In your great compassion give to us all a sense of your eternal Presence and with the prayers of all the Saints bring us at last to that place of joy and peace; through Christ our Lord.
Each weekday since this new age began, Fr. Kevin sends an email to everyone in the parish. It’s a form of the Daily Office—a psalm, a reading, a reflection, a hymn, the prayers. I think people make use of it in a variety of ways and times. On days when I do two or three offices, I’ve used it at noon. At other times I’ve used it as Morning Prayer. On occasion I’ve used the BCP Morning Prayer and stopped to read the refection and play the hymn. I’m told that many in the parish use and value it. It’s our common prayer.
In the email we receive there is a section prior to the Daily Prayer. There are pictures of two people or families of the parish community. There’s an invitation to send them greetings. And there’s the prayer –
racious God, we remember before you this day all members of our Saint Clement's Parish Family - their families and friends both living and departed - especially during these times of uncertainty and concern - focusing our prayers today on N. and N.. In your great compassion give to us all as sense of your eternal Presence and with the prayers of all the Saints bring us at last to that place of joy and peace; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
It’s got this Ascension sensitivity. We ask for “a sense of your eternal presence.” It’s akin to the Ascension Day collect, “Mercifully give us faith to perceive.” To perceive that Jesus Christ abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages. We pray for a “sense” of it; to “perceive” it. In God’s great compassion; in God’s mercy.
In my posting “Missing the Eucharist” , “I’m out walking—from home to California Avenue, walk among the mostly closed stores, you can get cupcakes and Starbucks is open for take-out, notice those with and without masks. Humming-- “Abide with Me.”
"Abide with Me" was in my head in part because on several days Fr. Kevin had it as the office hymn. And in part because these days have much darkness, fear, tears and death.
It’s a hymn grounded in an Ascension hope. Though it’s not the hope of discipleship or martyrdom. It’s not heroic. It is needy and weak. It’s sung at funerals and times of national tragedy. The author was Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)[i]. The priest was in poor health throughout his life. His parish declined in numbers when he was drawn to the Oxford Movement. The hymn was written as a friend was dying and kept repeating the phrase “abide with me.” It was first played at Lyte’s own funeral. The hymn is rooted in Our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension. The opening line refers to the story on the road to Emmaus , "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." (Luke 24:29).
On the Feast of the Ascension we pray, “Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages.” Even in weakness and death. Even in the pandemic. Even when the foundations are shaken. Abide with me.
In the past few days Father Kevin shared a sense of what that abiding is like,
Our humanity is what it is. We cannot change that. What we can change is our perception and interpretation of that humanity… What we can change is how we interpret our humanity with all its foibles and flaws from guilt and self recrimination to the reality of how God sees such things. God has no desire that rocks, thorns and/or manure be our lot. But God knows that it is what it is, that it is part and parcel of the humanity in which God takes the risk in creating us. Instead of judgment and condemnation, God reaches down, takes our hand and walks with us, even through and in the manure; no judgment, no blame, just embrace. Fr. Kevin Smith
In this time of the Ascended Christ I’d ask your prayers for Fr. Kevin and St. Clements Parish, for Sister Michelle and the Order of the Ascension, for the Church, that we might perceive that He abides with us even to the end of the ages.
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[i] In his life Henry Francis Lyte pastored several parishes, opposed slavery, moved from being an evangelical to a supporter of the Oxford Movement, and wrote several hymns that we still sing –in addition to “Abide with Me” there is "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" (Psalm 103), "God of Mercy, God of Grace" (Psalm 67),
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