Happy All Saints Day !!

All Saints by Fra Angelico

 

 

A Prayer for All Saints (BCP)

 

Almighty and everlasting God, we give you most high praise and Hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all your saints, who have been the chosen vessels of your grace, and the lights of the world in their times: for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah his wife; for Moses the lawgiver, and Aaron the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and Samuel with Hannah his mother, and for all the holy patriarchs; for Isaiah and all the prophets; for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen, the first martyr, and for all the martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we beseech you that, rejoicing in their fellowship, encouraged by their examples, and aided by their prayers, we also may run with steadfastness the race that is set before us, and finish our course in faith; and that at the day of the general resurrection, we, with all those who are of the mystical body of your Son, may be set on his right hand, and hear his most joyful voice: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Grant this, O Father, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate.

The most well-known hymn associated with All Saints Day is For All the Saints -- here are two performances with the words below..

 

 

                          Lots of brass and congregational singing with this one..

1. For all the saints, who from their labours rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,

Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

2. Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;

Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

3. O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

5. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

6. The golden evening brightens in the west;

Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

7. But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of glory passes on His way.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

8. From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:

Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

A Psalm and A Meditation for All Hallows Eve 2013

All Hallows Blessings to You All! 

Two things ....

The first is a traditional piece of music for the feast of All Saints...

The second is a little hard to explain.  It's a video by Glen Scrivener, Church of England minister, poet and lover of the King James Version of the Bible.  He has a wonderful web site called King's English.  What's below is Halloween: Trick or Treat.  This is a rhyming explanation of what Halloween is truly about .  I find it wonderful and watched it twice through...Very nicely done..Have a look and see what you think!


De profundis  (Out of the deep...)





Psalm 130 is a traditional offering for All Hallows Eve and here is a very beautiful version by the
 choir of Kings College Cambridge, under the direction of Sir David Willcocks.  This dark lament, a Penitential Psalm, is the De profundis used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed in Western liturgical tradition. In deep sorrow the psalmist cries to God (1-2), asking for mercy (3-4). The psalmist's trust (5-6) becomes a model for the people (7-8).

Text:

130 De profundis

OUT of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord : Lord, hear my voice.
2. O let thine ears consider well : the voice of my complaint.
3. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss : O Lord, who may abide it?
4. For there is mercy with thee : therefore shalt thou be feared.
5. I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for him : in his word is my trust.
6. My soul fleeth unto the Lord : before the morning watch, I say, before the morning watch.
7. O Israel, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy : and with him is plenteous redemption.
8. And he shall redeem Israel : from all his sins.


The second --

Who Lives on Jesus Street?

Here is a great interview with Suzy McCall - founder of LAMB..Read and be inspired.  Suzy embodies freedom in Christ in a way that not many folks do...she truly does follow the Lamb wherever he goes...

Meet Suzy McCall, an American missionary in Honduras. The obedience of this one woman from South Carolina has radically changed the lives of thousands of people in Central America and the United States.

Suzy is the founder of The LAMB Institute, offering hope for new life – both spiritual and physical – in Flor del Campo, the slums of Tegucigalpa. LAMB serves up generous bowls of the Gospel of Christ, seasoned with unconditional love, to every soul passing through its doors. She lives out her ministry motto: follow the LAMB wherever he goes. Now, after only two decades of existence, LAMB operates a school, a children’s home, a safe house, a micro-loan program for cottage industries, and a teen outreach program for young boys on the streets.

The rest is here    (This link will take you to Pringle Franklin's Blog Living on Jesus Street)

Binding up Scattered Leaves

Dear St. James Santee Family and Friends,

“Media vita in morte sumus”– In the midst of life we are in death –is the title and first line of a Latin antiphon probably originating in France around 750 AD.   Luther made use of it as did our reformer, Thomas Cranmer, and it appears as an antiphon in the Book of Common Prayer.  It certainly expresses well the sense of sudden dislocation we feel when someone we love has died. 

In times of shock and grief, life and time itself seem to go on pause.  Quite often this happens in a sudden way.  In the silence, one becomes aware of the way the light is falling or of the sound of birds singing around us.  Time has slowed.

 Gradually, though, this gives way to the sense that life has gone on after all – babies are still being born, the buzz of classroom learning continues, factories still are producing and the mail is still being delivered.  At this point, we find ourselves drawn back to life itself and the necessity of choosing to live.

          The choice to re-embrace time and life can be made more easily when our hope for the future is glimpsed.    John Donne, English divine and writer (of “No man is an island” fame) contemplated mortality and hope at length.  Below is a passage I have found especially helpful in these past weeks of grieving the death of my father.  It is from his Mediation 27… (Emphasis mine)

 “….all mankind is of one author and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.”

         I look with hope to the day when all of the scattered pages are gathered and for grace-filled eternity spent in that “library where every book shall lie open to one another.”  Until that blessed day, my prayer is that we will love one another very, very well in the time we are given.

Blessings,   Jennie+

Hugo - Twenty Four Years Later

       On this day, Sept. 21, in 1989  Hurricane Hugo paid a call to the Lowcountry. He was not a gentleman and left twenty-seven souls dead in South Carolina, nearly 100,000 homeless, and somewhere around $10 billion in damages.  I remember as if it were yesterday and as one of the most frightening experiences of my life.  The storm came on a Thursday and over the next few days we crawled out of homes to survey damages.  We adapted to no electricity or running water.  On Sunday, I gathered with members and friends of St. Paul's , Summerville where I was serving as an Assistant to the Rector.  No electricity in the Church building but plenty of power abounded.  We were thankful to have survived, in prayer for those who had suffered loss, and holding on to each other.   Every year I am struck by the Collect of the Day which followed on Sunday the 24th of September.  It reads

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This was not our home but the scene was similar.  Trees down everywhere - snapped off about twenty feet up. The landscape and homes trashed.  Two 90 pine trees came down into our house.  Not as bad as McClellanville and environs where the big surge tide came through but bad enough to never forget!

May we never need a Hugo to remind us to love things heavenly and to hold fast to those that shall endure. 

Something Light! Animals Mistaken for Spies

From the BBC....

Egyptian authorities detained a stork last week on suspicion of espionage, mistaking its migration tag for spying equipment. In fact the stork was innocent - like a number of other animals falsely accused over the years of undercover work, writes Mohamed Madi.

In 2011, Saudi authorities arrested a high-flying vulture on suspicion that it was flying missions for Israel's famously ingenious Mossad agency. And a spate of shark attacks near the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in 2010 was blamed by one TV station on GPS-controlled predators planted by Israel in order to harm the Egyptian tourism industry.

Iran has also felt threatened by animal agents. In 2007 the Iranian army arrested a team of 14 "spy squirrels" found near a nuclear enrichment plant. Officials said they succeeded in apprehending the suspects "before they were able to take any action".

Read the rest of the story .....  BBC

I am especially interested in the team of 14 "spy squirrels"  - I am sure I have some at my house!

Kingdom Rock Rocked!!!

  What did seventy Village kids and forty adults do the second week in July?  They visited Kingdom Rock where kids learn to STAND STRONG for God.  Many wonderful moments....check out our Facebook page for some more photos..  Thank you one and ALL! See you next year!

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