dual personalities

Tag: BCP

Le dons de Dieu pour le peuple de Dieu

by chuckofish

One of the books I grabbed at the estate sale last Saturday was a Book of Common Prayer en francais.

Although I took French for something like ten years growing up, I am the first to admit that I learned next to nothing. I was able to pass the foreign language requirement (barely) in order to get a master’s degree back in 1979 and I have a pretty good ear and can watch French television shows–but that’s about it.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

How great is that? I am going to have fun reading and trying to remember some of these prayers in French.

Of course, we Presbyterians have a problem with “written prayers” because they frequently mask the emptiness of the heart. This short article by Derek Thomas explains how outward demonstrations of piety may be no more than mere hypocrisy.

And I loved this. “Can you imagine how proud you’d be if you were this 13-year-old sniper’s parents? Job SERIOUSLY well done, young man.” True story.

Have a good Tuesday!

J’aime le Seigneur: il entend le cri de ma prière…

Surrexit dominus de sepulchro*

by chuckofish

Well, Good Friday is here. Let’s all take a moment.

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

Christina Rosetti

Tonight we will watch Ben Hur (1959) up to the intermission, finishing tomorrow. It’s a good tradition.

On Saturday we are having a wee luncheon for one of daughter #1’s friends from college who has moved to our flyover city. She is expecting twins, so we thought we would introduce her to our twins– a glimpse of Things To Come.

Remember?

Daughter #1 and I are going to church on Sunday–for the first time in a year I am somewhat ashamed to say. I have been worshipping–if you can rightly call it that–by visiting churches online for the past year and by listening to online sermons. It is far from the same thing, however, and we all need to get back on track. We will be visiting a new church, a Presbyterian Church. We’ll see how it goes.

Sunday is also our pater’s birthday. He would be 99! To have been born in 1922 doesn’t seem that long ago, but it is!

ANC III was a lifelong Episcopalian with a Monica-like mother who I’m sure prayed mightily for his salvation. Whether her prayers were answered, I have no idea. But I will lift a toast to him on Sunday and sigh deeply. I hardly knew ye.

In other news, our neighbors across the street were TP’d overnight. (I never heard a thing.) Kind of a lame attempt, really, and such a shocking waste of toilet paper!

And on a week night! Zut alors. I am reminded again that some things never change.

Have a blessed weekend.

Almighty God, who through your only‑begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life‑giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

BCP

*He is risen from the grave

(The window is in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Key West, FL.)

“For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.”*

by chuckofish

This weekend I plan to do nothing but rest.

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O heavenly Father, you give your children sleep for the refreshing of soul and body: Grant me this gift, I pray; keep me in that perfect peace which you have promised to those whose minds are fixed on you; and give me such a sense of your presence, that in the hours of silence I may enjoy the blessed assurance of your love; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.–BCP

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Both daughters #1 and #2 are moving to new apartments this weekend and I wish them well. I wish I could help. I will be thinking of them from my couch.

This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.

Just a reminder that the Book of Common Prayer is a wonderful source for good prayers!

And here’s a little end of the week inspiration from Casting Crowns–love this new song:

Have a good weekend!

(Paintings are by John Singer Sargent,  Jacques-Louis David and Hippolyte Berteaux

*Psalm 91:11

Deep thoughts

by chuckofish

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I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next 1000 years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it — for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

–Henry David Thoreau, Letter to Harrison Gray Otis Blake (December 1856), as published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau (1958)

Thankfulness is an essential guardian of the soul, and therefore we should guard ourselves with gratitude. Evidently we are fair game for the devil when we don’t abound with thanksgiving. Unless the song of thanksgiving is being sung in our hearts the enemy outside will deceive his way into the city of our soul, and the enemy sympathizers within will make his job easy. So for the sake of your own safety, strive to fill your heart with thanksgiving! Guard yourselves with gratitude!

–John Piper

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

–A General Thanksgiving, BCP

(The painting is J. Alden Weir, 1859-1919, American Impressionist painter)

“Rise heart; thy Lord is risen”*

by chuckofish

Compton-3.jpg

Daughter #3 could not resist having yet more pictures taken of her wee babes–this time in their Easter outfits. I gather that the only way this could happen was if they confined/trapped the wee laddie in the wheelbarrow prop and clearly he was not having it.

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I mean, not fair, dude. Little Lottie mustered her good will, but…

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Mom, where did my brother go?

Well, at least there wasn’t a big rabbit in the mix.

Meanwhile I went to the Maundy Thursday service (complete with foot washing) last night and stayed for an hour “in the garden,” which I spent reading the Psalms and the Good Friday service.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, our God now and forever. Amen (BCP)

Have a joyful Easter! Watch Ben-Hur (1959) on Saturday night! Go to church on Sunday!

*George Herbert

Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest

by chuckofish

Thomas-Cranmer-ez

On this day in 1556 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford. At the very end, he repudiated his final letter of submission, and announced that he died a Protestant. He said, “I have sinned, in that I signed with my hand what I did not believe with my heart. When the flames are lit, this hand shall be the first to burn.” And when the fire was lit around his feet, he leaned forward and held his right hand in the fire until it was charred to a stump. Aside from this, he did not speak or move, except that once he raised his left hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Cranmer is commemorated in the Anglican Communion as a Reformation Martyr on 21 March.

Merciful God, through the work of Thomas Cranmer you renewed the worship of your Church by restoring the language of the people, and through his death you revealed your power in human weakness: Grant that by your grace we may always worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Cranmer_burning_foxe

“Cranmer said to him, when they were talking late one night, St. Augustine says we need not ask where our home is, because in the end we all come home to God.”
–Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall