King of glory, King of peace,
I will love thee;
and that love may never cease,
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
thou hast heard me;
thou didst note my working breast,
thou hast spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing thee,
and the cream of all my heart
I will bring thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
thou didst clear me;
and alone, when they replied,
thou didst hear me.
Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;
in my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
to enroll thee:
e’en eternity’s …

Three times a day a one-ton bell rings.  It first peals nine times, broken into groups of three.  After a period of silence it rings eighteen times.  This bell, named Michael, has been doing this very same thing since 1884.  Whenever it rings everyone stops.  Doesn’t matter what they are doing or where they are.  It caught me on the phone with Cherilyn yesterday.  ”Gotta run, bye.”
From a flyer in the chapel, “The prayer our bell rings out is called the Angelus, a Marian prayer of the Incarnation dating from …

1. Speak as little as possible of oneself.
2. Mind one’s own business.
3 Avoid Curiosity.
4. Do not want to manage other people’s affairs.
5. Accept contradiction and correction cheerfully.
6. Pass over the mistakes of others.
7. Accept blame when innocent.
8. Yield to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.
11. Be kind and gentle even under provocation.
12. Do not seek to be specially loved and admired.
13. Never stand on one’s own dignity.
14. Yield in discussion even though one is right.
15. Choose always the hardest.

God be in my head,
and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes,
and in my looking;
God be in my mouth,
and in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
and in my thinking;
God be at mine end,
and at my departing.
from the Sarum Primer

from Christian Century
The parish liturgy committee decided to adopt the contemporary version of the Lord’s Prayer for use during worship. From now on, at least at one of the services, we’d be “sinners” instead of “trespassers.” The next Sunday a distraught man cornered me. “You’ve taken the Lord’s Prayer away from us!”
I was shocked. What did he mean? We’d been preparing and educating people for this small change for years. How could changing a few words “take away” the Lord’s Prayer?
I thought: maybe the Lord’s Prayer was not part of …

Collect of the Day: The Visitation of Mary
Father in heaven, by whose grace the 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.
Prayer for Heroic Service: Memorial Day
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the …

Sunday night I attended Fr. Bob’s final eucharist for the school year. As most of the undergrads have left, this was aimed at graduating seniors and their families. So many (of us!) did other things the night before our graduation. These seniors went to church. Maybe they did learn something at Wake.

If we’re honest, isn’t that what we long for?  To know there is something bigger, something larger than anything we’ve imagined?  What would it feel like to completely and honestly give yourself over to something that is larger than our imagination?  Come and see.  Worship at St Timothy’s this Sunday.  Come at 7:30 for a contemplative service in the chapel.  Kneel in a space built by the first members of St Timothy’s and pray in a language that is as old as our unique Anglican heritage.  Or come at 9:00 …

Wednesday is the final Rogation Day of 2010.  Rogation Day? you ask.  No, it is not a day of prayers and supplications for the regrowth of hair (that’s Rogaine Day, and it’s not on the church kalendar).  Rogation Days are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day – the 40th day after Easter and it falls on a Thursday.  A quick definition from the Episcopal Dictionary of the Church –
Traditionally, these are the three days before Ascension Day on which the litany is sung (or recited) in procession …

Yesterday in USA Today, the front page statistical snapshot was of our experience of the supernatural.  Over 4,000 adults were surveyed in August of last year and 29% affirmed some connection with the dead.  Lesser numbers believe they’ve seen a ghost and consulted with a medium.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that reason why Halloween and scary stories/movies/etc. resonate with us so consistently is that there is something to all this.  I need to qualify that.  Do I believe that there are spirits of …