Day 1 – mortification

Day 1! Will I get through to the end? Maybe not a great question for the first day.

As this is Day 1, The Circumcision of Christ, the first spilling of blood, I am going to share some insights from Morning Prayer

Stand in awe, and sin not : commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still.
Offer the sacrifice of righteousness : and put your trust in the Lord.

Psalm 4:4, 5

Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I read a book on the spirituality of the Prayer Book that emphasised its monastic origins. Life is structured in prayer – Morning, Evening, and Mass. But the other side of monasticism – mortification or asceticism – did not get a mention. The 1662 BCP has a system of days of fasting, abstinence, and feasting.

So, Day 1: “mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts” and “offer the sacrifice of righteousness“.

Day 0 – questions

With God’s help, I plan to spend January alone. I am praying for a retreat at home.

Sometimes, writing down the question you bring to a retreat is a good idea. So: do I have a vocation to the solitary life? At the moment, I feel like I am using it as an excuse and escape from me. The end of the year was extremely difficult. And I have simply stepped back into old habits and thought patterns. So, to expand the question, do I have a vocation, or am I just running away from me?

I have become more aware of the differences between my view of Christianity and the community/parish. And that has really hurt. I would like to offer the hurt to Jesus as a form of mortification – hand it over to him. But, apart from the spiritual impact, there are impacts on my life-arrangement. In that context, do I have the resolution to start again?

And, to be honest, I feel like it is all me. I am again in a position where I feel I am the problem. In the end, there is no escaping me. Am I, as a person, suited to this life?

So, 31 days of January to work it all out!

Colossians 3

This is the reading for Evensong today (30 December) in the 1922 Lectionary. Prayer, mortification, and seelsorge.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Colossians 3:1-17

growth?

… he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. … the church may receive edifying.

1 Cor 14:3, 5

Take heed that the persons, whom ye present unto us, be apt and meet, for their learning and godly conversation, to exercise their ministry duly, to the honour of God, and the edifying of his Church.

BCP: The Ordering of Priests

The Church and the priesthood are for growth in relationship with Jesus. It is not an institution concerned with itself. It is concerned with individuals. What happens when this individual “growth” is no longer the aim?

ye present your bodies a living sacrifice

O Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

white martyrdom

Today the Church remembers that some who follow Jesus are called to white martyrdom. Holy anchorites, pray for us.

Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus said unto Peter, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, That that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

The Gospel: St. John 21.19-end

“follow me”

The day after The Nativity of Our Lord is not Boxing Day but Saint Stephen’s Day. And there is a good reason. Here are the Collect from the BCP and the gospel:

Grant, O Lord, that in all our sufferings here upon earth, for the testimony of thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.

St. Matthew 23.34-end

Following Jesus is not all songs, candles, and food. S. Stephen reminds us that Jesus, who said, “Follow me”, went to the Cross.

nativity eve

According to the Book of Common Prayer, the eve of The Nativity of our Lord is a vigil that is also a day of fasting and abstinence. So what does that mean? Glad you asked.

I am not sure if there is an official definition of the terms. For me, it means that no full meal or meat before First Evensong. So, in reality, I do not eat before Evensong. And, to be honest, that is not a huge thing. But it reminds me that the wood of the manger is also the wood of the cross.

First Evensong, according to Ritual Notes, should not be said before 2:00 pm.

So, blessing Vigil!!!!

institutionalism

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

Luke 15:4

God leaves the institution to find the individual. Do I escape into the institution to ignore the individual? What happens when people do not fit into my “box”?

What do the “99” think of the “1”?