WHAT’S ON YOUR BOOKSHELF?

Father Matt Jacobson, what’s a book you’ve read recently that other Saint Marians might be interested in?

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom (Penguin Books, 2003)

How did you hear about the book?

Father Ryan Lesh, a former parishioner at Saint Mary’s, who was also sponsored for holy orders by our parish, told me about it over dinner recently when we were on retreat at Holy Cross Monastery. It is the first book in the Matthew Shardlake series and Father Lesh said that he couldn’t put these books down.

FROM FATHER WOOD: ON SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

There are a few hinge events throughout my personal history to which I can trace significant life-change. 

Becoming a Christian in college. 
Marrying Renee. 
The births of my children. 
Discovering the Episcopal Church, Anglo-Catholicism, and beginning to follow a three-fold rule for the spiritual life: Praying the Daily Office, Eucharist, and personal devotion. 

Without those events, I’m not who I am today. And the same holds true for the hours of intimate conversation I enjoyed with my first spiritual director many years ago. 

FROM MR. ALDEN FOSSETT: PHOTOGRAPHS AS SEMIPERMEABLE MEMBRANES

When I was a child, my grandfather Herbert’s photographs hung on the walls of my family’s apartment. Yet I didn’t start believing in photography as a medium until I learned more about what well-composed photographs can do. Here is one example. In 1942, Dorothea Lange was hired by the War Relocation Authority to document the forced removal and incarceration (euphemistically referred to as “evacuation and relocation”) of Japanese American citizens and Japanese resident aliens living in California.

FROM DR. MARK RISINGER
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SMOKE ROOM: THE POWER OF PRESENCE

My father was a Baptist minister for 54 years, and I heard him preach countless sermons as I was growing up. One sermon illustration that has stuck with me since childhood goes something like this: The pastor of a rural congregation went to visit a farmer who lived well outside of town and who seldom appeared in church. Upon arriving at the farmhouse, the preacher found a fire blazing in the living room, so he took a seat near the hearth and stealthily removed a large, glowing ember from the fire, putting it off to the side.

FROM FATHER POWELL: ADULT FORMATION IN LENT

Our lives as Christians are rooted in Easter. It follows then that our observance of Easter is deepened by understanding the journey that led from Bethlehem and Nazareth to a horrible death that transformed the world. That is to say, our Gospel faith is informed by the Passion and Resurrection Narratives. The Lenten Adult Formation study focuses on how they shape us as Christians. As I hope you agree, we only care about the story of a First Century Rabbi and his followers because of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: AN INVITATION TO A HOLY LENT

I’m reminded of the video series on evangelism that Father Sammy has been using to lead discussions at Adult Formation in recent weeks. Specifically, the video that the group watched last Sunday talked about the role of invitation in evangelism. Certainly, it would be wonderful if we all invited people to join us at Saint Mary’s this Lent. As I think about Lent and reflect on my own experience of this season at Saint Mary’s over the years, there is also another aspect of evangelism that comes to mind. It isn’t something I would have necessarily thought of calling “evangelism” prior to a book that I recently read, but it does accurately capture how Lent at our parish has been for me over the last ten years.

FROM FATHER STEPHEN MORRIS: ON THE EASTERN TRADITION OF THE CHURCH AND ANGLICANISM

Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (1559-1575), demanded that the library of Canterbury cathedral include the works of Basil the Great, Gregory of Nanzianzus, and John Chrysostom as well as Jerome, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine. The famous Caroline divines—English theologians such as Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes who taught and preached in association with the monarchs Elizabeth, James, and Charles I—also insisted that the teachings of the Greek-speaking Fathers were normative for the Church of England. The Oxford Movement—which gave birth to Saint Mary the Virgin, Times Square and other similar parishes—reaffirmed the authority of the Greek theological insights for the Anglican Communion.

FROM FATHER WOOD ON PRE-LENT: THE THREE GESIMAS

This Sunday you’ll notice a strange word on the cover of your bulletin—Septuagesima. This year Saint Mary’s is taking up an old practice of observing a short season that used to be called “Pre-Lent.” Until the Roman Catholic Church changed its calendar in the 1960s, and Episcopalians followed suit with our 1979 prayer book, churches all across the West, both catholic and reformed, designated the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday by Latin names.

FROM THE ANTI-RACISM GROUP: SACRED GROUND

The Anti-Racism Group at Saint Mary's is beginning a new program called Sacred Ground. The group and this new program are open to all members. Sacred Ground, a program of the Episcopal Church, is an 11-part online course that looks into issues and possible healing for all people.

AN INTERVIEW OF CLARK ANDERSON: WHO IS THAT PARISHIONER IN THE CHOIR LOFT FROM TIME TO TIME?

How long have you and Zachary been coming to Saint Mary's? What led you here the first time?

My husband Zachary and I have been attending Saint Mary’s since we moved back to New York City in 2014. I had accepted a position with Morgan Stanley at their global headquarters on Broadway at 48th Street, and I was determined not to commute. So we actually live right in the neighborhood. As part of that move God made clear to us we would attend Saint Mary’s.

FROM THE ANTI-RACISM GROUP: A MEMBER’S GIFT TO GOD IN ART AND POETRY

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which was observed on Monday, the Anti-Racism Group offers an example of one member's call to action. Ingrid Sletten, a founding member, is also an artist and a poet. She felt a sense of call from God to make art and write poetry around racism. Last month, Ingrid participated in an exhibit at Gallery 35 in Manhattan, where she showed one of her poems and an accompanying image. The poem, White Man's Lamentation, talks about the hard truth that Ingrid came to after many months of readings and discussions in the racism group.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: SAINT DOMINIC’S ROSARY GUILD

Last weekend, Sister Michelle Heyne, O.A., led a group of Saint Marians in our annual Parish Retreat, that focused this year on Benedictine Spirituality. As part of her presentation, Sister Michelle introduced the concept of the “Threefold Rule of Prayer” — (1) the Daily Office (Morning, Noonday, and Evening Prayer, and Compline), (2) regular reception of the Holy Eucharist, and (3) what she calls “personal devotion.” Father Martin Thornton describes this third element of the threefold rule as “that prayer done physically alone, according to one’s unique gifts, personality, and temperament.”

GARY RYAN INTERVIEWS FATHER JAY SMITH

Gary and Father Jay chat for a few minutes, Father Jay thanks him for making this conversation happen and then says, “This interview is going to be in The Angelus and I just want to say to the readers of the newsletter, I know that talk of my impending retirement has been going on for a rather long time now. My apologies. Many of you must surely be saying, ‘So, retire already!!’ I get it. I’m so appreciative of all the support I’m getting, I really am, but I want to reassure everybody that the end is in sight! I don’t believe it, but January 12 is almost here!”

Gary: I understand, so let’s just jump in. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

FROM ZACHARY ROESEMANN: PRAYING WITH HOLY ICONS

In my first article about holy icons, I described the elements essential to understanding the nature of icons. They are made for only one purpose, which distinguishes them from other forms of Christian art: to help guide people to God in prayer and worship. They are deeply traditional, with roots going back to the origins of Christianity. They are an especially powerful way to illustrate the Incarnation.

SAINT AMBROSE OF MILAN ON THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD

In the fourth century, Saint Ambrose of Milan wrote the following reflection on Our Lord’s birth in his Exposition of the Gospel of Luke:

He was a baby and a child, so that you may be a perfect human. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares of death. He was in a manger, so that you may be in the altar. He was on earth that you may be in the stars.

A TRIO OF CHRISTMAS POEMS

Each poem seems to ask, “What happens when you walk into a stable and find the Word made Flesh?”

A Shepherd’s Song at Christmas from “Three Christmas Poems”
by Langston Hughes (1901–1967)

Look there at the star!
I, among the least,
Will arise and take
A journey to the East.
But what shall I bring
As a present for the King?
What shall I bring to the Manger?
I will bring a song,
A song that I will sing,
In the Manger.
Watch out for my flocks,
Do not let them stray.
I am going on a journey
Far, far away.
But what shall I bring
As a present for the Child?

FROM OUR SEMINARIAN, ALDEN FOSSETT: WHEN THE ART IS UP, IT LOOKS ALIVE

This is an edited version of a 30-minute conversation I had with José Vidal on December 1, 2024, about the SMV Gallery and Saint Joseph’s Hall.

Alden Fossett. Can you tell me about the history of Saint Joseph’s Hall being used for exhibitions, and what its purpose is within the larger community of Saint Mary’s?

José Vidal: The gallery started seventeen years ago. Around that time, I had helped found the Visual Arts Project here along with several other people, and the gallery was part of that project.

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: AN ANTHEM IS BORN

In February of 2023, I received an inquiry from Maxine Thévenot, canon precentor, director of music and organist at the Cathedral of Saint John in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Thévenot is also artistic director of the Friends of Cathedral Music at Saint John’s. Her e-mail to me began a dialogue and process which reached its fulfillment a few weeks ago on 17 November 2024. The music program at Saint John’s Cathedral has a long history of providing distinguished choral and liturgical leadership. My first visits to the Cathedral were in the late 1970s when the Reverend Dr. Geoffrey Butcher was organist and choirmaster.

FROM FATHER WOOD: THE GOTHIC DANCE

On Sunday last, we celebrated the Feast of Christ the King. It was a wonderful day of worship at Saint Mary’s, one of the most resplendent I can remember during my time here. I often get lost in our prayer in this place, especially on days like that, swept up and a bit overwhelmed by the music, the smoke, the pageantry, and especially the realization that we are all, as a parish family, pouring out our hearts to the “Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in [his] well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” When God is the king we are worshiping, he is worthy of all the pomp and circumstance we’re capable of.

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: THE MOTHER OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

Several months ago, after celebrating a weekday Mass in the Lady Chapel, a woman with an interesting story introduced herself to me. She was visiting from Florida, if I remember correctly, and she explained to me why she had very much wanted to come to Saint Mary’s while in town. She had recently discovered, I believe through 23andMe or Ancestry.com, that she had an uncle whom she had previously not known about. Her uncle had been adopted in the 1940s by one of our sextons and was raised in the parish complex where the sexton lived.