Report on 10th anniversary

| | Comments (6)

Mass was absolutely gorgeous! Decent turnout--though not as large as we had thought it might be. Guest preacher was good.


But the ending of Mass was spectacular. The post-communion hymn was this:


Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

[MamaT note: if those words don't give you something to meditate on, nothing will!]

Then, the choir sang Benjamin Britten's Festival Te Deum in C. Our choir was supplemented by voices from another parish and did a bang up job on this. It raised the hairs on my arms.

Then we ended with the prayer that means the very most to me out of my entire Anglican heritage, the Great Thanksgiving. I have this taped into my meditation notebook and pray it more or less regularly:

Almighty God, father of all mercies,
we thine unworthy servants
do give thee most humble and hearty thanks
for all thy goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all men. We bless thee
for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for thine inestimable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we beseech thee,
give us that due sense of all thy mercies,
that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful;
and that we show forth thy praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up ourselves to thy service,
and by walking before thee
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost,
be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

Our great organist then played Karg-Elert's Nun Danket alle Gott. What an ending!!!!

6 Comments

wish that I could have been there. were recordings made?

No, unfortunately, as it was majestic. The church building isn't properly wired for sound recording, and I'm not sure any one in the parish has the equipment

You make me burn with envy. In a non-sinful way, of course!

My pastor (i'm a director of music in a Catholic parish) insists on loudly changing all the masculine pronouns to "God" in the hymns. Most egregiously: "O Praise God" during "All Creatures of Our [non-gender-specific] God and [Monarch]."

So be thankful! Maybe they'll create an Anglican-use parish in my diocese one day soon.

I, too, envy you. How pleasant it must be to use prayers with such lovely English (words that feel good in your mouth and get the ol' neurons firing).
I heard rumors of a new Anglican use parish in NYC, not too far from where my parents live, but I've now moved away, so it's not an option for me. Growing up with public tv (read - lots of materpiece theater etc.) I was always moved by the power of the language in Anglican prayer and wondered why our translations are so insipid. I think you truly have the best of both worlds!

I stumbled onto this blog and just rereading the Great Thanksgiving made me whimper. I crossed the Tiber twelve years ago, but every morning before I receive I say in my head, "We do not presume..." I live in a good diocese, in a good parish, but I miss the language and hymnody of my youth. Most every Mass I have ever attended has one moment of ugliness which would be unbearable except for the overwhelming consolation of finally resting in the Truth. Well, Heaven knows I need the penance.

I attended Cursillo in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas 26 years ago when the movement was at its most splendid. I subsequently served on staff many times.
At the conclusion of every Cursillo, when the new Cursillistas were about to go to the chapel for the great concluding High Mass; and where they were to be met by their own parish families; we sat for one last time in the gathering room where we had become 'closer than family' to each other and to God over the weekend.
Everyone was on a spiritual 'high' and everyone was held close in the prescence of God. We were always cautioned then that as soon as we left that place the devil would be after us.
The journey to our home parish, the welcome back party in our parishes, the re-entry into our families and work next day, next week, would all be hunting grounds for the master of lies.
It was always thus. The attacks would begin and we would fight them as best we could. At the end of a month there was a reunion for Mass, a meal and a spiritual journaling of our time since Cursillo.
It was in the community that we could talk of our battles, our defeats and of course our victories.
We returned again to the world 'to fight another day' and to re-establish our dependance on Jesus.
After the wonderful time at the 10th anniversary at St M's we were totally unprepared for the massive onslaught ( in a year of onslaughts)by the evil one and his pathetic henchmen.
We should have expected it and we were silly not to be more spiritually prepared for it.
As an excuse, some of us ( and you know who) had worked so hard to make it a wonderful experience that we were an easy target - for these things are always corporate- they were tired because we didn't all pull our weight with the preparations.
The evil one has tested St M's many times over the years. Jesus in His mercy always protects us and rescues us, both from the evil agents and also from our own fear and panic.But it doesn't make the fight any easier and it takes a while to heal our hurts.
Eventually in His good time we will survive this time of trial and we will be stronger for it.
Meanwhile there are prayer chains and Novenas and such a great deal of love and support for us all that we can do nothing better than to proclaim God, we love you! and let ourselves sink into His loving care.
As the first letter of Peter has it -Brethren: be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:whom resist steadfast in the faith. But thou O Lord, have mercy upon us.
Also this from Compline in the Anglican tradition - Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of an eye, hide us under the shadow of thy wings:
and perhaps the most beautiful phrase of all - From Thomas Cranmer: Save us, O Lord while waking, and guard us while sleeping: that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.
Amen and God bless all of you on this site.
With love in Him, from JO

Categories

Pages

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by MamaT published on June 26, 2004 9:37 PM.

Big doin's tonight! was the previous entry in this blog.

You know, if PapaC were really smart.... is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.