The Saint Aelfric Customary

Posted on December 31, 2019December 30, 2019 by Fr. Brench

Renewal of Baptismal Vows

Coming up in a couple weeks is the First Sunday of Epiphany, which is one of the four traditional Baptismal occasions of the church year. I say “four traditional occasions,” but take that concept gently: any day is a good day for a baptism. Don’t turn people down because it’s Advent or Lent; as it says on page 221, The minister shall encourage parents not to defer the Baptism of their children (emphasis added). That being understood, when dealing with baptismal preparation for those of a riper age, there are four big days scattered fairly evenly throughout the year that have been identified as especially appropriate for Baptism and Confirmation: The Baptism of our Lord (the modern Epiphany 1), the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day. Of course, any day, a holy day or otherwise, is appropriate for such life-giving rites as baptism and confirmation, but insofar as a parish is able to plan and prepare for these milestones, those are the “best” four days in the year to aim for.

One of the interesting features of the 2019 Prayer Book, adapted from the 1979’s use, is the “Renewal of Baptismal Vows” – a rite appointed for use when there are no actual baptisms to be had. Our prayer book, on page 194, notes that

If there are no baptisms or confirmations at the Easter Vigil, the Renewal of Baptismal Vows takes place after the Service of Lessons or the Sermon. On other occasions, the Renewal of Vows follows the Sermon. The Nicene Creed is not said.

This means that we are expected to use this rite at the Easter Vigil when no baptisms and confirmations are taking place, and we are permitted to use it at other times. The four “big baptismal days” – Epiphany 1, Easter Vigil, Pentecost, All Saints’ – are arguably the “best” times to pull this rite out and observe it with your congregation.

Posted on December 30, 2019December 29, 2019 by Fr. Brench · 1 Comment

Planning Prayers & Readings Review 12/30

Although the full text hasn’t been finalized yet, I do have plans for how the Saint Aelfric Customary will recommend the implementation of most of the features in the 2019 Prayer Book. In short, I can’t tell you why these suggestions are here yet, but if you want to order your prayers accordingly, here is the weekly guide!

Planning Prayers

Sunday 12/29

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Holy Communion: First Sunday in Christmas
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Monday 12/30

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Holy Communion: First Sunday in Christmas (with the traditional readings)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Tuesday 12/31

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Morning Holy Communion: Votive of the Incarnation (Christmas Day I or II)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Collect for the Circumcision

Wednesday 1/1

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: The Circumcision and Holy Name of our Lord Jesus
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Thursday 1/2

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Votive *
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Friday 1/3

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Votive *
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Saturday 1/4

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Votive *
Evening Prayer: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Sunday 1/5

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Second Sunday in Christmas
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Collect for The Epiphany

* A Votive is a “Various Occasion” (page 733 in the BCP 2019). The traditional appointments are Holy Trinity on Sunday, Holy Spirit on Monday, Holy Angels on Tuesday, of the Incarnation on Wednesdays, of the Holy Eucharist on Thursdays, the Holy Cross on Fridays, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays.

Readings Review

Last week: Wisdom 6-8, Revelation 14-20, Isaiah 65-66, Song of Songs 1-5, Luke 20:27-23:49
This week: Wisdom 9-11 Genesis 1-4, Revelation 21-22, John 1-3:21, Song of Songs 6-8, Jeremiah 1-3, Luke 23-24, Galatians 1-4

Special reading for the Circumcision on Wednesday evening: Luke 2:8-21

The big flip-over is happening this week: we finish some books and dive into some new ones as we turn to January. In Morning Prayer the Old Testament track goes back to Genesis, where we’ll restart our journey through the Law and the (mostly) Historical Narratives.

In Evening Prayer the Old Testament starts with Jeremiah, which may feel like an odd choice – why not start with the earliest prophets and work your way forward? There are two justifications to this that occur to me. First of all, we recently finished reading Isaiah, and Jeremiah is the next canonical book after that, so in one sense we’re basically picking up where we left off a week before. Another angle on this is that by reading Jeremiah at the beginning of the year, followed by his shorter book, Lamentations, we land ourselves very close to the beginning of Lent as we wrap that up. It would make more sense to read Jeremiah during Lent instead, as some daily lectionaries appoint, but there’s nothing wrong with a little lead-up, too.

The New Testament readings flip-flop again, as they did half-way through the year – the Gospels now in the Morning and the Epistles in the evening. Some might ask why we start with John, and then go to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Again there may be more than one answer. Perhaps starting with John provides a nice echo of Christmas Day & Sunday’s reading of John 1:1-18. Perhaps this way we insure that the Passion narratives in St. Matthew’s Gospel land close to the Annunciation, which is also close to where Holy Week tends to fall, on average. Also, in more distant history, certain Bibles (I think particularly Western/Latin ones) ordered the four gospels with John before the three synoptics, and this lectionary may be evoking a throw-back, not that I could surmise why.

The Epistles of St. Paul, at least, are being read in their estimated chronological order, beginning with Galatians – which again is convenient given that epistle has significant contributions to Christmas and (at least thematically) to the Circumcision of Christ.

Posted on December 26, 2019December 25, 2019 by Fr. Brench

Happy Holidays!

After Christmas Day follows three more major holy days in the church calendar, of varying degrees of likelihood for Christmas-themed celebration: St. Stephen (the 26th), St. John (the 27th), and the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem (the 28th). This picture from an old children’s book captures their summary quite neatly:

december

It should be noted that the word martyr in Greek means “witness”. These all witnessed to the gospel of Christ in powerful ways. Stephen was killed for his faith and preaching. John was almost killed for the same. The Holy Innocents were slaughtered when King Herod sought to kill the baby Jesus. You can read more about these holy days in last year’s posts:

Another fun fact with these days is that because they land on consecutive days, none of them have an “Eve.” The evening of the 25th is the “second vespers” of Christmas, so all of the 26th is St. Stephen, all of the 27th is St. John, and all of the 28th is Holy Innocents. Normally, liturgical time begins at sundown – at Evening Prayer – but Christmas Day is significant enough that it keeps its “second” evening to itself, starting a sort of chain reaction of major feast days that don’t get extra time before their morning begins.

Posted on December 25, 2019December 24, 2019 by Fr. Brench

Christmas Psalms

If you, like me, are partial to the traditional 30-day cycle of Psalms, this is one of the few days of the year you should feel free to step away from it. The classical Prayer Books appointed special psalms for Morning and Evening Prayer on Christmas Day: 19, 45, and 85 in the Morning, and in the Evening, 89, 110, and 132.

However, if you want to opt for a shorter version of this, the 60-day psalter in the 2019 Prayer Book does appoint holiday-appropriate psalms for several days in the year, including Christmas Day. The entries there are 19 or 45 in the Morning, and in the Evening 85 and 110. As you can see, these are drawn from the original Prayer Book psalms for Christmas Day, just pared down a bit. Psalm 89 is pretty long, for example. So take advantage of the freedom afforded in this prayer book and enjoy some traditional Christmas Psalms today, whether it is the longer list of olden times or the shorter list in the new.

And, of course, have a merry Christmas.

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Fr. Brench

The Incarnate Word

Happy Christmas Eve!

Here’s a brief homily for Evening Prayer today, looking primarily at the Psalm appointed (the beginning of 119). I hope you enjoy the holidays ahead!

Posted on December 23, 2019December 22, 2019 by Fr. Brench

Planning Prayers & Readings Review 12/23

Planning Prayers

Sunday 12/22

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Monday 12/23

Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Fourth Sunday of Advent (with the traditional readings)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Tuesday 12/24

Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
Morning Holy Communion: Votive: of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St. Mary’s Day)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Collect for Christmas Eve
Evening Holy Communion: Christmas Eve (lessons Christmas I)

Wednesday 12/25

Sunrise Holy Communion: Christmas Day (lessons Christmas II)
Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: Christmas Day (lessons Christmas III)
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Thursday 12/26

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: St. Stephen’s Day
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Friday 12/27

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: St. John’s Day
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Saturday 12/28

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
Holy Communion: The Holy Innocents
Evening Prayer: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Sunday 12/29

Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
Holy Communion: First Sunday in Christmas
Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Readings Review

This week: Wisdom 1-5, Revelation 7-13, Isaiah 58-64, Luke 17-20:26
Next week: Wisdom 6-9, Revelation 14-21:14, Isaiah 65-66, Song of Songs 1-6, Luke 20:27-23:49

Special reading for Christmas Day on Wednesday morning: Isaiah 9:1-7
Special reading for Christmas Day on Wednesday evening: Luke 2:1-14
Special reading for St. Stephen’s Day on Thursday morning: Acts 6:8-7:6, 17-41, 44-60
Special reading for St. John’s Day on Friday morning: John 21:9-25
Special reading for Holy Innocents’ Day on Saturday morning: Jeremiah 31:1-17

If reading the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) at the end of this month seems like a random idea, remember that its marital love poetry is gateway to fathoming the love of God, demonstrated in his giving of himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Even at the ontological level – looking at the very being of life – the incarnation of our Lord is a sort of marriage: between divinity and humanity united, in one flesh, one person.

The holidays come thick and fast this week: the Nativity of our Lord one day, St. Stephen the first martyr, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. Each of these days interrupt the daily lectionary with a special reading (two in the case of Christmas Day) that give us special insight into their celebrations. These special readings are also found in the Communion service(s) for their respective days, so if you neither attend a weekday communion service, nor hold antecommunion yourself, you’ll at least have one of the Eucharistic lessons in Morning Prayer.

Because of all these holidays, the regular progress through the book of Wisdom (introduced last week) is greatly slowed.

In Evening Prayer, apart from Christmas Day’s flashback to the birth of Christ, we are progressing into the passion of our Lord, and will reach his death on the Cross at the end of the week. On one hand this is the simple result of reading through the gospels and finishing Luke at the end of the month/year. But this also gives us the useful coincidence of hearing of the end of Jesus’ earthly life just as we’re celebrating its beginning. This is not unlike the proximity of the Annunciation with Good Friday, where the opposite ends of our Lord’s life, again, are brought into beautiful juxtaposition. Personally, I always encourage preachers to preach the incarnation at Christmas, and not forcibly drag everyone from the manger to the cross, but it is nice to have a daily office lectionary quietly giving us that whole-story background along the way.

(The original prayer book lectionary, in use in 1611 and 1662, as it happens, does not have this same feature. Its NT lessons in Morning Prayer are through the gospels and Acts, so it’s finishing the book of Acts through this time; and its NT lessons in the evening are from the epistles, so 1 John through Jude are featured at this time.)

Posted on December 20, 2019December 19, 2019 by Fr. Brench

Ember Day II

Today is the second Winter Ember Day. There won’t be a third (tomorrow) because it’ll be St. Thomas Day instead. If you’re an aspirant for holy orders, or a seminarian, or a deacon in transition toward the priesthood, make sure you write your bishop an Ember Day Letter to update him on your discernment and growth.

And for the rest of us, let us pray.

O God, you led your holy apostles to ordain ministers in every place: Grant that your Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the extension of your kingdom; through the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Posted on December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Fr. Brench · 1 Comment

Walk-through of the Communion liturgy (BCP 2019)

Over the past few months we’ve been walking through the Communion liturgy in the 2019 Prayer Book, step by step, and just finished last week. Now it’s time to share the full index of this summary so you can go back, catch up on anything you missed, or revisit what you might want to revisit.

This is not, of course, a complete commentary on every portion of the liturgy. But it does give you something to think about, or context to consider, for each section of the worship service. Plus some advice along the way!

Posted on December 18, 2019December 17, 2019 by Fr. Brench

An Ember Day Hymn

The Advent Ember Days are upon us (see the link if you need a refresher on what ember days are). A set of Ember Days comes around every three months or so, so we get to enjoy them with a different contextual emphasis each time. In this time of year, having just heard about St. John the Baptist on the previous Sunday gives an interesting angle on the ministry: preaching the gospel, calling for repentance, baptizing, all good stuff.

But we’re in the thick of Advent, and chances are you don’t have a lot of spare time for a midweek Communion or Antecommunion service, so how about you take a page out of my book (figuratively for now) and include an appropriate hymn in your ordinary rounds of worship today? The one appointed in this customary’s daily hymnody cycle is Pour out thy Spirit from on high. The lyrics in the 2017 hymnal read thus:

Pour out thy Spirit from on high;
Lord, thine assembled servants bless;
Graces and gifts to each supply,
And clothe thy priests with righteousness.

Before thine altar when we stand
To teach the truth as taught by thee,
Savior, like stars in thy right hand
The angels of thy churches be.

Wisdom, and zeal, and faith impart,
Firmness with meekness from above,
To bear thy people on our heart,
And love the souls whom thou dost love;

To watch, and pray, and never faint,
By day and night strict guard to keep,
To warn the sinner, cheer the saint,
Nourish the lambs, and feed thy sheep.

Then, when our work is finished here,
We may in hope our charge resign.
When the Chief Shepherd shall appear,
O God, may they and we be thine! Amen.

This hymn is unusual in that it’s spoken mostly from the minister’s voice. In that sense, it’s almost not a congregational song, which is very unusual indeed. But, knowing that a fair number of clergymen read this, I can happily commend this hymn to you as a lovely prayer indeed for our character and our work.

I’m not going to break down all the scriptural references in this hymn, but a few should be noted: “clothe thy priests with righteousness” is in Psalm 132 and the Daily Office Suffrage. The reference to being “stars” and “angels” is from Revelation 1. The call to faintless watching and prayer is reminiscent of Jesus’ later teachings about anticipating the Kingdom of God, echoed a bit in St. Paul’s writings, and is particularly appropriate to the Advent season.

So please, take a moment today or Friday* to sing or pray this hymn, or others like it, on behalf of your bishop(s), priests, and deacons. We need all the prayer we can get!

* Ember Days usually come in threes: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, but this year we “lose” Saturday’s Ember Day to the feast of St. Thomas.

Posted on December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by Fr. Brench · 1 Comment

Let’s talk about the Christmas Season

Entry #2 of my video series on the basics of the Church Calendar has been on YouTube for a week or two now, and it’s time to share it here. Yes, most of you who read this already know that Christmas doesn’t start until Christmas Day (or Eve, technically), but I’m putting this out there now in preparation – I know a lot of people tend to get quite busy during the week in which Christmas lands.

Christmas is best known as the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but theologically (as the Collects and Lessons elucidate) the application of the Christmas celebration is far more theologically rich: we celebrate God the Son taking on human nature and thereby sharing his divinity with us! Thus we celebrate the beginning of our redemption, our salvation, without even having to bring the Cross into the picture.

A resource that may be useful is last year’s write-up observing the differences between Christmas Day and Christmas Sunday: https://saint-aelfric-customary.org/2018/12/29/christmas-day-versus-sunday/ Apart from that, here’s the video:

Subject Index:

* 00:10 Introduction to Christmas

* 01:39 Major Themes

* 04:20 Historical features

* 11:30 Walk-through with the 2019 BCP