Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and commemorates her visit to Elizabeth.  It was on the occasion of this visit that we get two of the great catholic prayers.  Elizabeth's "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," and Mary's magnificent response, "My soul magnifies the Lord".  The latter is also known as the Magnificat and is one of the canticle options for Morning Prayer, and the preferred option for Evening Prayer.

The Icon to the left is one of my favorites. Notice that in the "x-ray" of the womb that the fetal Jesus and fetal John are represented as miniature human beings.  This is partly to keep us from over sentimentalizing the event.  Notice also, that John has his arms crossed, and is kneeling to receive the blessing of Jesus.  He is acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and recognizing that we are only blessed through Jesus.  May we acknowledge that same Lordship in our lives, as well as following the example of Mary's obedience to that Lordship.


The Collect
Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne d’Arc 1431

I find the inclusion of Jeanne d’Arc in Holy Women, Holy Men, to be a bit intriguing as she is both a soldier and mystic.  In a church that seems, in its unofficial doctrine, to veer toward pacifism, the inclusion of a violent person, a battle leader, a patriot, a nationalist, in its most recent collection of commemorations is striking.  Her inclusion as a mystic may be more understandable as mysticism is highly subjective and experiential, thus affirming the bent toward using experience as a significant tool of theological reflection.  Remember, experience cannot be questioned in the post-modern mind.

 

However, it was exactly Jeanne’s experience that was questioned, which led to her execution, and ultimately her posthumous acquittal by Pope Callistus II.

There is always a tension between the individual experience of the believer and theological reflection.  Maybe the best answer is to return to the concept that we shall be known by the fruit we bear.

In any case, despite the politics of her trial, I am a big fan of Jeanne d’Arc.  From the little we have recorded of her visions, she was no heretic, and her mystical visions fell in line with creedal Christianity.  She was a patriot, seeking peace between the Houses of Orleans and Burgundy.  She fought against the territorial expansionist appetites of the English (allied with Burgundy), and inspired a people.  One wonders what would have happened if she had had the full support of the French court at the hour of need, rather than falling victim to the politics of the English, Burgundian, Orleanais, and their vassals in the Church.

Among the propers for this day is Psalm 144.  (In the army, this was known as the artilleryman’s psalm.) 

Blessed by the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war
And my fingers for battle;
He is my steadfast love and my fortress,
My stronghold and deliver,
My shield and he in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues peoples under me.
O LORD, what is man that you regard him,
Or the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
His days are like a passing shadow.
Bow down your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
Send out your arrows and rout them. (vs 1-6)

It is a fitting psalm for Jeanne and her commemoration.

One of the most powerful performances in film history was given by Maria Falconetti as the title character in Dreyer’s 1927 La Passion de Jeanne of Arc.  In the 1990s, Richard Einhorn, composed a new soundtrack for the silent film, using medieval mystical texts and letters for the lyrics of the libretto.  It has been powerfully paired with Dreyer’s film.  Below is the first section of eight available on YouTube.  I still moved by this pairing and Falconetti can say more with her eyes than I can with words.

The Collect

Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor you for the calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear your standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged, by the companionship of your saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Blessed Jeanne d’Arc, Maid of Orleans, pray for us.

Saints and Commemorations

I will sometimes post on a particular commemoration, and if you follow them, you will know that I still use the Lesser Feasts and Fasts, rather than the more recent, Holy Women, Holy Men.  It has been difficult for me to adapt to the new book, not because the name is changed, but the content is a bit off, to my mind at least.  One of the difficulties is that the number of commemorations keeps increasing, and we are heading to having a commemoration for every day, and two on some.  Part of the Reformation was calendrical simplification.

The other reasons, have been difficult for me to digest and express.  Then along comes Dr. Derek Olsen from The Living Church, who gives expression to my thoughts.

First on the pattern of the Collects in HWHM.

The pattern inherent here can be described — perhaps a bit reductionistically — as follows: “O God, we thank you for A. and B. who were great Xs. Help us to be great Xs too.” The action and the relationship described in the prayer are strictly between “us” and God; we thank God, and ask God to motivate us in particular ways. The saint or saints serve only as historical illustrations. They are neither engaged nor beseesched: within the scope of the collect, they have lost both their agency and personhood. They are historical, not eschatological.

Also troubling is the relationship between the “X” for which the prayer asks and the Christian life. In these collects, the saints are exemplars, but what we ask to imitate is their professionalism, their success at “X-ness.” The problem is that we are not trying to form professionals; we are trying to form Christians. Whether the saints were good at their jobs — however holy those jobs might have been — is not the point. Rather, the point should be that these specific people displayed the incarnate presence of Christ in their lives and were thus participants within the sacramental conversion of all creation into the life of God.

And on the other issue.

Alternatively, several individuals are recognized as being the first at achieving or accomplishing something. Firstness is a historical category, not an eschatological or spiritual one. What if some unknown archive were rediscovered and their “firstness” were overturned? If they became the second at their achievement would they still be remembered on the strength of their witness to the risen Christ ahead of the deserving alternatives? These questions and more lead me to ask if Holy Women, Holy Men has met the mandate asked of it in 2003: Is it truly complete, or would it benefit from further thought and revision?
Holy Women, Holy Men had the opportunity to serve as an extended parish directory for the Episcopal Church to give names, addresses, and snapshots of those who even now participate within our larger community. What we received instead is a history book filled with facts and past dates. Our eschatological partners have been reduced to historical examples. The theology of our prayer book requests more, expects more. Good work has been done here — but better work awaits.

The above are from his article "So Great a Cloud of Memories" in the May 6, 2012 edition of The Living Church.

Dr. Olsen also blogs at haligweorc.

Intemperate Thought

How can the Church speak convincingly on public policy and poverty, when it cannot/does not solve the problem of poverty in its own midst?

Just filing the thought away.

Getting the Right Fit

Haltlet #2 had a birthday last week and all he wanted was a new basketball backboard.  So, of course, he received one.  However, his father, channeling his inner Scot, decided that all we needed was the backboard. The current pole system was just fine, so why not buy a backboard and rim with a "universal bracket" to replace the broken one?  I saved a $100 and felt good about not adding to the local landfill and getting the boy what he really wanted, a "win-win".  (He also was fully outfitted for the baseball season).

The good feelings did not last long, yesterday, when I put the thing together.  Besides the directions reading like they had gone from Mandarin to English through  a bad version of Google Translate, they were just wrong.  I put the bracket together, per directions, and found that the support brace, could not be attached as it would cause the bracket to be too short to fit the attachment points on the backboard.  So, the solution was to improvise, and I did it well, if I say so myself. As an added bonus, there were no injuries, but my patience was taxed.

Then, the magical time arrived to attach the board to the pole.  I had 30 minutes before he came home, and I thought what a great surprise to have it up for him when he exited the bus.  I dutifully attached the top with the U bolt, and lo and behold, if I attached the bottom, the backboard would have followed the angle of the pole and looked goofy, let alone be non-functional.  You see, the pole is on one of those portable bases and angles out from it, and the original bracket is what was broken. I know, I should have seen it coming, but I'm a priest, not a physicist, and Haltet #1 was not there to help me do the math.

What to do, what to do?  Having grown up on the farm, I engineered a good farmer's fix.  I measured the gap necessary to make the basket parallel to the ground then attached the U bolt to a section of 1x3 and added 2x4s to the bracket to make up the gap and attached these to the 1x3.  It took me a bit longer, but actually worked. Admittedly, it looks a little redneckish, but hey, the max height on the current post is 8' and I expect to replace it again in the next two years, since he will grow and inevitably the wind will blow the thing over again.

Of course, it would have been easier if I had just thought through the problem when I bought the thing, and had not decided I did not need an integral system, but that after-market backboards could just be hung on anything like an afterthought.  It also would have saved me a lot of frustration.

I wonder how often it is that I/we treat our faith the same way, like an after-market addition.  We try to take it and hang it on our previously built infrastructure, then when it doesn't fit we find all sorts of ways to "jury-rig" the system for "the time being" until we have time to add it properly, or replace it when it does not quite match our "self-made/pre-made" identity.  Christianity, then, becomes one more consumer product to make us happy and decorate our pre-fab existence.

However, like the Haltlet's backboard, the problem is not with the faith, but with trying to hang it on a structure that is faulty.  Christianity is an integrated system, it is supposed to change us, to make us new, to rebuild and restore us, to make us who we are truly meant to be.  It is not an aftermarket addition, but a radically different life that should influence all we are, all we do, and every aspect of our lives.

Perspective

I do not usually go political, but two news items came to my attention this morning.

1. A student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth went on a hunger strike for gender neutral bathrooms.  According to reports the student called the standard arrangement "oppressive".  Luckily, the hunger strike only took one day, and the University gave in to the demands.
2. I also received a review of the book Escape from Camp 14.  The book chronicles the life of one Mr. Shin, a North Korean, who was raised in, and subsequently risked his life escaping from, one of  the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's gulag-like political prisoner camps.  It is rumored that over 200,000 people are kept in these camps, and just being related to a prisoner is enough to garner a one way ticket.  It seems like the rulers of the DPRK are jealous gods who visit the sins of the fathers on the third or fourth generations. The book reports the harrowing details of a Mr. Shin's life. A life of beatings, forced marriages (with visitation 5 nights a year), hunger, death., and escape for the chance, just once, to have a full stomach.

OK, which organization is actually more oppressive? Remember that hunger strikes only work when the "oppressors" actually care enough that you are hungry, and despite their hate take the steps to keep you from dying.

Me? I'd rather use a gendered restroom than live in the DPRK.

Gregory Nazianzen "The Theologian"

Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory The Theologian, was ordained against his will in 361.  Gregory was born in what is now Turkey, and known at the time as Cappadocia.  With Basil "the Great" and Gregory of Nyssa, he shares the title of "Cappadocian Father. He was a supporter of the Orthodox position, and specifically Basil, in the latter's struggle with the Arian Emperor Valens.  Ultimately, Gregory was invited to lead a theological mission to Constantinople, and it was there that his the theological quality of his mind and sermons were noticed.  By popular consent, he was acclaimed the Bishop of Constantinople in 380 at the Church of Hagia Sophia.  After the Council of Constaninople in 381, he retired to Nazianzus and died in 389.


Little well known is that Gregory was a religious poet.  What follows are two brief poems from Browlie's translation, available at CCEL.
 An Evening Hymn

I Now at this evening hour, O Thou, my Christ, to Thee, Thou Word of God, Eternal Light, All grateful praises be. II From Thee the Spirit comes, Third beam of peerless light, And in Thyself one glorious orb The triple rays unite. III Thy word and wisdom Thou To lighten man hast given, That he the splendour might reflect That shines superb in heaven; IV And having light within, Might see Thine image bright, And daily rise, till he himself

A Morning Hymn

I
The morning breaks, I place my hand in Thine,
My God, ’tis Thine to lead, to follow mine;
No word deceitful shall I speak the while,
Nor shall I stain my hand with action vile.
II
Thine be the day with worthy labour filled,
Strong would I stand to do the duty willed;
Nor swayed by restless passion let me be,
That I may give the offering pure to Thee;
III
Else were I ’shamed when hoary age I see,
Shamed were this board that bears Thy gifts to me:
Mine is the impulse; O my Christ, I pray,
Be Thou Thyself to me the Blessed Way!

The Collect for St. Gregory Nazianzus:
Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace, that like your bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.