"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." - Psalm 96
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THIS WEEK AT ASCENSION + August 5, 2020 |
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Eve of the Transfiguration
This evening, August 5
Evening Prayer 6:00 p.m.
* note the new starting time *
Low Mass, 6:30 p.m.
Image: Transfiguration icon, Theophanes the Greek, 15th c.
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10th Sunday after Pentecost
August 9 (Proper 14)
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Live-Streamed Mass
10:15 a.m. Scripture reflection
11:00 a.m. Virtual Coffee Hour
ALL VIA ZOOM
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Christus on the Sea, hand painted litho-
graph,print by F Silber, Berlin, 19th c.
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Transfiguration: Now you see it; now you don't
Dear people of Ascension,
Please join me this evening if you can as we anticipate and celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. Among the Church's major feasts it's a personal favorite, undiluted as it is by the cultural cross-currents that compete with some of our other major feasts.
I'm also drawn to the Transfiguration, among other reasons because it invites us to contemplate earth and heaven and the inscrutable interplay between the two. The story has a 'now you see it; now you don't' quality. How revelatory -- and how fleeting -- for Peter, James and John! Luke describes them as 'weighed down with sleep,' not fully conscious of the unprecedented glory. And before they know it, "Jesus was found alone."
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The cartoon here, though frivolous, may capture something of Peter's motive when, "Just as they [Moses and Elijah] were leaving ..." he suggests, "Let us make three dwellings ..." First Peter can't stay awake, and then as he recognizes the significance of the moment he wants to capture it, give it a place to live on. But it's gone.
I've experienced similar moments or sequences of moments; maybe you have too. We're unexpectedly visited by a holy revelation that we don't grasp and may have even slept through it. We wake to its divine significance, paradoxically, just as it fades. Of course we want to build tents, capture the ecstatic, even as we reenter our 'normal' mundane reality.
During this ongoing pandemic time, so much may look and feel to us more like deterioration than Transfiguration. I wonder though if we may be able, even now, to cultivate a wakefulness, an eye, to see revelatory moments, intersections of earth and heaven. Though mostly or all on a lesser scale and brilliance than what we'll celebrate this evening, they may nonetheless be our own blessed transfigurations.
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P.S Some of what I tried to convey above is beautifully expressed, and likely better, in the poem Thin Places, in today's Last Word. For the sake of your inspiration and renewal of spirit, I hope you'll make it that far ...
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Examining and Exploring what Unites and Divides Us
I'm including this feature first in this week's 'Also ...' section due to my sense of its importance and interest to many. I also regret that I only belatedly followed up and received word from Junior Warden Cheryl Peterson about a conversation this evening. Cheryl and others will be looking at connections and conversations that have already taken place and others planned in weeks to come and beyond. A main but not exclusive focal point will be matters of race and racism that have again recently come to the fore, with a backdrop that has been centuries in the making and includes as well decades-long endeavors to address these matters in our own Diocese of Chicago.
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Re-Opening Task Force Updates |
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Our intrepid re-opening task force met again yesterday, August 4, and covered a lot of ground. I felt by the end of the 90-minute meeting that we were beginning to see at least a bit of the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.' That light, in this case, is the prospect of resuming in-person worship, catching sight of one another in person and receiving the Sacrament in person. We devoted most of our time yesterday to marking progress-to-date and also defining next steps relative to a wide range of matters, including how worshipers will:
- Let us know they'll be at a particular mass.
- Safely enter and leave the church.
- Find a place in the pews that may not be their 'usual seat.'
- Receive communion.
- Make a financial offering.
- Use a restroom if needed.
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We're also developing a new customary for all ministers of the mass, taking into account social distancing (including in the sacristies), continued live-streaming, and measures to reduce risk of virus transmission by way of vessels or the means of Communion itself. As the wardens and I conveyed in last week's newsletter, we still believe we are a number of weeks away from an in-person mass, but we are getting closer and will keep you informed as well as we are able. |
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Meanwhile, as we all prepare and wonder ...
A parishioner shared with me Mary Wisniewski's July 29 Commentary from the Chicago Tribune. It's titled 'Back to church: The weird, comforting feeling of being together again in the COVID-19 era.' I share it in hopes that it may be of value to some of you who may not have seen it, and as we all wonder, "What will it be like?" Click here to read the Commentary.
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I regret having to remind you that visits to Ascension, other than for urgent or essential matters or for brief personal devotion in the church, are to be avoided. Any visit should be arranged in advance with Br. Nathanael Rahm Thank you for your understanding. |
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The Our Lady of Victory Garden is, however, open and especially beautiful now. The garden gate on LaSalle is open daily from no later than 9:00 a.m. until late afternoon or early evening. Please feel free to come for a visit and a prayer. No prior arrangement is necessary. In any case, enjoy the photo below ...
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Due to COVID-19, Church of the Ascension’s Treasurer and Bookkeeper are limiting the amount of time they spend working in the parish offices. All checks received at Ascension via the United States Postal Service, not always a reliable service in our area, will be bank deposited approximately every 4-6 weeks. They will be here this coming Tuesday, August 4, for several hours beginning by 10 a.m. You may contact the Treasurer by email anytime at Finance@AscensionChicago.org.
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This Week's Featured Chorister
Ian Prichard, bass-baritone
Year of my first service at Ascension: 2018
One or two of my favorite Mass settings/motets that I’ve sung at Ascension: Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir, Felix Mendelssohn;
Sustinuit anima mea, Marcel Dupré from De profundis, Op. 18
One of my favorite things about singing at Ascension is: Knowing that, once a week, I’ll have the opportunity to gather with some pretty spectacular musicians and offer up our work in service.
What else do I do outside of Ascension? This time has allowed me the opportunity to become somewhat addicted to running the lake and park paths around my neighborhood, with the hopes of running my first Chicago Marathon and other races around town when it’s safe to do so!
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Sunday's Organ Repertoire |
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Opening Voluntary
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 730
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier KWV 90
Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809)
At the Offertory
Hymn ST. CATHERINE'S COURT
Closing Voluntary
Fugue in C H. 388
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
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Ascension Connections
Below
(with your click and God's help)
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Meeting ID:
792 031 7452
Password: 1133
Join-by-Phone Option: (312) 626-6799
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Weekly Ascension Schedule
for the (stay-at-home) time being
All connections are
via Zoom (click here)
except for Morning Prayer,
via Facebook (click here).
SUNDAYS
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Mass
10:15 a.m. Scripture reflection
11:00 a.m. Virtual Coffee Hour
MONDAY-FRIDAY
6:10 p.m. Evening Prayer via Zoom
WEDNESDAYS
6:30 p.m. Low Mass
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WEEKDAY MORNING PRAYER
Join us for Morning Prayer, Mondays through Saturdays at 8:00 a.m. on Facebook Live. We've created a dedicated group as part of Ascension's Facebook page here where you can find these videos. (Or navigate from the Ascension Facebook page by clicking on "Groups" at the left side of the screen.) Pray with us while watching live or while visiting the videos later. If, having seen these, you find that you'd like to officiate, please reach out to Br. Jonathan Wheat, SMJ (pictured here) or MB Hwang.
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Mondays-Fridays, 6:00 p.m.
Please note the addition of
Evening Prayer on Fridays!
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Yes, but I still haven't Zoomed ... |
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Please give generously as you are able.
Treasurer Susan Schlough has asked me to remind you of Ascension's ongoing expenses at this time. To the extent that you are able, payment on your pledges or the offering of Holy Day or other special gifts will be greatly appreciated. You may still write a check and mail it to the church, or online payment is possible through the buttons at various places on our website. Thank you!
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Ascension Prayer list as of August 3
For our Prayers: Charley Taylor, August 'Augie' Alonzo, Jim Berger, Ethel Martin, Dean Pineda, Charlene MacDougal, Jim Lo Bello, Marty Stenson, Donna Neglia, Jessica, Maxim, Ted Long, Ken Kelling, David Byerly, Nicholas Carl, Leigh McDonald, Bonnie Joseph, Angie West, Gabriel Monpetit, Mike Lazos, Catriana Patriarca, Mike, Robert & Mary Lou Devens, Richard Laibly.
In Thanksgiving:
Birthdays: Jeanne Kreymer, 8/2; Kenneth Green-Vélez, 8/5; Kasandra (Cassie) Zelazny, 8/6
Prayers for the departed:
Glenn Chestnut, Simona Guillén, Rueben Ehlen
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
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I was delighted to come across and to be blessed by the following poem, written for Ascension Day a number of years ago by Church of England priest and spiritual director Jenny Bridgman. I pray by reading it you may recall or anticipate a few 'thin places,' transfigurations of your own ... - Fr. Raymond +
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Thin Places
The sun-bleached rainbow framed by heavy cloud.
A fleeting, fragile moment
That lifts eyes from Earth to Heaven beyond.
In an instant her curtain is drawn back
And she is stripped bare in brilliant light:
A glimmer of the promise
We heard whispered long ago.
The kindness of a stranger’s gentle smile.
It is good for us to be here,
Sheltered from death’s dark shadow
And the sting of dread that wakes us each new day.
Here, we are as we are:
Alive to Earth’s brilliant goodness;
Eyewitnesses to Heaven’s majesty.
The crash of waves along deserted sand.
This place is not for now:
The bubble bursts,
The curtain drops,
The moment fades.
This is a home too perfect; unready yet to hold
The fullness and frailty of all we must become.
The peace of death as pulse and breath are stilled.
We do not leave unchanged
If change is to become ourselves.
Ahead: a thousand moments of transfiguration,
Each one a death – and resurrection – in itself,
As we are both transformed and transform,
Sacred moment by sacred moment.
Copyright © 2015-2020 Jenny Bridgman
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Below an 1836 rendering from an illustrated Bible of Mount Tabor, long thought by many to be the site of Christ's Transfiguration. |
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The Very Rev. Patrick Raymond, Rector
Susan Schlough, Treasurer
Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm BSG, Parish Office
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