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The Song of the Three Young Men

Happy Saturday!  As you pray through Morning Prayer today, consider changing up the first canticle if you don’t normally do so.  The Te Deum is of course a beautiful hymn of the Early Church, but sometimes it’s edifying to dip into some of the other Canticles the Prayer Book has to offer.

Canticle #10 in the ACNA book, Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, is noted to be “especially suitable for use on Saturday.  Since today is not a special commemoration, why not shift this marvelous canticle in the place of the Te Deum this morning?

The Benedicite is a simplified text drawn from the Song of the Three Young Men, attributed to Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fiery furnace in the middle of Daniel 3.  The full text is one of the “Additions to Daniel” in the Greek Old Testament, and is therefore useful “for example of life and instruction of manners” as the Articles of Religion say.  Therefore, as a worship text, it is as close to the Psalms as possible without actually being numbered among them.  With the Church’s addition of the Triune name of God at the end of the Canticle, it is a wonderful expression of praise, drawing all of creation into the eternal song, much like Psalm 148.  Enjoy it!

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Introducing Isaiah

Isaiah, the first of the Major Prophets, has been appointed to be read at the end of the year in every Anglican Prayer Book I’ve ever looked at.  The reason for this, I have long assumed, is that it contains many prophecies of Jesus that are well-known, well-loved, easily recognizable, and often associated with either Easter or Christmas.  And since there is so much Scripture clamoring for our attention through Holy Week and Eastertide, and those dates are not fixed anyway, the Old Testament slot of the lectionaries have always concluded the year with the book of Isaiah.  Normally this wouldn’t begin until mid or late November, but because the current draft ACNA daily lectionary appoints separate reading tracks for the Morning and Evening Offices, we end up starting the book of Isaiah today, on October 19th.

Chapter 1 is a fantastic opening chapter for such a rich book.  Many people might find it frustrating that it doesn’t introduce us to the man Isaiah himself – that doesn’t happen until his commissioning account in chapter 6.  But think of chapter 1 as the opening scene of a movie or television show: it’s action-packed, it draws you in, it gives you a taste of what’s to come and stuns you with the intensity of the book as a whole.  Then in a few chapters it’ll step back and give you a little of Isaiah’s backstory and character, once you’ve gotten the teaser at the beginning.

What does chapter 1 have that makes it so great an opening?  The first verse gives us an impressive array of kings under whom Isaiah ministered, hinting to us of his longevity and long-suffering. Verses 2-17 then launch into a blistering accusation against the kingdom of Judah, denouncing their sinfulness, discrediting the efficacy of their sacrifices, comparing them to the long-ago-destroyed city-states of Sodom and Gomorrah, and imploring them to repent, wash themselves, and act justly once again.

God offers a word of hope in verses 18-20: “let us reason together.”  If you just think about what you’re doing and come back to me, I will make you clean!  Otherwise, in the meantime, God calls the condition of his people to be akin to that of a whore in verses 21-23.

And finally verses 24-31 describe the blessing of a future restoration.  When God has finished punishing them, and they finally repent and turn to him, he will rebuild Jerusalem, restore the efficacy of the sacrifices, strengthen his people, and punish their enemies.

Isaiah is a long book to get through; but if you really soak in this chapter at the beginning, you will find its content, tone, and themes echoing throughout the next 65 chapters, all the way to Christmas!

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Extra readings for St. Luke

Happy Saint Luke’s Day!
If you’re following the current ACNA liturgy, the Morning Prayer readings include Luke 1:1-4, which is a break from the usual pattern of lessons inserted to celebrate the holy day.  There, you’ll be introduced to Luke’s intention as a writer of Scripture.  If you attend Holy Communion today you’ll hear other readings pertaining to the feast day.

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 38:1-14 is a passage of Jewish wisdom literature extolling the virtues of the role of a physician in society.  It addresses both the worldly function of healing and wellness as well as the spiritual aspects of prayer for healing and care for the soul.  Luke, being known as a physician as well as an Evangelist, is an excellent embodiment of this wisdom text.

2 Timothy 4:1-13 serves a dual purpose on this feast day.  On the more basic level, it mentions Luke toward the end of the reading.  We learn that Luke was among St. Paul’s final companions during his incarceration in Rome.  But the larger part of the reading is a sort of “last charge” to Paul’s son-in-the-faith, Timothy, who himself was at that point a local bishop elsewhere.  The instructions to preach and teach the faith without wavering, for the benefit of his hearers’ souls, are not unlike the role of a spiritual physician, tending to the spiritual health of the flock.  The Collect of the Day is largely informed by this dynamic:

Almighty God, you called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul: We pray that we, by the wholesome medicine of the doctrine which he taught, may have all the diseases of our souls be healed; through Jesus Christ our Lord…

Finally, Luke 4:14-21 brings this back to Jesus.  In these verses, Jesus reads an Old Testament prophecy concerning himself: that he would minister to the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.  Those who need healing will find their health in him.  Saint Luke was a great physician of body and soul, but Jesus is the great physician, through whom all who come to him find wholeness and strength.

But if you want to sit with this holy day in greater depth and search the scriptures further, here are some other passages you could read on your own time (or perhaps at Midday Prayer or Compline).

  • Isaiah 55 (various pictures of life and healing that God offers)
  • Isaiah 61:1-6 (the text Jesus quoted from, with more context)
  • Colossians 4:7-end (a “greetings” passage that identifies Luke as a physician)
  • 2 Timothy 3:10-end (more of St. Paul’s “last charge”, leading up to the epistle lesson at Holy Communion)
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Get ready for St. Luke!

Tomorrow is October 18th, Saint Luke’s Day.
So don’t forget all the usual stuff: his feast day’s Collect is to be read at Evening Prayer tonight, watch out for the different reading in the Daily Office tomorrow (in the ACNA daily lectionary, or two different readings if you’re using a different modern one), and if your church offers a Thursday Eucharist service check today if you can make it tomorrow and celebrate Saint Luke the Evangelist!

But there’s more you can do on your own to observe a holy day such as St. Luke’s.  The Eve of a major feast day is set forth in the 1662 Prayer Book as a day of discipline, for fasting and abstinence.  Look at the ordinary pattern of your daily life – what can you deny yourself today, and how can you celebrate tomorrow?  Perhaps you can deny desserts today and celebrate tomorrow with a nice single malt.  Perhaps you can pray the Great Litany today (if you weren’t going to already on the account of it being a Wednesday) and spruce up tomorrow’s worship with an extra psalm, hymn, or song of praise.  Perhaps you can skip dinner this evening, replace it with a time of extended reading or study about St. Luke and his New Testament books (Luke and Acts), and then celebrate with a big healthy and yummy break-fast in the morning!

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Reading Pace

A major feature of any liturgy is reading.  Appointed readers read Scripture lessons, a Deacon (or Priest) reads a Gospel lesson at the Communion service, everyone reads prayers and Creeds together.  Sometimes it’s like a dialogue, going back and forth between the minister and the people; sometimes it’s a block reading, like everyone reading a Confession together.  One of the issues that can crop up is the pacing of these readings.

On his or her own, sometimes a reader gets nervous.  This is perfectly understandable, and experience and practice works wonders here.  But it must be cautioned that a nervous or inexperienced reader can rush through the words, tripping over or slurring them together.  Or sometimes the opposite – the gravity of reading the Word of God overwhelms them such that they end up reading it very slowly.  Public readings ought to be read at a natural pace, such that the commas, semicolons, and periods are all clear and distinct.  We want the reading to have some dramatic weight, but we don’t want to overdo it, William Shatner style:

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The same applies to congregation readings.  Be it a Psalm, a Collect, Creed, or other prayer or reading, the people need to go at a natural pace.

If we read too fast together, the issues are many:

  • people could run out of breath
  • there’s no time to think about or process what you’re actually saying
  • it communicates a lack of care, value, or import to the words
  • visitors unfamiliar with the liturgy will feel swamped and overwhelmed

Similarly, reading too slowly can mask the overall coherence of the reading or prayer.

If your congregation has a pacing problem, it’s really upon the leaders to fix it.  The clergy or other ministers who lead the various services need to set the pace, even instruct the congregation to speed up or slow down.  Reading and praying together is a spiritual exercise requiring practice and intentionality.  Western culture sometimes makes this difficult for us – we don’t want to end up like the Borg from Star Trek, we don’t want to lose our individuality, we easily mistrust corporate liturgical action and prefer “personal” and “relational” things.  So for many people these acts of common prayer and common reading is a lost art that has to be re-learned.  Let’s not beat people over the head with this, but we do need to be aware that actual training, practice, and learning is involved!

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Halfway through the month…

We’re about halfway through the month now.  How are you keeping up with the monthly Psalter?  Now that it’s the 15th, we’re at Psalms 75-77 this morning and the massive Psalm 78 this evening.

If you’re making a special point of praying all the Psalms this month and catching up on the backlog if you miss an Office, consider making use of Midday Prayer and Compline.  Although they have their own recommended Psalms, there’s no shame in swapping out those for the Morning & Evening Psalms that you missed!  You could even plan ahead – if you know you’ll be out and busy one evening, you could shift over some of those evening Psalms into the Midday Office and perhaps save some for Compline at bedtime.

This evening, though, you’ve got Psalm 78 to contend with – the longest Psalm that is read in one go.  If you feel the need to break it up, the first 39 verses comprise a decent unit of the Psalm, and verse 40 to the end is a good second “half.”  It’s an historical psalm, to a large extent, so the overlapping stories of those two halves are mutually informative, so it doesn’t “ruin” the experience of Psalm 78 if you divide it in two that way.  Like any other portion of Scripture, there is merit both in experiencing it in smaller pieces as well as in its entirety.

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Additional / Occasional Prayers & Thanksgivings

Prayer Books have always contained a section of extra collects and prayers on various subjects.  Most of the historic Prayer Books have placed them after the Morning Office, with the intention that they be used as additions to the Office.

The 1979 Prayer Book (and presumably the 2019 book also) did something different.  On the plus side, the collection of additional prayers and thanksgivings was vastly expanded and indexed for ease of use.  On the negative side, they were placed as a sort of appendix towards the very back of the book such that there was no clear implication that they are meant to enrich and expand the Daily Office.

Since Saturday is a common day of rest for many, for families to gather, to enjoy the outdoors, perhaps this is a good opportunity to use prayers #26-30, for the Natural Order!  You can find the full list of Occasion Prayers and Thanksgivings here.  Or, here are the prayers concerning the natural order:

26. For Joy in God’s Creation

O heavenly Father, you have filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

27. For Stewardship of Creation

O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

28. For the Harvest of Lands and Waters

O gracious Father, you open your hand and fill all living things with plenteousness: Bless the lands and waters, and multiply the harvests of the world; send forth your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth; show your loving-kindness, that our land may yield its increase; and save us from selfish use of what you provide, that men and women everywhere may give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or the Collects assigned for Rogation Days

29. For Rain

O God, our heavenly Father, by your Son Jesus Christ you have promised to those who seek your kingdom and its righteousness all things necessary to sustain their life: Send us, we pray, in this time of need, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth, to our comfort and to your honor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

30. In Time of Scarcity and Famine

O God, our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son taught us to seek our daily bread from you: Behold the affliction of your people, and send us swift aid in our time of necessity. Increase the fruits of the earth by your heavenly benediction; and grant that we, receiving your gifts with thankful hearts, may use them to your glory and the relief of those in need; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Fast on Fridays?

By way of a sort of follow-up to Wednesday’s note, it may be prudent to ask if there is indeed any Anglican tradition of fasting.  The 1662 Prayer Book lists “Fasts and Days of Abstinence” observed on “The Evens or Vigils before” 16 Major Feast Days throughout the year, in addition to:

  1. The forty days of Lent.
  2. The Ember Days at the Four Seasons…
  3. The three Rogation Days…
  4. All the Fridays in the Year, except CHRISTMAS DAY.

The current draft of our Calendar rubrics list these as “Days of Discipline, Denial, and Special Prayer”, noting that these days are “encouraged as days of fasting.”  So the order to observe Fridays with some form of “discipline” remains upon the modern Prayer Book user, but the stipulation that this includes fasting has been leniently relegated to a recommendation rather than a requirement.

We therefore do ourselves a disservice to assume that fasting is the sole provenance of Anglo-Catholics; the Prayer Book history is that it is a properly Anglican spiritual discipline regardless of churchmanship and party.  Rather than take advantage of the leniency of modern Prayer Book tradition and scarcely ever entertain the discipline of fasting (much less commit to it), we should consider this leniency a gift: for those of us, and many others in the pews, with minimal experience in fasting, we have the freedom to practice simpler disciplines of self-denial as a build-up toward fasting.  We have the freedom to practice new and different types of Friday fasts such as eschewing social media or reducing “screen time” or curtailing leisure for the sake of increased prayer.

Whatever the specific discipline, it is well past time for us Anglicans to reclaim Friday as a day of discipline!

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A Special Pastoral-Liturgical Opportunity

A month from today is 11/11 – Veteran’s Day in the USA, Remembrance Day in several other countries; originally Armistice Day, commemorating the end of the Great War (WW1) in 1918.  This year is the centenary of the Armistice and the institution of this multi-national state holiday.  And it falls on a Sunday!

Normally state holidays like this do not take precedence over the regular Sunday Propers (Collect & Lessons), though in England, I believe Remembrance Day is big enough to observe on Sunday.  Given the special timing of this particular November 11th, however, it struck this small-church Vicar as an opportune moment to break the usual rules of precedence in our Calendar and plan to celebrate Armistice Day on Sunday 11/11.  And yes, I got my Bishop’s permission to do this!

If you have veterans in your congregation, as I do, this could be a very special opportunity to honor and minister to them.  That’s why this article is entitled a “special pastoral-liturgical opportunity.”  How can you implement this in your church?  Let us count the ways:

  1. Go all-out and use the Collect & Lessons for Remembrance/Veteran’s/Memorial Day (copied below).
  2. Reference poetry contemporary with the War such as Dulce et Decorum est or For the fallen.
  3. Reference the origin of Veteran’s Day in the USA.
  4. Include hymns such as the second stanza of I vow to thee my country, or Faith of our fathers! or God bless our native land or In Christ there is no East or West or O God of earth and altar or even Silent Night (referencing the Christmas Day Armistice of 1914, and providing a haunting double meaning to the phrase “sleep in heavenly peace”).
  5. Browse the Church of England’s vast collection of resources surrounding their observance of this day for other bits and bobs you might incorporate locally.

There are so many directions this observance can go: the noble call of patriotic service to one’s country, the devastating idolatry of nationalism run wild, commemorating the departed (not unlike All Soul’s Day back on November 2nd), praying for our current service-men and -women and veterans.  For sure, do what makes sense for your congregation!  But it strikes me as a very special opportunity to seize.

Collect and Lessons in Texts for Common Prayer

O King and Judge of the nations: We remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our armed forces, who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy; grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, now and forever.  Amen.

Wisdom 3:1-9, Psalm 121, Revelation 7:9-17, John 11:21-27 or 15:12-17

NOTE: the reading from Revelation is also an option for All Saints’ Day, so if you go for this commemoration be aware that you might end up with the same Epistle lesson twice in a row unless you plan carefully.

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Days of Disciplined Devotion

In the original Prayer Books (at least through 1662) the Great Litany was appointed to be said at the end of Morning Prayer ever Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Sunday perhaps makes the most sense – it is the Lord’s Day, and the largest gathering of God’s people for worship is going to be that morning.  But why also Wednesday and Friday?

There is a long-standing Christian tradition of Wednesday and Friday being weekly fast days.  Friday is perhaps the better-known day of discipline, even getting a shout-out in the Prayer Book’s introduction to the Calendar.  But Wednesday, too, was long considered a fast day.  In the Didache (or, “the teaching of the twelve apostles”) written close to the year 100, chapter 8 begins:

1. Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but do you fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.

It seems that it was Jewish custom to fast on the 2nd and 5th days of the week, and Christians (at least Palestinian Christians, whose early tradition is represented in this document) shifted the fasts to the 4th and 6th days.  Friday is likely related to the weekly remembrance of Good Friday (just as Sunday is the weekly remembrance of Easter).  Wednesday’s fast could have been observed in commemoration of the Incarnation, or perhaps as a weekly echo of Ash Wednesday… we may never know the ancient rationale.

Regardless, the Prayer Book tradition has maintained this ancient custom in the form of the use of the Great Litany!  If you are not a regular pray-er of the Litany, take a few minutes this morning to go through it after the Collects of Morning Prayer.  Unlike in the 1979 Prayer Book, we’ve got it “translated” into contemporary English, so it is now just as accessible as the rest of the liturgy!  And besides, the more familiar you are with the Litany, the easier it will be for you to share it with others in your congregation.