St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Thursday, July 24, 2008:

• Thursday evening choir practice is suspended through August.

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 25, 2008:

• Women’s AA meeting at 7:30 p.m. (in the Dining Room).

Today in the Episcopal Church we commemorate St. Thomas à Kempis (ca. 1380-1471), a priest, monk and writer. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library provides the following biography of this saint:

Thomas, whose family name was Hammercken, was born in the Rhineland town of Kempen near Düsseldorf in Germany. The school he attended at nearby Deventer in Holland had been started by Gerard Groote, founder of the Brothers of the Common Life. These were men devoted to prayer, simplicity, and union with God. Thomas of Kempen, as he was known at school, was so impressed by his teachers that he decided to live his own life according to their ideals. When he was 19, he entered the monastery of Mount St. Agnes, which the Brothers had recently started near Zwolle in Holland and which was then being administered by his older brother John. He spent the rest of his long life behind the walls of that monastery.

The pattern of Thomas’s life remained the same over the years. He devoted his time to prayer, study, copying manuscripts, teaching novices, offering Mass, and hearing the confessions of people who came to the monastery church. From time to time Thomas was given a position of authority in the community of monks, but he consistently preferred the quiet of his cell to the challenge of administration. He was pleasant but retiring. The other monks eventually recognized Thomas’s talent for deep thought and stopped troubling him with practical affairs.

Thomas wrote a number of sermons, letters, hymns, and lives of the saints. He reflected the mystical spirituality of his times, the sense of being absorbed in God. The most famous of his works by far is The Imitation of Christ, a charming instruction on how to love God. This small book, free from intellectual pretensions, has had great appeal to anyone interested in probing beneath the surface of life. “A poor peasant who serves God,” Thomas wrote in it, “is better than a proud philosopher who … ponders the courses of the stars.” The book advised the ordering of one’s priorities along religious lines. “Vain and brief is all human comfort. Blessed and true is that comfort which is derived inwardly from the Truth.” Thomas advised where to look for happiness. “The glory of the good is in their own consciences, and not in the mouths of men.” The Imitation of Christ has come to be, after the Bible, the most widely translated book in Christian literature.

Thomas died in the same monastic obscurity in which he had lived, on Aug. 8, 1471.

The following is the prayer for Thomas à Kempis’s commemoration in Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

Holy Father, you have nourished and strengthened your Church by the inspired writings of your servant Thomas a Kempis: Grant that we may learn from him to know what is necessary to be known, to love what is to be loved, to praise what highly pleases you, and always to seek to know and follow your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Wednesday, July 23, 2008:

• Evening Prayer at 6:30 p.m. (in the Worship Space or the Parish Hall);
• Midweek Discussion Groups at 7:00 p.m. (in the Parish Hall);
• Overeaters Anonymous at 7:30 p.m. (in the Common Room).

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 24, 2008:

• Thursday evening choir practice is suspended through August.

Today is a feria in the Episcopal Church. The English religious group, the Northumbria Community, includes commemoration of St. John Cassian (also called Cassianus) on its calendar on this date; he is also venerated on this date in a local cultus at Marseilles, France, where he founded monateries for both men and women.

John Cassian was born in the Danube Delta in what is now Dobrogea, Romania, in about 360. In 382 he entered a monastery in Bethlehem and after several years there was granted permission, along with his friend St. Germanus of Dobrogea, to visit the Desert Fathers in Egypt. They remained in Egypt until 399, except for a brief period when they returned to Bethlehem and were released from the monastery there.

Upon leaving Egypt they went to Constantinople, where they met St. John Chrysostom, who ordained St. John Cassian as a deacon. He had to leave Constantinople in 403 when Chrysostom was exiled, eventually settling close to Marseilles, where he was ordained priest and founded two monasteries, one for women and one for men.

St. John’s most famous works are The Institutes, which detail how to live the monastic life, and The Conferences, which provide details of conversations between him, his friend Germanus, and the Desert Fathers. He also warned against some of the excesses in St. Augustine of Hippo’s theology although refraining from criticizing him by name. As a result, he has sometimes been described as Semi-Pelagian (a heresy) by some commentators.

The Northumbria Community’s Celtic Daily Prayer includes two quotations from St. John Cassian in its daily meditations:

True discretion is impossible without true humility. Self-deception is unlikely when a person is humble enough to submit to the judgement of another.

and

Observe, admire and obey may be given as the novice’s watchwords. The ideal must not remain an ideal, but has to be realized at whatever the cost. The cost is heroism.

St. John died peacefully in 435.

The following is the prayer suggested for commemoration of a monastic in The Book of Common Prayer - 1979:

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant John Cassian, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Tuesday, July 22, 2008:

• Al-Anon meeting at 7:45 p.m. (in the Parish Hall).

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 23, 2008:

• Evening Prayer at 6:30 p.m. (in the Worship Space or the Parish Hall);
• Midweek Discussion Groups at 7:00 p.m. (in the Parish Hall);
• Overeaters Anonymous at 7:30 p.m. (in the Common Room).

Today in the Episcopal Church we commemorate a New Testament saint, Mary Magdalene.

As Wikipedia informs us:

Mary Magdalene is described, both in the canonical New Testament and in the New Testament apocrypha, as a devoted disciple of Jesus. She is considered by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches to be a saint, with a feast day of July 22. She is also commemorated by the Lutheran Church with a festival on the same day. The Orthodox Church also commemorates her on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, which is the second Sunday after Pascha (Easter).

Mary Magdalene’s name identifies her as “of Magdala” — the town she came from, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee — and thus distinguishes her from the other Marys referred to throughout the New Testament. [Note: Though some earlier interpreters blended the person of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and the sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50, current scholars believe she was a different person.]

The life of the historical Mary Magdalene is the subject of ongoing debate, while the less-obscure development of the “penitent Megdalene”, as the most beloved medieval female saint after Mary, both as an exemplar for the theological discussion of penitence and a social parable for the position and custody of women, provides matter for the social historian and the history of ideas. (Read the entire Wikipedia article on Mary Magdalene here.)

According to John 20:1-2, 11-18, Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus after he had been raised from death. And her announcing to the disciples that she had “seen the Lord” has led to her becoming known as the “apostle to the apostles.” As the “apostle to the apostles,” Mary Magdalene was called as a witness to Christ’s resurrection and to proclaim to others what she had heard and seen. As a woman of faith and devoted disciple, she serves as a model for us today in sharing the good news so that lives can be changed by an encounter with the gospel message and the risen Christ.

The following is the prayer for today from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Monday, July 21, 2008:

• There are no activities on the parish calendar today.

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 22, 2008:

• Al-Anon meeting at 7:45 p.m. (in the Parish Hall).

Today in the Episcopal Church (by translation from yesterday, July 20) we commemorate four women who are recognized as pioneers of black rights and women’s rights: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman. The date chosen for commemorating them is the anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, 19-20 July 1848.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) is believed to be the driving force behind the 1848 Convention, and for the next fifty years played a leadership role in the women’s rights movement. Although somewhat overshadowed in popular memory by her long time colleague Susan B. Anthony, Stanton was for many years the architect and author of the women’s suffrage movement’s most important strategies and documents. She died in 1902. While she did not live to see women’s suffrage in the United States, she is nonetheless regarded as one of the true major forces in the drive toward equal rights for women in the United States.

Amelia Bloomer

Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) lived in Seneca Falls in 1848, but was not an active participant in the Convention. In 1849, Bloomer began publication of The Lily, a monthly temperance paper. The paper soon became a voice for advocates of women’s interests. The paper became an active voice for change in women’s dress, and the abandonment of restrictive clothing in favor of shorter skirts and knee-length undergarments that came to be known as Bloomers.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born into slavery in New York as Isabella Baumfree (after her father’s owner, Baumfree). She was sold several times, and while owned by the John Dumont family in Ulster County, married Thomas, another of Dumont’s slaves. She had five children with Thomas. In 1843, she took the name Sojourner Truth, believing this to be on the instructions of the Holy Spirit and became a traveling preacher (the meaning of her new name). In the late 1840s she connected with the abolitionist movement, becoming a popular speaker. In 1850, she also began speaking on woman suffrage. Her most famous speech, Ain’t I a Woman?, was given in 1851 at a women’s rights convention in Ohio.

Harriet Ross Tubman

Born a slave in Maryland, Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) escaped to freedom, and later led more than 300 other slaves to the North and to Canada to their freedom, too. The best-known conductor on the Underground Railroad, she served with the U.S. Army in South Carolina during the Civil War, as a nurse, scout, spy and soldier. After the war, she spoke for the rights of women and African Americans, helped organize the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and set up a home for indigent aged African Americans.

The following is the prayer for today from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen and sustain us as you did your servants Elizabeth, Amelia, Sojourner, and Harriet. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Sunday, July 20, 2008:

• The Rev. Alan James, Executive Officer of the Diocese of Ohio, joins us as Guest Presider for the morning services.
• Holy Communion at 8:00 a.m.;
• Nursery Opens at 9:15 a.m.;
• Holy Eucharist with Hymns at 9:30 a.m.;
• Children’s Story Time at 9:30 a.m.;
• Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m.

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 21, 2008:

• There are no activities on the parish calendar tomorrow.

Today is the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. Among the Revised Common Lectionary texts for today is the story of Jacob dreaming of the ladder of angels (Genesis 28:10-19a) which begins with these words:

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

A religious educator in the tradition of Reform Judaism comments on this story:

How often have we found ourselves in the presence of God at the most unexpected of times, in the most unexpected of places?

When I was a child, I was an eternal optimist. I was as certain of God’s existence as I was of the leaves on the trees and the waves in the ocean.

When I got older, I had to confront some painful facts that raised questions: How could the God of my childhood explain the Holocaust? Anti-Semitism? Sickness? Sept. 11? So often when I have most needed to experience God’s presence, I have instead felt rejected and alone.

When the images of Jacob’s dream are presented to us, we are told that the angels of God ascended the ladder before going down toward the earth. What is the purpose of the ladder? Is it the means by which Jacob’s prayers reached the heavens so that God could hear his pleas? Did the angels ascend in order to return to Jacob and bestow upon him God’s blessing?

Most of us will always be on a spiritual search to define God in a way that best suits us. But while we search, we must keep in mind that at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected places, that still small voice can be heard and God surely dwells where we are. (Read the full Torah Study by Yonni Limmer Wattenmaker, RJE, director of education at Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford Corners, N.Y., here.)

The following is the collect for today (Proper 11 for the Sunday closest to July 20) from The Book of Common Prayer – 1979:

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is in session July 16 through August 3, 2008. Please pray for our bishops and for the Anglican Communion.

At St. Paul’s Parish today, Saturday, July 19, 2008:

• Free Farmers’ Market at 10:00 a.m. (in the Dining Room).

The Summer issue of St. Paul’s Sword of the Spirit, our monthly newsletter, is available on line, as are the calendars of parish events for July 2008 and August 2008.

Today’s news in the Episcopal Church - Episcopal Life Online.

On the calendar tomorrow, July 20, 2008:

• The Rev. Alan James, Executive Officer of the Diocese of Ohio, joins us as Guest Presider for the morning services.
• Holy Communion at 8:00 a.m.;
• Nursery Opens at 9:15 a.m.;
• Holy Eucharist with Hymns at 9:30 a.m.;
• Children’s Story Time at 9:30 a.m.;
• Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m.

Today on the calendar of the Episcopal Church we commemorate the Fourth Century saint Macrina the Younger (ca. 330- 380).

Macrina was the eldest child in a remarkable family which produced many who are regarded as saints. Her grandparents were martyrs. Her parents, also recognized as saints, were Basil the Elder and Emmelia, and her grandmother was Saint Macrina the Elder. Three of her brothers are also regarded as saints: Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caeserea, and Peter of Sebaste. Her parents saw to it that she was very well educated, and she in turn became the teacher of her younger brothers Basil and Gregory. They themselves became two of the greatest teachers in the Universal Church; together with their friend Gregory of Nazianzus and called “The Cappadocian Fathers” and are revered as defenders of the orthodox trinitarian faith.

Many scholars believe that the brothers’ success is directly attributable to their sister’s influence. In Gregory’s life of his sister, he tells the story of Macrina rebuking Basil, who had a brilliant university career in Athens, and warns him not to be so uppity—just the sort of thing one can imagine a big sister saying to a little brother! Eventually, Macrina became the head of a double monastery of women and men established under her brother Basil’s episcopal auspices. She appears to have written nothing of her own: her teaching survives only in the words of her brother Gregory, and indirectly in the influence she had on him and Basil (perhaps also on their friend Gregory of Nazianzus).

An English translation of the Life of Macrina by her younger brother St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the form of a letter to “the monk of Olympus”, is available online.

A troparian, or short hymn of praise to her as a Mother of the Church is sung on her feast on the Eastern Orthodox tradition:

The image of God was faithfully preserved in you, O Mother,
for you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh, for it passes,
but rather to be concerned about the soul that is immortal.
Therefore, O Holy Macrina, you now rejoice with the angels.

The following is the prayer for Macrina’s commemoration in Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

Merciful God, you called your servant Macrina to reveal in her life and her teaching the riches of your grace and truth: May we, following her example, seek after your wisdom and live according to her way; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.