Bryan Sherwood

Phos Hilaron: Hail Gladdening Light

From the Book of Common Prayer:

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

The Phos Hilaron became a part of my vespers liturgy some time ago when I started using the BCP for daily prayer.  I always found this hymn to be quite beautiful but never really knew the history behind it until recently. Phos Hilaron is an ancient hymn prayer, dating back to the 3rd century or perhaps even earlier. Some attribute it to St. Athenogenes (died c. 305). He was a bishop and ultimately a martyr that was killed under the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Some say Athenogenes sang the Phos HIlaron with joy as he entered the flames.

The Phos Hilaron is to be sung in the evening at the lighting of the lamps and is sometimes referred to as the "Lamp-lighting hymn." Wikipedia states that:

At that time in Jerusalem a lamp was kept perpetually burning in the empty tomb of Christ, its glow a symbol of the living light of Jesus. As Christians gathered to worship the hymn was sung and, in a tradition known as the lighting of the lamps, a candle lit from the lamp was brought forth from the tomb, its bright, solitary flame calling the church to celebrate the Risen Lord.

This ancient hymn has been a regular part of evening prayer for Anglicans, the Eastern Church and Lutherans, to name a few.  I continue to pray it in the evenings and in so doing, I feel connected to the ancient church through the words of this beautiful hymn.

I'm glad to know a bit more of its history.  I hope you've found it helplful too.  Pax.

Pope Benedict - The Grandeur of the Liturgy

The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills.  (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI)

This month's edition of Christianity Today has a great article on the liturgy.  Check it out.  I hear the book this article is adapted from is pretty good too.  Anybody read it?

A Special Moment in the Mass

One of the first times I was at Mass at Gethsemani, I was struck by a particular part of the Mass.

All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Priest: Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
All: For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.

This portion of the Mass occurs during the Communion Rite itself. As the Church moves closer to receiving the body and blood of Christ, we pray the words of the Lord's Prayer together. Then the priest prays this beautiful prayer:

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love that prayer. It strikes close to home for me. It speaks to me every single time I hear it. It's a prayer worth wrestling with. I find it interesting that it asks the Lord to grant us peace and to protect us from all anxiety as we wait for Jesus to return. Let me tell you, when the priest utters that prayer, I pray it as hard as I can. I mouth those words. As I walk down front and receive the bread and wine, I'm reminded again that He is the one who brings healing. I take Him inside of me and pray that I may be able to rest in His peace.

Pax.

Standing or Kneeling in Worship

To stand or to kneel. What do you think?

Liturgy is Freeing

Bishop Tom Wright does a good job talking about the role of liturgy in real life. I hear people regularly describe liturgy as something that's boring, "dead," rote, etc. I used to think that myself until a few years ago when my experience of liturgy drastically changed my viewpoint. Instead of liturgy being boring, I found myself comforted by its familiarity. Take prayer for an example. Liturgy was freeing to me because it provided me a way to pray when I often didn't feel like praying. I discovered a simple structure that didn't get in the way of prayer but instead, gave me words to pray. It didn't hurt to learn that Christians have turned to liturgical prayer down through the centuries! Liturgy isn't new. It's not a fad. It's been around for a long time and will be around for a long time to come.

I hope that more people will give liturgical prayer a try. I agree with Phyllis Tickle who writes:

It is important to remember, as pastors frequently remind us, that it is not the prayers we do not say, but rather those we do say, that matter to God.

For those who struggle with spontaneous prayer, fixed form prayer provides a way to pray which is far better than the alternative--not praying at all.

Happy Day

My priest at St. Patrick's has started wearing a chasuble. I feel like I belong to a real church now.

Prayer: The Life of a Monk

Manual Labor is a staple of Cistercian spirituality. In the Rule of St. Benedict we find these words:

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading.

Later in the same chapter, Benedict writes:

When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks. Yet, all things are to be done with moderation on account of the faint hearted.

For one who sits at a computer most of every work day, I can understand the need for physical labor. There are times nothing else will really do. Perhaps one of the most helpful things about manual work is its repetitive nature. A task like gardening, mowing, or digging provides a rhythm that frees the mind to meditate on God and before one realizes it, they have entered into a deep place of prayer and contemplation.

I like how Brian Taylor puts it in his book Spirituality for Everyday Living:

Prayer was not an activity isolated from other activities. Rather, the life of a monk was to be his prayer.

It's easy to think of prayer as being "spiritual" and the rest of life being "worldly." Often times Christians tend to compartmentalize their lives: work, family life, church life, spiritual life, etc. What St. Benedict is getting at, not to mention the teaching of Scripture, is the idea that our entire life is spiritual. Whether we're mowing a field of hay or praying Morning Prayer, we seek God.

I can't write about work and prayer without thinking about the liturgy. That is after all what the word means, "the work of the people." The liturgy provides a framework that we enter into week after week. We pray many of the same prayers. We recite the same creeds. There's a familiarity to it all and that familiarity allows us to go beyond the prayers and we are somehow able to open our hearts to the living God.

Work and prayer go together. It's not one or the other.

My Sunday

My day so far.

5:00 a.m. Rise, shower and eat breakfast.
6:15 a.m. Drive to the Abbey of Gethsemani
7:30 a.m. Arrive at the monastery, prayer in the prayer garden, journaling, silence.
9:00 a.m. Meet with my LCG Group, Mass, Potluck Meal, Meeting with Fr. Michael
2:00 p.m. Depart the monastery and drive back to Lexington. Stop in Lawrenceburg and fix mom's printer.
3:50 p.m. Arrive at St. Patrick's Church for Mass. By far the hottest service ever (i.e. no air conditioning).
5:15 p.m. Leave St. Patrick's and look for any cool (air conditioned) place to eat
5:30 p.m. Eat at Ramsey's. Open-faced turkey sandwich and chocolate creme pie
6:30 p.m. Arrive at home, change clothes and RELAX!

Whew, what a day! It's all been good though. My favorite part? Well, there's nothing quite like Mass at Gethsemani. I love the simplicity and beauty of the liturgy there. The incense rocks too.

Thomas Merton on Liturgy

Liturgy demands of us the sacrifice of what is merely individualistic and eccentric in our lives . . . (Thomas Merton)