On Joy and Worship: Two Guest Reflections

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

A couple of "guest reflections" for today...

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First, Dan Dake wrote a fine observation based on a passage from  Fr. Alexander Schmemann's Journal:

This morning I read in The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann 1973-1983:

 

This morning during Matins I had a ‘jolt of happiness,’ of fullness of life, and at the same time the thought: I will have to die! But in such a fleeting breath of happiness, time usually ‘gathers’ itself. In an instant, not only are all such breaths of happiness remembered but they are present and alive – that Holy Saturday in Paris when I was a very young man – and many such ‘breaks.’ It seems to me that eternity might be not the stopping of time, but precisely its resurrection and gathering. The fragmentation of time, its division, is the fall of eternity. (75)

 

This theme emerges again and again in his journals. Joy! Happiness! Vibrancy of life! It can seem unrealistic or, at least, inaccessible for the more ordinary among us. But I began to question this assumption. Fr. Schmemann does not seem extraordinary in the sense that he has moments of joy, moments of happiness, moments of the kingdom breaking into what we might otherwise call ‘the mundane.’ We all have these moments from time to time. What makes him different, then, I wondered? And then it struck me. Fr. Schmemann does not merely notice these breaks of joy, he cherishes them. He puts them down in his journal, he recalls them to mind. He dwells on the particular fragrance of a purple azalea. He relishes the ruckus of his grandchildren and their vibrancy of life. He savors the pleasure these moments of joy supply. In short, he attends to whatever is lovely, good, and pure, to whatever is a manifestation of the kingdom of God.

By this complex act of attention, he creates within himself a ballast of the kingdom. He bears through whatever storms, trials, and tribulations confront him because he has stored up the treasures of the kingdom of God within himself. These weights bear him into the joy of the kingdom. They are a ballast of joy.

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And from Jenny Harkins, a parish "neophyte" who entered the Church just last Sunday. Jenny has taken on St. Mary of Bethany as a patron saint and Communion name. In honor of St. Mary, Jenny wrote the following fine "Prayer Poem:"

 

 

My prayer poem:

St. Mary of Bethany, holy sister of hours past, 

May the posture of my heart ever echo Your devotion at the Master's feet, My gaze as yours, fixed on His, In every face I meet.

Strong and steady, may I bear His living torch Long into the night, Pray my bent-will be broken and a fragrant offering of worship rise, Humble and contrite. 

Like your abandoned adoration in the broken Alabaster jar, Let me love our King extravagantly, no depth or Length too far,

His pouring down, mine welling up In a circle ever growing, An unbroken fountain of love ever fresh Overflowing

May our union splash and soak and save the lost,
Pray I keep the oil burning for our Bridegroom’s returning, No matter what the cost

And sweet sister, as you wept for your brother With our Lord, please pray for mine: A spiritual resurrection into Kingdom light!