What’s the use?

Above:  Baltimore (1837)

Image Creators = Moses Swett and Philip Haas

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-pga-04182

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JACQUES MARIE HECTOR NICOLAS JOUBERT DE LA MURAILLE (SEPTEMBER 6, 1777-1843)

French-American Roman Catholic Priest

worked with

MARIE ELIZABETH LANGE (1784?-FEBRUARY 3, 1882)

Haitian-American Roman Catholic Nun

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FOUNDERS OF THE OBLATE SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

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Mary Elizabeth Lange comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (2006).  James Nicholas Joubert joins Lange and shares a feast day with her because they founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829.  The Roman Catholic Church is considering taking Lange through steps that may culminate in canonization.  I choose, however, not to wait for Holy Mother Church to act.

Jacques Marie Hector Nicolas Joubert de la Muraille was one of the priests who proved invaluable in making Lange’s accomplishments possible.  He, born to Suzanne Claire Cathering Guimbaut and attorney Jean Joseph Marie Joubert in Saint Jean d’Angely, France, on September 6, 1777, worked as a soldier then as a tax agent.  The Napoleonic government assigned Joubert to Saint-Dominigue (now Haiti).  The tax agent fled in 1803, during the Haitian Revolution.  He arrived first in Cuba then immigrated to the United States.  Joubert matriculated at St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1805.  He, ordained a priest five years later, joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice and taught geology and French at the seminary.  Starting in 1827, our saint taught the catechism (in French) to Haitian-American children at the Lower Chapel of the seminary.  He met Mary Elizabeth Lange at the Lower Chapel.

Marie Elizabeth Lange obeyed her calling from God.  She, born into a well-to-do Haitian family in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, circa 1784, received a fine education.  Lange immigrated to the United States in the early 1800s.  She, having settled in Baltimore by 1813, recognized the need for more schools for free African Americans in the city.  Church-run schools existed yet did not meet all needs collectively.  Furthermore, no public schools for African Americans existed.  Lange opened a school for Haitian immigrant youth in her home.  Marie Balas helped our saint teach the otherwise underserved population.

James Whitfield, the Archbishop of Baltimore, asked Father Joubert to open a girls’ school.  The priest recruited Lange and Balas.  Joubert also learned of the vocations of Lange, Balas, and two other African-American women to religious life.  Given the lack of any order to accept them, the women became the first members of a new order, which Joubert and Lange founded.  The Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first order for African-American women in the Roman Catholic Church, came into existence on July 2, 1829, with four sisters.  Lange became Sister (later Mother) Mary and served as the first Superior General.  The order, which received papal approval in 1831, operated St. Frances Academy, Baltimore.  As time passed, the Sisters grew in numbers and in social services, such as classes for women, career and vocational training, and homes for orphans and widows.  In 1832, Sisters (including Lange) risked their lives to minister to victims of an outbreak of cholera in the city.  This work required financing, of course.  Joubert, Lange, and the other Sisters raised funds.

Archbishop Samuel Eccleston (in office 1834-1851, succeeding Whitfield) attempted to disband the new religious order.  Regarding the Oblate Sisters of Providence, he asked,

After Father Joubert died in 1843, the position of spiritual director of the order remained vacant for years.  Finally, in 1847, Father Thaddeus Anwander persuaded Eccleston to appoint him to fill the vacancy, and the fortunes and prospects of the Sisters improved.

Lange, the mistress of novices (1850-1860), laid down her burdens on February 3, 1882.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence minister in the United States and Costa Rica.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAPHNUTIUS THE GREAT, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF UPPER THEBAID

THE FEAST OF ANNE HOULDITCH, ANGLICAN NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN STAINER AND WALTER GALPIN ALCOCK, ANGLICAN CHURCH ORGANISTS AND COMPOSERS

THE FEAST OF SAINT PATIENS OF LYONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP

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O God, by whose grace your servants James Nicholas Joubert and Mary Elizabeth Lange,

kindled with the flame of your love, became burning and shining lights in your Church:

Grant that we may also be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or 34:1-8 or 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 723

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Above:  Samuel Davies

Image in the Public Domain

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SAMUEL DAVIES (NOVEMBER 3, 1723-FEBRUARY 4, 1761)

American Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

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To preach repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ–To alarm secure impenitents; to reform the profligate; to undeceive the hypocrite; to raise up the hands that hang down, and to strengthen the feeble knees;–These are the doctrines I preach, these are the ends I pursue…’Tis the conversion and salvation of men I aim to promote…The design of the gospel is to bring perishing sinners to heaven…I cannot help thinking [he continued, comparing his own preaching with that of the Anglican ministers in Virginia] that they who generally entertain their hearers with languid harangues on morality or insipid speculations, omitting or but slightly touching upon the glorious doctrines of the gospel, which will be everlastingly found the most effectual means to reform a degenerate world; such as the corruption of human nature in its present lapsed state; the nature and necessity of regeneration, and of divine influences to effect it; the nature of saving faith, evangelical repentance, etc.  I cannot, I say, help thinking that they who omit, pervert, or but slightly hint at these and the like doctrines, are not likely to do much service to the souls of men.

–Samuel Davies to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London; quoted in Ernest Trice Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, Volume One:  1607-1861 (Richmond, VA:  John Knox Press, 1963), page 75

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Samuel Davies was a Presbyterian divine and an early President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).  He also became the earliest American writer of widely accepted hymns.  His hymns included “Eternal Spirit, Source of Light,” “Lord, I am Thine,” and “While O’er Our Guilty Land, O Lord.”

Davies accomplished much.  He, born at New Castle, Delaware, on November 3, 1723, studied under Presbyterian ministers Samuel Blair of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and William Robinson of New Brunswick, New Jersey.  The Presbytery of New Castle licensed our saint to preach 1746.  The following year, although our saint’s health was fragile and even he thought he might die of tuberculosis shortly, became an evangelist in Virginia, starting in Hanover County.  Authorities in Virginia restricted the rights of religious dissenters (non-Anglicans), reserving the right to issue licenses to preach and to dictate who may evangelize.  Davies won limited yet expanded rights for dissenters, specifically those who registered their ministers and agreed to obey colonial law.  He also added many people to the rolls of Presbyterian churches in Virginia.  Davies published Miscellaneous Poems, Chiefly on Divine Subjects (1752) in two volumes.  The following year the Synod of New York (the New School faction in the North American colonies) commissioned our saint and Gilbert Tennant to travel to England to raise funds for the College of New Jersey.  Davies was so well-known that King George II invited him to preach at the Chapel Royal.  Davies, back in Virginia, helped to found the Hanover Presbytery, the first presbytery in Virginia, in late 1755.  The presbytery covered most of Virginia plus all of the Carolinas.  He led the presbytery in an evangelistic push and in numerical expansion.  After he left to become the President of the College of New Jersey in 1759, however, that growth stopped.  Davies died at Princeton, New Jersey, on February 4, 1761.  He was 36 years old.

Among the posthumous collections honoring Davies was Sermons on Important Subjects (1792)–Volumes I, II, and III.  In 1930 historian Wesley M. Gewehr described our saint’s style of preaching as

plain and pungent, peculiarly adapted to pierce the conscience and affect the heart.

–Quoted in Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, Volume One (1963), page 75

The historian continued:

His eloquence and his influence in developing a new type of oratory characterized alike by naturalness, warmth and directness of expression, and great dignity of style are too well-known to need further comment here.

–Quoted in Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, Volume One (1963), page 75

Davies filled his life with activities that glorified God and created long-lasting legacies that have continued to enrich the lives of many people, even to today.

Not all of us can leave such legacies, but we can glorify God via our lives.  We must also know that we will influence many people directly.  They will, in turn, influence others, who will influence still others, et cetera.  Thus we will influence many people indirectly.  Will we do so more for the good or for the bad?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 4, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND COSMAS OF MAIUMA, THEOLOGIANS AND HYMNODISTS

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN CALABRIA, FOUNDER OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE POOR SERVANTS AND THE POOR WOMEN SERVANTS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH MOHR, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF THOMAS COTTERILL, ENGLISH PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND LITURGIST

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O God, you have brought us near to an innumerable company of angels,

and to the spirits of just men made perfect:

Grant us during our earthly pilgrimage to become partakers of their joy;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Wisdom 3:1-9

Psalm 34 or 34:15-22

Philippians 4:4-9

Luke 6:17-23

–Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 725

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Above:  St. Anskar

Image in the Public Domain

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SAINT ANSKAR (801-FEBRUARY 3, 865)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

Also known as Saint Ansgar

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SAINT RIMBERT (830-JUNE 11, 888)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

Also known as Saint Rembert

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These two saints were pioneering figures in Scandinavian Christianity.

St. Anskar, born at Amiens, Picardy, in 801, came from Gallic nobility.  Eventually he became a Benedictine monk in Picardy then (in 1822) at New Corbie, Westphalia.  Later St. Anskar became the first Archbishop of Hamburg (in 831), and therefore chief missionary to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.  In 832 he founded the first Christian church in Sweden.  As archbishop St. Anskar founded churches and schools, opposed slavery, and cared for the poor and the sick.  He also doubled as the Abbot of New Corbie (starting in 834) and as the Bishop of Bremen (from 848 to 865).  His episcopal title as leader of the two sees was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen.  In his missionary work St. Anskar had the support of Danish kings Horik I (reigned 827-854) and Horik II (reigned 854-860s).  He also secured royal recognition of Christianity as a legal religion in Denmark.

St. Anskar died at Bremen on February 3, 865.

Among his fellow missionaries in Scandinavia was St. Rimbert (830-888), a monk, his friend, and immediate successor (865-888) as Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen.  St. Rimbert, St. Anskar’s biographer, helped to fight off Vikings.  In 884 the monk-archbishop led an army that drove Vikings out of East Frisia.

Sts. Anskar and Rimbert laid the foundations of the Church in Scandinavia.  Unfortunately, resurgent paganism reversed most of their accomplishments.  However, growth in Scandinavian Christianity finally began to take root a century after these saints’ efforts.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 28, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN THE YOUNGER, DEFENDER OF ICONS

THE FEAST OF FREDERICK COOK ATKINSON, ANGLICAN CHURCH ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH PIGNATELLI, RESTORER OF THE JESUITS

THE FEAST OF KAMEHAMEHA IV AND EMMA ROOKE, KING AND QUEEN OF HAWAII

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Almighty and everlasting God, you sent your servants Anskar and Rimbert

to sow the seeds of faith among  the people of Scandinavia:

Keep your Church from discouragement in the day of small things,

knowing that when you have begun a good work you will bring it to a fruitful conclusion;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Isaiah 2:2-4

Psalm 96:1-7

Ephesians 2:13-22

Luke 10:1-9

–Adapted from A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  A Calendar of Commemorations (2016)

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Above:  Alfred Delp

Image in the Public Domain

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ALFRED DELP (SEPTEMBER 15, 1907-FEBRUARY 2, 1945)

German Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

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My offense is that I believed in Germany and her eventual emergence from this dark hour of error and distress, that I refused to accept that accumulation of arrogance, pride, and force that is the Nazi way of life, and that I did this as a Christian and a Jesuit.

–Alfred Delp, quoted in Robert Ellsberg, All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time (New York, NY:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997), page 58

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Alfred Delp opposed the Third Reich, which executed him on false charges.

Delp, born at Mannheim, Baden, German Empire, on September 15, 1907, grew up in a Christian home.  His mother was a Roman Catholic and his father was a Lutheran.  Our saint, baptized a Roman Catholic, grew up and went through confirmation in the Lutheran Church.  At age 14, however, he made his First Communion and crossed the Tiber River.  He joined the Society of Jesus in 1926 and pursued theological studies (some of them under the direction of Karl Rahner, 1904-1984), which the rise of Nazism interrupted.  Delp, ordained to the priesthood in 1937, joined the staff of the Jesuit publication Voice of the Times, which the Nazis suppressed in 1941.  Next, as the Pastor of St. Georg Church, Munich, our saint helped Jews escape to Switzerland.

Delp joined the Kreisau Circle, a secret organization that planned a new Christian social order to take effect after the fall of the Third Reich.  In 1944, after the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, Nazi operatives falsely accused members of the Kreisau Circle of being complicit in the act.  Thus Delp became a prisoner that year.  Our saint wrote profound meditations (of a man who knew he might die any day) during Advent 1944.  In those moments Delp found freedom in Christ. Our saint died via hanging in the Plotzensee prison on February 2, 1945.

His life testifies to the ultimate victory of the love of God, despite the short-term triumph of evil.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 28, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN THE YOUNGER, DEFENDER OF ICONS

THE FEAST OF FREDERICK COOK ATKINSON, ANGLICAN CHURCH ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH PIGNATELLI, RESTORER OF THE JESUITS

THE FEAST OF KAMEHAMEHA IV AND EMMA ROOKE, KING AND QUEEN OF HAWAII

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Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyr Alfred Delp:

Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who rejoice in his triumph

may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Psalm 124 or 31:1-5

1 Peter 4:12-19

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 715

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Above:  London Bridge, Between 1890 and 1900

Image Published by Detroit Publishing Company, 1905

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsc-08569

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JEMIMA THOMPSON LUKE (AUGUST 19, 1813-FEBRUARY 2, 1906)

English Congregationalist Hymn Writer

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JAMES EDMESTON (SEPTEMBER 10, 1791-JANUARY 7, 1867)

Anglican Hymn Writer

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The Reverend Thomas Thompson (1785-1865) was an English Congregationalist minister at Blagdon.  He was also the husband of Elizabeth Pinckney (died in 1837), the father of Jemima Thompson Luke (1813-1906), and a cofounder of the British and Foreign Sailor’s Society (in 1818).  Once Thompson held a contest for fifty simple hymns.  The winner of the 20-pound prize was was James Edmeston (1791-1867), who won for his Cottage Minstrel (1821).

Edmeston, born in Wapping, London, England, came from a Nonconformist family yet converted to The Church of England, in which he was active.  He, by profession a prominent architect and surveyor, liked children, especially orphans.  Thus he visited the London Orphan Asylum, founded by Andrew Reed (https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/feast-of-andrew-reed-february-28/) in 1813, frequently.  Edmeston also wrote twelve volumes, mostly of religious poetry.  Two of the books were Sacred Lyrics (1821) (Volumes I, II, and III), Sacred Poetry (1848), and Infant Breathings.  For many years he wrote a hymn per week for use in family devotions.  Edmeston wrote more than 2,000 hymns.  A few of them are available at my GATHERED PRAYERS.

He died at Homerton, Surrey, in 1867.

Jemima Thompson Luke (1813-1906) wanted to become a missionary to India, but her health prevented that from becoming reality.  So she supported foreign missions throughout her life and edited a missionary magazine for children instead.  She, who began to submit poems to magazines at age thirteen, wrote books including The Female Jesuit  and its Sequel, an extended and hysterical anti-Roman Catholic rant, as well as The Broad Way and the Narrow Way.  She married the Reverend Samuel Luke (1809-1868), a Congregationalist minister in 1843.  Jemima died on the Isle of Wight in 1906, after having raised children and done much to bring glory to God.

Among her hymns was “I Think, When I Read That Sweet Story of Old” (1841):

I think, when I read that sweet story of old,

When Jesus was here among men,

How He called little children as lambs to His fold,

I should like to have been with them then;

I wish that His hand had been placed on my head,

That His arm had been His kind look when He said,

“Let the little ones come unto Me.”

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Yet still to His footstool in prayer I may go,

And ask for a share in His love;

And, if I now earnestly seek Him below,

I shall see Him and hear Him above,

In that beautiful place He is gone to prepare

For all who are washed and forgiven;

And many dear children are gathering there,

For of such is the Kingdom of heaven.

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But thousands and thousands, who wander and fall,

Never heard of that heavenly home;

I should like them to know there is room for them all,

And that Jesus has bid them to come.

I long for the joy of that glorious time,

The sweetest and brightest and best,

When the dear little children of every clime

Shall crowd to His arms and be blest.

Both James Edmeston and Jemima Thompson Luke acted on their concern for others, for the glory of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 10, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHANN SCHEFFLER, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GEORG NEUMARK, GERMAN LUTHERAN POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN HINES, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Jemima Thompson Luke, James Edmeston, and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

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Revised on December 9, 2016

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Above:  Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER (OCTOBER 30, 1825-FEBRUARY 2, 1864)

English Poet and Feminist

Adelaide Anne Procter was the daughter of Bryan Waller Procter (November 21, 1787-October 5, 1874), a London lawyer and published poet.  Family friends included Charles Dickens, a frequent guest in the Procter home.  Adelaide initially wrote poems under the pseudonym “Mary Berwick.”  Dickens, who published many of her early poems in Household Words, assumed for a long time that “Mary Berwick” was a household servant.  The discovery of the truth was a pleasant surprise for him.

Adelaide became a Roman Catholic in 1851.  She devoted her short life (one which tuberculosis ended) to worthwhile pursuits.  She was a skilled linguist, for she was proficient in French, German, and Italian.  Adelaide’s poetry was a worthy artistic vocation, of course.  She published two volumes of Legends and Lyrics, A Book of Verse (1858 and 1862) and was Queen Victoria’s favorite poet.  Adelaide also had the distinction of being the second-bestselling Victorian poet; Alfred, Lord Tennyson was number one.  James Moffatt, in his 1927 companion volume to the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnary, praised the poet while criticizing her Roman Catholicism:

…but her spirit was in the true sense catholic, and it is difficult to tell from her hymns to which communion she belonged.  (Page 463)

The 1962 Encyclopedia Americana was less kind:

While her work is not great, it is marked by deep feeling and tenderness.  (Volume 22, page 631)

Adelaide was a feminist.  In the English Victorian context that meant, for her, advocating for the cause of women becoming professionals.  In 1858 she co-founded The English Woman’s Journal (ceased publication in 1864) for that purpose.  And, beginning in 1859, she worked with the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science to do more to advance the noble cause.

Adelaide died in her mother’s arms.  Her final words were

It has come at last.

Dickens wrote effusively of her and contributed a biographical sketch of her to the tenth edition (1866) of Legends and Lyrics.

One method by which one might encounter some of the poet’s work is to pay to attention to hymns at a church with good musical taste.  One hymn which Adelaide wrote follows:

My God, I thank Thee, who hast made

The earth so bright,

So full of splendor and of joy,

Beauty and light,

So many glorious things are here,

Noble and right.

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made

Joy to abound,

So many gentle thoughts and deeds

Circling us ’round,

That in the darkest spot of earth

Some love is found.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept

The best in  store;

We have enough yet not too much,

To long for more;

A yearning for a deeper peace

Not known before.

I read those words and wonder why one would heap faint praise on the poet.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 14, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIUS FORTUNATUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF POITIERS

THE FEAST OF CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MYSTIC

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Eternal God, light of the world and Creator of all that is good and lovely:

We bless your name for inspiring Adelaide Anne Procter

and all those who with words and image have filled us with desire and love for you,

through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

1 Chronicles 29:14b-19

Psalm 90:14-17

2 Corinthians 3:1-3

John 21:15-17, 24-25

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 728

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Revised on November 29, 2016

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Above:  The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image Source = Library of Congress

Rejecting Agape

FEBRUARY 3, 2019

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Jeremiah 1:1-10 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.  The word of the LORD came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and throughout the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah son of Judah, when Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month.

The word of the LORD came to me:

Before I created you in the womb, I selected you;

Before you were born, I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.

I replied:

Ah, Lord GOD!

I don’t know how to speak,

For I am still a boy.

And the LORD said to me:

Do not say, “I am still a boy,”

But go wherever I send you

And speak whatever I command you.

Have no fear of them,

For I am with you to deliver them

–declares the LORD.

The LORD put out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:

Herewith I put My words into your mouth.

See, I appoint you this day

Over nations and kingdoms:

To uproot and to pull down,

To destroy and to overthrow,

To build and to plant.

Psalm 71:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1  In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge;

let me never be ashamed.

2  In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;

incline your ear to me and save me.

3  Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;

you are my crag and my stronghold.

4  Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.

5  For you are my hope, O Lord GOD,

my confidence since I was young.

6  I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;

from my mother’s womb you have been my strength;

my praise shall be always of you.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (New American Bible):

If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.   It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.  If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.  For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.  At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.  At present, I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am known.  So faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30 (The Jerusalem Bible):

And he [Jesus] won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.

They said,

This is Joseph’s son, surely?

But he replied,

No doubt you will quote the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”

And he went on,

I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of those; he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town.  And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged.  They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/prayer-of-praise-and-adoration-for-the-fourth-sunday-after-epiphany/

Prayer of Confession:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/prayer-of-dedication-for-the-fourth-sunday-after-epiphany/

Prayer of Dedication:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/forgive-our-lack-of-love-prayer-of-confession-for-the-fourth-sunday-after-epiphan/

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Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quickeyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

If I lacked anything.

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“A guest,” I answered, “worthy to be here.”

Love said, “You shall be he.”

“I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,

I cannot look on thee.”

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

“Who made the eyes but I?”

+++

“Truth, Lord, but I have marred them.  Let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.”

“And know you not,” says Love,  ”who bore the blame?

My dear, then, I will serve.

You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”

So I did sit and eat.

–George Herbert (1633)

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The love in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape.  There are four types of love in the New Testament, with agape being the highest form.  For a description of agape I turn to Volume X (1953), page 167 of The Interpreter’s Bible:

Agape is another kind of love which roots in the undeserved goodness men have received in Christ.

Agape is a type of love which extends to one’s enemies, looks past mutual interests, and is not merely sentimental.  It is the love which God has for us.  Thusagape is crucial, greater even than faith and hope, which are also commendable and of God.

This was the love which qualified Jeremiah and kept him company on his difficult vocation, one fraught with rejection.  And this was the love which Jesus, also rejected, embodied in a unique way.  This was the love those who tried to kill him at Nazareth lacked.

Agape is hard for many people to practice, for we are flawed.  This statement applies to me.  But I like agape; I seek to come nearer to living it.  One poetic expression of the essence of agape is the George Herbert poem I have quoted in this post.  My choir at St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, has sung the Ralph Vaughan Williams setting of it.  The text speaks to me of what I have received and continue to receive from God.  I can do better, by grace, and I am.  And I have much room for improvement.

Agape is also intolerable for many people.  They seek to destroy it.  The reason for this, I suppose, is that it reminds them of their shortcomings.  And, instead of admitting those failings, some people react defensively and fearfully.  Thus violent people have, throughout history and into the present day, persecuted pacifists, from Quakers to Anabaptists to Mohandas Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr.  New England Puritans hanged Quakers in colonial times.  Anabaptists in Europe and elsewhere have attracted a host of foes.  There was, for example, state-sanctioned persecution of Amish and Mennonite conscientious objectors in the United States during World War I.  And Gandhi and King became victims of assassins.  Before King’s death many of his self-identified conservative coreligionists condemned his stances on civil rights and the Vietnam War.  (I have notecards full of citations, quotes, and summaries from back issues of The Presbyterian Journal, which midwifed the Presbyterian Church in America in the early 1970s.  The Journal, publishing immediately after King’s death, continued to condemn him.)

Our human intolerance for agape has caused quite a body count to accumulate.  May God forgive us.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 11, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY NEYROT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

THE FEAST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, ANGLICAN PRIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND

THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KRAKOW

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Winter, by Hendrick Avercamp

Image in the Public Domain

1 (Henry Morse, English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1645)

• Benedict Daswa, South African Roman Catholic Catechist and Martyr, 1990
• Charles Seymour Robinson, U.S. Presbyterian Minister, Hymn Writer, and Hymnologist
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian Roman Catholic Composer and Musician
• Mitchell J. Dahood, Roman Catholic Priest and Biblical Scholar
• Sigebert III, King of Austrasia

2 (PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE)

3 (Anskar and Rimbert, Roman Catholic Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen)

• Adelaide Anne Procter, English Poet and Feminist
• Alfred Delp, German Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1945
• James Nicholas Joubert and Marie Elizabeth Lange, Founders of the Oblate Sisters of Providence
• Jemima Thompson Luke, English Congregationalist Hymn Writer; and James Edmeston, Anglican Hymn Writer
• Samuel Davies, American Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer

4 (CORNELIUS THE CENTURION)

5 (Martyrs of Japan, 1597-1639)

• Avitus of Vienne, Roman Catholic Bishop
• Jane (Joan) of Valois, Co-Founder of the Sisters of the Annunciation
• Pedro Arrupe, Advocate for the Poor and Marginalized, and Superior General of the Society of Jesus
• Phileas and Philoromus, Roman Catholic Martyrs, 304

6 (Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, Poet and Hymn Writer)

• Danny Thomas, U.S. Roman Catholic Entertainer and Humanitarian; Founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
• Mateo Correa-Magallanes and Miguel Agustin Pro, Mexican Roman Catholic Priests and Martyrs, 1927
• Vedast (Vaast), Roman Catholic Bishop of Arras and Cambrai

7 (Helder Camara, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife)

• Adalbert Nierychlewski, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1942
• Daniel J. Harrington, U.S. Roman Catholic Priest and Biblical Scholar
• Gregorio Allegri, Italian Roman Catholic Priest, Composer, and Singer; brother of Domenico Allegri, Italian Roman Catholic Composer and Singer
• Moses, Apostle to the Saracens
• William Boyce and John Alcock, Anglican Composers

8 (Josephine Bakhita, Roman Catholic Nun)

• Cornelia Hancock, U.S. Quaker Nurse, Educator, and Humanitarian; “Florence Nightingale of North America”
• Jerome Emiliani, Founder of the Company of the Servants of the Poor
• John of Matha and Felix of Valois, Founders of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity
• Josephina Gabriella Bonino, Founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family

9 (Bruce M. Metzger, U.S. Presbyterian Minister, Biblical Scholar, and Biblical Translator)

• Alto of Altomunster, Roman Catholic Hermit
• Porfirio, Martyr, 203

10 (Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola; and her twin brother, Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Cassino and Father of Western Monasticism)

• Benedict of Aniane, Restorer of Western Monasticism; and Ardo, Roman Catholic Abbot
• Henry Williams Baker, Anglican Priest, Hymnal Editor, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator
• Norbert of Xanten, Founder of the Premonstratensians; Hugh of Fosses, Second Founder of the Premonstratensians; and Evermod, Bishop of Ratzeburg
• Philip Armes, Anglican Church Organist

11 (ONESIMUS, BISHOP OF BYZANTIUM)

12 (Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and Jarena Lee, Evangelists and Social Activists)

• Benjamin Schmolck, German Lutheran Pastor and Hymn Writer
• Charles Freer Andrews, Anglican Priest
• Julia Williams Garnet, African-American Abolitionist and Educator; her husband, Henry Highland Garnet, African-American Presbyterian Minister and Abolitionist; his second wife, Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet, African-American Suffragette and Educator; her sister, Susan Maria Smith McKinney Steward, African-American Physician; and her second husband, Theophilus Gould Steward, U.S. African Methodist Episcopal Minister, Army Chaplain, and Professor
• Michael Weisse, German Moravian Minister and Hymn Writer and Translator; and Jan Roh, Bohemian Moravian Bishop and Hymn Writer
• Orange Scott, U.S. Methodist Minister, Abolitionist, and first President of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection

13 (AQUILA, PRISCILLA, AND APOLLOS, CO-WORKERS OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE)

14 (Abraham of Carrhae, Roman Catholic Bishop)

• Christoph Carl Ludwig von Pfeil, German Lutheran Hymn Writer
• Cyril and Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs
• Francis Harold Rowley, Northern Baptist Minister, Humanitarian, and Hymn Writer
• Johann Michael Altenburg, German Lutheran Pastor, Composer, and Hymn Writer
• Victor Olof Petersen, Swedish-American Lutheran Hymn Translator

15 (New Martyrs of Libya, 2015)

• Ben Salmon, U.S. Roman Catholic Pacifist and Conscientious Objector
• Henry B. Whipple, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota
• John Tietjen, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Ecumenist, and Bishop
• Michael Praetorius, German Lutheran Composer and Musicologist
• Thomas Bray, Anglican Priest and Missionary

16 (Philipp Melanchthon, German Lutheran Theologian and Scribe of the Reformation)

• Charles Todd Quintard, Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee
• Christian Frederick Martin, Sr., and Charles Augustus Zoebisch, German-American Instrument Makers
• Louis (Lewis) F. Kampmann, U.S. Moravian Minister, Missionary, and Hymn Translator
• Nicholas Kasatkin, Orthodox Archbishop of All Japan

17 (August Crull, German-American Lutheran Minister, Poet, Professor, Hymnodist, and Hymn Translator)

• Antoni Leszczewicz, Polish Roman Catholic Priest, and His Companions, Martyrs, 1943
• Edward Hopper, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Hymn Writer
• Janini Luwum, Ugandan Anglican Archbishop and Martyr, 1977
• Johann Heermann, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer
• John Meyendorff, Russian-French-American Orthodox Priest, Scholar, and Ecumenist

18 (Colman of Lindisfarne, Agilbert, and Wilfrid, Bishops)

• Barbasymas, Sadoth of Seleucia, and Their Companions, Martyrs, 342
• Guido di Pietro, a.k.a. Fra Angelico, Roman Catholic Monk and Artist
• James Drummond Burns, Scottish Presbyterian Minister, Hymn Writer, and Hymn Translator

19 (Nerses I the Great, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church; and Mesrop, Bible Translator)

• Agnes Tsao Kou Ying, Agatha Lin Zhao, and Lucy Yi Zhenmei, Chinese Roman Catholic Catechists and Martyrs, 1856, 1858, and 1862; Auguste Chapdelaine, French Roman Catholic Priest, Missionary, and Martyr, 1856; and Laurentius Bai Xiaoman, Chinese Roman Catholic Convert and Martyr, 1856
• Bernard Barton, English Quaker Poet and Hymn Writer
• Elizabeth C. Clephane, Scottish Presbyterian Humanitarian and Hymn Writer
• Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., Episcopal Priest, Ecumenist, and Liturgist; Dean of American Liturgists

20 (Henri de Lucac, French Roman Catholic Priest, Cardinal, and Theologian)

• Stanislawa Rodzinska, Polish Roman Catholic Nun and Martyr, 1945
• Wulfric of Haselbury, Roman Catholic Hermit

21 (John Henry Newman, English Roman Catholic Priest-Cardinal)

• Arnulf of Metz, Roman Catholic Bishop; and Germanus of Granfel, Roman Catholic Abbot and Martyr, 677
• Robert Southwell, English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1595
• Thomas Pormort, English Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1592

22 (Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, Anti-Nazi Martyrs at Munich, Germany, 1943)

• Bernhardt Severin Ingemann, Danish Lutheran Author and Hymn Writer
• Margaret of Cortona, Penitent and Founder of the Poor Ones
• Praetextatus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Rouen
• Thomas Binney, English Congregationalist Minister, Liturgist, and “Archbishop of Nonconformity”

23 (Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Irenaeus of Lyons, Bishops and Martyrs, 107/115, 155/156, and Circa 202)

• Alexander Akimetes, Roman Catholic Abbot
• Austin Carroll (Margaret Anne Carroll), Irish-American Roman Catholic Nun, Author, and Educator
• Samuel Wolcott, U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Missionary, and Hymn Writer
• Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski, Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1945
• Willigis, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mainz; and Bernward, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hildesheim

24 (MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE, MARTYR)

25 (Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder, Nonna, and Their Children:  Gregory of Nazianzus the Younger, Caesarius of Nazianzus, and Gorgonia of Nazianzus)

• Bernhardt Severin Ingemann, Danish Lutheran Author and Hymn Writer
• Felix Varela, Cuban Roman Catholic Priest and Patriot
• John Roberts, Episcopal Missionary to the Shoshone and Arapahoe
• Karl Friedrich Lochner, German Lutheran Minister and Hymn Writer
• Theodor Fliedner, Renewer of the Female Diaconate; and Elizabeth Fedde, Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess

26 (Antonio Valdivieso, Roman Catholic Bishop of Leon, and Martyr, 1495)

• Andrew Reed, English Congregationalist Minister, Humanitarian, and Hymn Writer
• Charles Sheldon, U.S. Congregationalist Minister, Author, Christian Socialist, and Social Gospel Theologian
• Emily Malbone Morgan, Founder of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross
• Jakob Hutter, Founder of the Hutterities, and Anabaptist Martyr, 1536; and his wife, Katharina Hutter, Anabaptist Martyr, 1538
• Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz, Founder of the Daughters of Mary

27 (Nicholas Ferrar, Anglican Deacon and Founder of Little Gidding; George Herbert, Anglican Priest and Metaphysical Poet; and All Saintly Parish Priests)

• Anne Line and Roger Filcock, English Roman Catholic Martyrs, 1601
• Fred Rogers, U.S. Presbyterian Minister and Host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
• Gabriel Possenti, Roman Catholic Penitent
• Marian Anderson, African-American Singer and Civil Rights Activist
• Raphael of Brooklyn, Syrian-American Russian Orthodox Bishop of Brooklyn

28 (Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, African-American Educators)

• Mary Lyon, U.S. Congregationalist Feminist and Educator
• Joseph Badger, Sr., U.S. Congregationalist and Presbyterian Minister; First Missionary to the Western Reserve
• Samuel Simon Schmucker, U.S. Lutheran Minister, Theologian, and Social Reformer

29 (John Cassian and John Climacus, Roman Catholic Monks and Spiritual Writers)

• Luis de Leon, Spanish Roman Catholic Priest and Theologian
• Patrick Hamilton, First Scottish Protestant Martyr, 1528

Lowercase boldface on a date with two or more commemorations indicates a primary feast.