Category: Feasts and Seasons

12Apr

A Brief Celebration of Easter

I have put together an audio file of readings and music, offered in praise of God and for the benefit of any who might find in it a blessing on this day of ongoing isolation due to the pandemic. The readings and music are taken from audio files that are in the public domain.

Easter Readings 2020
  1. Prelude: Concerto for 2 Trumpets in D Major, by Johann Molter, MWV 6.30. From a European Archive, at MusOpen.
  2. Reading: Acts 10: 34-43, from the World English Bible, by Librivox.
  3. Music: Te Deum, Orchestral, by Marc Antoine Charpentier; unknown performers, available from Community Audio section of the Internet Archive.
  4. Reading: Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24, from the King James Version, by Librivox.
  5. Reading: John 20:1-20, from the World English Bible.
  6. The Lord’s Prayer, World English Bible
  7. Concluding Prayer
  8. Music: “Amen”, from Magnificat, by Jan Dismas Zelenka; Performed by the Prague Choral Society, at MusOpen (linked above).

10Apr

On Good Friday God’s Privilege Was Checked At The Cross

…the god-man suffers too, with patience. Evil and death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies. The night on Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadows, the divinity ostensibly abandoned its traditional privilege, and lived through to the end, despair included, the agony of death. Thus is explained the “Lama sabachthani” and the frightful doubt of Christ in agony

Albert Camus, Essais (Gallimard, 1965), p. 444. Translated and quoted by Bruce Ward in “Prometheus or Cain? Albert Camus’s Account of the Western Quest for Justice,” Faith and Philosophy (April 1991): 213.

(My hat is tipped to Timothy Keller for bringing this quotation to my attention).

02Apr

Lent in a Time of Privation

“I feel like I shouldn’t have given up anything for Lent”, a patient said to me the other day.  In the midst of a global pandemic, Lent seems to have taken on a new life. As state and local bodies take drastic actions to curb the transmission of COVID-19, we all suddenly find ourselves in a state of government enforced deprivation and fasting.

Many of us are all but confined to our homes.  Travel is restricted, and spring vacations canceled. Schools are closed.  Churches are closed.  Restaurants, theaters, bowling alleys, and museums are all closed.  In grocery stores, masked customers flit about nervously looking for supplies that have sold out, such as eggs or toilet paper.  Some people are lucky enough to have work that is deemed “essential”, while others are furloughed and applying for unemployment.  The social fabric seems to be ripping apart. Accustomed to a land of plenty, we Americans now find ourselves struggling with privations that are alien to us.

Meanwhile, by coincidence, a large segment of faithful Christians are observing Lent. Lent was conceived as a season of fasting, discipline, and self-sacrifice leading up to Christianity’s holiest and most joyful commemoration, namely Easter.  The point of the fasting is to get past ourselves and our own desires, and to intensify our realization of our need for God and his work in our lives.

Whether voluntary or involuntary, this time of deprivation can either be a miserable mess, or it can be something we can see through eyes of faith as a kind of blessing.  The meaning of Lent, and of the tribulations brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic, can best be summarized in a statement passed along to me by a friend: “When we come to the end of ourselves, we see the beginning of God’s faithfulness.”

22Dec

Prayer for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son our Lord cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

15Dec

Prayer for the Third Sunday of Advent (Anglican)

Stir up thy power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

08Dec

Prayer for the Second Sunday of Advent (Anglican)

Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

01Dec

Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent (Anglican)

Almighty God, give us grace that we may put away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now In the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both Ihe quick and the dead, we may rise to the life Immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth: with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and forever. Amen.


11Jun

In Honor of Pentecost: Veni Sancte Spiritus

sung by the choir of Notre Dame de Paris. Organ – Pierre Cochereau


Come, Holy Spirit,
send forth the heavenly
radiance of your light.

Come, father of the poor,
come, giver of gifts,
come, light of the heart.

Greatest comforter,
sweet guest of the soul,
sweet consolation.

In labour, rest,
in heat, temperance,
in tears, solace.

O most blessed light,
fill the inmost heart
of your faithful.

Without your spirit,
there is nothing in man,
nothing that is not harmful.

Cleanse that which is unclean,
water that which is dry,
heal that which is wounded.

Bend that which is inflexible,
fire that which is chilled,
correct what goes astray.

Give to your faithful,
those who trust in you,
the sevenfold gifts.

Grant the reward of virtue,
grant the deliverance of salvation,
grant eternal joy.

05May

An Easter Quote from Fleming Rutlege

The power of God to make right what has been wrong is what we see, by faith, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day. Unless God is the one who raises the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, there cannot be serious talk of forgiveness for the worst of the worst—the mass murderers, torturers, and serial killings—or even the least of the worst—the quotidian offenses against our common humanity that cause marriages to fail, friendships to end, enterprises to collapse, and silent misery to be the common lot of millions. “All for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone.” This is what is happening on Golgotha.
(Fleming Rutlege, THE CRUCIFIXION: UNDERSTANDING THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015)