Remembering the Holy Innocents

Massacre of the Holy Innocents
Matteo di Giovanni, 1488

Christmastide is not all sweetness and light.  Later in his life, Jesus would say "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34 - NIV).  For humanity is all too fond of protecting its turf, and the powerful take offense at the stumbling block that is the teaching of Jesus, the Christ.

December 28 marked the remembrance of the massacre of innocent babies in Bethlehem and area, by Herod, "The Great", in an attempt to protect his "power" over the region from the reported birth of one referred to as the King of the Jews.

Herod's actions were not new, nor did that behaviour stop with him -- as colonial history in Canada, involving our own Anglican church, makes only too clear.  

And today, "Herod" exists on the southern border of the United States, and in far too many other places around the globe.

So...for the Holy Innocents, and for all of us...another poem from Malcolm Guite:


Refugee

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,

Or cosy in a crib beside the font,

But he is with a million displaced people

On the long road of weariness and want.

For even as we sing our final carol

His family is up and on that road,

Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,

Glancing behind and shouldering their load.

Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower

Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,

The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,

And death squads spread their curse across the world.

But every Herod dies, and comes alone

To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

To listen to the poet read his sonnet aloud, click HERE.

Nativity 2019
Photo: Claremont United Methodist Church
Claremont, California

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part VII

I let a day slide between my last post and this one...because this final O Antiphon has us quivering on the threshold, the Eve of Christmas, when Emmanuel shall come to us.  In his poem reflecting on this antiphon, Anglican priest and poet Malcolm Guite includes all of the names we have prayed this last week of Advent.


O Emmanuel*

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us

O long-sought With-ness for a world without,

O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.

Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name

Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,

O quickened little wick so tightly curled,

Be folded with us into time and place,

Unfold for us the mystery of grace

And make a womb of all this wounded world.

O heart of heaven beating in the earth,

O tiny hope within our hopelessness

Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,

To touch a dying world with new-made hands

And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

Once again, to hear the antiphon chanted in English and Latin, book-ending the poet's reading his sonnet aloud, click HERE.

*Scriptural source: Isaiah 7:14.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

- a 12th Century Latin hymn,

Sung here in English (choir unidentified)

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part VI

O Rex Gentium 

In yesterday's post I mentioned that the O Antiphons are intended to be prayers.  In researching today's post, I came upon an article that speaks to a way to pray the Antiphons.  Click THIS LINK to read on!  And now the sonnet inspired by the antiphon...


O Rex Gentium*

O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the antiphon chanted in English and Latin, as well as the sonnet read aloud by the poet, click HERE.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 28:16; Ephesians 2:14.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part V

The Tester Above the Shinre of St. Cuthbert
in Durham Cathedral.
Designed by Sir Ninian Comper
Source: Liturgical Arts Journal

While the O Antiphons are often chanted, they should not be mistaken for "songs".  Rather, they are an Advent prayer tradition.  In fact, these particular antiphons -- derived from the Book of Isaiah (as has been mentioned in the last several posts) -- are prayers of/to/about the seven names, or attributes, for the expected Messiah, declared by the prophet long before the given name of Jesus was known.

So far this week we have reflected and prayed on these names: Wisdom, Sacred Lord, Root of Jesse, and Key of David.  Today...Oriens or 'Radiant Dawn' -- the One who brings light to those who dwell in darkness:

O Oriens*

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced

The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.

Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace

In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream

For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking."

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the Antiphon chanted and the sonnet read aloud by the poet, click HERE.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 9:2; 42: 6-7; John 1:5.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part IV

O Clavis David (O Key of David)

The O Antiphon for today is again based on the words from Isaiah, referring to David, and to the Messiah to come, who would descend from David and be the Key to the Kingdom of God (see also Revelations 3:7-12).

I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. -- Isaiah 22:22

...to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. -- Isaiah 44:7

And now the sonnet written by priest and poet Malcolm Guite:

O Clavis

Even in the darkness where I sit

And huddle in the midst of misery

I can remember freedom, but forget

That every lock must answer to a key,

That each dark clasp, sharp and intricate,

Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,

Particular, exact and intimate,

The clutch and catch that meshes with its ward.

I cry out for the key I threw away

That turned and over turned with certain touch

And with the lovely lifting of a latch

Opened my darkness to the light of day.

O come again, come quickly, set me free

Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

Once again, to hear the Antiphon chanted in English, the poem read by the poet, and the Antiphon chanted again in Latin, click HERE.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part III

O Radix Jesse

This O Antiphon reflects on words from the prophet Isaiah about a shoot coming up from "the root of Jesse" (who was the father of David)...and Jesus is that 'shoot' who was (as the carol goes) "born of David's line".  Here is priest and poet Malcolm Guite's sonnet, reflecting on this Antiphon:


O Radix*

All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,

Rose from a root invisible to all.

We knew the virtues once of every weed,

But, severed from the roots of ritual,

We surf the surface of a wide-screen world

And find no virtue in the virtual.

We shrivel on the edges of a wood

Whose heart we once inhabited in love,

Now we have need of you, forgotten Root

The stock and stem of every living thing

Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,

For now is winter, now is withering

Unless we let you root us deep within,

Under the ground of being, graft us in.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the poet read this aloud, click HERE.  Note that this reading is preceded by a chanting of the Antiphon in English and followed by a chanting of it again -- in Latin.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 11:10 and 45:14; Romans 15:12.

A Shoot from the Stump of Jesse
(C) M. Blank, 2019

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part II

This O Antiphon wasn't one of the selections for our December 15th carol service so here it is for your reflection:

O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms. (cf Exodus 3; Micah 5:2; and Matthew 2:6)

And the sonnet that priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, has written inspired by this antiphon, which he says "...touches on the title of God himself, who was called 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord', in the Old Testament, because his sacred name, the four letters known as 'The Tetragramaton', could not be uttered by unworthy human beings without blasphemy.":

O Adonai

Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,

Unseeable, you gave yourself away,

The Adonai, the Tetragramaton

Grew by a wayside in the light of day.

O you who dared to be a tribal God,

To own a language, people and a place,

Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,

If so you might be met with face to face,

Come to us here, who would not find you there,

Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,

Who heard no more than thunder in the air,

Who marked the mere events and not the myth.

Touch the bare branches of our unbelief

And blaze again like fire in every leaf.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

To hear the poet read the sonnet aloud, click HERE.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons Part I

Holy Wisdom - icon, 1670s
Source: The Church Times

O Sapientia*

I cannot think unless I have been thought,

Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.

I cannot teach except as I am taught,

Or break the bread except as I am broken.

O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,

O Light within the light by which I see,

O Word beneath the words with which I speak,

O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,

O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,

O Memory of time, reminding me,

My Ground of Being, always grounding me,

My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,

Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,

Come to me now, disguised as everything.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the poet read his sonnet aloud, click HERE. 

*Scriptural source: Ecclesiastes 24: 3; Wisdom 8: 1 (the Apocrypha)

Prayer in Poetry for Advent Week III

The 'O' Antiphons

Photo Credit: Thinking Faith

At today's Carol Eucharist, Rev. Robert read from four of the seven "O" Antiphons in response to readings.  According to Wikipedia...

The O Antiphons, also known as The great Os are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. 

As illustrated above, there are seven of them -- read each evening from December 17 through December 23 -- the last seven evenings in Advent:  O Sapientia (O Wisdom): O Adonai; O Radix; O Clavis; O Oriens; O Rex Gentium; and O Emmanuel.

The Anglican priest and poet, Malcolm Guite -- whose work is quoted so often on these blog pages -- includes a sonnet for each Antiphon in his book, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press, London, UK, 2012).  Stay tuned to this weblog for a posting of each one of these -- with an audio link -- beginning on Tuesday, December 17.

Wishing you a blessed Advent...

The Parish of St. Cyprian, Lacombe, Alberta

P.S. Our Parish now has a website via the Diocese of Calgary -- check out the link in the side-bar!  😊

"Reclaiming Advent": A Podcast

From St. Benedict's Table, an Anglican congregation in Winnipeg, MB...a conversation between Rev. Jamie Howison and singer-song-writer, Steve Bell...

Listen HERE.

Music for Advent -- Week 2

Are we prepared?

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him--

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding.

the Spirit of counsel and of power.

the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD --

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

-- Isaiah 11: 1-3a (NIV)

*************

In those days, John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea

and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

"I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me will come one

who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

-- Matthew 3: 1-2, 11 (NIV)

The Feast of St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas
Artist: Jaroslav Cermak (1831 - 1878)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

If you subscribe to the Anglican Journal, you may have seen the article about Bishop Nicholas of Myra -- who we know today as St. Nicholas, the person on whom the legend of Santa Claus is based.

He was born on or about March 15, 270 CE and died December 6, 343 CE; thus his Feast or Commemoration Day is December 6.  He was known for many miracles, and for his particular generosity to the poor, the oppressed and children -- whose lives were often impoverished and brutal in those days of the Roman Empire.  As Steve Bell opines on his reflection on Nicholas (from his Pilgrim Year Series book, Advent),

"[Nicholas] clearly saw the link between chronic poverty and slavery and acted selflessly to interrupt the devastating consequences of deprivation...

During Advent, those of us who claim the Christian story as our own...may want to redouble our efforts on behalf of the disenfranchised and vulnerable poor."

Let's be God's heart, hands and feet here on earth -- and go forth to love and serve...with kindness.

 

Poetry for Advent - Week 1

Are we prepared?


Advent Sunday - by Christina Rosetti

BEHOLD, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out

With lighted lamps and garlands round about

To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

It may be at the midnight, black as pitch,

Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.

It may be at the crowing of the cock

Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.

For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride:

His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.

Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place,

Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face.

Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing,

She triumphs in the Presence of her King.

His Eyes are as a Dove’s, and she’s Dove-eyed;

He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride.

He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love,

And she with love-voice of an answering Dove.

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out

With lamps ablaze and garlands round about

To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

To hear this read aloud by poet, priest and author, Malcolm Guite,  CLICK HERE

Poetry in Ordinary Time: For Remembrance Day

Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
"The Poppy Project" - November 2018

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

between the crosses, row on row,

that mark our place; and in the sky, 

the larks, still bravely singing, fly,

scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago 

we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

loved and were loved. and now we lie

in Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

to you, from failing hands we throw

the torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

we shall not sleep, though poppies grow

in Flanders Fields.

-- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Light of Robert's Homily - November 3:

See Luke 19: 1-10

😖

Poetry in Ordinary Time: For Autumn, All Saints, All Souls...

This gift from Mary Oliver, for your enjoyment and reflection:

Snow Geese

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!

     What a task

          to ask

of anything, or anyone,

yet it is ours,

    and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.

One fall day I heard 

   above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound

I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was

a flock of snow geese, winging it

    faster than the ones we usually see,

and, being the colour of snow, catching the sun

so they were, at least in part, golden.  I

held my breath

as we do

sometimes

to stop time

when something wonderful

has touched us

as with a match

which is lit, and bright,

but does not hurt

in the common way,

but delightfully,

as if delight

were the most serious thing

you ever felt.

The geese

flew on.

I have never

seen them again.

Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.

Maybe I won't.

It doesn't matter.

What matters

is that, when I saw them,

I saw them

as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.

-- Mary Oliver, from Devotions: The Selected Poems... Penguin Press, 2017

Two Things to Remember...

Saturday, November 2, 2019

First...it's the ACW's Annual

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

FEATURING

OUR FAMOUS

GIGANTIC

ENORMOUS

STUPENDOUS

COOKIE SALE!

Fill a box for a fee.

Share with your friends!

NOTE: The baking is home-made.

While it's undoubtedly delicious,

we cannot guarantee freedom 

from nuts, soy, dairy, eggs, gluten

or any other allergens and sensitivities.

Sorry.  😢

And second...it's time to...

We return to Mountain Standard Time
in the wee hours 
of Sunday morning so...

Turn your clocks back at bed-time
Saturday night -- November 2.

Enjoy a fresh cookie 
and a hot drink at bedtime...
Then we'll see you at church at 
10:00 a.m. MST on Sunday!

Just a Thought...

Parishioners' Reflections: Sonia Smith

Sonia has been sharing her thoughts on the services on the parish Facebook page.  For those of you who don't wish to use Facebook, she's accepted an invitation to share them here too from time to time...

A Reflection on Hope
Sunday, October 20, 2019

HOPE: That was the sermon given today by Rev. Robert. As he talked I could relate to what he was saying about hope and never losing hope. Not only for injustice, but for what we went through as a family. 

Hope was all I had when I came to St. Cyprian`s. A hope that my heart and soul which were in utter shatters (sorry for the dramatics, it felt that bad at the time), would finally find some sort of peace in this church and with God. It didn't happen the day I walked in. I had to live in hope for many years. 

But when I walked in I knew I was in the right place to give myself and my problems to God and to finally restore the hope I had started to slowly lose. Living in an abusive environment and seeing my mother slowly deteriorate in body and mind were killing me....yet I had to cling on to the hope that Things were going to change. 

I prayed. Mom prayed. And things changed. 

My dad finally got care....and then I had to find hope again...the abuse and the tears and the agony of life in general still held a black cloud over our heads.Without getting into details, I had the hope that my dad would go to a different facility for care, he was now violent. I had the hope that mom and I would one day find peace with each other and spend her remaining days making memories. And we did. 

I had the hope, and this one blew me out of the water, that my dad would make his peace with God. And he did. Seeing Reverend Lee or Deacon Doreen, always made him happy. He wouldn't even step into a church. This in itself was pretty amazing. You had to know what my dad was like to understand fully what a difficult person he was. But hope came through, God came through and sent him on to I believe a better place that where he was. And he went out acting like the class clown....fitting actually. I mean that in a good way. He went out laughing and joking. 

Point is never give up hope. Hope for dad to find peace. Hope for making memories. Hope that life will turnaround and God will provide and guide through the darkest of times. Sometimes all seems lost....and there is no way in heaven you can see your way out of the darkness. Keep the faith, keep hope. God is with you. God was with me. It took me time to see it. Until one day I realized who had really been guiding me and to a better life. The blessings come everyday. I thank God for them every day.

Poetry in Ordinary Time: Thanksgiving

It doesn't have to be 

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just 

pay attention, then patch

a few words together, and don't try

to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest, but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

"Praying" - Mary Oliver,

from Thirst, 2006

Music for Ordinary Time: St. Michael and All Angels

St. Michael slays the Dragon

Today marks the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels, or Michaelmas, nowadays not so celebrated in the Western Church -- but today we had a taste of the story of St. Michael and his angels and their role in Heavenly realms, through our New Testament reading from the Book of Revelation -- Chapter 12, verses 7 - 12, shown below from the King James Version:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

In her reflections, Sandra began with a bit of the history of the origins of the Anglican Church, the Book of Common Prayer, and then the Feast Day.

She noted that Michael is the saint associated with providing safety and security.  For example, it is said that long ago, Italian immigrants to the U.S., crossing by boat from Ellis Island in choppy waters, creditted St. Michael with their safe passage -- and she queried whether or not the song, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" came from those beliefs.  It may have, on the other hand, originated longer ago than that, with African-American slaves, as a spiritual.  

It is reported, however, that the version with which we're so familiar today, the one sung around the camp-fire by so many of us growing up, is a version written by the great Pete Seeger, and made popular in 1960 with this rendition by a group called The Highwaymen:

For those of you who prefer a rousing, full-throated hymn with stirring music to mark the Feast, I close this wee dip into Michaelmas for 2019, with this presentation from the website, "Clerk of Oxford". The 'Clerk' selected others as well, but this one -- from the "old" hymnal (the #375 in the back of the 1962 Common Prayer Hymn Book) -- just seems to capture the spirit of the Day, sung by the Choir of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York:

Ye holy angels bright,

Who wait at God's right hand,

Or through the realms of light

Fly at your Lord's command,

Assist our song,

Or else the thene

Too high doth seem

For mortal tongue.

Ye blessed souls at rest,

Who ran this earthly race,

And now, from sin released, 

Behold your Saviour's face,

His praises sound,

As in his sight

With sweet delight

Ye do abound.

Ye saints, who toil below,

Adore your heavenly King,

And onward as ye go

Some joyful anthem sing;

Take what he gives,

And praise him still,

Through good and ill,

Who ever lives!

My soul, bear thou thy part,

Triumph in God above,

And with a well-tuned heart

Sing thou the songs of love!

Let all thy days

Till life shall end,

Whate'er he send,

Be filled with praise!

AMEN

Parishioners' Reflections: Sonia Smith

Sonia has been sharing her thoughts on the services on the parish Facebook page.  For those of you who don't wish to use Facebook, she's accepted an invitation to share them here too from time to time...

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Just sharing my thoughts on today`s church service. Brian Chapman did a fabulous job. He speaks so well and so clearly. As it was a beautiful day out church had a few less members but we had a good turnout as always and it was great to see the church family once again.

The sermon Brian gave was thought provoking. He has given me something to think on for the week. Little did he know he actually gave out homework...lol. I always try to find something in the service to bring back home with me and think on. Today`s was no exception. It made me think at that moment sitting in the pew, that no matter who people are, what they are, what they do, we should reach out to them. To save only one, just one.

The parables used today were interesting, especially about the woman who lost the coin and searched and searched until she found it, to save it. While Brian talked, the nicest thing happened...this wave of peace came over me. It was truly amazing. My restless heart and spirit had a peace I`d never felt before. I know not why then it happened. But it did. I felt so at peace and so good about everything. I could breath again. Wow! it was amazing.

Today`s lunch menu...can`t forget that...amazing! Fellowship once again was a special time. Until next week....   Sonia.