Irvin Iona Richards - Requiescat in Pacem

Thinking today of my dear friend, Irvin Richards, whose funeral liturgy was this morning at St. Stephen's, Charleston.  May she rest in peace!

        Irvin Iona Richards nee Peart was born on June 19, 1925 in the parish of Manchester, Jamaica, West Indies. She was the first child of Isabel Miller, and had three other siblings: Dorie, Irma and Clarence who preceded her in  death, while being survived by her youngest sister Lorna P. Facey who currently resides in Philadelphia. 
      Her early childhood was spent in the rural countryside of Manchester before migrating to New York City in 1947 to live with her aunt and uncle, Irene and Dudley. Upon arriving in Manhattan, Irvin had to acclimate to a vastly different culture as well as attend night classes at Morris High School in the Bronx. A hard-working student, Irvin took a job washing dishes to provide additional income for the family and finance her continuing education at the  City College of New York after graduating high school. After receiving her BA degree, Irvin began working at New York-based clothier Jack and Jill. She would make  this her professional home for decades while Harlem’s Church of the Crucifixion became her spiritual home and  the place in which her commitment to the Episcopal faith deepened. An active member and participant on numerous boards and committees within the Church, it was almost inevitable that this would be the venue in  which she would meet and subsequently marry the Reverend John B. Richards in 1973.
        The union between Irvin and John would forge a faith-based and loving partnership that took them out of New York and to the Lowcountry of Charleston, SC where he became rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
      It was during these early years in Charleston that Irvin began teaching at Fort Johnson High School. Throughout  subsequent years, her teaching would be focused on English, Social Studies and Civics, eventually leading her to influence the lives of many students including those at Middleton High School. Irvin continued her own academic pursuits, and secured her Master’s degree at the esteemed institution, The Citadel just in time to accompany her husband to his next pastoral assignment in Wilmington, NC.
      After a few years in Wilmington, the couple returned to South Carolina where John provided spiritual leadership in Pineville and then back in Charleston at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
      In February of 2001, Irvin’s beloved husband, Reverend John Richards passed away. Though she continued living in their cozy Charleston home for a few years after, she would eventually move into the Bishop Gadsden  Retirement Community. The Episcopal community was her home until symptoms of Dementia worsened and her  family decided to move her to a Memory Care facility in Florida where they could better attend to her. Irvin was ultimately transferred to a residential Memory Care facility, Sonata in Coconut Creek, FL. where she left this earthly plane and passed on to glory on June 30, 2019

The Bell

Yesterday, a little after noon, I heard one of the St. John’s Abbey bells sounding. At first, I thought it was marking the quarter hour the way our Charleston bells do.   Then, it continued and continued to ring slowly for quite a long time, and I realized I was hearing a toll.  One of the monks, Father Jerome Coller, OSB, had passed from this world to the next and the bell was telling the family of St. John’s what had happened. Take note and pray, brothers and sisters, it seemed to say.  Fr. Jerome was advanced in years, a music educator, composer-performer,  and had been ill for quite a long time.  He was most likely not a famous person in the eyes of the world, and, yet, the tolling gave his passing a kind of tender dignity.

How long has it been since you’ve heard a toll like this?  In times past, it was normative to toll when someone had died.  John Donne certainly was familiar with the practice.  It strikes me that this is another way we have sidelined our communal awareness of death.    Media vita in morte sumus  -"In the midst of life we are in death."  On this Midsummer Eve (also the Eve of St. John the Baptist), may our awareness of the “shortness and uncertainty of life” cause us to embrace those we love with a greater intensity and to thank God for the gift of life.  At the close of Evening Prayer last night, the monks sang the prayer in the photo below.

Back to School

Dear Friends,

In just one week, I'll be going back to school at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota.  I'm enrolled in their Spiritual Direction Certificate program which is primarily an online course of study with two June residencies in Collegeville, Minnesota (should be a good time to be there!).

I am excited and happy about this course of study and welcome the opportunity to give formal categories to what I've been doing for quite a long time as well as learning something new.  Mepkin Abbey is my partner in this venture, and it's my heart's desire to be useful to them in some way.

Below is an image from one of my first classes - Contemporary Spiritual Practice - perhaps you have seen this tree image?  Thought I would share.  It's called the Tree of Practices.  Which of these nurtures you right now?

Epiphany Eve

Epiphany -- o thank God, the three gentiles (the kings or wisemen, what have you) .. faithfully following the star that called their name and sang them all the journey through..those ones, have finally come to their place of their heart's desire.

May God bless any seeker this year for he promises that if we seek God with a whole heart, we will find God. (Jer. 29.13).

Fra Angelico

From Malcolm Guite..

Epiphany

It might have been just someone else’s story,

Some chosen people get a special king.

We leave them to their own peculiar glory,

We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.

But when these three arrive they bring us with them,

Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours;

A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,

A  pilgrim’s eye that sees beyond the stars.

They did not know his name but still they sought him,

They came from otherwhere but still they found;

In temples they found those who sold and bought him,

But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.

Their courage gives our questing hearts a voice

To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.

The Ninth Day of Christmas

Today we remember Sts. Basil and Gregory -4th century. Here is a beautiful prayer from St. Basil.

Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbour, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger we shall find comfort and peace.

Here is an image of St. Basil from Tracy Christianson. 
https://www.portraitsofsaints.com/   

I like this rather than some of the icons - somehow, he looks kinder in this painting.  A lot of her work is pretty romantic but good...

Advent Mini-Wreath Craft

This is not a craft blog - nor do I think of myself as a craft-y person.  However, I am happy with the way this project turned out and wanted to share it.  My 90+ mother lives in a retirement community and lighting candles on an Advent wreath is not really desirable. Also, she doesn;t have a lot of room for a large wreath.   SO, when I spotted the LED tea light Advent set from Roman Candles, I knew there were some possibilities at hand for a gift for my mother.

Materials and tools:

1 set of Roman Advent LED tea light candles  (get two in case one candle doesn't work - which happened to me)..(Amazon and lots of other places)

1 - 6 inch plain grape vine wreath. (from Michael's)

4 - 2 1/2 in  craft bird nests (again Michael's)

4 - 4 in lengths of craft wire (I liked the craft wire wrapped in brown paper- Michael's in the floral    area)

1 - base - I used a wood slice (Michael's) but a plate could do as well.

Fresh greenery (I used several small clips from our cedar tree in the front yard)...

Wire cutters

Needle nose pliers

Time required:  about one hour.


Procedure:


I wired the four small bird's nests onto the wreath.. placed it (not glueing it down) on the base, checked that the candles worked, and then added a little greenery,  Easy, small, and safe.

I also cobbled together a prayer resources for the weeks of Advent which can be found at this LINK.  All of these will go into a clear plastic box for easy storage along with the extra lights and batteries.

An Order for Prayer an Advent Wreath

Drawn from a variety of sources - the prayers for the weeks are from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer Advent collects..Large type face for Mom.

An Order for

 Prayer with an Advent Wreath

V:  Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!

R:  Maranatha!  Come quickly!

Prayer:  Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation,  in the darkness and in the light. Blessed are you as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The First Week of Advent

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Second Week of Advent
Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.



Third Week of Advent
Stir up thy power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins,  let thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and  the Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, world without end. Amen.


Fourth Week of Advent
We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son Jesus Christ cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Christmas Eve or Day
 O God, who hast caused this holy night (day)  to shine with the  illumination of the true Light: Grant us, we beseech thee,
that as we have known the mystery of that Light upon earth,  so may we also perfectly enjoy him in heaven; where with
thee and the Holy Spirit he liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Suggested Readings

First Week in Advent:  Isaiah 11:1-10

Second Week in Advent : Isaiah 40:1-11

Third Week in Advent:   Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

Fourth Week in Advent: Luke 1:26-35

Christmas Eve and Day: Luke 2:1-120

First Sunday of Christmas:     John 1:1-18

  

The Light shines in the darkness 

but the darkness did not overcome it.

(John 1:5)