They know, and you know, that they are offering their lives

In 1878 a small band of Episcopal nuns, a couple of Episcopal priests, a number of Roman Catholic sisters and priests, and a few prostitutes, were doing what they could to minister to the sick and dying in Memphis.

The Mother Superior of the Sisters of Saint Mary had just sent two more sisters from New York, Ruth and Helen.

Sister Ruth wrote, ““The city is desolate, everyone who is not ill says, ‘It is only a matter of time.’ … Money is quite useless … There is plenty of money here, but it buys no head to plan, no hands to wash, nor the common necessaries of life. … We are helpless and do not know what to do nor how help can come … There are nearly fifty children here now [in the orphanage]; we have no clean clothes, and it is utterly impossible to get any washing done. There is no one to send for supplies, and no stores are open.”

In a city of 50,000, 30,000 fled and 5,000 died. Sisters Ruth and Constance were among the dead.

In response to Ruth and Helen being sent to assist, Sister Constance wrote the Mother Superior this:

my sense of duty in the matter is so divided between the feeling that I ought to secure all the help I can for these poor suffering people, and the fear for those who come. I will guard them to the utmost; but they know and you know that they are offering their lives.

A shift

My guess is that the conversation in much of the church will now begin to shift from how we care for ourselves (washing hands, sanitizer, limit contact, common cup, intinction) to matters of the spiritual life (humility in the face of what we don’t fully understand and control,  meditation upon death, adoration and love in response to fear, sacrifice for the common good).

In the more thoughtful and prayerful corners of the church the conversation will move from the necessary and obvious conversation into the deeper and more demanding conversation. And some of that will be liturgy—as I write this a message came from Saint Mary’s Times Square announcing tonight’s Stations of the Cross; an act of adoration and reflection—“we adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.”

We will be struggling our way out of the impulses of denial and catastrophizing. The church’s illusion driven and crisis junkies will do what they do. The rest of us need to attend to adoration and kindness, devotion and compassion, reflection and sacrifice.

We need to take special care to not feed a sense of panic and faithlessness in the church. To not cater to the most paranoid, frightened, anxious, and conspiracy driven people who come to us. Do not let them set the agenda for the entire parish. Consider the facts as we learn them. I was impressed by an interview in the Living Church with Dr. Lisa Gilbert. She offers both a rather grim picture of what we may face along with a trust in God’s goodness.   

Encourage people:

To take appropriate precautions for themselves, their family and their friends, their coworkers, and all the other citizens they come in contact with. And, if you have been trying to serve as an information source on the virus—turn your attention to the spiritual life. Provide links to the medical experts in your area and let them do that work.

To open themselves to adoration and awe. Say the daily office. Offer intercession and adoration in communion with all the saints, maybe especially Constance and her Companions.

To give thanks for those on the front line of sacrifice. Medical workers especially those in direct contact. First responders. All those who continue to go to work each day to provide transportation, food and supplies, and the working of government.

To be willing to join in the common work of sacrifice. Accept in humility any needed restrictions upon your person that are for the safety of all. 

To share the stories of those who serve the ill and dying, those who care for the dead, those who bear their illness with patience and courage. Tell the stories of perseverance and sacrifice.

To be good citizens, participants in the beloved community. Be kind and gentle to all. Do not spread rumors. Seek the truth.

Pray with the Martyrs of Memphis: Constance and her Companions

If an icon will be helpful, please feel free to download this image of the Martyrs of Memphis. Use it in your prayers. Place it in the church near the altar. It would be appropriate to acknowledge that the icon writer is Suzanne Schleck and that it is part of the icon series “The Anglo Catholics” that I commissioned in recent years. Here is a web page related to the icon.  An article from the Episcopal News Service - ‘Martyrs of Memphis’ have lessons to teach those battling COVID-19

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Postings on the inner life and the virus

You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives      

Intercessions and the virus  

Solitude

The mystery of the cross

Solitude in Surrey 

We'll meet again

Fact and Illusion 

God's not indifferent to our pain 

Endures all things

Becoming an Associate of a Religious Order

People Touch

Spiritual vitality and authenticity 

The path of servanthood

Down into the mess

Missing the Eucharist 

In you we live

Faith to perceive

Faith to perceive: In your great compassion  

Turn everything that happens to account

We no longer know what to do

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

Power from the center pervades the whole 

To everything there is a season

Faith to perceive: Remaining inseparable

The God of all mercy

My first significant experience of saying a public office was at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. Fr. John Black was the curate. He had served as a Marine Corp drill instructor before going to seminary. On some days Jack sang Morning Prayer in Russian in the shower. He’d then gather up whatever crew of young people who were staying in the curacy and take us to breakfast on Susquehanna Avenue. We’d wander back to the church by 10:00 am for Morning Prayer in a side chapel. He’d throw on a black cassock, and whether alone or with others, offer that act of daily adoration.

All that mixed in my formation along with the writings of several Episcopal women who thought it best to say Morning Prayer, with coffee, at the kitchen table.

So, I had a pattern in my head—Office in the church if I was the parish priest and could decide it would be so; and Office with coffee if I was on my own. It’s been my pattern for over 50 years. Some years more faithfully than others.

Lent became a time that often included getting back-on-the-horse of the Daily Office. When I had drifted into irregular practice--not doing it some days or truncating it because I was just so busy—Lent was a time to return, to give myself to the stability and obedience that offered true life.

These days I say the office on my own. Well, not really, there’s always the angels and archangels and whole company of heaven. There’s no parish nearby that has a public office. I know—shocking! 

So, since I moved into my West Seattle apartment I’ve had a routine of getting my shower (I don’t sing and I don’t know Russian), and walking to Uptown Expresso for my morning coffee, I’d return home and make breakfast, then I’d say Morning Prayer—if I didn’t get distracted by something else. If I did get distracted there was always Noon Prayers. If I remembered.

All a bit too hit-and-miss isn’t it?

So, it’s Lent. And you and I need to get-back-on-the-horse. For some of you, such as my active parish priest friends in the Order of the Ascension, offering a public Office is a given. But even “givens” get undone when we move, get ill, or go on sabbatical.

My Lent will include changing my routine. Before the shower, coffee at Uptown Espresso, and breakfast will come Morning Prayer (with coffee in my chair). And to make a “right beginning” I will light the candles, take note of the icons on my wall, and read a brief commentary on the Gospel reading (Scott Lewis SJ, these first days and then Francis Moloney SDB, on Mark). Then the shower, walk, coffee shop, and breakfast.

And being a good Anglican, and having read Martin Thornton, I'll make needed adjustments as the weeks unfold.

Nice being retired, you think. True. But if you’re a busy person running a parish, tending a home, or with a job that starts at 8:30 am—figure it out. As Blessed Covey put it – “The key is not to prioritize your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” If participating in the Daily Prayers of the Church is a priority for you—arrange your schedule so it is offered. Take into account your circumstances and temperament, and then find a way to make it happen.  Sing it in the shower in Russian if needs be.

 

A final nudge, if you are a parish priest you have all the time you need to offer A Prayer Book Lent. Announce it on Sunday and begin it on Monday (or Tuesday).

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Seeking parish harmony

By listening, not denouncing; empathizing, not ridiculing; understanding, not dismissing.

I’ve experienced three kinds of parish annual meetings: 

Harmony through engagement, humility and respect. Meetings with an open and free flow of information. Meetings in which people listen with respect to one another. A joyful parish.

Harmony by being victorious over those with different opinions and ideas. Those in which people yell at one another. Meetings with an agitated climate. An angry parish

Harmony through suppression. Meetings in which few questions are asked or uncomfortable ideas expressed. And when such do surface the priest or a warden quickly shut things down. A fearful parish

The last parish meeting I was in was the first kind. The rector and the senior warden moved us through the agenda with a light touch. Parishioners asked questions and made comments. There was little of the inquisitor type behavior in response to reports, maybe just a bit. It was met with transparency and good spirit. The rector and senior warden allowed the time and emotional space for people to say whatever they wanted to say and to ask whatever they wanted to ask. They were responded to with good humor and answers that were complete and respectful.

It was an example of knowing parish harmony as the love of God worked in and through the Body of Christ. There was some disagreement.  Difficult issues and questions were raised and addressed. It was harmony through engagement, humility, and respect.  

In a recent article in the NY Times, Bret Stephen wrote of a pathway toward national unity—“By listening, not denouncing ; empathizing, not ridiculing; understanding, not dismissing.” Sounds a bit like Saint Francis doesn’t it?

In this age we seem to find it difficult to listen to ideas and information that makes us uncomfortable. The response in the Office says, “And guide us in the way of justice and truth.” We seem to have more and more difficulty holding the two together or believing that others may see a truth that we have missed.

We live in a time when the bearers of uncomfortable news are more likely to be ignored, maligned, and punished. Of course, it’s not really new. We’ve all heard about killing the messenger. We look back on the Watergate work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and see vocational integrity and heroic action. A seeking of justice and truth. But we know that things often move in another direction—the whistleblower is exposed and threatened, the Navy Seals who told the truth are disregarded and denigrated, and Jewish students who support Israel are threatened and intimidated. 

In recent years I’ve heard clergy calling for a form of “collegiality” that asks for the suppression of uncomfortable ideas and questions. It sounds a lot like the blue wall of silence. As always the church is both of this world and of the kingdom.

So, it’s a big deal when a parish has an annual meeting, and more broadly lives a life, “by listening, not denouncing ; empathizing, not ridiculing; understanding, not dismissing.”

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A Prayer Book Lent 2020

Yes, this is a repeat. This posting was first offered last January. At the time a number of people expressed their thanks for it. So, here it is again. 

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Let’s try something new this Lent. Something most of our parishioners have never experienced. Let’s invite them into a Prayer Book Lent

What would that look like?

1. Participation in the Holy Eucharist each Sunday.

To include observing Sunday as the feast day that it is. None of the puritanical nonsense of maintaining our special observance or fasting behavior on Sunday. Instead a celebration of the resurrection. This must include the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25). One might make a case for Saint Joseph on March 19 and even, stretching a bit, St. Patrick on the 17^th.

2. Participation in the daily office most days of the week

In the parish’s public office (yes, at least do it through Lent!) if possible; and on your own, if circumstances require that.

3. Observing Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as fast days.

4. Observing all the days of Lent (other than Sundays and the Annunciation) as days of special devotion

 Observe by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the Lord's crucifixion

5. Participation in the liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

We would be offering the balanced spiritual diet of our tradition.

On the parish’s part it would require

Having a public daily office. One that is really the Office as intended not the office as an occasional service.

Using the Prayer Book liturgies for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Maybe letting go of the 1970s legalistic approach of having only one liturgy each of those days. Do the Daily Office each day of Holy Week. Consider offering an early morning Eucharist on Maundy Thursday as well as a fuller liturgy in the early evening. On Good Friday consider having Stations at noon and the Liturgy for Good Friday that evening.

Having a Eucharist on the Feast of the Annunciation

The parish might also choose to offer:

A two-session offering in late Epiphany or early Lent on saying the Office on your own. Each about 40 minutes. The first session exploring ways of saying the office with a range from doing the full BCP Office to some short form. From using the BCP to doing it on-line. The second session a week later being an opportunity to reflect on how using it that week worked out and looking at ways of revising that to better fit personalities and circumstances. Consider offering the workshop twice.

A one session workshop of two hours on helping individuals create a Rule for Lent. Based on the above but tailored to the person’s spiritual need, circumstances, and temperament. Have them write out their current spiritual practice and make note of issues of circumstances and temperament that impact it. Then have them consider the Prayer Book Lent and write out what they will commit themselves to do.

A careful weaving of a few minutes of ascetical teaching into the preaching of last Epiphany and Lent. For example –

“be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory” -- Might serve to engage how we rely on Grace and also need to make use of practices that set us in the pathways of grace (Rule, Eucharist, office, etc.)

“was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days” – Explore the relationship between “special acts of discipline and self denial” and coping with temptation.

You might reflect upon the relationship between a practice such as the Daily Office and “the day of trouble.”

5 One thing have I asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; * that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord * and to seek him in his temple.

7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter; *
he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling and set me high upon a rock.

One other small idea. Consider abstaining from Facebook and Twitter during Lent. Turn off the parish accounts. Caution – suggesting this to people only makes sense if we are also offering “a Prayer Book Lent.”

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Grounding our parishes in prayer, rather than in program

Sister Michelle Heyne, OA sent a message to the Professed and novice members of the Order of the Ascension this morning. She was sharing two new resources for the Daily Office: The Hour, an online magazine with an Anglican Catholic Left orientation, and the Society of St. Nicholas Ferrar, formed to create commitment, community, and practice around saying the Daily Office.  Michelle closed her message by thanking the members for all they do, especially “grounding our parishes in prayer, rather than in program.”

The first issue of The Hour begins with this, “We contend that the pervasive neglect of the Daily Office throughout our church is a real problem.” The editors seek to address the problem by bringing together theory and practice. I hope you’ll take a look at The Hour.

From the Rule of the Order of the Ascension

The Threefold Rule of the Church: All Professed Members will live within the Threefold Rule of the Church. We are each to be at the Holy Eucharist every Sunday, say the Office daily, and have a fruitful pattern of reflection/personal devotions. All Professed Members who are also priests-in-charge of parishes will establish, and fully participate in, that pattern in the common life of their parish. All who are not in a position of such responsibility will be supportive of efforts in their own parish to shape the pattern. Novices will establish the pattern in the first two months of their novitiate.

The Daily Office is offered in an appropriate way each day. All Members say the Office daily. Priests in charge of parishes provide for, and participate in, a public office in their parishes.

The Church’s Office, said by two souls in the village church on Monday night, is an infinitely tremendous thing; the special service with its teeming congregation is trivial by comparison. … There is nothing so contagious as holiness, nothing more pervasive than Prayer. This is precisely what the traditional Church means by evangelism and what distinguishes it from recruitment. …All prayer, ideally, is to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit; but ascetically and analytically the Office tends to emphasis the first objectively, the Mass is the mutual loving embrace of Christ, and prayer in private depends upon the Paraclet’s indwelling.    -Martin Thornton

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Resources

The Society of St. Nicholas Ferrar    

The Hour   

Daily Office Synergy    

Order of the Ascension   

The Threefold Rule of the Church