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 The First Sunday In Lent
March 1, 2020


7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
8:00 a.m. Said Mass Rite I

Nursery Available from 8:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

9:00 a.m. Sung Mass
11:00 a.m. The Great Litany in Procession and Solemn High Mass

Join us for fellowship in Wheeler Hall
after each Mass.
Temptation of Christ, ca. 1525, Simon Bening, now in the collection of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Join us on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for an Organ Recital (Chantworks: Contemporary Music for the Season of Lent) by David White followed by Evensong & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 4:00 p.m.
               Marked by Ashes (excerpt)
                   by Walter Brueggemann

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.
from Prayers for a Privileged People, 2008

SUNDAY LENTEN PROGRAMS
Christopher writes: “ For many of us, Lent begins with a renewed commitment to various spiritual practices—fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. But is our theology expansive enough to account for how these practices can go terribly wrong? We’ll explore how Anglican theologians grapple with the fact that promised spiritual goods can sometimes inflict unexpected harm, and we’ll discuss how accounting for these harms can actually help us to practice Lent with greater mindfulness and honesty.” 

Christopher Poore   is a Regenstein Fellow at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he is pursuing an MA in Theology. He began attending the Church of the Ascension in 2018, often with friends from Hyde Park and with his wife, the poet Gina Franco. He is an associate poetry editor for Narrative Magazine, and his own writing has appeared in America Magazine, St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, and Denver Quarterly.

All programs take place in St. Michael Hall and
begin with a simple soup lunch at 12:45 p.m.
March 8  - "Forgiveness, Christian and Otherwise"
- Joseph ‘Joey’ Keegin
 
March 15  - "Naught Else But the Yearning of the Soul: Image & Imagination in Early Women's Devotional Practices”
- Clare Kemmerer
 
March 22  - “Fear & Idols”
- William Pounds
 
March 29  - “Suffering, Love, and Surrender”
​- Taylor Zimmerman


FROM THE RECTOR
SOUP ON SUNDAYS IN LENT . Each Sunday Lenten Program will begin with a light lunch featuring homemade soup! Junior Warden Cheryl Peterson and her husband Jay Peterson have agreed to cook up the soup for this coming Sunday, March 1. They’re promising a fish soup and a vegetarian option as well. They’re not pictured here in their soup kitchen, but rather at Lincoln Cathedral, England, where Jay toured with the Christ Church, Winnetka, choir this past summer. 

COFFEE HOUR IN WHEELER HALL will be more modest in March due to the Lunch and Lenten Program taking part in St. Michael Hall. Plans for how to cover hospitality in both locales are still in the works. Please contact me if you can be of help in either location!

ANOTHER LENTEN OPPORTUNITY has been offered by Br. Michael-Francis Smith, OSB , who will be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to read, reflect on and discuss the spiritual classic , Introduction to the Devout Life, by Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622). Please contact Br. Michael-Francis directly if you are interested or have questions. 


THE SUNDAY ROSARY FOR MARCH will take place on Sunday, March 8, the Second Sunday in Lent. We’re moving it from this coming Sunday due to a variety of complicating factors. We continue for the time being to offer the rosary as well on the third Saturday of each month (e.g. March 21). In the event you are unaware, we provide both rosaries and devotional booklets, particularly for the benefit of those for whom the rosary is unfamiliar. The booklets begin with an illustration that briefly introduces the prayer beads, their order, what prayers are said on what beads, and why.

Organist David White kindly and helpfully reminds us of some meaningful Lenten traditions with regard to music. I’m grateful for his letter, written at my request, which you may read below. 

The Ascension Vestry will gather for a workshop-retreat at our diocesan center this coming Saturday. We aim to better clarify where leadership can be of most value at Ascension in 2020 … and who we imagine may be able to provide that leadership. Your prayers will, of course, be appreciated. 

Hey! Sister Barbara’s Birthday wasn’t exactly Mardi Gras, but it was lively, colorful and seemingly both meaningful and joyful (especially for the guest of honor). Thanks to all who helped out (including Fr. Pruitt for providing the sheet cake) and to all who send cards and mementos. 
FROM THE ORGANIST
Today, we keep the First Day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday. We notice the change of the liturgical season in many ways. Some of us will keep today as a fast, most of us will leave Mass with a reminding mark of our mortal nature on our foreheads, and many of us will pare away things seen as excesses, in order to bring into focus our need to constantly work at living the Christian life as servant of all.

Our Lenten liturgies will reflect those changes in emphasis in several ways: By long tradition, the organ voluntaries (our opening and closing communal acts of praise) will give way to an opportunity for silent prayer and reflection (except on Lent 4 “Lætare”); the celebratory Gloria in excelsis and ‘Alleluia’ will be set aside (except on two Feast Days) until Easter Eve, congregational singing (and its illustration at the organ) are of a more direct and basic nature; and the congregational Mass-setting at the 9AM Mass returns to the plaintive and melismatic Missa marialis, sung lovingly by the people at Ascension for many years.
Stations of the Cross and Benediction at 6:30PM on Fridays of Lent, as well as this Sunday’s Evensong & Benediction, with its preceding recital at 3:30PM also offer a pared-back, simpler, and introspective use of the organ and its many colors.

I wish you all a holy walk with Our Lord this Lent, in anticipation of a glorious Eastertide to follow.
LAST SUNDAY'S SERMON
SHARING LUNCH, SHARING BLESSINGS
The next lunch gathering is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 . We will enjoy some friendly conversation and some good food. Menu plans right now call for: Veggie lasagna, green salad, garlic bread, and blueberry cobbler. The theme will be "March Madness"-----and I will leave you to speculate about what that means until next week. (There may be a mention of basketball, but don't count on it! )

Join us at Mass (12:05 p.m.) and stay for lunch and BRING A FRIEND.
Contact Cheryl at 773-322-7995 if you have questions.
UPCOMING MASS COMMEMORATIONS

Saturday, February 29
Lenten Feria
Morning Prayer, 9:30 a.m.
Healing Mass, 10:00 a.m.

THIS SUNDAY AT THE ASCENSION
The schedule of Sunday Readings, Celebrants, Preachers, Lectors, Acolytes, Ushers, Hymnody, Choral and Organ Repertoire for  Sunday, March 1, 202 may be found by clicking here . More information on the Choral repertoire  may be found by clicking here . The Clergy Rota  for this week's and upcoming masses  may be found here .

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST
Please remember these people in your daily prayers
Geoffrey Wainwright, Mary Lou Devens, Charley Taylor, August 'Augie' Alonzo, Ted Long, Jim Berger, Ethel Martin, Yuka Asai, Dean Pineda, Carnola Malone, Charlene MacDougal, Jack Johnston, Patricia Johnston, Stewart Marks, Char Yurema, Bob Sparacio, Canon Edgar Wells, Nicholas Carl, Joshua, Ellie, Catriana Patriarca, Carmen Castro, Mary Drell, Jim Lo Bello, Judy Cook, Steve Waltz, Lillian Alexander

During this time of transition , the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Chicago asks for prayers for the church, our diocese, our clergy and lay leaders, our retiring bishop, and those who may be discerning a call to become the Thirteenth Bishop of Chicago.

P rayers for the departed
John Marston,  uncle of John West
Heriberto Vilaseco , father of Enrique Vilaseco

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.
THE LAST WORD
BLESSING THE DUST - A BLESSING FOR ASH WEDNESDAY
All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners
or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial –
did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.
So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

The Very Rev. Patrick Raymond, Rector

Susan Schlough, Treasurer

Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm BSG, Parish Office