I’m pooped.  That’s all there is to it.  I want all my parishioners to know that if you think the 10:30 service is long – y’all ain’t seen nothin’!  8am was Morning Prayer.  11:00am was a Solemn High Eucharist.  5:30pm was Evening Prayer.  If your knees hurt while kneeling at St Tim’s, I’ve spent quite a long time on much less comfortable kneelers.  Truth be told, they don’t have kneelers, they have vinyl pads that hang on a hook on the back of the cathedral chairs.  But it’s wonderful.  It’s wonderful to have a chance to do this.  I thank St Timothy’s for allowing me to have this time of renewal and continuing education.

It’s strange to be on the other side of the altar.  Worship here has been completely and totally oriented toward God.  That may sound odd, isn’t all worship oriented to God?  Not necessarily.  It is supposed to be, but that doesn’t mean it always ends that way.  There are long pauses of silence, lots of incense, and an undeniable focus on the worship of the Triune God.  In the parish, our attempts at being hospitable to those who are new to our worship and community can sometimes run the risk of reorienting the focus of worship to the worshiper and not the One being worshiped.  It goes back to the common heresy of “I’m not getting anything out of worship.”  I say we’re not supposed to!  Our enrichment is but a by-product of our main and only objective- to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. Worship this way isn’t as “easy” but it feels more authentic.

I heard three presentations today – one on scripture, one on pastoral theology, and the other on spirituality.

The first presenter argued that scripture needs to be viewed like a museum.  I won’t fully flesh what he meant out, but the jist is this: pieces in a museum are packaged and presented in ways never intended by the creator.  For instance, if you’ve ever walked the Cloisters in NYC as a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is clear that the medieval church artisans never imagined their work would be a museum on the north end of Manhattan.  That’s important.

The art is viewed based on its context, the lighting, the other pieces around it, and so on.  The presenter was making a similar argument about scripture.  But this made me think again about space.  I’ve served churches and been members of churches were the worship space was very functional.  Pews with pads and a center pulpit to better hear the sermon.  Nice sound system.  You get the picture.  If you were not sitting in the pew listening to the sermon, however, the space had little to offer.

What I love about Christ Church, New Haven, and what I love out about parish is that it is possible to enter the space when no one else is there and nothing else is going on, and still lose yourself in prayer and meditation.  In fact, during Evening Prayer, folks from off the street were walking and looking at the windows and stations and were not bothering us at all.  Two different types of spiritual nourishment were taking place.  One was communal (us praying the evening office) and one was individual (walking around and looking at the “stuff”).

I respond to spaces that allow for both.  I respond to a church that allows for wonderful communal worship but also allows plenty of opportunities for me to come in on a Tuesday afternoon and spend 15 minutes.  Or for that matter, allows for me to linger before or after the communal worship.

How we can continue to make this a reality in our parish is a thought.

The other thing that hit me this afternoon was the “priest walk” from the church to a restaurant a few blocks away.  Some 50 priests in collars, cassocks, and coolness (I needed another “c” word) were walking through Yale University.  People stopped and looked.  We looked odd.  Some of the stares were not all positive.

But it didn’t matter.  On one hand, it made a powerful statement.  In a secular environment like Yale University, the odd walk of priests was a powerful tool of witness.  On the other hand, there was something very comfortable about being with the group.  I don’t want to say there is ‘safety’ in numbers, because our faith is not safe in that sense.  But there is solidarity.  There is community.

And that has been the main thrust of this experience for me – community.  The Society (Community) of Catholic Priests.  The communal worship.  The community of believers.  The Church.

How we can make this a reality in our parish is still another thought.

Part III tomorrow.