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” or "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended.”
For years I’ve noticed this spontaneous, unconscious habit. A piece of music gets into me and I hear it in my head as I walk. Often it’s been a rock & roll hit from another time—Love Letters, Band of Gold, Be my Baby, Reflections; sometimes folk—Catch the Wind, Follow, Oh Freedom; sometimes from my parents time—I’ll be Seeing You, We’ll Meet Again; on occasion--The Marine Hymn. And sometimes a hymn—Requiem IV. Pie Jesu, Praise to the Holiest in the Height, Lead Kindly Light, For All the Saints. For three weeks now it’s Abide with Me and The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended.”
“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) Ten years ago “Praise to the Holiest in the Height” got me through cancer. For this moment it seems to alternate between two other hymns.
In this no-Eucharist time I’m thankful for God’s goodness. The music in my head isn’t a practice I decided upon and learned. It just happens. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. “For his mercy endures forever.”[i]
The music, along with the daily office and spiritual reading, have been the habits that have held me these past two months.
I miss the Eucharist. I miss the gathering. I miss the liturgy. I’m grateful for the touches of Eucharist provided in my parish—virtual mass, consecrated hosts for home, spiritual communion. Still, I miss the Eucharist.
Bishop Peter Eaton this morning,
Even in this time of isolation, solitude, even loneliness, while we are waiting for the time when we may gather again, we may receive grace from Jesus in other ways, too. In prayer. In meditation on the Scriptures. In the reading and studying of the spiritual masters of our tradition. In prayer together over the internet and the phone. In reaching out to those whom we know need us.
For we worship the One for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred, and who longs not just to dwell in our hearts, but to change them.
Even in this time when we cannot gather, we can still be true to this vocation, and grow more and more like Jesus. And we find that we have grown in that great virtue, perseverance.
During the Second World War “The Day Thou Gavest” was sung every Sunday by British prisoners of war held by Japan. The hymn was sung "to give them comfort and strength to carry on". In 1945 when Japan surrendered in Tokyo Bay “the ship’s band of HMS Duke of York, the British flagship, was joined by the massed bands from all the Royal Navy ships present and struck up a hymn as the flags of all the allied nations were lowered from the signal yards. The name of the hymn was “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended.”
"The music inspired the Navy’s official historian, Admiral Morison, on board the Missouri, to pen this benediction to the American sailors, but also to all the American soldiers, airmen and Marines of the Second World War:
Nothing could have been more appropriate to the occasion than this Sunday evening hymn to the Author of peace and lover of concord. The familiar words and music, which floated over the now calm waters of the Bay to the American bluejackets, touched the mystic chords of memory and sentiment, reminding all hands of the faith that had sustained them through travail and sacrifice. It brought sailors back to base and made them feel their Navy had achieved something more than a military victory.[ii]
The hymns, the rock and roll, the Office, spiritual reading, grieving, hoping—both now and then—knowing who we are and whose we are. Achieving something more.
rag+
[i] Psalm 136
[ii] From a blog –The End of the Second World War - Part 6 of 6 "The Proceedings ... are Closed"
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