circle of prayer: epigrah

a wheel was shown to me,
wonderful to behold . . .
divinity is in its omniscience
and omnipotence
like a wheel,
a circle,
a whole,
that can neither be understood,
nor divided,
nor begun nor ended. --hildegard of bingen

st. thomas day/winter solstice/o dayspring

st. thomas' feast comes on the winter solstice, the 21st of december, a date i always find quite appropriate. thomas is usually called "doubting thomas," but if matthew's gospel is to be credited, there were others doubters (matt. 28:17), so i think it is more helpful to look at the witness of thomas as proof that the resurrected jesus is the same as the crucified jesus, that this is an event in the body and not only in the spirit.

in the same way, remembering thomas at the darkest time of the year, just on the edge of the commemoration of the incarnation of our lord, also witnesses to the physicality of our salvation, that it is brought about as much by the incarnation as by the resurrection, that indeed these are parts of the same event which continues through the assumption to this very day.

i am delighted to find that western white man protestantism is beginning to pay more attention to the worldliness of salvation. brian mclaren's latest book, everything must change seems an important move in that direction. i hope it is not just condemned. in it mclaren pointed me to an old jackson browne song that unfortunately we who call ourselves the church would do well to remember, not just at this season.

december 17-24: the great o's

the magnificat* is the song of the church at sunset, as the new day begins. for each day there are antiphons to give it particular meanings for changes ofthe cycle of the year. few of us know these antiphons unless we live in a monastic community, but most of us know the antiphons for the last week of advent, because they are the verses of the popular hymn "o come, o come, emmanuel

each verse is a title of the messiah from one of the prophets, especially isaiah. the hymn has been recorded and sung many times, but one of the most surprisingly moving renditions i have found is by a primarily rhythm and blues group, boyziimen. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do.

*The Song of Mary Magnificat
Luke 1:46-55a


My soul doth magnify the Lord, *
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded *
the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth *
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me, *
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him *
throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; *
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, *
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, *
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

circle of prayer postlude: getting started, or don't try this at home

one never knows where the path will lead.

it is 6:00 in the morning on the third sunday of advent, still dark and eighteen degrees. i light a candle, pull a blanket around my shoulders, and begin morning prayer. "o lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise." because it is advent, i start with venite (psalm 95:1-7, 96:9,13), which ends with
"for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth,
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth."

next, because it is the sixteenth morning of the month, follow psalms 79, 80, 81, beginning
"o god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple
have they defiled, and made jerusalem a heap of stones."

psalm 81 concludes
"i would have fed them also with the finest wheat-flour;
and with honey out of the stony rock would i have satisfied them."

then comes a reading from isaiah, promising the desert will bloom (ch. 35), and because it is sunday, the te deum. the new testament reading describes the birth of john the baptist (luke 1:57ff), and by the time his father zecheriah is singing that
"the dayspring from high has visited us,
to give light to them that sit in the darkness, and in the shadow of death . . ."
a cold winter sunrise is reddening the south-east horizon, showing through my frosty plastic window a hundred-acre wood dusted with snow.

i sing christina rossetti's "in the bleak mid-winter" softly.

i am very cold, and most people would think me very alone, and i am very happy.

how did i get here? did the circling path that led to this cold hermit's morning begin the early fall morning my kayak took me around a bend of the st. francis river to find a huge bald cypress becoming dozens of great blue herons in the sunrise? yes.

did it begin the morning in the season of epiphany when i walked cautiously through the red doors of all saints' episcopal church to enter the daily office? yes.

or did it begin when i moved to santa fe to watch sunsets? yes.

by the grace of god when there has been a fork in the road, at least for the past thirty years, i have taken it. gradually the curves had led me back to the place where i had begun, to find it for the first time.

i began to notice what was happening, that i was becoming an accidental hermit, during a three-year long exploration of the waters of north-west washington and south british columbia in a red folding kayak named brendan. i cautiously cast off from a dock in anacortes one may morning, weighted down with all the gear the fear-and-gear mongers want to sell paddlers, and with the expectation of seeing a lot of beautiful "nature." three septembers later, i pulled up on an afternoon beach in bellingham, wearing only shorts, carrying a single cooking pot and a century-old copy of the holy bible, authorized version.

i knew i did not want to move back into a house, or to return to a career. as francis of assissi said, we do not live in houses. and as i've been told tom robbins said, " a career is a totally inadequate response to life. asked what i had learned, i was surprised to find the answer was easy. what i had expected to be many parts of nature had proved to be one whole creation.

a neighbor in the ozarks is shocked and a bit worried that i live without what she calls creature comforts, but i find that what i have found are the comforts of the creature, that, as annie dillard wrote, we are all created.

if you decide to take the path, do not expect it to lead to my little hut in the ozarks. do not be afraid that you will end up cold and alone on a snow morning. but do pay attention. what the holy one has in store for you is more than we can hope for or imagine.

pay attention. stay awake. put an axe in your television and watch the sunsets and the sunrises instead of listening to morning edition. sing with mary in the evening and zechariah in the morning instead of listening to mp3's. read the daily office instead of the new york times.

i'm alive serious here. there is a great pearl in that field, but if you are not willing to sell everything that you hve to buy it, you will die with the stuff for a good yard sale, but you will miss living in the kingdom of heaven.

commemoration of brother louis (thomas merton)

blessed are the peacemakers. and likely to have a difficult time in 1968, when opponents to the war (there's only one, which the empire now admits it wants to make endless) tended to die in rather mysterious circumstances.

i was in college in 1968, only tangentally connected to the church, which seemed to me to have failed to live by the standards it had taught me. occasionally i participated in worship and activities of centenary united methodist church in memphis, which was active in the civil rights movement. my knowledge of things catholic was quite limited, but ramparts magazine published very insightful essays by this monk called thomas merton.

i have always assumed that the cia was involved if not directly responsible for merton's death. i was one of the students picked by the cia to attend national student association activities to see how radical we might become, and to keep under surveilance.

merton's effective opposition to the war began to open to me the understanding that contemplation is action. the most effective action. i still have great respect for the work of centenary united methodist church, and especially of the rev. j. m. lawson, the then-young pastor. if i had not had the experiences i had at centenary, i might have abandoned the church entirely.

but, i can't help but believe that much of our "action" today lacks the foundation of prayer that is necessary for the real work of the kingdom, the kingdom headed by the one we so lightly call at this season of encouraged greed, the prince of peace.

advent and st. nicholas

i could not resist sharing this post.

circle of prayer 30. reconciliation: lent (spring)

"give them grace, when they hurt each other, to recognize and acknowledge their faults, and to seek each other's forgiveness and yours." (prayer from "the celebration and blessing of a marriage," bcp 1979)

i was reared in a baptist church in a small southern town where we were convinced that roman catholics were followers of the whore of babyon. one of the proofs was that all catholics had to do to have their sins forgiven was to confess to their priest. little did we recognize how difficult true confession is. the closest we came was "revivals," at which just about the only sin confessed was drinking, although there were occasional mentions of "that jezebel."

the difficulty of making a good confession has a long history. in the baptismal covenant we are asked "will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the lord?" adam and eve should have had the advantage of such a question. when they fell into sin, the holy one, who if omniscient knew they had eaten the forbidden fruit, came to walk with them in the cool of the day as usual. rather than repenting and returning, they dissembled and blamed whomever was convenient except themselves. (genesis 3:8-13)

although we tend to agree with crosley, stills and nash that "we've got to get back to the garden," most of us have no clue how to do so. we remain in the ignorance from my childhood, maybe convinced that creation was originally good, maybe even believing that in baptism our sins are forgiven and our innocence restored; but we look around at a world that seems deeply mired in hopelessness.

hence the strength of the little bombshell embedded in the marriage liturgy and quoted above, a prayer for grace to recognize our faults and to seek forgiveness, knowing we will hurt each other. it is too simple for us to accept. we are like naaman, who came to elishah to be cured of leprosy and expected some elaborate ritual. he was told to wash seven times in the jordan. his response was like my childhood distrust of the roman catholics. how could healing, how could salvation, be simple? (2 kings 5:1-12) how could spring, with its thousands of blossoms, follow the dead of winter?

lent means spring. (because the days lengthen then).although the lenten practice of repentance began as a method to restore "notorious evil livers" to the communion of the church, it has become popular for anyone as a time of annual repentance, often leading to a renewal of baptismal vows. this reflects the understanding of the early church, and the continuous understanding of the eastern church, that repentance serves as a second baptism.

in many ways the traditional service of reconciliation is a recapitulation of our whole lives and of the sacraments of the church:

"The Penitent says:
Holy God, heavenly Father, you formed me from the dust in
your image and likeness, and redeemed me from sin and
death by the cross of your Son Jesus Christ. Through the
water of baptism you clothed me with the shining garment of
his righteousness, and established me among your children in
your kingdom. But I have squandered the inheritance of your
saints, and have wandered far in a land that is waste.
". . . I confess to you [the priest] and to the Church. . .
. . .
"Therefore, O Lord, from these and all other sins I cannot
now remember, I turn to you in sorrow and repentance.
Receive me again into the arms of your mercy, and restore me
to the blessed company of your faithful people; through him
in whom you have redeemed the world, your Son our Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen.
. . .
"The Priest concludes:
"Now there is rejoicing in heaven; for you were lost, and
are found; you were dead, and are now alive in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Go (or abide) in peace. The Lord has put away all
your sins.

"Penitent: Thanks be to God."

circle of prayer 29. healing: christmas

"mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth.
risen with healing in his wings,
life and light to all he brings,
hail, the sun of righteousness!
hail, the heaven-born prince of peace!" (charles wesley)

nothing said above about advent should be understood as acceptance of death as "normal."

"christianity is not reconciliation with death. it is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of life. christ is this life. and only if christ is life is death what christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed and not a 'mystery' to be explained. religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a 'status,' a rationale, make it 'normal.' only christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible."
(alexander schmemann)

in christ is fulfilled the prophecy that death will be swallowed up in victory. (isaiah 25:8; romans 15:54). often we think of that victory's being won only at calvary, by the crucifixion. but all of human life is transformed by the incarnation. everything that god the son assumes in his humanity is healed, which is the usual meaning of the greek word often translated "saved." eternal life is possible for human beings because the eternally begotten son of the father entered time as the son of mary.

"o that birth for ever blesssed,
when the virgin, full of grace,
by the holy ghost conceiving,
bare the saviour of our race;
and the babe, the world's redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face . . . ." (a.c. prudentius)

"what child is this . . .?
this, this is christ the king,
. . .
the babe, the son of mary." (w.c. dix)

"for he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death." (1 corinthians 15:24-25)

circle of prayer 31. eucharist: at all times and in all places

"thanks be to god!"

"It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should
at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, Creator of the light and source of life, who hast made us in thine image, and called us to new life in Jesus Christ our
Lord." (eucharistic preface, rite 1, book of common prayer 1979)

we sometimes forget that eucharist, thanksgiving, indeed the great thanksgiving, is, next to the breaking of the bread, the oldest and even more the most appropriate name for the central act of christian worship. we call it the breaking of the bread, the lord's supper, because of the very special meaning which our lord gave to the jewish communal meal, the chaburah. again and again, he gave thanks. so, we too give thanks.

the first thing for which we give thanks is creation. this we have often forgotten in the past few hundred years, as we have vainly assumed that we are now in charge of creation, which we have abstracted as "nature." but the early church always started with giving thanks for creation. indeed if there had been no "night in which our lord jesus christ was handed over to suffering and death;" if he had only formed us in his image; if he had only made covenant with us; if he had only through the prophets taught us to hope for salvation;, if he had only sent us the only-begotten son to be incarnate of the holy spirit, born of the virgin mary; if he had only lived as one of us, yet without sin; if he had only proclaimed to the poor the good news of salvation, to the prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful, joy; still it would be our bounden duty to glorify the one god, living and true, dwelling in light inaccessible before all time and forever.

our eucharistic gatherings, the great act in which we recognize our true role in creation as priest, offering back to the holy one what has been given to us that we and the whole world might be holy, would hardly be changed. this idea is expressed in the jewish passover song dayenu, which lists the great works of the holy one in delivering his people, and says about each, that if that were all he had done, that would have been enough.

but there is more. that god's purpose might be fulfilled, jesus gave himself up to death: and rising from the grave he destroyed death and made the whole creation new.

and that we might no longer live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again, he sent the holy spirit, his own first gift to those who believed, to complete his work in the world, bringing to fulfillment the sanctification of all.

as paul wrote so eloquently in his second letter to the church at corinth, ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here." (5:17) paul describes the nature of the christ to the church at colossae in a beautiful hymn:

he is the image of the unseen god
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
thrones, dominions, sovereignties, powers--
all things were created through him and for him.
before anything was created, he existed,
and now he holds all things in unity.
. . .
as he is the beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because god wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross. (colossians 1:15-17, 19-20)

reconciliation and peace: this is the goal of the new creation, and of the new creator.

all of the seemingly contradictory things that are listed in the song of the three young men that we sing on saturday, "heavens and waters,sun and moon, winter and summer, fire and heat and ice and cold, nights and days, light and darkness," (see the appendix for the full text) all these things and more are reconciled and brought to peace, and their nature and purpose as revelation and prophecy of the christ to come is revealed.

the work of the holy one whose beginning was described in genesis as good is brought to fulfillment and perfected in the sacrifice of christ which we celebrate in the eucharist.

and so we finish:

deacon: go in peace to love and serve the lord. alleluia, alleluia.

people: thanks be to God. alleluia, alleluia.

(the eucharistic prayer which is quoted or paraphrased throughout this chapter is the liturgy of st. basil, the most widely accepted eucharistic prayer of the whole church, east and west, catholic and protestant.)

circle of prayer 27: marriage: may

"o father, all creating,
whose wisdom, love and power,
first bound two lives together
in eden's primal hour,
to-day in these thy children
thine earliest gifts renew . . . ." (j. ellerton)

there was a time in england when all of may was kept to onour the virgin mother of our lord. since she is seen as the model of the church, the bridge of christ, may was the most popular time for marriages.

marriage became attatched to may for other, perhaps more mysterious if related reasons as well. the feast of pentecost most often falls in may, when the holy spirit comes upon the whole church, making her a christ-bearer, just as the spirit had come upon mary. paul explored the imagery of the church as the bride of christ and what that image suggests for christian marriage in his letter to the church at ephesus:

". . . christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. he made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. in the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies . . . . that is the way christ treats the church, because it is his body . . . . this mystery has many implications; but i am saying it applies to christ and the church. to sum up, you too, each of you, just love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband." (ephesians 5:25-33)

there were additionally some pre-christian reasons for the popularity of may as the marriage month. one of the most popular beltane celebrations was the maypole, around which men and women wound strips of cloth, walking in opposite directions. after it was wound they might go into the fields to make love, encouraging the sun and earth to follow their example and be fertile. (beltane is the beginning of summer in the celtic calendar.)

in all of these examples, marriage is seen as a re-uniting or uniting of opposites, either restoring the original bliss of creation, as suggested by j. ellerton's hymn from the english hymnal, or leading to the desired bliss of creation, as in the maypole activities. it is no wonder then that the most powerful image of the relationship of christ and the church is that of marriage. the reading that most powerfully illustrates this is the song of songs, which is read at passover in the jewish liturgy.

for many such a physical depiction of love and life is shocking to find in the bible. but it has been called in the midrash (the ancient oral commentary on the jewish scriptures) the most holy of books. as such, it's association with marriage and the period following easter is another indication of the power of the seasons of the year as revelation of the love of the holy one, and of the holiness of all creation. rather than suggesting that pagan activities surrounding the beginning of summer are mis-placed, it becomes apparent that the desire for reunion is also fulfilled in the mystery of the christ.

circle of prayer 28. death and the world to come: advent

sunset of the eve of the last day of november: st. andrew's day. for the western church this is the beginning of the advent season. the hills all around are dark, cloaked in winter blue, the blue-black of ink. yet they are outlined with a golden dark glow that makes winter vespers the most hopeful times of the year, what the eastern church calls the bright darkness.

of this time gertrude mueller nelson has written, "it is advent, and the whole world is pregnant." we tend easily to assume we know who will be born: the baby jesus, the christ child. we seldom seriously reflect on "what child is this?" but herod knew. this child is the death of the old world, the old regime, the old self. for many of us this is more than we want to bear, so we, like herod, try to deny the birth, to kill the child. (matthew 2:1-18) we cover the bright darkness with watts and watts of "christmas lights." rather than recognize that "light . . . shines in the darkness"(john 1:5), rather than "casting off the works of darkness" (collect for the first sunday of advent), we put on a cloak of pretended joy, as if death did not await each of us.

"yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light." (phillips brooks)

the death that we would avoid is the only way to eternal life:

"unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a rich harvest.
any one who loves his life loses it . . . ." (john 12:24-25)

in the worlds of the mayan creation myth of the first father, "death is the door to awe." in advent we are allowed pass through the darkness of all that is old, of all that is dead, of all that no longer serves our true self, into the light of new and eternal life. this is a great and beautiful mystery. alas, many of us pass through the mystery without ever noticing it.

the eastern church honors and says farewell to the old dispensation by commemorating the old testament prophets at the beginning of december. for all the church the most significant advent saints are john, the great forerunner of the light, the greatest and last of the prophets of the old covenant, and mary the virgin mother, the first to enter the new kingdom, who took the word of god into her very body, giving birth to god the son.

all too often we react to the good news of the coming of the true king, who

". . . comes to judge the earth,
to judge the world with justice
and the nations with his truth: (psalm 96:13)

as did herod. rather than letting go our "carved images and . . . vain gods" (psalm 98:7), our understandings and pretentions and projections, we are willing to kill the innocent. we limit advent to preparing for the birth of the christ child, but we allow no room in our hearts for the child to grow.

but equally available is the way chosen by simeon, who had spent his life seeking not self-aggrandizement but "the consolation of israel" (luke 2:25), and whose song has ever since been the prayer of christians at the end of their days and at the end of their lives:

"now, master, you can let your servant go peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel.: (luke 2:29-32)

circle of prayer 25: the daily office: the day

"Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears" (sheldon harnick)


"our physical, emotional, and social systems follow a twenty-four hour cycle. this cycle normally provides an alteration of fatigue and rest, hunger and eating, work and leisure, which becomes basic to our consciousness of ourselves and our world. man must relate himself to the day and accept the discipline of it. we must begin every day with the will to make it a meaningful and useful day; but we must also be content to accep the close of the day in spite of the awareness that we may have accomplished little we must be able to sleep with reasonable confidence that we will not be attacked by enemies, beats, dreams, or demons--yet we must be wise enough to take reasonable preacautions for ourselves and others. finally, we must not be surprised that a day will come when do do not awake. a balanced and fully human life thus demands that we accept the discipline of living day by day, while not forgetting the necessity of long-range planning in many particular matters. we must have the faith that the day is good, and thankfully receive the daily bread that our heavenly father gives." (from prayer book studies 22)

"will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

"i will, with god's help." (the baptismal covenant, bcp, 1979)

the daily cycle of prayer is so simple, so repititious, that it is easy to dismiss it as merely a rote act, or "unspiritual." all sunsets are the same, too. the daily prayer of the church, the "daily office," is not telling god what we want god to do or what we want to do, asking for a blessing for what we have already decided whether it is god's will or not. it is prayer with the words given by the holy spirit, the psalms, and listening to god's speaking to us in holy scripture.

the invariable rhythm of the canticles and intercessions, the longer rhythm of the psalms, the annual rhythm of the lessons from the scripture, weave us together in a pattern as simple as our inevitable death, as complex as our unspeakable life. this rhythm provides the context in which everything else in life takes place, and underlies its comprehensibility.

circle of prayer 24a. a discursus

at first the church baptised immediately on profession of faith (see acts). but it was not long before a two or three year period of catechesis came to be norma. it is not entirely known why this happened. a common explaination is that as christianity became the official religion of the empire, people were coming to conversion with little or no idea of what that meant. karl rahner makes a passing remark in on heresy that the new emphasis on teaching was a response to heresies, especially gnosticism. when one considers that jesus spent three years with the disciples and they were often very slow to understand, the catechesis makes good sense. during this second period, baptism came under the close supervision of the bishops, who were in charge of a local church. deacons and priests had their role in the actual ceremony, as hipppolytus of rome described in the apostolic tradition, but the bishop did the actual annointing, the "chrismation" that underlies the words "christ" and "christian." hippolytus' description of the practice in this second period is worth considering at length:

"At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When
they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring
or a flowing body of water. Then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be
baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there
are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or
someone else from their family. After this, the men will be baptized. Finally, the women,
after they have unbound their hair, and removed their jewelry. No one shall take any
foreign object with themselves down into the water.

"At the time determined for baptism, the bishop shall give thanks over some oil, which he
puts in a vessel. It is called the Oil of Thanksgiving. He shall take some more oil and
exorcise it. It is called the Oil of Exorcism. A deacon shall hold the Oil of Exorcism and
stand on the left. Another deacon shall hold the Oil of Thanksgiving and stand on the right.

"When the elder takes hold of each of them who are to receive baptism, he shall tell each
of them to renounce, saying, "I renounce you Satan, all your servicea, and all your works."
After he has said this, he shall anoint each with the Oil of Exorcism, saying, "Let every
evil spirit depart from you." Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on
nude to the elder who stands at the water. They shall stand in the water naked. A deacon,
likewise, will go down with them into the water. When each of them to be baptized has
gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands on each of them, asking, "Do
you believe in God the Father Almighty?" And the one being baptized shall answer, "I
believe." He shall then baptize each of them once, laying his hand upon each of their
heads. Then he shall ask, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was
born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
died, and rose on the third day living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat
down at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the living and the dead?"
When each has answered, "I believe," he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall
ask, "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church and the resurrection of the
flesh?" Then each being baptized shall answer, "I believe." And thus let him baptize the
third time.

"Afterward, when they have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the
elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, "I anoint you with holy oil in the name of Jesus
Christ." Then, drying themselves, they shall dress and afterwards gather in the church.

"The bishop will then lay his hand upon them, invoking, saying,
'Lord God, you who have made these worthy
of the removal of sins through the bath of regeneration,
make them worthy to be filled with your Holy Spirit,
grant to them your grace,
that they might serve you according to your will,
for to you is the glory,
Father and Son
with the Holy Spirit,
in the Holy Church,
now and throughout the ages of the ages.
Amen.'

"After this he pours the oil into his hand, and laying his hand on each of their heads, says,
'I anoint you with holy oil
in God the Father Almighty,
and Christ Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit.'

"Then, after sealing each of them on the forehead, he shall give them the kiss of peace
and say,
'The Lord be with you.'
And the one who has been baptized shall say,
'And with your spirit.'"

as the church grew, the powerful expressions of the nature of baptism as initiation into the one, undivided church of christ, represented by the bishop, consisting of those who had died and risen with christ, began to change, both in how it was performed and in what it meant. bishops no longer present at each baptism.

in the west the annointing by the bishop continued to be a necessary part of christian initiation, but separated in time from baptism, sometimes by many years, and called confirmation. in the east the entire ritual came to be performed by priests.
the meaning of the rise, especially in the west, came to be less about initiation into the community of those "who were being saved" and more about individual salvation. with each schism and division that tore the Church into different "churches," the image of community became less clear and that of individual salvation more prominent.

circle of prayer 26: ordination:the ember days

as many people, christian and otherwise, have moved to the cities and adopted their commercian calendars, and as even those who live in "rural" areas have come to get their holy times from the television, ember days have mostly fallen to the wayside. this should not surprise us.

"the ember days constitute a very interesting feature of the christian year, possessing one characteristic which is entirely unique. they are the only component of our annual observances in the church whose ultimate origins lay only in the 'natural' or solar year, which gave form to most primitive religions. . . . 'the ember days of the four seasons' began by being exactly what that name implies. they were in latin the quattuor tempora, a term fused into the teutonic quatember and curtailed into the english ember. they were derived from pagan agricultural observances which originally were three in number, devoted to the winter sowing in december,the summer reaping in june, and the autumn vintage in september. it was leo the great who added the lenten days to bring the number up to the four annual fasts of the jews." so wrote the standing liturgical commission of the episcopal church in prayer book studies xii: the propers for the minor holy days (new york: church pension fund, 1958)(, pp. 84-85.)

in the church year the ember days have been times of fasting and prayer before ordinations, and time for the priesthood, both ordained priests and the royal priesthood that is the whole body of christ, to reflect on how well we are carrying out our commission.

so it is as a complaint that the standing liturgical commission wrote, "the agricultural origin of the days is still discernible in some of the lections . . . prescribed in the roman missal. it also accounts for the fact that not one single lection therein has the slightest bearing upon the holy ministry." (p. )

their complaint misses the understanding that is the basis of this whole essay, which is that the holy one uses time, and the events specific to particular times, as a prophetic self-revelation, even though, "in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his son." (hebrews 1:2)

no parable is more central to the gospels that the parable of the sower. one might even argue that in the relative parable-poor gospel according to mark, it and the discussion around it has a role similar to mattthew's sermon on the mount or luke's sermon on the plain:

""listen! imagine a sower going out to sow. now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because it had no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. and some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced rich crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold.' and he said, 'listen, anyone who has ears to hear.'" (mark 4:3-9)

add to this parable john's description of the harvest, and an agricultural typology for ministry is quite fully evoked:

"have you not a saying:
four months and then the harvest?
well, i tell you:
look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest." (john 4:35)

the feast of st. luke: thoughts about healing and listening

the feast of luke, the dear and glorious physician,comes at a time when here in the ozarks at least the whole world is hard to ignore. the trees are just beginning to blaze, and the fall and winter winds are fighting for control. two thoughts have dominated my reflections about this day, healing and listening.

it is on this wonderful day that this reading, a reading about healing, comes in morning prayer:

Ezekiel 47
Water Flowing from the Temple47Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate that faces towards the east;* and the water was coming out on the south side.
3 Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. 4Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist. 5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. 6He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you seen this?’
Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on the other. 8He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9Wherever the river goes,* every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 10People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’

the good news that luke proclaims, of healing, is for all creation.

then there are the wonderful canticles that luke includes at the beginning of his gospel,

the magnificat

and

the benedictus

and

the nunc dimmittis

, which are used every day in daily prayer. but there is also that most important statement of mary, which allows the incarnation: ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ is this not an even better response to hearing scripture than "the word of the lord" or even "hear what the spirit is saying to the churches?" i am going to try using it for a while in my prayer, at least.

circle of prayer 24. rebirth: baptism & confirmation::the pascha: easter & pentecost

one can be born anytime, but statistically one is most likely to be born very early in the morning on a new moon, the second most popular time being very early in the morning on a full moon.

likewise one may be reborn--that is, baptized and chrismated-at any time, but the church has long--1800 years long--considered the great fifty days of easter the best time, particularly during the easter vigil. the image of our baptism's partaking of the passover of the lord is even older. to the romans paul wrote, in a passage used as the epistle in the easter vigil,

"you have been taught that when we were baptised in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life.

"if in union with christ we have imitated his death, we shall imitate him in his resurrection." (romans 6:3-5)

that "we too might live a new life," that we might have the power to "imitate him in his resurrectin," christ jesus gave us the gift of "another comforter, the holy spirit." (john 14:26) this gift is in the new testament an inseparable part of the paschal event, either as happening on one day, as in john's gospel (john 20:19-22), or as the climactic event of the fifty days, as in the writings of luke (acts 2:1-4).

unfortunately the church in the west for the most part lost or abandoned, but by the grace of god is recovering and reclaiming, the power of the great fifty days, and the interconnectedness of the resurrectin of christ and the gift of the holy spirit. i believe the intimate relationship between christian initiation and christian understanding of the mighty acts of god in restoring jesus to life and sending the holy spirit is proven by the parallel ways we have separated and reunited them. rather than go into a detailed history of that understanding, let me refer the reader to the works of daniel stevnick in the bibliography, and remind one that the eastern church has never separated baptism--the immersion of the penitent in water three times as he or she confesses her belief in the father and the son and the holy spirit--from chrismation--the anointing of the newly baptised christian with oil--nor has she ever abandoned the keeping of the great gifty days.

the church in the west is recovering the understanding of that unity, if in bits and pieces. both united methodists and episcopalians, for instance, have restored to the baptismal liturgy the laying-on-of-hands that had been understood as part of confirmation, the west's development of chrismation. the episcopal church has restored at least the option of chrismation. the church of south india, that remarkable reunion of many fragments of the great church, has restored the putting on of a white garment, the ancient action referring to the description of the church in the revelation to john that gave pentecost sunday the name whitsunday in england when people waited as late in the fifty days as possible for baptism so the rivers would be less cold. no one, so far as i know, has returned to the ancient practice of requiring the baptismal candidate to put aside all garments, even jewelry, as a sign of renouncing the old life. but all of the church which acknowledges even the slightest importance of apostolic tradition is recovering easter, the pascha, as fifty days, the great week of weeks, the time to celebrate the mighty acts of god in which we are graced to participate through baptism in water and in fire.

circle of prayer 23. day:week:month:year::life

the song of simeon provides the step on which to move from the rhythm of time as it plays in the cycles of earth and moon, sun and stars, to the beat of each life:

"lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy promise,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

nunc dimmitis, book of common prayer translation

each of us is born, each of us dies. whether this happens in peace depends not on the occurances of our lives, but on our understanding, our comprehension, of them. we depart in peace if we have seen the lord's salvation.

the wonder, the mystery, is that the lord's salvation is always bigger than our understanding or comprehension. the church has over her long history founds ways of understanding the mighty acts of christ jesus, which is the fullness, the pleroma, of that salvation, not only through scriptures and tradition, but through our experience of time in the natural world. this has been the topic of this extended essay so far.

insofar as we are made in the image of god, so is christ the image of what our lives are to become, and the natural year becomes a revelation of our lives as well.

because our units of time, from a day to a year, repeat themselves in cycles, we can start our journey of understanding at any point on the wheel, trusting the returning to give us deeper faith and comprehension. what does not make sense today, this year, may be understood tomorrow, next year. but because there is always more, tomorrow and next year will bring new questions.

even though we can enter the cycle at any time, the entry most often occurs with what john wesley called the ordinary means of grace, the sacraments, which are related often to particular times of the year. the next few chapters consider those particular relationships.

circle of prayer 22. second thoughts: what child is this?

the twelve days of christmas have passed. you have celebrated the nativity of our lord until the epiphany, rather than letting the department stores control your holiday, and it still feels bleak midwinter. earth still stands hard as iron, water is still like a stone. what was it that christmas was all about?

"what child is this, who laid to rest,
on mary's lap is sleeping?
. . .
why lies he in such mean estate . . . ?"
(w.c. dix)

what really is this child of mary? what, really, is this child of god? candlemass (the celtic imbolc) and the transfiguration (celtic lughnasadh), falling on the cross-quarter days in early february and august, respond to those questions, in ways that are at the same time glorious and disturbing.

here is the story of the presentation:

"and when the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the law of moses, they took him up to jerusalem to present him to the lord--observing what stands written in the law of the lord: every firt-born male must be consecrated to the lord--and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the law of the lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. now in jerusalem there was a man named simeon. he was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to israel's comforting and the holy spirit rested on him. it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the christ of the lord. prompted by the spirit he came to the temple; and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him into his arms and blessed god; and he said:

'now master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel."

as the child's father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother, 'you see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'"

(luke 2:22-35)

it starts innocently enough. mary and joseph take the child to jerusalem "to present him to the lord." their poverty, if there had even been any doubt of it, is announced by their sacrifice: "a pair of turtle doves or two young pidgeons." nevertheless simeon, "an upright and devout man," reminds them of and confirms the message of the angels and dreams and shepherds. but to the joyful message that has come before, after proclaiming jesus "a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory . . . of israel," he introduces a shadow. to mary he says "and a sword will pierce your own soul, too." as john's gospel reports, "the light . . . shines in the dark," (john 1:5) and the dark would do everything it could to overpower the light.

so far one can see this light that is jesus as ordinary light, metaphorical light, domesticated light, as we do when the church blesses candles on this day, candlemass. the light is growing as winter moves into spring, and the light of the world is jesus, even if the light does come with a sword.

but there is more. and there is more. let us continue to hear luke's account:

"now about eight days after this had been said [--this being peter's profession that jesus is the messiah--] he took with him peter and john and james and went up the mountain to pray. as he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were moses and elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in jerusalem. peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. as they were leaving him, peter said to jesus, 'master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for moses and one for elijah.'--he did not know what he was saying. as he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. and a voice came from the cloud saying, 'this is my son, the chosen one. listen to him.' and after the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone. the disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.

. . .

"at a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he said to his disciples, 'for your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over into the power of men.' but they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said."

(luke 9: 28-36, 44-45)

this time the light's true nature is seen, light the church would come to call "uncreated light," "light from light," as she would call peter's "christ of god" (luke 9:20) "true god of true god." but the nature of the heart-piercing sword begins to be revealed as well. "you must keep these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over to the power of men." (luke 9:44)

this statement, difficult as it was and is for jesus' disciples to accept, is the very heart of our redemption. it is the corrective to original sin. remember the circumstances that are called the fall:

". . . YHWH god gave man this admonition, 'you may eat of all the trees in the garden. nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.' . . . then the serpent said to the woman, 'no! you will not die! god knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods.'" (genesis 2:16-17; 3:4-5)

what we often forget reading this passage is that the serpent is the deceiver. (revelation 20:10) adam does die, but spiritually. nor do he and eve know the difference between good and evil. we fear the one who can kill the body, and have no fear of the one who can kill the soul. (matthew 10:28) we ignore the revelation of each sunrise, of each new moon, of each springtime:

"a light . . . shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower." (john 1:51)

circle of prayer 21. holy cross day

massey hamilton shepherd has given many gifts to the church in his long career. i am obviously indebted to him for his sunday: the day of light. but i want to point out particularly one line of the holy cross day collect he wrote for the 1979 american book of common prayer:

"we, who glory in mystery of our redemption, may have the grace to take up our cross and follow him . . . ."

ah. and that's what i don't find the american church encouraging: to glory in the mystery. because the opposite is also true: we who glory not in the mystery of our redemption may not have the grace to take up our cross and follow him.

circle of prayer 20. the sun stands still: two nativities

"joshua declaimed:

'sun, stand still over gibeon . . . .'
and the sun stood still, . . .
till the people had vengence on their enemies."

(joshua 10:12-13)

if we find the story of the sun's standing still for joshua hard to believe, we should remember two things: the first is that joshua is a book of prophecy, not of history, and of course joshua's name in greek is jesus; the second is that the sun "stands still" twice a year, at the solstices. the nativity of jesus the messiah is celebrated at the winter solstice, the nativity of john the baptist is celebrated at the summer solstice.

the summer solstice: the nativity of john the baptist

if i were in charge of things, i almost certainly would have arranged for the messiah's birth at midsummer, letting the brilliance of the season announce the brilliance of the salvation and the new creation. instead it is john the baptist, the forerunner, who is born at the summer solstice.

john, the full light of the old testament summer, is but a prophet of the uncreated light to come. ". . . it was toward john that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the law were leading; and he," said jesus, "if you will believe me, is the elijah who has to return." (matthew 11:13-14) so john is born at the height of days, then says "he must grow greater, i must grow smaller." (john 3:30) the sun stands still at the northmost point of its journey, then heads south.

"the child that is born to us is more than a prophet; for this is he of whom the saviour says: among those born of woman there is not greater than john the baptist."

antiphon for the nativity of john the baptist (after matthew 11:10-11)

"the great forerunner of the morn,
the herald of the word is born,
and faithful hearts shall never fail
with thanks and praise his light to hail.

"with heavenly message gabriel came,
that john should be that herald's name,
and with prophetic utterance told
his actions great and manifold.

"john, still unborn, yet gave aright
his witness to the coming light,
and christ the sun of all the earth,
fulfilled that witness at his birth."

(the veneble bede)

the winter solstice: the nativity of jesus the christ

six months pass. the sun reaches its furthest southward point, and stands still again. in the northern hemisphere, "night has fallen." (john 13:30)

"in the deep midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago."

(christina rossetti)

"when all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of its swift course, your almighty word, o lord, leaped out of your throne, alleluia."

christmas antiphon (after wisdom 18:14-15)

the messiah is born when all is dark and bleak and there is little cause for hope. (one might add that this is not only true of the natural world. luke's gospel reminds us that jesus was born at a time of great political hopelessness as well: "in the days of king herod of judea . . . at the time [of] caesar august . . . " (luke 1:5, 2:1), despotism and pagan rule seemed firmly established.) but this is the time the sun stands still, and turns around, when

". . . the tender mercy of our god
. . . from on high will bring the rising sun to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace." (luke 1:78-79)

the church gathers to proclaim this coming of the light at midnight on christmas eve. people who would never visit a church at any other time gather instinctively with the faithful to celebrate this awesome event. whatever theology we may profess the rest of the year, on this night we answer the call:

"o come, all ye faithful,
. . .
come ye, o come ye, to bethlehem.
come and adore him."

and we leave, walking out into the darkness now strangely made bright, singing

"joy to the world
. . .
let heaven and nature sing."

(Isaac watts)

circle of prayer 19. fall into winter: all saints& spring into summer: pentecost

the times half-way between the equinoxes and the solstices are called cross-quarter days. they are important events in the celtic calendar. all saints and pentecost correspond, approximately, to samhain and beltane. (since pentecost's date, fifty days after the pascha, is controlled partly by the moon, it wanders around the may first date of beltane.)

these are thin places, times when the veil separating the worlds of flesh and spirit is transparent. these are times for bonefires (bonfires), when the bodies of the dead are returned to the elements. these are times to ponder our ultimate fate. the november first date for all saints day seems to have originated in the celtic church. in older english it was called "all hallows' day," using the word for holy or sainted we are most familiar with in the our father. from that name for the feast we get the term that describes all that is left for many people of what is really a very holy time: hallowe'en--all hallow's eve--reflecting that the day properly begins with the evening. october 31st is not, for the church, hallowe'en. rather all hallows still begins on the evening.

as i mentioned above, all saints had its beginning in rome where there were so many martyrs there were not enough days for each to have his or her own date. what was celebrated was their deaths, their falling to sleep, as paul had written in the first letter to the corinthians (15:18), understood as their entry into life in the world to come. at first the celebration occured just after pentecost, as it still does in the eastern church, but gradually in the west the november first date was adopted pretty much everywhere.

it is important to know that all saints day is considered a feast of the lord: "the lord is glorious in his saints." what is celebrated is the work of god in christ jesus through the holy spirit in anyone who says to him, "yes, let it be unto me according to your word" (luke 1:30). prayer is often offered "in the communion of the blessed virgin mary and all the saints," recognizing that it is our "yes, let it be" that like mary's opens the door to the holy one in our hearts and lives. especially do we remember this as the nights are getting longer, the days are getting colder, and the world seems to be returning to the elements. we pray:

"you, o lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through jesus christ, our mediator and advocate. amen.

of course the big celebration of the spirit "breathed upon us" comes six months later, or came six months before, depending upon which way we look. looking forward we see that the life which seems to be ebbing on the earth on all hallows will indeed be renewed at pentecost. "the spirit of the lord renews the face of the earth." looking back we recognize that it was the gift of the spirit which empowers all the saints to triumph in death.

the gift of the spirit is the climax towards which all salvation has been headed. in the church's celebration of pentecost the ancient jewish agricultural celebration of the grain harvest becomes the harvest of the first fruits of the resurrection, the fulfillment of the parable of the sower. in the words of psalm 126,

"when YHWH brought zion's captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter
and our lips with song.

"even the pagans started talking
about the marvels YHWH had done for us,
and how overjoyed we were!

"YHWH, bring all our captives back again
like torrents in the negeb!

"those who went sowing in tears
now sing as they reap.
they went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves."

circle of prayer. bibliography

the apostolic tradition of hippolytus. trans. burton scott easton (archon books, 1962).

dom cuthbert butler. western mysticism. london: constable and company, ltd., 1922.

book of common prayer, 1979.

j. gordon davies. holy week: a short history . richmond, virginia, john knox press, 1963.

annie dillard. for the time being. new york: alfred a. knopf, 1999.
holy the firm. new york: harper & row, publishers, 1977.

marion j. hatchett. commentary on the american prayerbook. harpersanfrancisco, 1995.

a. g. hebert. liturgy and society. london: faber and faber, mcmlxi.

a. j. heschel. sabbath: its meaning for modern man. new york: farrar, straus and young, inc., 1951.

the jerusalem bible. garden city, new york: doubleday & company, inc., 1966.

bayard h. jones. the american lectionary. new york: morehouse-gormon co., 1988.

e. kadloubovsky and g. e. h. palmer, trans. writings from the philokalia on prayer of the heart. london. boston: faber and faber, 1957.

lesser feasts and fasts. new york: the church hyman corporation, 1980.

liturgy: the lord's day. volume 8, number 1 (summer 1989).

a. allan macarthur. the evolution of the christian year. greenwich, connecticutt: the seabury press, 1953.

juan mateos, s.j. "the origins of the divine office," worship (1967), pp. 447-85.

leonel mitchell. the meaning of ritual. new york: paulist press, 1977.
prayer shapes believing: a theological commentary on the book of common prayer. harrisburg, pa/wilton, ct: morehouse publishing, 1985.

sayyed hossein nasr. knowledge and the sacred. new york: crossroad, 1981.

gertrude mueller nelson. to dance with god. new york/mahway: paulist press, 1986.

philip newall. the book of creation: an introduction to celtic spirituality. new york/mahweh: paulist press, 1999.

raimundo panikar. worship and secular man. london: dalton, longman & todd, 1973.

joseph pieper. in tune with the world. chicago: franciscan herald press, 1973.

h. b. porter. day of light: the biblical and theological meaning of sunday. greenwich, conn.: the seabury press, 1960.
a song of creation. cambridge: cowley publications, 1986.

prayer book studies 22: the daily office. new york: church hymnal corporation, 1970.

prayer book studies xii: propers for the minor holidays. new york: the church pension fund, 1958.

the rule of st. benedict in english. ed. timothy fry, o.s.b. collegeville, minnessota: the liturgical press, 1982.

alexander schmemann. for the life of the world. new york: st. vladimir seminary press, 1973.

howard schwartz. "on the first day." parabola. volume 26, no. 2. (summer 2001), pp. 15-18.

massey h. shepherd. oxford american prayerbook commentary. new york: oxford university press, 1950.


thomas spidlik. drinking from the hidden fountain: a patristic breviary (kalamazoo, michigan-spenser, massachusetts: cistercian publications, 199.

daniel b. stevick. baptismal moments, baptismal meanings. new york: the church hymnal corporation, 1987.

alan watts. myth and ritual in christianity. boston: beacon press, 1968.

circle of prayer 18. fall and spring: holy cross and pascha

i am of the first generation to grow up under the curse of television, the last generation in the united states, canada or western europe to grow up experiencing reality rather than virtual reality, or as its critics tend to say, hyper reality. an advantage of having lived in this transitional period is a stock of stories and characters from television that my whole generation remembers. one of my favourites is from howdy doody: an indian princess named summerspringwinterfall. her name was a two-edged sword: it looked back to the time when american children knew the seasons from direct experience; but it also suggested the silliness, the primitivity, of people who took the procession of the seasons seriously, whose wheat came from the earth rather than being shot from guns, as it was in another popular image from my tv-insired. random access memories.

the ancient israelites of course were one of the primitive groups for whom the seasons were intensely important. a people who had settled into an uneasy agrarianism with an ancestry of herding nomadism ("my father was a wandering aramaen. he went down into egypt to find refuge there . . . " says the confession at deuteronomy 26:5), their transition had not been without conflict, a conflict first recorded in the legend of cain and abel (genesis 4:1-16). their lives depended upon timely "sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night . . ." (genesis 8:22).

their earliest festivals had been agriculural. it is sometimes said that they came to be understood as having religious meaning as well, but for people who live close to the natural world, such a distinction seldom occurs. what did happen is that the meaning, the contents, of the feasts developed as the law was revealed, as they came into the land, and as worship came to be centered in the temple. the "festivals solemn to YHWH" are described in the twenty-third chapter of leviticus.

in the fall, in the seventh month, came rosh ha-shonah, the new year and annual remembrance of the creation of adam, man, yom kippur, the day of atonement, and the feast so important it was sometimes simply called the hag, the festival, the seven days of sukkot, the feast of tabernacles.

in the spring, in the first month, came pesach, passover and unleavened bread (and fifty days later, in the third month, shavuot, pentecost).

the church immediately picked up pascha and pentecost, called in england easter and whitsunday. their importance in the life of the church as the days of resurrection and the gift of the holy spirit are attested in the four gospels and in the acts of the apostles. but even though jesus as the fulfillment of the day of atonement is the major theme of the epistle to the hebrews, it would be three hundred years before the church developed a ritual occuring on the fall equinox to replace the jewish celebrations she did not continue to observe.

it was necessary that such a festival be developed. the fall equinox is too big an event in people's experience not to be explained as finding fulfillment in christ jesus. as a. g. hebert so perceptively comments, "above all, christ is the fulfiller." the difficulty of course is that easter had swallowed up the need for rosh ha-shonah, since the resurrection marked the first day of the new creation, the emergence from the earthen tomb of the new adam, and for yom kippur, jesus christ having accomplished once and for all the atonement towards which the yearly rites of the jews could only point (hebrews 10:12-14).

three hundred years after the crucifixion and resurrection of christ jesus, helena, mother of constantine, would visit the site to build a shrine. To do so required quite a lot of excavation, because previous emperors had erected a temple to jupiter there in an effort to make the place unavailable for christian devotion. during the work she found a piece of wood she decided must be from the very cross of our lord, and which would become the major relic of the shrine.

constantine's shrine was quite elaborate, as was suitable for such a venerable location. it consisted of two principal buildings: a basilica for the liturgy of the word, and a circular church called the resurrection--in greek anastasis--whose altar was placed on the very site of the tomb. it was used for the liturgy of the table and the singing of the daily office. the two buildings were separated by a courtyard through which the faithful passed on their way from word to table, and from which the exposed top of cavalry's hill was visible. there on good friday took place the solemn veneration of the cross, and there the congregation gathered after vespers for a final prayer and dismissal.

the shrine was dedicated in a. d. 335 on the 14th of september, the seventh month of the roman calendar, a date chosen to echo the dedication of solomon's temple on the same day of the seventh month of the jewish calendar (2 chronicles 7:8-10).

thus the time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, the darkness of the night begins to exceed the light of the day and the vegetable world begins to die, that time became the moment of exalting the cross, the ultimate symbol of the power of darkness, which would become the penultimate symbol of the power of light and life (the ultimate expression being the resurrection itself). it would look forward in the growing darkness to the unquenchable life of the one who is himself light.

but the feast also gathers up another fulfillment, another revelation, of christ jesus: his body's replacing the jerusalem temple, being destroyed and being raised up in three days (john 2:10-22). in an example of probably unintentional irony, on yom kippur, the day of atonement which coincides more or less with holy cross day (the jewish calendar is lunar and wanders a bit in relation to the solar calendar), modern jews read the book of jonah, the story about which jesus said, when "some of the scribes and pharisees . . . said 'we would like to see a sign from you,' . . . replied, 'it is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! the only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet jonah. for as jonah was in the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.'" (matthew 12:38-40).

just as fall, with so much of the world seeming to die, would not be a time for festival if there were no hope of the spring to follow, so holy cross day gets its hope, and its power, from the pasca, easter, which follows six months later. about the resurrection anything i write will fall short. one can only rejoice at crocus leaves and blossoms rising from the snow of winter. one can only most greatly rejoice at jesus rising from the heart of the earth. it is a truly cosmic event, a fact the church recognizes by celebrating on the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. all our measures of time are included, for what we are celebrating, as we mentioned in the chapters about sunday, especially chapter 13, is nothing less than the recreation of the cosmos: ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here" (2 corinthians 5:17).

the fact and the meaning and our proper response to the resurrection few of us can grasp in a moment. matthew records that after the resurrection, when the eleven disciples met jesus at the arranged place, "some hesitated" (matthew 28:17).

one enters into life in christ through baptism: ". . . when we were baptized in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life" (romans 6:3-4).

the immensity of this event led the church to require up to three years of catechesis before baptism, not at all unreasonably when considers christ jesus spent three years with his disciples before his crucifixion. all the faithful have come to approach this awesome day of death and resurrection through a forty-day lent. but none of our words about the resurrection seem to express its meaning any better or more powerfully than spring itself, that great outburst of life fulfilled in the great outburst of the living jesus from the rocky tomb. but we try, as in this hymn by j. m. c. crum:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

24 august: st. bartholomew

it is almost 7:00 a.m. and the sun is barely climbing the trees. st. bartholomew's day should remind me, if the bronze-tinged oak leaves in the rising sunlight do not, that holy cross day is coming.

the readings for morning prayer are psalm 86, genesis 28:10-22 and the gospel according to john 1:43-51.

so: when did nathaniel bartholomew apostle, "a true israelite in whom there is no deceipt," come to see "heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending upon the son of man?" did this only occur as he was being flayed, as stephen saw the temple of the new jerusalem as he was being stoned? or did it happen sooner? the key to an answer is in the phrase, "son of man." nathaniel has just called jesus "the son of god," but jesus calls himself "the son of man.."

this insistence on the incarnation in the story of the call of nathaniel comes in john's gospel just before jesus' conversation with nicodemus, which contains the striking claim "no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the son of man. and just as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up." (3:13-14) we often read this passage hurrying towards what we usually consider the punch line in the sentence we pull out as verse sixteen. but john was not writing verses, he was writing a gospel, and these early passages will be the background for jesus' enigmatic statement to mary magdalene on the morning of the resurrection, "i have not yet ascended to the father" (20:17), and they are a clue to what we are to become after jesus or one of his apostles breathes on us and says, "receive the holy spirit."

here in the beginning of john's gospel is already a prophecy and an interpretation of the ascension and its importance. the word of god, the son of god, becomes flesh and dwells among us, no longer only the son of god, god the son, who he has been eternally, but now also the son of man, with a body in which he will be glorified and in which he will ascend to heaven.

jacob dreamed of a ladder on which he saw "angels of god . . . ascending and descending." he recognized the place as "none other than the house of god . . . the gate of heaven." this same jacob, in whom there was plenty of deceipt, must wrestle with god in order to become israel.

jesus had called nathaniel "truly an israelite in whom there is no deceipt, but nathaniel too will be involved in a struggle, a struggle greater than jacob's, as he comes to the time when he can see above the son of man the angels of god going up and coming down. for the true jacob's ladder is the cross, which jesus invites us to take up daily.

nathaniel bartholomew, apostle, gift of god, son of the furrows, sent forth, would pick up his cross and carry it and the gospel as far as ethiopia and egypt and then north to armenia where he would be martyred by flaying. it is a dangerous prayer we pray this day as we remember bartholomew:

almighty and everlasting god, you gave to your aostle bartholomew grace truly to believe and preach your word: grant that your church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirt, one god, for ever and ever. amen

bartholomew believed firmly enough to lose his life in order to gain. he allowed himself to become a stone in the building which is the church, the body of christ, in which dwells the holy spirit.

a circle of prayer 17. contrasts and correspondences

as i have lived and prayed with these festivals over the years, i have come to notice significant correspondences between the pairs of celebrations that fall six months apart from each other. the pairs present the same themes, the same elements, in ways that show potential and fulfillment.

at candlemass, the feast of the presentation, for instance, we hear simeon call jesus "a light to enlighten the gentiles," (luke (luke 2:21) and six months later at the transfiguration we find jesus to be the uncreated light, "light from light, very god from very god." the potential seen by simeon is fulfilled in the sight of peter, james, and john.

the other corresponding pairs are similarly related:

holy cross day and the pascha, easter.
all saints' day and pentecost
the nativity of john the forerunner and the nativity of jesus the christ.

they will be discussed, therefore, in these pairings.

circle of prayer 16. the year: sunday bursts its spiced tomb

in the fifth century augustine of hippo wrote in one of his sermons words that could be the source of the words in the english prayer book i quoted in the previous chapter:

"we firmly believe, brethren, that the lord has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, the master for the slaves, the shepherd for the sheep and, still more astonishingly, the creator for the creatures. . . .

"all of that happened once and for all, as you know well enough. and yet we have the liturgical solemnities which we celebrate as, during the course of the year, we come to the date of particular events. . . .

"the historical truth is what happened once and for all, but the liturgy makes these events always new for the hearts that celebrate them with faith." (sermons, 220)

the problem with the resurrection, you see, is that it expresses itself at all times and in all places. as simeon the new theologian wrote, "faith means being willing to die for christ." there were almost immediately after the feast of pentecost "witnesses," for that is what "martyrs" means, followers of our lord ready to die for him. the seventh chapter of acts tells the story of stephen, the first martyr-witness, significantly not an apostle but a deacon, one chosen to serve, and therefore a prime illustration of what it might mean to serve christ the servant king.

very early the anniversary of the death, the falling to sleep, of the martyrs came to be remembered and celebrated, if possible with a eucharist at the place of martyrdom or at the tomb. soon there had been so many martyrs that in rome the church began to celebrate them all one day, all saints' day. this custom gradually came to be adopted throughout the western church.

although the death and resurrection events were central to the christian faith, other events in jesus' life were also considered important enough for annual remembrance. his birth obviously was one of those events.

often these were events which the disciples had not understood as they were happening. how often it must have been true, as the gospel according to john relates about the cleansing of the temple, that ". . . when jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed the scriptures and the words he had said." (john 2:22) among the most important of this category of remembrances were the the presentation, forty days after jesus' birth, and the transfiguration, in early august.

a third source of annual remembrances were the jewish festivals, the festivals of torah, which the church began to understand as messianic prophecies. some of them were intimately related to the life of our lord and his church. pesach, the passover, was the time of his death and resurrection, and shavuot, the feast of weeks, pentecost, was the time of the giving of the holy spirit. hannakah occured at the time of his birth.

over time other great jewish feasts, too, would be "baptised." the great fall holy days of rosh ha-shonah, yom kippur, sukkot and simchat torah yielded the new year of the eastern church, holy cross day, and the beginning of the new lectionary cycle. (although in the western church the new lectionary cycle is now seen as beginning with advent.)

besides jesus, only two people are remembered on the days of their birth: mary his virgin mother, on december eighth, and john the baptiser, the foreruner, on june twenty-fourth. the date of john's nativity would become a major feast of the church, occuring as it does just six months before the nativity of christ. the celebration of john's birth at the height of the solar year, marks the culmination of the old testament.

slowly there emerged a procession of eight great feasts at the major turning points of the year, proclaiming that all of time was both prophetic of the life and work of jesus christ, and fulfilled by that same life and work:

1. near the autumanal equinox, holy cross day, the fourteenth of september.
2. on the first of november, all saints' day.
3. on december twenty-fifth, the nativity of our lord jesus christ.
4. forty days after the nativity, the second of february, the presentation.
5. approximately six months after holy cross day, on the first sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, is pascha, the feast of the resurrection.
6. fifty days later (and approximately six months after all saints' day), the day of pentecost is "fully come."
7. at midsummer, six months after christmas, the church remembers the birth of john, the forerunner.
8. finally, on the sixth of august, six months after the presentation, comes the feast of the transfiguration of our lord.

these eight great festivals comprise a circle of prayer that not only proclaims and explains the life of our lord but, if understood correctly, is a key to understanding our own lives, day by day, year by year, lifespan by lifespan.

a circle of prayer: preface: beginning

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time." (t. s. eliot, "little gidding")

the problem and advantage of a circle is that it has no begining, and everywhere is a beginning. this essay on time as revelation and formation has been been begun three times. i began to be reworked, reformed, recreated by observing what is uaually called "the church year" after reading thomas merton's journal the sign of jonas. then i was in william tyndale's words "a lucky fellow" and wandered into an episcopal church and took up the daily office.

like so many new and true believers, i was anxious to share my discoveries. i read everything i could find on the "church year" (some of which are included in the selected bibliography), and soon i was teaching introductions to the year and even presenting a book called a circle of prayer to a publisher, who accepted it. but i was not quite happy with it, and only circulated it in xerox to a number of friends. (ironically, if it had been rejected i might have been defensive and tried harder to publish it.)

years passed, and i read more and taught more, sometimes about the history of the church year, sometimes about its meaning. i proudly had another work ready to publish about 1995, and the floppy discs holding it were stolen. so! more reading, more teaching, more recreation. and now, as the psalmist says, "i am old and greyheaded." if i am ever going to publish anything, it should be soon.

the delay has, i think, been very good. i am no longer interested in writing another history of the church year. i do not know of any that are actually adequate, even though some are very insightful. nor do i think justice can be done to the "meaning" of either individual feasts or of the whole cycle. what is the "meaning" of the holy one's self-revelation, beyond profound, enduring, tenacious love?

so what i present here is episodic and experiential, offered knowing that my understanding is inadequate, partial, seen "through a glass darkly." but it is also my testimony to the holy one's continual seeking of me and all his creatures in ways as ordinary as the sunrise, as spectacular as the sunset.

when did i begin my inadequate, partial look through the dark glass? in some ways as an eight-year old boy who walked down the aisle of walnut street baptist church in a small arkansas town to the singing of
"footsteps of jesus, that make the pathways glow;
i will follow the steps of jesus where'er they go."

but i was not always aware of following them in the years that followed, years that included taking a "year off" from my accustomed more-or-less orthodox christian practice to explore "natural religion/celtic christianity."

ultimately i have come to understand these "natural" events as revelations of god's christ, "because he wanted all perfection / to be found in him / and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, / everything in heaven and everything on earth, / when he made peace / by his death on the cross." (colossians 1:19-20)

i present this very imperfect essay because our common understanding of the christ tends to be so divided. some of us find "the cosmic christ," often described in sanscrit and usually separated from the cross. some of us find "a personal saviour," who may be the "first-born of all creation," (colossians 1:19) but who no longer has anything to do with the physical world. i believe neither of these views is adequate, and that a re-spect, literally a looking again, at how the holy one is revealed in time created, not as we have reinvented it in minutes and seconds, will help to broaden and unify our vision of the one who "is the image of the unseen god."

circle of prayer 15. the week two: a christian remembering

for christians, the redemption of the world in jesus' death, descent among the dead, resurrection and ascension is irrepeatable, described in the words of the anglican book of common prayer as "his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficiant sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world." one might expect the weekly, sunday, celebration of the eucharist, of the lord's supper, to suffice as the ". . . perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again." but the human mind does not easily take in every meaning of this "one once" event, so the liturgy soon began to expand on the sunday's celebration.

easter gave meaning to every sunday. "holy week," the last week jesus spent in jerusalem before his resurrection, gave meaning to every week. by the second century the "station"days of wednesday and friday were related to our lord's betrayal and crucifixion, often as fast days. somewhat later thursdays came to be understood as recalling the last supper and institution of the holy eucharist. although the observance of the days of the week throughout the year has seldom been a major part of christian devotion, except for friday fasting, in many parts of the church the celebration of holy week overshadows, if not easter sunday, than certainly the great fifty days.

circle of prayer 14. sunday not the sabbath::baptism not rest

sunday is not the christian sabbath. as the new-born church grew, the jewish christians continued to keep the sabbath. (the nasrani church of the east continues to do so until this day.) all the church, jewish and gentile, celebrated the lord's day.

the separation of the sabbath and the lord's day became confused in the reformation, extremely so amonst the puritans. the confusion remains a legacy of the western church. liturgy, the journal of the liturgical conference, who should know better, published an issue called "the lord's day" in which one fourth of the essays were about the sabbath. almost none of the essays makes any distinction between these two days.

i belabor this point because the confusion belittles both the sabbath and the lord's day. without the acknowledgement of the sabbath as the crown of creation, the first revelation of the holy, we lost both our appreciation of the goodness of creation and any potential appreciation and celebration of the new creation, the kingdom of god into which we are initiated by our baptism. to quote porter again, "entrance into the church is a re-creation and admission into the kingdom of light." (ephesians 2:10; colossians 1:12-13; 3:10; 1 peter 2:9; i john 1:7). and we perhaps lose sight of the nature of the true and ultimate place of rest which still awaits, and which is one of the central themes of the epistle to the hebrews (3:7-4:11).

circle of prayer 13. sunday: day of the spirit.

i am convinced that for luke the evangelist, for his favorite apostle, paul, and for john, evangelist and apostle, the climax of the mighty acts of god in the coming of the messiah into the world was not the resurrection but the outpouring of the holy spirit, which happens in all accounts on a sunday.

i won't try to convice my reader of this understanding of luke, paul, and john, but i will point to the centrality of the gift of the spirit both in scripture and liturgy.

on the first day of the week, "god's spirit hovered over the water." (genesis 1:26) to quote porter, ". . . we find that the mysterious divine role of the holy ghost at the inauguration of creation prefigures divine action in other biblical events of major importance.

and so luke 24:49: "and now i am sending down on you what the father has promised." acts 2:1,4: "when pentecost day came around, they had all met in one room . . . . they were all filled with the holy spirit."

for paul, a sample from romans (5:5): "the love of god has been poured into our hearts by the holy spirit which has been given to us."

and from john (20:21-22): ". . . and he said to them, 'peace be with you.

"'as the father sent me,
so i am sending you.'

"after saying this he breathed on them and said,
'receive the holy spirit.'"

it seems certain that in the earliest church sunday was a unitive feast, by which i mean it commemorated the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of christ and the outpouring of the spirit. this is clearly shown in the the ancient eucharistic prayer, the anaphora of st. basil:

"father, we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption. recalling christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory; and offering to you, from the gifts you have given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.

"we praise you, we bless you,
we give thanks to you,
and we pray to you, lord our god.

"lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your holy spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts . . . .

"grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in christ, to the praise of your name."

just as at his baptism in the jordan jesus was declared to be the son of god and the annointed one of the holy spirit, just as at pentecost the ascended jesus sends down the anointing of the holy spirit, baptizing his followers as john the forerunner had foretold (the gospel according to john 1:33), so the spirit comes down fresh on the body of christ each sunday as it gathers again in his name.

circle of prayer 12. sunday: day of resurrection

if sunday as the day of light might not seem obvious at first, sunday as the day of the resurrection should. all of the gospels make it very clear that the resurrection occured on the first day of the week. yet i have several times been surprised when i have asked self-defined christians, usually on a sunday afternoon, how they had celebrated the resurrection of our lord, to be met with vacant looks or some remembrance of easter.

that sunday, the first day of the week, was celebrated as the lord's day, the day of the resurrection, is very clear as early as the book of acts, when in the twentieth chapter (vv. 6-11) is described paul's sunday at troas. since he was there a week, we can assume that the choice of days was deliberate (and also that apparently they began at sunset according to the jewish marking of the day).

it seems that the pattern of christian worship which has been constant ever since was already being followed at troas. the pattern follows, and again i am indebted to h. b. porter for pointing this out, the resurrection appearances of jesus: first, he establishes that he is indeed alive. this is celebrated by the assembly of believers itself, who gather because they know that he is indeed alive. then, the scriptures are explained as they relate to the gospel. then the presence of the lord is remembered in the holy meal. finally, the followers are sent forth to proclaim everywhere the messianic kingdom.

we sometimes overlook the importance of the assembly itself. assembly is reflected in the greek name for festal celebrations, the synaxis. and the assembly is important again and again in the new testament writings, beginning with luke 24:33, when the emmaus road travelers arrive in jerusalem: "there they found the eleven assembled together with their companions." it is in this assembly that "he himself stood among them . . ." (v.36) the assembly is mentioned also, for instance in acts 12:12 and 20:8, and in the first letter to the corinthians, 5:4.

the expounding of scriptures is seldom overlooked, even in protestant worship where the meal is neglected. what is sometimes overlooked is the entirely new meaning and understanding of the scriptures that comes with the resurrection. there is now an entirely new creation. porter suggests that we see this new understanding when "new testament writers meditate upon the opening of genesis" in the following passages:
the gospel according to john, 1:1-4; the first letter to the corinthians, 15:20-49; the second letter to the corinthians 4-6; the letter to the ephesians 5:22-33; and the first chapter of the letter to the colossians.

then the meal. luke's gospel records "he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. and their eyes were opened and they recognized him . . ." (24:30b-31a). so the church has come to know him in the lord's supper ever since.

finally we, too, are sent out. having received the body of christ we are sent to be the body of christ at work in the world, with the deacon saying "let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the spirit."