you please also respond and mark the number of people coming as 0? This also helps us prepare. Thank you!

Letter from Fr. Allen: The First Sunday in Lent, March 7, 2019

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+JMJ+

Dear Friends,

We are off again on our annual Lenten pilgrimage to the upper room, to Calvary, and to the empty Tomb - those "mighty works whereby our Lord God hast given us life and immortality." In the Gospel for today (the Thursday after Ash Wednesday) that agenda is set for us. Jesus announces to his disciples that “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” But then Jesus tells us that his disciples, if they - if we! - will truly be his disciples - cannot be mere spectators in the Lord's journey to Jerusalem, but must actually be participants: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it." Lent is a time in which we sharpen and intensify our participation in the Lord's Passion by taking up the little training crosses of our self-denial and disciplines, so that we may deepen our joyful participation in his mighty Resurrection, dying to ourselves so that Christ might live in us.

In addition to the Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, our Lenten pilgrimage is marked in our liturgy in ways that have become familiar to us: purple vestments, the absence of the Gloria and any "Alleluia" from Mass, the subdued use of the organ. We will also keep the old traditions of chanting the Litany in procession at the beginning of Mass on this the first Sunday of Lent, and of using unbleached candles, which denote sorrow and penitence, on the altar.

Another and more obtrusive alteration to the liturgy during Lent will be the use of the Merbecke setting of the Ordinary (Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei). John Merbecke (1510 - 1585) composed this simple setting for the first edition (1549) of the Book of Common Prayer on a one-note-per-syllable principle. The result is serviceable rather than beautiful, but appropriately stark for Lent and a way to mark the season with our singing. For some of you these settings will be immediately familiar as they used very commonly to be sung in Episcopal/Anglican churches (and often in Lutheran and Methodist churches as well). In any case, you may (re-)familiarize yourself with those tunes below.

We will also be singing the Merbecke setting of the Our Father. Because of the high percentage of tourists with us each Sunday (bless them), singing the Lord's Prayer has been something of a challenge - they know and default to the Roman Missal setting and concluding doxology, which is just close enough to our chant setting and text to cause deep confusion. The music director and I are hoping that a using the completely different Merbecke setting will put us all, literally, singing from the same page of music. We'll see.

Have a sober Lent!

God bless you,
Fr Allen

Click the above image to launch a recording of Merbecke's Mass setting, including the Kyrie, the Sanctus & Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei. 

A pdf of the sheet music is available here for those who are interested. The sheet music will be printed in the Sunday bulletin as well.