Dear Friends,
What a wonderful event! Last Saturday the choristers, faculty, and parents joined parishioners, friends, and Order of St. John to support the Order of St. John on their National Day of Volunteering. Together, we packaged 20,000 meals for hungry children and families in Africa! We managed to do this in just two hours because of the large number of people who volunteered; thank you to all who gave their time last Saturday. It was also a great deal of fun; and even more so to see young and old all working together for a common purpose.
On Sunday morning, we will have a special treat during the 11am service when we admit two new choristers who have successfully completed their probationer training.
I cannot believe that it is Memorial Day weekend already! With Easter falling about as late as it can this year, we have not even celebrated Ascension Day yet. This is also the beginning of Fleet Week in New York so please pray for those members of our parish who are currently serving in the US Navy, and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country and for the cause of peace on Monday at the 12pm mass.
Details of Fleet Week are available if you click on the image above, the US Navy, Coastguard, and Marines will be in town! This year’s theme is “Honoring the Past, Defending the Future: 250 Years of Sea Service Excellence.”
Thursday, May 29 is Ascension Day. This is the day when we remember Jesus ascending to heaven after his Resurrection and taking his glorious body to the right hand of the Father, where he intercedes for us. This is a principal Feast of the Church so please make every effort to attend one of the services in-person or on-line. Our preacher at the Solemn Eucharist will be the Rev. Ben DeHart, Rector of St. John’s Church, Park Slope, Brooklyn. Fr. Ben is an old friend of our parish and was an honorary assistant priest before the pandemic when he was a curate in the city.
Eve of the Ascension5:30pm Festal Evensong
Sung by the Gentlemen of the ChoirThursday, May 29
ASCENSION DAY12:00pm Shrine Prayers
12:05pm Said Mass5:30pm Solemn Eucharist
Sung by the Choir of Men and Boys
Sermon by Fr. Ben DeHart
The Ascension is not a reversal of the Passion of Christ; in fact, it is the very opposite of that – it is Jesus taking his glorified body, still wounded, to the very heart of God’s glory. Those wounds of love are forever fresh as our patron, Saint Thomas, discovered in the upper room. The great Anglican Theologian John Macquarrie described the Ascension event as the consecration of all time and space.
Here are some words of Archbishop Rowan Williams that reflect Macquarrie’s theme:
One popular hymn for the Feast of the Ascension contains these lines:
Thou hast raised our human nature
in the clouds at God’s right hand.The ascension of Jesus in this context becomes a celebration of the extraordinary fact that our humanity in all its variety, in all its vulnerability, has been taken by Jesus into the heart of the divine life. ‘Man with God is on the throne,’ that hymn goes on. Quite a shocking line if you start thinking about it.
And that of course is first of all good news about humanity itself – the humanity that we all know to be stained, wounded, imprisoned in various ways; this humanity—yours and mine—is still capable of being embraced by God, shot through with God’s glory, received and welcomed in the burning heart of reality itself:
to the throne of Godhead,
to the Father’s breast,as another hymn puts it.
From a sermon preached at Westminster Abbey on May 21, 2009
Affectionately,
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
