Pax et Bonum

The Online worship resource for St. James Parish

December 2, 2009

Waiting patiently in expectation
Is the foundation of the spiritual life.
---Simone Weil---
Was there a moment,
Known only to God, when al the stars held their breath,
when the galaxies paused in their dance
for a fraction of a second,
and the Word, who had called it all into being,
went with all his love into the womb of a young girl,
and universe started to breathe again,
and the ancient harmonies resumed their song,
and the angels clapped their hands for joy?
---Madeleine L’Engle---

Advent

Happy New Year!

The season of Advent is the beginning of the new Church year, which ends with the feast day of Christ the King in November. Advent is the season that is most difficult to define. One can find all kinds of ways to name the advent candles, to symbolize either love hope and joy, or the readings of Advent: the prophets, and the holy family. But in reality, the candles on our Advent wreaths are there to mark time. For Advent’s most prominent characteristic is one that is often hardest for us: waiting.

In Advent, we await both the birth of Christ, and the return of Christ. In this material world, Advent holds the four weeks before Christmas in anticipation of the great event when Immanuel, God with us, is born in a manger. But in the long-term, Advent is the waiting for this earth’s full redemption. For until the day when every person is fed, and clothed, and knows that they are loved by God; until the day when the earth is at peace we wait.

Yes, we wait, but our waiting is never idle. We await redemption even as we participate in its coming, waiting with hope and working to bring Christ’s good news to all who are in need. We wait through our loving action, our prayer, and our worship. We groan along with creation for the full redemption of God, and in the meantime, the joy and hope of the Incarnation lights our path.

Let the Word, I pray,
Be to me, not as a word spoken
Only to pass away,
But conceived and clothed in flesh,
Not in air, that he may remain with us.
Let him be, not only to be heard with the ears,
But to be seen with the eyes,
Touched with the hands
And borne on the shoulders.
Let the Word be to me,
Not as word written and silent,
But incarnate and living.
---Bernard of Clairvaux---

Praying the Hours: Terce

When the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, has come,
He shall teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said unto you.
---John 14---

This week we look at the third hour of prayer known as terce.

The third hour, around 9 am, is the hour for welcoming the Holy Spirit. It is the hour of fire; the sun is risen and is warming the earth. Traditionally, it is the hour of Christ’s condemnation as well as the hour of the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the gathered community at Pentecost.

How do the condemnation of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit in fire relate to one another? The echo of condemnation sounds with each footfall toward the cross. The Way of the Cross begins with the image of the silent Jesus before Pilate. Shouts from the crowd, "Crucify Him!" only add to the emptiness of words in this scene. Jesus’ condemnation provokes silence, but the death of Jesus is met with lightening and rending of the Temple curtain. This lightening shatters the sky and becomes the spark for the tongues of flame at Pentecost.

"Make ready for the Face that speaks like lightening,
Uttering the new name of your exultation
Deep in the vitals of your soul.
Make ready for the Christ,
Whose smile, like lightening,
Sets free the song of everlasting glory."
-Thomas Merton

In monasteries the third hour of prayer is often the hour of the Eucharistic celebration.

Fr. Huntington, founder of Holy Cross Monastery, reminds us that, "The whole love of the passion burns in every Eucharist, and we...are to be kindled with that love."

Terce then is the hour of prayer in which we are invited to see the Face of Christ illuminated in the Eucharistic vessels, even as we feel the fire of His great love for us as we come to the table.

Whether or not we are able to join each other at the Eucharistic table for the third hour of prayer, we can celebrate the gift of the Spirit and remember the flames of Pentecost and the fire of the Passion of Christ.

Daily Morning Prayer

Daily Morning Prayer

This Week at St. James

Prayers Etc.

For those on our prayer list:

For Matt Rogers, our Postulant
For those who are deployed and their families.

At your great name, O Jesus, now
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow:
All things on earth with one accord,
Like those in heaven, shall call you Lord.
 
Come in your holy might, we pray,
Redeem us for eternal day;
Defend us while we dwell below
From all assaults of our dread foe.
 
To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Praise, honor, might and glory be
From age to age eternally.
---latin, 9th Century – from the Hymnal 1982---

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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