Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Friday, April 6, 2018

Great Paschal Vespers


Please join us:

Sunday, April 8 at 4:00 pm

Great Paschal Vespers is an ancient evening service of processions, prayers, chants, and hymns offering praise to God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

St. Margaret’s Chapel
30 Harden Hill Rd
Duxbury, MA 02332

Friday, April 28, 2017

This Joyful Eastertide - King's College Cambridge




192 This joyful Eastertide

1. This joyful Eastertide,
away with care and sorrow!
My Love, the Crucified,
hath sprung to life this morrow.

Refrain:
Had Christ, that once was slain,
ne'er burst his three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain;
but now is Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen, arisen.

2. Death's flood hath lost its chill,
since Jesus crossed the river:
Lord of all life, from ill
my passing soul deliver. (Refrain)

3. My flesh in hope shall rest,
and for a season slumber,
till trump from east to west
shall wake the dead in number. (Refrain)

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Holy Week & Easter schedule at the convent

These services will be in our new chapel.


The Holy Saturday Liturgy will be at noon in the convent oratory next door. We also have several daily office services on a special schedule - call or email if you're interested in the times.

For Maundy Thursday this year, we will be going out to various parish liturgies in the area.

Friday, April 15, 2016

considering Ananias

This morning at the Eucharist, we read the story of the conversion of Saul/Paul as told in Acts 9. We had already heard it Sunday morning, though the verses selected were slightly different. Not for the first time, I heard it and wondered about Ananias. How on earth did he have the courage to seek out someone who had come to Damascus with the express purpose of throwing him and his companions in Christ in jail? The depth of his trust in God is truly breathtaking. I want that, too.

Now, it's not that he asks no questions. He does. I don't believe for a moment that God minds our asking questions, even if it's an initial, "Seriously?" So Ananias has his own version of "Really???" in response to his vision of Jesus: 
But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. (Acts 9:13-15)
I recall reading a sermon that pointed out that God doesn't answer Ananias' questioning by telling him he will be safe. God just tells him to go. And so he does.

I wonder if his friends and family were there when he decided to set off to the street called Straight to find their declared enemy and heal him. I can't imagine they would encourage him. If they knew, chances are they were terrified both for him and for themselves.

As it turns out, I have the Noon Office reading for this week, and so this morning I needed to find a non-scriptural reading to accompany the scripture reading. Naturally, I did what any good nun would do: Googled "the courage of Ananias." I'd like to share with you what I found to read in chapel.

For years, the vivid memories of my first encounter with this week's text led me to believe I had a handle on the story. But everything changed the day a seminary classmate preached a sermon in which she wondered aloud about Ananias's role in Saul's conversion…I'm not sure if Ananias was completely omitted from the Bible school experience of my childhood or if his role in the story--with its lack of flashing lights--simply failed to grab my attention. Either way, I missed Ananias altogether, which is a shame….

Ananias deserves our consideration. Though it's understandable that his role is overshadowed by Saul's overall story, he is to be commended for acting out of obedience in the face of fear. When Ananias gives voice to his trepidation, he also reveals that he has heard of Saul through the grapevine. Even if Ananias's fears are well founded, we might imagine that they are magnified by the rumor mill.

And yet--Ananias chooses to trust that his assessment of Saul as dangerous is outweighed by God's choice to use Saul to bring God's name "before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel." Ananias believes God. When he meets Saul face to face, he doesn't scout out the situation or test the validity of Saul's repentance. Ananias greets him as "Brother Saul," and Saul's sight is restored; the scales fall from Saul's eyes.

Each day… I hear on the radio the stories of those who struggle to live: brothers and sisters who face the daily threats of gun violence, poverty, and systemic abuse. I hear the stories of people the world over who are persecuted because of their race, ethnicity, gender, the people they choose to love, or the way in which they experience God. I am haunted…by the stories of so many… who have been forced from their homes. Alongside these heartbreaking stories, I also hear a narrative that points to a terrifying pattern. When we are at our worst, we allow our fears, real or imagined, to trump God's call to be in relationship with those who suffer. Now is the time to take a cue from Ananias. Believe God. And call the storytellers by the only names that fit: sister, brother, family, child of God. Perhaps when we no longer allow our fears to stand in the way of the reconciling work of God, the scales will fall from our eyes, too.       
You can read the full sermon from which this is taken here: The courage of Ananias: Austin Crenshaw Shelley's lectionary e-mail from Monday | The Christian Century

May God give us, too, the grace to put aside our fear and live in a deeper trust. As Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand." (John 10:28) May God help us to know more fully that Christ is risen and that this is all the safety we need.


Saturday, April 4, 2015

signs of things soon to come

Getting ready for my favorite service of the year, the Easter Vigil.
If you're curious, you can look at the liturgy here:  http://www.bcponline.org/SpecialDays/EasterVigil.html
You have to add arrival in the dark, then fire and candles, then the liturgical equivalent of storytelling around a campfire (Paschal Candle!), then bells and music, lots of music! and the Eucharist. Such a celebration of resurrection.

all set up for the New Fire, which is quite something in the dark - we start at 4AM!

hand candles for the congregation

bells for the congregation to ring when we sing our A......a!

I must ask for the story of this bell marked 1770...

getting the Paschal candle stand ready

altar cover back on for Easter
Sunrise is usually around the time of communion, light streaming through the window behind the altar. So perfect.

The rest of the set-up will wait till 3AM, I think. Maybe more flowers tonight? 

Look, even the green things realize it's time to come back to life!

The song sparrows have been practicing.

Even the crows are dressed up in their finest and looking lovely.

So join us in the Chapel at 4AM if you are feeling adventurous!
30 Harden Hill Road, Duxbury MA

We'll be here. 

Now. To sleep, if I can. The wee hours are when I wake (um, more or less) in great anticipation of the great dawn.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Holy Week and Easter at St. Margaret's Convent, Duxbury


We invite you to join us in worship as we journey through Holy Week to Easter.

Good Friday, St. Margaret's Chapel

April 2 Maundy Thursday 7 PM

April 3   Good Friday         3 PM

April 4 Holy Saturday 12 noon

April 5 Easter Vigil         4 AM


All services will be held in St. Margaret's Chapel, 30 Harden Hill Road, Duxbury MA.

St. Margaret's Chapel
30 Harden Hill Rd.
Duxbury, MA

You are also welcome to stay with us so as to enter into the events of Holy Week more fully. We will be in silence from Maundy Thursday until after the Easter Vigil, allowing those who join us to enter as deeply as possible into prayer during this time.

We still have space available to join the Sisters in worship and prayer for Holy Week or Easter Week. The cost is $75 per night, per person. Rooms are available for individuals as well as couples, and guests may arrive Tuesday afternoon and stay through Sunday afternoon. For more information or to make a reservation, please contact us at 781-934-9477 ext. 501 or at convent@ssmbos.org.


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Easter sonnet


Amoretti LXVIII: Most Glorious Lord of Life

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day,
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin:
And having harrow'd hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean wash'd from sin,
May live for ever in felicity.
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.



You may find the original version with old spelling here: http://www.kingdompoets.blogspot.ca/2011/04/edmund-spenser.html

Saturday, April 19, 2014

"He comes to harrow Hell"

Holy Saturday - Harrowing Hell - a medieval depiction

Through the Gate

Begin the song exactly where you are
For where you are contains where you have been
And holds the vision of your final sphere

And do not fear the memory of sin;
There is a light that heals, and, where it falls,
Transfigures and redeems the darkest stain

Into translucent colour. Loose the veils
And draw the curtains back, unbar the doors,
Of that dread threshold where your spirit fails,

The hopeless gate that holds in all the  fears
That haunt your shadowed city, fling it wide
And open to the light that finds and fares

Through the dark pathways  where you run and  hide,
through all the alleys of your riddled heart,
As pierced and open as His wounded side.

Open the map to Him and make a start,
And down the dizzy spirals, through the dark
His light will go before you, let Him chart

And name and heal. Expose the hidden ache
To him, the stinging fires and smoke that blind
Your judgement, carry you away, the mirk

And muted gloom in which you cannot find
The love that you once thought worth dying for.
Call Him to all you cannot call to mind

He comes to harrow Hell and now to your
Well guarded fortress let His love descend.
The icy ego at your frozen core

Can hear His call at last. Will you respond?
-- Malcolm Guite

Monday, March 4, 2013

so chocolate bar

I love chocolate.  Especially good dark chocolate - but I'll take any kind.

So when I heard the expression "That's so chocolate bar!" used by these little boys, I knew just what that must mean. 

You all may well have seen this already - the story seems to be on its way to going viral.  I hope it does. Having made the Today Show will not hurt a bit.

chocolate bar book for a cure

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/dylan-siegel-chocolate-bar-book_n_2765396.html

http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2013/03/01/17134471-boy-6-writes-book-raises-92000-for-best-pals-rare-disease?lite

This child, Dylan, who is six, has written a little book to raise money to help his friend Jonah, who has a rare disease.   When I read about it today, he had already raised $93,000.  He plans to raise a million. 

And here his parents were thinking bake sales.



I am grateful to have found this today.  It's been a difficult week for quite a number of people I know.   Then there is the news.   Too many stories of people being truly horrible to each other.   It's good to read about the ones who are acting in love.

The older I get, the more I realize both the depth of the evil that is possible in humanity and the astonishing good of which we are capable.  All of us.  Hearing some stories of things that happened here in Haiti, stories that  are being passed around now that Baby Doc is finally on trial, just blow my mind.  It seems like something out of a history book, except I now know people who were there.

front page of yesterday's newspaper
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/28/3259925/former-haiti-president-baby-doc.html#moreb
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/04/3266912/attorney-haitis-baby-doc-duvalier.html
http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=114014 - Les minutes de l'audition de Jean-Claude Duvalier

There is plenty more of that  happening all over the world. 

Every time some little - or not so little -  interpersonal nastiness takes place, it's a shadow of participation in that larger evil.  It is just easier to justify, I suppose.  To cover.   Certainly to get away with. 

And then I remember once again that this is all wrapped up in the paschal mystery.  

It's Lent.  It's a time for repentance, for turning around, for seeking a closer relationship with God - which means seeking a closer relationship with each other.   We meet Jesus daily in the people around us.   What does that look like?  How do we, in fact, treat Jesus? speak to him, not in a church, but in our daily interactions? Holy Week is coming.   The evil in the world is on display during that week.  It is not too surprising that some people prefer to skip it and go straight to Easter.  Even Easter dinner - skip the resurrection - it might remind you that you have to die in order to be resurrected.

But of course that's just it.  There is no point to Easter without Holy Week. 

OK, well, maybe the chocolate.

But even chocolate can't make evil go away, tempting as it might be to try sometimes.

When things get to looking evil, Holy Week comes along to remind us that evil and death will never have the last word.  Whatever it is, God can take it and turn it inside out and bring life where there should be no possibility of such.  You can't gloss over the horror of crucifixion any more than you can gloss over what happens here and now.  We try.  We can't. And we don't have to.  God lets us stare it right in the face.  Then and only then is there resurrection.


Sometimes things like Dylan's chocolate bar book remind me that there is more to our story, that God is at work in and through us in the most creative and unexpected ways.  As with Dylan and Jonah, I could tell stories of serious illness - and stories of friends who step up in surprising, beautiful ways.  When I hear a story of cruelty, I can also tell a story of a young deacon who is willing to move into a house with no running water or even a well so she can minister in an area in need.  So many of those stories are untold.  Maybe we should be sharing them, even if our stories don't make the Today Show.   God's work bringing life to the world is just the good news we need.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

the end is life

‎"The proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God. In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives, through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord is risen."

-- F. Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

(Thanks to JH)

alleluia!

Monday, April 25, 2011