THE ANGELUS
Volume 6, Number 52, November 28, 2004
The Weekly Newsletter from the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin

ADVENT

Someone asked me last week when we put up Christmas decorations at Saint Mary's. The answer, of course, was two words, "Christmas Eve." We Episcopalians still have a real Advent Season and a real Christmas Season if we want it. At Saint Mary's we do. Here we keep Advent as a season of preparation for the great feast of Jesus' birth. It has many quiet joys and blessings on offer. In the Episcopal Church, the season of Christmas last for twelve days. December 25 is the first day.

I'm sure Advent and Christmas have always had a commercial aspect. I strongly suspect someone was selling something outside of whatever building Christians first had something we would call a Christmas celebration. But we Christians have the opportunity to be in the world during this month but not of the world. The Church's great tradition invites us to a fresh start. The new year for the Church begins as the sun sets on the eve of the First Sunday of Advent.

The Solemn Mass for the First Sunday of Advent begins with these words from Psalm 25, "To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you." It's a good place to begin. None of us knows what joys and sorrows will lie in our path during the coming year. There aren't a lot of distractions in the liturgies of Advent. It's not Lent. It's not a season of penitence. It's a season of preparation. You will not miss Christmas decorations or music, I promise (there is much good Advent music!). Advent is a time to grow.

Here at Saint Mary's, Advent is also the time when we are preparing for the new responsibilities and opportunities of the new civil year. Almost 1400 letters have gone out to friends and members of Saint Mary's throughout the nation to ask for their prayers and their gifts to support our parish's work here in Times Square. The response has been very encouraging and I hope very much those who love this place and believe in its witness will be moved to sustain its work with their gifts.

Finally, I want to say a personal word about my own spiritual journey. It was in Advent that I first had the courage to go to confession. I was twenty-two years old. I was in Chicago in graduate school. I walked almost a mile from the campus on a light gray snowy day. I have never felt more peace than I did on that walk to the parish church. Confession itself was great but anticlimactic. The most powerful work of the Spirit in my life that day happened along the way, on that walk. I remember that because I did go to confession. It sealed the memory, a memory I would have long lost if it had not moved me to action.

I hope Advent will be a time when you and I can be moved to act on our faith in many different ways. I hope that the graces of this time can be sealed and held in our hearts until the moment when our lives are over and we stand before God. Stephen Gerth

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Timothy, Emil, Mary, Rick, Pamela, Charles, Gloria, Penn, Gilbert, Robert, Margaret, Jason, Bart, Hugh, Marion, Christine and Charles, priest; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Bruce, Paul, Brenden, Jonathan, Jeffrey, Ned, Timothy, Patrick, Kevin, Christopher, Andrew, Joseph, Marc, Timothy, David, Colin, Christina, David, Nestor, Freddie, Matthew and Bennett; and for the repose of the soul of Kathy . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . . November 30: 1970 Sarah Lucille La Bosse; December 1: 1977 Calvin Nash, 1989 George William Johnson, Sr., 1992 Margaret Louise Rigler; December 3: 1990 Francis Timothy Dlugos, 1991 Mrs. Olga Edgar.

LITURGICAL NOTES . . . The Sunday Proper: Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 24:37-44 . . . Father Mead will be celebrant and preacher for the 9:00 AM Mass . . . Father Gerth will be celebrant and preacher for the 10:00 AM Sung Mass and the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass . . . The Reverend Monsignor Leslie J. Ivers, pastor, Saint Frances de Chantal Parish, Bronx, will be our guest preacher at Solemn Evensong & Benediction at 5:00 PM . . . On Saturday, November 27, confessions will be heard by Father Mead. On Saturday, December 4, confessions will be heard by Father Gerth.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION & FORMATION . . . On MONDAY Via Media completes its final meeting for this year in Saint Joseph's Hall from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM . . . The Tuesday night Bible study does not meet on November 30.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . This Christmas you can honor someone you love and help a village in Honduras. Saint Mary's offers alternative gifts in the amounts of $25, $50 and $100. Look for the brochure in church or see the parish website for more information . . . Last Saturday Saint Mary's hosted a group from the Mint Museum of Charlotte, North Carolina for a tour of the church and a special look at the Daingerfield murals in the Lady Chapel . . . Many thanks to Bishop Epting for celebrating and preaching at the Solemn Mass last Sunday . . . Sandra Schubert is on vacation from until November 29. While she is away, Judith Scott is helping in the parish office . . . Attendance last Sunday 267.

A SPECIAL THANKS . . . Thanks to all who gave time, energy, creativity and care to the very first Saint Mary's Guild Fair on Sunday. This really was embodied stewardship, as the various groups of the parish took pride in who they are and what they do. As a priest of this parish, I cannot tell you how deeply gratifying it was to see so many people meeting new people, entertaining new possibilities for involvement and welcoming one another into various areas of interest or specialty. Between the maypole-like streamers, the banners naming the various guilds and programs, the people explaining what they love about Saint Mary's, and finally, Ruth Cunningham moving through the room playing Medieval and Renaissance music on recorder - what an extraordinary gift of a day. Thank you all. John Beddingfield

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Sung Mass, played by Robert McDermitt, the voluntaries are settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Hymn 54, "Savior of the nations, come") by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) . . . At the Solemn Mass, the voluntaries are settings of Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme (our Offertory Hymn, "Wake, awake, for night is flying") by Bach and Max Reger (1873-1916). The setting of the Mass ordinary is Mass in the Dorian mode (1912) by Herbert Howells (1892-1983). One of Howells' earliest works (note that he was 20 at the time), it was written for the newly founded choir of Westminster (Roman Catholic) Cathedral, London. Though it is a lovely work, it may have been a student exercise and is modeled after the example of Renaissance polyphony, which was just beginning to enjoy a reemergence at that time. The anthem at Communion is Never weather-beaten sail from Songs of Farewell (1916) by C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918). It is a setting (from the collection of choral music written near the end of Parry's life) of the unusual but moving text by Thomas Campion (1567-1620) and includes the words, "O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest" . . . The organ recital at 4:40 is played by Daniel Sullivan of New York. Robert McCormick

MEMBERSHIP NOTES . . . Please welcome our newest members of the parish. We have recently received letters of transfer and baptismal information for Stephen Karagan, who has been visiting for some time and has been a part of our Monday night Via Media program . . . Heather Peskin's quiet but faithful presence has also been around Saint Mary's for a while, especially for some of our Christian Formation programs, but we are especially glad to make her a full member of the parish family . . . Ginny Singeltary also brings a quiet and calm presence to Saint Mary's, especially early on Sundays when she is a regular for Matins and the 9:00 AM Mass . . . Charles Liggera has also visited Saint Mary's for several years, but we are grateful he has decided to join us fully. Welcome these newest Saint Marians when you meet them or see them at church.

MARY MAGDALEN: SAINT OR SINNER? MAGDALEN ART THROUGH THE AGES . . . Thursdays, December 2 and 9, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM in Saint Joseph's Hall. A great friend of Saint Mary's, Joan Baldridge, reviews how the saint has been depicted in art from the Third Century through the Renaissance and into the Twenty-first Century. In a presentation that debuted at Saint Mary's in 2003, but has grown in depth and complexity, Joan challenges popular myths and beliefs about the woman we refer to as Mary Magdalen. There is a $5 suggested donation.

CALLED TO A LIFE OF HOPE: AN ADVENT QUIET DAY . . . Plan to spend Saturday, December 4, from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM at Saint Mary's for a day of prayer and reflection with the Reverend James Ross Smith. Father Smith's devotions will lead us to reflect on Saint Paul's words from Ephesians 4, "You were called to the one hope that belongs to your call." While "calling" often seems to refer to those with particularly religious vocations, Father Smith will help us to think about what our own "callings" might be. What might it mean for hope to enter into our sense of calling? And finally, how does all of this fit within the season of Advent, a time of hope? A simple lunch is included with the Quiet Day and, if possible, we ask for a donation of $5 to help cover the lunch. RSVP by calling the parish office or send an email to sschubert@stmvirgin.org.

If you have not turned in your 2005 pledge card, please bring it to church or mail it as soon as you can. Also, those parishioners who used weekly offering envelopes last year will receive them again. If you have not used them in the past, but would like to have envelopes, please call the parish office or send an email to bklett@stmvirgin.org.