The Cathedral Close

Just a note to remind everyone that there will be a Veterans’ Day Mass at 6:30 p.m. here at St. Alban’s.  hose wishing to commemorate a veteran or a particular unit are invited to submit them as a comment to this post,  e-mail the church, or use the sheet that wil be posted in the parish hall.  As well, every day is a good day to remember our armed forces and our military families in prayer.

O LORD God of Hosts, stretch forth, we pray thee, thine almighty arm to strengthen and protect the soldiers of our country; Support them in the day of battle, and in the time of peace keep them safe from all evil; endue them with courage and loyalty; and grant that in all things they may serve without reproach; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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I have been riveted today to the live feed from the drill site in Chile.  There have been remarkable scenes as the miners have returned to the surface to be reunited with theirr families.  Missing from the news reporting was an account of the request of the trapped men for a crucifix, rosaries and other religious materials to set up an underground chapel.  The presence of the holy name of Jesus inscribes on articles of clothing and beads in hand or around necks has been pretty hard to miss.  At this writing, there remain six miners and three rescuers who volunteered to go go down into the pit to retrieve their fellow men.  And so we pray,

TO our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned thanks for all thy mercies; for our being, our reason, and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body; for our health, friends, food, and raiment, and all the other comforts and conveniences of life. Above all, we adore thy mercy in sending thy only Son into the world, to redeem us from sin and eternal death, and in giving us the knowledge and sense of our duty towards thee. We bless thee for thy pa-tience with us, notwithstanding our many and great provo-cations; for all the directions, assistances, and comforts of thy Holy Spirit; for thy continual care and watchful providence over us through the whole course of our lives; and particularly for the mercies and benefits of the past day; beseeching thee to continue these thy blessings to us, and to give us grace to show our thankfulness in a sincere obedience to his laws, through whose merits and inter-cession we received them all, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

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For those who want to read the entire Bible in one year, here is a dandy site that allows you to start on the 1st or 15th day of the month, as well as offering a number of Bible versions and several different reading plans (straight through, chronological, historical and new/old) http://www.ewordtoday.com/year/

Watch this space beginning in Advent for a text of the day on a straight through reading plan. You can use the comments section to check in and re-enforce one another in your reading.

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This morning, a somewhat creaky dean took his bike to St. Alban’s for the first time-a trip of 10 minutes from the rectory.  The prospect had not been inviting until Richmond’s long summer of incredibly hot weather finally broke.

It is amazing what one can see in, and learn abou,t a neighborhood just by getting out of the car and walking or cycling.  I learned on the way home from Morning Prayer, for example, that there is good coffee to be had five blocks away in a little cafe with outside tables.   More to the point, it is a joy to have real, human interaction in a community. While ours is a “diverse” community, southern civility generally prevails and the dog walkers mingle with the Saturday poetry club, the early rising professor, Tea Party goers, and the numerous pierced and tatooed artistes and their fellow travelers.  Cycling clergy appear to be a novelty, for now.

There is a real value to what those of us in military chaplancy know as “ministry of presence.”  We all are called to show Christ’s presence in the world, and that can be as simple as engaging a neighbor in conversation over coffee.  (Of course, pedaling about  on an autumn morning inone’s collar tends to invite comment if not discourse!)

And so, the thought I would pose following my Tour de Ginter Park is how do all of us personalize the world for Christ and how can we improve our own individual witness?

Now, it’s off to the Motrin and knee wrap!

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I always take delight in weddings, particularly when I have known the bride and/or groom for some time. This evening is marks such an event as Leroy T. Johnson and Fawn Elizabeth Coonan are to be united in Holy Matrimony.  Please join me in lifting this wonderful young couple up in prayer.

Holy Matrimony

The voice that breathed o’er Eden,
That earliest wedding day
The primal marriage Blessing,
It hath not passed away.

Still in the pure espousal
Of Christian man and maid,
The holy Three are with us,
The threefold grace is said.

Be present, aweful Father,
To give away this bride,
As Eve thou gav’st to Adam
Out of his own pierced side:

Be present, Son of Mary,
To join their loving hands,
As thou didst bind two natures
In thine eternal bands!

Be present, holiest Spirit,
To bless them as they kneel,
As thou, for Christ the Bridegroom,
The heavenly Spouse dost seal!

O spread thy pure wing o’er them,
Let no ill power find place,
When onward to thine altar
Their hallowed path they trace,

To cast their crowns before thee
In perfect sacrifice,
Till to the home of gladness
With Christ’s own Bride they rise. Amen
-John Keble

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As we face various “homecoming” events this fall (usually those of a school and/or football-related nature), here are some questions posed in a recent Christianity Today survey:

1) Do you ever invite people to attend your parish’s Sunday service or other events? Why or why not?

2) If and when you extend such an invitation, how do you generally express it? Do you tell them how good the preaching is? The music? How nice the people are? Do you tell them you think it would be “good for them” in some spiritual or emotional way?

3) How many people have accepted such an invitation from you in the past year and actually attended your parish or the first time as a direct result of your personal invitation?

We know for a face that that all evengelism ultimately is personal, and that most people join a church as a result of personal invitation. But, as Michael Harvey, a concerned churchman in the U.K has noted

“But we don’t ask our friends because we’re afraid they’ll say no to us. So the highlight for me is if we can get to grips with what is stopping us growing and it seems to be the same right across the Western church. Once we overcome this then we can see thousands of people added to the church.”

With this thought in mind, on October 31st, Christ the King Sunday, at the 11:00 a.m. Eucharist, all in the St. Alban’s family are encouraged to bring a friend and/or give a shout to someone you know hasn’t been at church for some time. If there are “transportation issues” posing a problem, please contact the church office and we will arrange for those who wish to “come home”

As a part of our parish homegoming, members of the St. Alban’s Choir will be formally recognized at the 11:00 service.

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The voice of the Catholic Church in each division of it is thus not a dead but an authoritative and a living voice. It is a living and continuous utterance. Her conciliar decisions, for example, are not like those of a secular ourt. What she declared of old at Nicaea and elsewhere she has continued, day by day, at thousands of altars and by hundreds of millions of her children, to declare. As one approaches Niagara, the traveller gradually recognizes the deep undertone of the falls, solemn as the judgment, unfailing as eternity. But the ars of the townspeople become paralyzed to the awful utterance and only the attentive ear hears the deep diapason of the water’s voice. So it is with the Catholic Church. She is ever proclaiming, in the midst of the world’s tumultuous babel of contending utterances, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, and the wise and humble-minded listeners hear her living voice. It is a voice coming up from behind and yet as present with them, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

The Christian soul comes with increasing clearness of vision and certainty to know the truth. Drawn by prevenient grace to accept Christ, the newly baptized becomes united to the Church and so becomes a living stone in that spiritual temple which is filled with the Holy Spirit. As a member of this temple and so spiritually illuminated, the Christian soul hears the voice of the Spirit speaking in and through it. At first, like a child it believes what it is told to believe. As it advances in light under the Church’s paternal authority, the Holy Scriptures are seen to corroborate the Church’s teaching and the proficient is able to give a reason for the faith that is in him. As he acts on the faith, he becomes gradually transformed by it. He then not only holds certain truths, but the truth takes possession of him. He advances from belief based on authority and reason to the certainty that comes from possession. He knows in whom he believes. For Christ dwells in him and he in Christ.

This is the Catholic rule of faith, the rule Christ established when he told us to “hear the Church,” and “if any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.”
The Rt. Rev. Charles C. Garfton
From The Works of the Rt. Rev. Charles C. Grafton (Volume 1),
edited by B. Talbot Rogers, New York: Longmans, Green, 1914

Christian and Catholic

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St. Alban’s began its series of  first Friday family movie nights on October 1st with a showing of Mary Poppins.  Children of all ages enjoyed this classic family film and a pizza dinner.

The next film, The Bishop’s Wife (the 1947 version) will show in the parish hall on friday, November 5th at 6:30 p.m. with dinner beginning at 6:00 p.m.  We’ll see you there!

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