On The Gridiron

Stories from the Gridiron... The Chicago Bears roasted the New Orleans Saints on the gridiron yesterday, 39-14. Coincidentally, we celebrate the feast today of St. Vincent, Deacon of Saragossa, who was literally roasted on a gridiron in the year 304. Ouch.

People think I'm joking when I tell them I'm editing a new Breviary, but it's true. I think that Morning and Evening Prayer (M&EP) is not a sufficient devotion, while something like the Anglican Breviary (see link on this site, to the right) is too complex. I'm looking for something that adds richness to M&EP while still being accessible to normal folks. That is, to people without a choir.

So I'm editing my own. It's pretty easy since Cranmer basically simplified the Hours to make M&EP--that's where M&EP came from. Adding devotional richness to his skeleton is pretty easy since the basic form is preserved. For example, Matins begins with an invitatory and then the Venite and then Nocturns, which consist of groupings of psalms and scriptural (and non-scriptural) lessons. Well, MP is basically that: an invitatory, the Venite, psalms, and lessons. Getting back some of the richness of the breviary can be done by adding more changable elements that vary with the season and the saint.

For those of you familiar with the Prayer Book Office (edited by Galley; thanks Ron), I'm thinking of something halfway between it and the Breviary. Only all in Rite II language, so the English doesn't distract. I just hope I'm not roasting myself on my own gridiron here with this project. But mark my words: I will have a bound copy of this by the end of the Summer.

I need a title. What about "The Chicago Breviary," or else "The Chicago Office," or something like that? I'd like to see some recognition for my city in here, in appreciation for the great and growing Anglican enthusiasm in the area. Ideas?

A New Direction?

Here we are, a new year. I had originally thought that this blog would be an opportunity for me to talk about how the Daily Office reverberates and resonates within my life. But the meta-textual questions have been as important as the textual ones: for example, why am I doing this at all? That seems like such a huge question that it's frequently too intimidating to even contemplate. But I'm working on it. Peace.

Happy New Year

Yesterday, which was the Eve of Holy Name, from Isaiah 65:

¹⁷For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.

And from Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

That's good news for the new year. Peace and goodwill to all from your Daily Officer.

St. Stephen, Protodeacon

We celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen today, the first called to carry out what became the ministry of a deacon, and first in the Bible to be martyred for his faith in Christ.

The first reading from Morning Prayer, 2 Chronicles 24:17-22, presents a brief and me somewhat obscure story about the death of Zechariah by stoning. Zechariah was the son of the priest Jehoiada and had been berating the subjects of Judah for once again straying from the commandments of the Lord and serving "the sacred poles and the idols." This story would almost go unnoticed the annals of the Chronicles but for the fact that Luke 11:51 mentions Zechariah again:

⁴⁹Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute”, ⁵⁰so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation.

What do we make of this? Jerome suggests that the meaning is that we, in our own lives, recapitulate in our own relationship with God the dealings that God has had with his people throughout time. Aha. Learn well the patterns of time, for the grooves in which you drag your feet are deep. So like the people of Judah, we will stray from God. Like Zechariah, some who call for reconciliation will be put down. Like Stephen, some will be called to minister to the widows and the poor. And like Stephen again, some will suffer for their faith.

Thomas Learns the Rewards of Faith

This is one of the reasons why I like the Daily Office: the readings make such sense as a coherent whole, an ongoing, everlasting journey through faith. Today we interrupt a long series of Advent ferias to celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas, which by the way, means I had to put away my blue prayer mat and get the red one for the first time in two weeks.

Lesser Feasts and Fasts (2003) offers a reading about the life of St. Thomas, acknowledging the gospel attributed to him, and making the point that his reputation as a "doubter" is oversimplified. Rather than simply doubting, he wanted desperately to believe but held out for a higher standard of evidence than most. The experience of seeing proof did not create faith in Thomas, it unlocked it.

The Daily Office Lectionary directs us today in Morning Pryer to 1 Peter 1:3-9, which is an eloquent passage about the rewards of faith:

⁸Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Enjoy the feast of St. Thomas, and this break in the Advent ferias, and this break in the winter Ember days. Peace.

A Few Random Thoughts

A few thoughts...

(1) The psalms today were really sad, full of lamentations. I personally experienced this feeling earlier this year:

⁹Even my best friend, whom I trusted, *
who broke bread with me,
has lifted up his heel and turned against me.

Then more:

Yet you have rejected us and abased us, *
and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰You made us turn back from the foe, *
and our enemies have taken spoil for themselves.
¹¹You have made us like sheep for slaughter, *
and have scattered us among the nations.
¹²You have sold your people for a trifle, *
demanding no high price for them.

¹³You have made us the taunt of our neighbours, *
the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations, *
a laughing-stock among the peoples.
¹⁵All day long my disgrace is before me, *
and shame has covered my face
¹⁶at the words of the taunters and revilers, *
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

Powerful stuff. And painful.

(2) I only get to use my blue prayer cloth for a few more days, and then Advent is over and it goes back into the closet until December 2, 2007. That's sad, because I like it and because I like the season. But it's also good, because I love the turning wheels of the Kalendar and one only gives something up in order to gain something else.

(3) Just when the Psalms brought me to the point of despair, 2 Peter 1:11 (from this morning's Office) reminded me of God's promise. It concludes with a simple message about how to approach your own personal faith:

⁵For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, ⁷and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.

(4) I'm trying to live #3 above. I don't have anything more profound to say tonight than that.

Stir Up Your Power

This is a dramatic time. Advent is in full swing, rose Sunday is today, and we're awaiting the Nativity of Our Lord right around the corner. The readings are dramatic. The readings from Isaiah have been pointing towards God's promise of sending a savior to the world. Adding to the drama, John the baptist features prominently today in both the Sunday Church readings.

In the Daily Office, John the Baptist appears with Jesus in the countryside at Aenon near Salim. They were baptizing there because "water was abundant there." (Neat that they went to the water, which sends a simple message that the water is necessary. You can't just say you're baptized; you have to actually get baptized, with real water.)

John is proclaiming that Jesus is the one. It's an exciting time in the lectionary, and an exciting time in the world.

Let's conclude with the collect of the day for the third Sunday in Advent. It's excellent:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help us and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.