FROM FATHER MATT: GAZE UPON AND CONTEMPLATE CHRIST’S HUMILITY

St. Agnes of Prague was a thirteenth-century Bohemian princess who turned away from the life of luxury that she was born into and instead joined a religious order which would later become known as the Order of St. Clare (i.e., the Poor Clares). She founded a hospital and cared for lepers and the poor. For over two decades, Agnes regularly corresponded with St. Clare of Assisi, though the two never met in person. In her second letter to Agnes, Clare urges Agnes to “embrace the poor Christ” and says to “gaze upon him, consider him, contemplate him, as you desire to imitate him.”

FROM FATHER STEPHEN MORRIS: SAINTS PETER & PAUL, PILLARS OF THE CHURCH

This week we mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an ecumenical initiative which began in 1908 and was heavily promoted by the Graymoor Franciscans. It was adopted by the World Council of Churches in 1948 and is observed as the week between the feasts of the Confession of St. Peter (January 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25). The Confession of St. Peter celebrates the episode when Jesus asks the apostles, “Who do you think I am?” St. Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Matthew 16:13-20) This confession of faith is fundamental to our understanding of Jesus and the Holy Trinity.

FROM DR. CHARLES MORGAN ON SAYING YES: REFLECTIONS ON SERVING ON THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

After serving on the vestry of my former church in Connecticut, I made a quiet but firm vow: I would never again take on a leadership role within a church. The experience had been meaningful, but also demanding, and I believed my season of church governance had come to an end. So when I was first approached about joining the Board of Trustees at Saint Mary the Virgin, my answer was a clear and uncomplicated no. When I was invited a second time, however, I paused. Instead of responding immediately, I spent time in prayer. I reflected, listened, and discerned. Ultimately, I decided to say yes.

FROM MARYJANE BOLAND AND MARIE ROSSEELS: A YEAR OF SERVICE, NEIGHBORS IN NEED

How can a church with a small local congregation that worships in the beauty of holiness in a large building respond to a proclaimed year of service? It can use the building to serve and its friends to help. Our building is open 12 hours a day during the week and only slightly less on the weekend. On any day, depending on the weather, people rest in our pews. Several return to the same pew, day after day. Some come to Mass; most do not. Some seek the prayers and advice of a priest; some ask for a meal voucher. These people are our neighbors.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD ON NOUWEN: “MOVING FROM SOLITUDE TO COMMUNITY TO MISSION”

Henri J. M. Nouwen is one of a handful of people I really wish I could sit and have coffee with (along with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rich Mullins, Dallas Willard, and Tom Brady, known in our house as the “Greatest Living American”—hope still springs for the last one). Born in the Netherlands, Nouwen became a priest and studied psychology, wrote 42 books, lectured at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, and died in 1996.

SAINT LEO THE GREAT: ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY

On all days and at all times, dearly beloved, does the birth of our Lord and Saviour from the Virgin-mother occur to the thoughts of the faithful, who meditate on divine things, that the mind may be aroused to the acknowledgment of its Maker, and whether it be occupied in the groans of supplication, or in the shouting of praise, or in the offering of sacrifice, may employ its spiritual insight on nothing more frequently and more trustingly than on the fact that God the Son of God, begotten of the co-eternal Father, was also born by a human birth.

FROM KATHERINE HOYT: THE LOVE OF GOD AND GOD’S GREAT BEAUTY

For most of my life, St. Francis of Assisi had always seemed to me a man of incredible contradiction. He is primarily famous for two things, his irrepressible love and affection for God and His creation, and his severe ascetic lifestyle. I couldn’t understand how to reconcile those two facets of his character. When we arrived in Assisi the trees were still green, but by the day we left they’d started to turn red and gold.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: TSUNDOKU AND STORY

At long last, we’ve come to my favorite time of the year. As we move deeper into December, the days grow infinitesimally shorter until the solstice, and I love winter—the darker and colder, the better! Christmas is still out in front of us, and I prefer my gratification delayed yet a little longer still, thank you very much. And by now packages have begun appearing under the rectory tree. Some of which are book-shaped!

FROM BROTHER FINNIAN SHANNON, SSF: PAX ET BONUM

For many that know me, they could tell you that genealogy is a passion of mine. How does this relate to a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, you may ask? Well as a Franciscan friar with the Society of Saint Francis I was excited to learn through genealogical research that some of my very distant relatives had close connections to Saint Francis and the Franciscan order. Matteo Rosso Orsini (1178-1246), a thirteenth-century Roman Senator, was a personal friend to Saint Francis of Assisi and a Third Order Franciscan.

FROM MARY ROBISON: HISTORICAL MISSION WORK AT SAINT MARY’S

Our liturgy and our church are dazzlingly beautiful. Our worship is exuberant. Our music is unsurpassed. How about our ministry to the world? As we begin to live into our Year of Service, it’s worth considering what our parish has done throughout its history to make Midtown Manhattan (and the world) a better place. What could I find in our early records about mission work at Saint Mary’s in the nineteenth century?

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: STAFFING AND STEWARDSHIP

This Sunday, as we celebrate Christ the King, we will gather all the pledge cards we have received this year and pray over them at the 11:00 Mass. These cards represent our desire to return to God the first fruits of our labor and toil, the work of our lives, and we are asking God to bless our intention to be good stewards of all he has given us as individuals and families. When your Board of Trustees charged the Stewardship Committee, one task it assigned was to work to build a “culture of stewardship” at Saint Mary’s, and that Board and your staff are always trying to be part of that culture by faithfully stewarding what God has provided to Saint Mary’s and what you entrust to us in your pledges.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: GUIDELINES FOR GIVING

Since the earliest decades of the Church, Christians have been renowned for their peculiar lives. An anonymous second-century document called the Epistle to Diognetus is an early example of Christian apologetics, written to defend the faith against the charges of its critics. In one remarkable section, it reads:

There is something extraordinary about their lives . . . Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything.

FROM FATHER STEPHEN MORRIS: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BODY OF CHRIST

When we are baptized, we affirm our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed and when someone else is baptized, we re-affirm our faith in these same words. We recite the Apostles’ Creed twice a day, in Morning and Evening Prayer. The words of the Apostles’ Creed are easily some of the words most frequently uttered in the Episcopal Church.

FROM MARYJANE BOLAND: CONTINUING OUR COMMITMENT TO SAINT MARY’S

People give to Saint Mary’s in different ways. We make an annual stewardship pledge that we pay weekly or monthly. We respond to appeals—to buy flowers for the altar, to buy toiletries and underwear for Neighbors in Need, to buy security cameras for the narthex. We slip a few dollars into the collection plate or a shrine. We also give by doing. We bring lightly-used coats and clothing for Neighbors in Need or volunteer to staff a drop-by afternoon. We walk or contribute to the Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk team.

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: THE 2025-2026 FEAST DAY RECITAL SEASON

The organ at Saint Mary’s, Aeolian-Skinner Opus 891, dates from 1932 with additions in 1942 and 2002. It is a world-famous instrument largely due to its high rear-galley installation and the resultingly rich musical voice it has given to the dynamic worship life of Saint Mary’s. Its tonal refinement (in contrast with its strikingly unfinished appearance), and its thrilling engagement of the church’s gracious acoustics, have been brought to life by the remarkable musicians, too many to name, who have performed a remarkably wide range of music on it through the years in the liturgy, in recital, and on recordings.

FROM MARIE ROSSEELS ON RELICS: ART AND DEVOTION

On September 14, in celebration of Holy Cross Day, a relic of the True Cross was displayed for veneration in the Mercy Chapel. The veneration of saints and their relics began in the earliest years of Christianity as a way of honoring martyrs, with evidence of this practice dating back to the martyrdom of Saint Polycarp in AD 156. Initially, relics came from the bodily remains of a saint but by the end of the fourth century, the veneration of relics had grown to include secondary objects such as clothing. In 787, the Second Council of Nicaea decreed that relics should be used to consecrate churches.

FROM BLAIR BURROUGHS: ON CENTERING PRAYER

Centering Prayer is a receptive method of silent prayer in which we experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship. This definition comes from Contemplative Outreach, an organization founded to promote Centering Prayer. What this means to me is Centering Prayer is a method that allows me to be open and experience the reality that I am in communion with God always. Yet despite this fact, I need to cultivate this reality, this relationship, through discipline.

DR. CHARLES MORGAN ON THE ROSARY: ORIGINS, BENEFITS, AND A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Growing up in the Anglican Church in Jamaica, the rosary was not part of my spiritual practice. I became aware of this form of prayer after I participated in a Cursillo weekend in the 1990s, and would meet regularly with a few people who worked in my department for weekly reflection and prayer on the work that we were doing. The word “rosary” comes from the Latin rosarium, meaning “rose garden,” symbolizing a bouquet of prayers offered to God through the intercession of Mary.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: A YEAR OF SERVICE

On Tuesday we celebrated the feast of St. Ninian of Galloway at the midday Mass at Saint Mary’s. Ninian was born sometime in the late third century, and we don’t know a lot about his life—just that he was a Celt, lived in southern Scotland, possibly studied and was made a bishop in Rome, and that he led the first major effort to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ “north of the Wall,” that is, to people living outside Roman-controlled territory.