FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: ON CONFESSION

I was made a priest in my Washington, DC, parish church where I did field education back on December 8, 2007 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, no less! Perhaps a harbinger that one day our paths would cross, yours and mine?). At the Examination, Bishop James Montgomery charged me, in part:

You are to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of the Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to you.

FROM FATHER PETER ANTHONY: ALL SAINTS’ MARGARET STREET IS VISITING NEW YORK

I am very grateful for the opportunity to write for the Angelus this week to let you know about a visit to New York which I will be making with my colleague Father Alan Rimmer in March from your sister parish in London, All Saints’, Margaret Street. Father Alan and I are both looking forward to being at Saint Mary’s to preach: Father Alan will give the homily at both Masses on Sunday, March 22; and I will be preaching on the Feast of the Annunciation. It will be terrific to meet new people and reacquaint ourselves with old friends.

FROM THE PARISH ARCHIVES: THE CROSS

This week, we look back at an article from the March 1893 issue of The Arrow, Saint Mary’s monthly newsletter at that time.

Mid-Lent has come, and now across the path along which the Church has trod, following the footsteps of her Lord, falls the shadow of the Cross. Year after year, century after century has the Church at this season called her children aside for a brief space to consider the tremendous spectacle—a suffering God: year after year the Divine sufferer makes His appeal to the world. “Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.”

FROM FATHER MATT JACOBSON: BACK TO THE BASICS

I saw that baseball spring training games have recently started up, and this reminded me of what it was like to watch spring training as a kid. I had family in Florida, on both coasts, and we often would head south to visit them and to catch some of the pre-season. I remember being able to get very close to the fields to watch the practice sessions. It was fun, but also always a bit surprising, to see them doing some of the same drills that we would do in Little League. Why do these guys need to waste their time on these simple drills? They’re the best in the world!

FROM FATHER WOOD: SERVICE STORIES

This past Sunday in Adult Formation, we finished up our five-week Foundations Course on “The Spiritual Life.” Together we had traced the shape of Anglican spirituality by covering Eucharist, the Prayers of the Church, Reflection, and Community, and the final session was on Service, which is fitting given that we are in the final year of our three-year arc at Saint Mary’s—a “Year of Conversion,” a “Year of Invitation,” and finally a “Year of Service,” ending this spring.

FROM KATHERINE HOYT: SERVING WITH THE ECCLESIA MINISTRY

About two months ago on a chilly Sunday afternoon, several other Saint Marians and I headed downtown after coffee hour to attend Ecclesia, a ministry hosted by Saint Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery. After meeting Archdeacon LaVetty and the other participants in the small plaza outside the church, we set up a small card table as an altar and held a short, beautiful prayer service and distributed bagged lunches to those in the area. Observing as a newcomer, it seemed to me that the effects of this ministry manifest in several ways.

FROM FATHER SAMMY ON RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS: AN UPDATE ON OUR THREE-YEAR ARC

You’ll remember, I hope, that we are in the final phase of a three-year arc we began back in 2023 at Saint Mary’s — First, we embarked on a Year of Formation. In 2023, still figuring out what the post-Covid church would look like, we decided to focus on fundamentals. We built an adult formation program that emphasized conversion, looking in depth at where we are in our own relationships with God. With an eye toward deepening our own conversions, we relaunched programs like a weekly Bible study and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for our youngest members.

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.