THE ANGELUS

Dear Friends of Our Saviour,

This is a very peculiar time to be writing a letter. I am preparing it on February 12, 2008 - early in Lent. I will send it to Oreta for inclusion in the March Angelus - appearing in mid-Lent. And it will cover Holy Week and the beginning of the Easter season - March 23, 2008.

So what are my choices for a theme? Obviously there are many - the reflectiveness of Lent with its emphasis this year on sin; the Passion of Christ; the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour; the celebration of new life in Christ in Eastertide.

Why not write about all of that! The whole Christian story in one month. I will, however, choose to share with you my own annual “Holy Week problem.” That might, I hope, provide a way to move through all of the biblical and liturgical aspects of this extraordinary month.

As I sit in the Lady Chapel before the Altar of Repose during the Maundy Thursday/Good Friday vigil I am more than ever conscious of what an existential person I am. The scriptures and the beautiful, somewhat elaborate, liturgy of Lent, Holy Week and Easter are very explicit and allow us the experience of being with Jesus in “real time.” They take us on a journey with him through his time in the wilderness, his eventual arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his passion, death and resurrection during the following week. Contemplating these dramatic events on Maundy Thursday night I am sharing with Jesus in the experience of the Garden of Gethsemane. With him I am faced by the anguish and tragedy of the following day, Good Friday. And I can look forward with him in both fear and hope to the outcome of God's saving work. The scriptures and the liturgy provide us with a great gift of spiritual insight and guidance during this “concentrated” season.

But here is my existential problem. What is the individual, personal, deeper meaning of all this for me on a day in March 2008. I “get it” intellectually. If I allow my imagination to enter into the drama I am witnessing I “get it” emotionally. But still there is the question – how do these mighty acts of God make a difference for me in my own existence here and now? I know the scriptures. I know the history. I know the tradition. I know the theology. I am saved by Christ's redeeming work - and this is a presentation of that redemption. It is a liturgical and sacramental re-enactment.

It brings with it revelation and grace. It includes me in the story. It provides me with an opportunity to enter into it. But I am this inveterate existentialist. What is the “here and now” for me? Several Sundays ago Father Ben Anthony preached a sermon in our church which spoke of the “nothingness of God.” That was a challenging statement. Its meaning was found in the repudiation of any attempt to define God in ways that are limited by efforts of human comprehension. He was saying that God is no - THING. To make God any kind of thing (even an abstract thing) is to engage in idolatry. We best understand God in the silence and in the void - by actually not understanding Him.

Ben used the moment in the Eucharist called the Fraction – the Breaking of the Bread - to illustrate this understanding of no-thing-ness. When the Bread is broken there is an empty space between the two broken parts and in the liturgy this is done and seen in silence. We experience then a sacred moment of emptiness and brokenness in which God’s presence becomes silently and invisibly real.

On Maundy Thursday this year and throughout this concentrated biblical and liturgial season I will seek to dwell in the emptiness and silence of the broken bread which is the most powerful symbol we have of the saving work of Christ. “He took bread and broke it and gave it to them and said ‘This is my Body which is given for you…’”

Dwelling in that place of emptiness and silence I believe I might give myself the opportunity for an existential experience of what this can mean to me.

In the end it's a matter of “Shut up, John - listen and wait. Stop talking about it in your head - be still and know that I am God.”

This might be helpful to some of you who have my problem of mental discursiveness, who need to be constantly explaining to ourselves what we think we understand - right now! Perhaps some of you might want to join me in the space between the broken pieces of bread, in the silence of the Maundy Thursday vigil.

Have a blessed Lent, Holy Week and Easter.

JOHN+

Upcoming Events

Mark Your Calendars!

The Maundy Thursday Watch
The Twelve went to the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus after the Last Supper, and there kept watch with Him until His arrest. After their example, it is customary for Jesus’ present-day disciples to keep watch with Him at the Altar of Repose in the Lady Chapel from the end of the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday until the beginning of the Liturgy of the Passion on Good Friday. You are asked to sign up for the time you plan to spend with Our Lord on the sheet posted at the back of the Church, in order to ensure that at least one disciple is with Him throughout the Watch.

Paschal Reception
The people of God, following the example of Our Lord, fast and abstain for the forty days and forty nights of Lent. It is only right that, on the night that they celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, and in His Resurrection their deliverance from the bonds of sin and death, they should feast for joy. The Paschal Reception will follow the Great Vigil of Easter.

Kendall Dane

We got a call a few days ago from the rector of the Church of Our Saviour, Charlottesville, Virginia, that Kendall Dane had died. Mr. Dane carved our beautiful crucifix in the 1960s when he was a member of this church. May he rest in peace.

Saint Martha's Cleaning Guild
Saint Martha’s Cleaning Guild needs help cleaning the church in March and April. If you are interested in helping, please contact Joe Bullock at 678-491-5238.

Community Service
In a recent newspaper article we were quoted as having an outreach ministry of community service. We do - but probably not as much as the article implied. This is now something to live up to (or into). Several members of our congregation are already serving in a number of ways including Intown Community Assistance, Gateway, Nicholas House, Men's Shelter and St Vincent de Paul Fund. These are but a few of the opportunities that exist in our Virginia Highland Community for “servant ministry.” During the Sundays of Lent our Deacon, Penny Nash, is coordinating short presentations by those who are involved in these ministries at each of our services. We hope you will think about what they describe and consider being a participant.

Our Newest Members
We welcome Ava Louise Battaglia, the one-year-old daughter of Bradley and Waverly Battaglia, who was baptized January 13. And then just a couple of days later, on January 16, Amy Cupples joined our church. Amy is studying nursing at Emory University.

Coming up in April
The Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord is traditionally celebrated on March 25, but since this date occurs during Easter Week, it will be celebrated at the next available service, Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 12:10 and 7:30 pm.

News from Saint Bernadette’s Flower Guild
Saint Bernadette’s Flower Guild will teach a class on flower arranging in May. Stay tuned for the date and time!