WHAT’S ON YOUR BOOKSHELF?

Steven Eldredge, what’s on your bookshelf?

This Homeward Ache by Amy Baik Lee (B&H Publishing Group, 2023)

How did you hear about this book?

I read about it first on Brenton Dickieson’s excellent blog: A Pilgrim in Narnia.

What’s this book about?

C. S. Lewis wrote a book about his youth and his spiritual formation before his conversion to Christianity, called Surprised by Joy (1955). In it he expounds upon the idea of longing, yearning, sehnsucht, which he calls “Joy.” That is to say, that longing for “Home” that has nothing to do with home here in this world, but intimations and inklings of heaven, of what is to be in our eternal futures. Amy Baik Lee has written an exquisite little book about this.

Why does a certain view in nature, a certain piece of music, a funeral, a painting, a book, the sound of wind in the trees or the surf of the ocean, or prayers at a Mass make us feel such an intense yearning for something bigger, but yet also such a part of our true selves? She calls these sparks by many names, but essentially, they represent our inner homesickness to be fully united with God. They are glimpses of the Reality beyond this so-called reality. In the book she pursues two questions: Are these glimpses more than foreshadowings of the world to come?  What if they are sent to us to allow us to live more fully right here and now, while we are still on the journey?

The book is a series of personal stories about her children and her husband, life in the mountains in Colorado, her earlier life in Korea, her writing, her conversion, her reading. In between these stories is a lot of scripture, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Tim Keller, etc. Her writing is beautifully poetic, luminous, often absolutely numinous. Sometimes the most seemingly inconsequential happenings trigger these feelings for her, for example, every fall when she finds herself watching and listening to the flocks of Canadian geese in the skies heading south. About this she says:

Taken together, all these motifs stand out like silver whistles that have often blown a tune of Homeward air my way. Seeing their impact in others’ lives and my own has led me to ponder their role and presence in the new creation . . . I sometimes wonder, with a child’s open-ended speculation, if these triggers of Homeward longing are things of fuller, tangible, features—if a part of us instantly embraces these common factors in current creation because they are integral parts of the Home to which we belong?

Finally, she sums it up in the loveliest thought: “Our longing for Home is not so much for a place, as for a Person.”

I could quote and quote from this lovely book, trying to capture its mystical beauties, but suffice it to say, it is something you need to savor for yourself. May it help you to identify and embrace these intuitions when they come your way. They come for the most wonderful and important reasons.

What’s the connection with the Episcopal Church?

The author comes from the Reformed tradition, and much of her thrust is certainly ecumenical, but I feel deeply that so much of what she says aligns wonderfully with the faith disciplines and mystical awareness of our Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Why do you think other Saint Marians might be interested in reading it?

Those of us who call Saint Mary the Virgin our spiritual home are by nature attuned to beauty in so many forms, and to the sheer magic of what happens in every Mass in which we participate. Many of the thoughts in this book are like messages in a bottle, to both remind and renew us.

PARISH PRAYERS

We pray for the people and clergy of our sister parish, the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, and for the Scottish Episcopal Church, in the Anglican cycle of prayer.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Tyisha, Randall, Sarah, Luis, Phoebe, Peter, Pat, Allen, Vanessa, Melvin, Vicki, Bella, Valdez, Helen, Fanny, Brendon, Nadia, Christian, Carol, Giovanna, Mary, Yuri, Priya, Wally, Donald, Ronald, Jose, Ben, Russell, Duncan, Robert, Sandy, Orham, Marty, Lexi, Georgia, Desarae, David, Claudia, Nettie, Chrissy, Tony, Rick, Jan, June, Carlos, Liduvina, Quincy, Leroy, Margaret, and Robert; Suzanne Elizabeth and Laura Katherine, religious; Lind, deacon; and Jay and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of those who have died, especially Robert, Patti, and Richard; and Robert Hugh, religious, and for those whose year’s mind is on August 17: William Henry Noble (1896), Elizabeth Barine Burt (1915), Mary Rutledge (1919), Lena Vetter (1920), William Hasty Flint (1939), Martin McCarrick (1946), and Elvira Merenda (1992).

AROUND THE PARISH

Requiem Mass this Saturday . . . The monthly parish Requiem Mass will be this Saturday, August 16, in the Mercy Chapel. Click here to read about the Guild of All Souls. The parish Requiem Mass is generally offered on the third Saturday of the month (unless there is a major feast which takes precedence).

The Rosary Guild . . . Join the rosary guild on Sunday, August 24, after Solemn Mass. The guild meets on the fourth Sunday of each month to pray the rosary together.

Summer donations for Neighbors in Need . . . Thanks to generous cash donations, we are able to purchase toiletries and underwear for our guests. Our clothing room depends on your gifts of lightly-used clothing. Right now, our biggest needs are shoes (sneakers, sandals and other practical shoes, but not high heels), jeans and khakis. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Marie Rosseels for more information. Note that the August Drop-by day will be on August 22 and not on the third Friday (August 15) due to the Assumption.

Cookie donations needed for September . . . During the summer months, we have lemonade and cookies at Coffee Hour and are looking for cookie donors. Please get in touch with Father Sammy Wood if you are able to help with a Sunday in September.

Father Wood on vacation . . . Father Sammy Wood is on vacation and returns to the parish on Sunday, August 24.

Summer Reading . . . Dr. James Como will teach the first block of Adult Formation in the fall, a five-week class on C.S. Lewis. We begin on September 21, though we thought that some might want to use the summer to work through the reading list. Please click here for the reading list and for more details.

THE DIOCESE AND WIDER CHURCH

Installation and Institution of the new Dean of the Cathedral . . . Join the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine to celebrate the installation of the 12th Dean, the Very Reverend Winnie Varghese, on Saturday, September 27, at 10:30 AM. You can read here about the dean elect’s vision for the Cathedral.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT SOLEMN MASS ON THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Sunday’s organ voluntaries are the third installment of a series begun earlier this month of the eight “Little” Preludes and Fugues, traditionally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. While long promulgated as works of the great master, these pieces are now widely believed actually to have been composed by one of his pupils, very likely Johann Tobias Krebs (1690–1762), or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780). Of these eight preludes and fugues, four are in major keys of C, F, G, and B-flat, and the remaining four are in their relative minors of A, D, E, and G. The standard ordering of these eight pieces begins with BWV 553 in C Major and progresses up the scale to BWV 560 in B-flat. This week’s prelude will be BWV 556 in F Major, and the postlude will be BWV 554 in the relative minor key of D. BWV 556, for the prelude, may be the least likely of the eight Preludes and Fugues to have been composed by Sebastian Bach. The prelude especially is stylistically much more suggestive of post-baroque classical composition. Its accompanying fugue has a similar harmonic and textural simplicity as it continues in the bright spirit of F Major. BWV 554, numbered second in the collection and played for the postlude, has an A-B-A-shaped prelude, as did BWV 556. The fugue, with its angular theme, is modest in length and follows logically after the prelude.

On most Sundays, the music of the Ordinary of the Mass at Saint Mary’s is the work of a single composer or drawn from a single source. This Sunday, however, the setting is a composite from three different places and times.

The Gloria is a metrical paraphrase translated into English from the German Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr as found in The Hymnal 1982 at #421. Both the German paraphrase and its chorale melody are credited to Nikolaus Decius (c.1490–1541). The present English translation is credited to The Reverend F. Bland Tucker (1895–1984). Father Tucker served on the Commission which produced The Hymnal 1940 and is represented by twenty-six hymn texts in The Hymnal 1982. Like many chorale melodies, Allein Gott exists both in duple and triple rhythmic forms. The stately duple rhythm version was included in The Hymnal 1940 at #303 with a harmonization by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1849). However, the older and more dance-like triple rhythm form, with harmonization by Hieronymous Praetorius (c.1560–1629), was chosen for the metrical Gloria in The Hymnal 1982.

The Sanctus is from A Community Mass by Richard Proulx (1937–2010). Organist, composer, and conductor, Richard Proulx was one of the brightest lights in American Roman Catholic church music in the late twentieth century. He was also sought out internationally and ecumenically to compose, to consult, to teach, and to direct music programs. In addition to church music, his works include operas, orchestral music, and film scores. From 1980 to 1994 Richard Proulx directed a distinguished music program at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago during which time the Casavant choir organ and landmark four-manual Flentrop gallery organ were commissioned and installed. Proulx’s A Community Mass was composed in 1970 and quickly became a staple in Roman Catholic congregations. Its sturdy Sanctus, when sung by congregations, carries the text and its liturgical function powerfully.

The Agnus Dei is from John Merbecke’s Communion setting originally published in The booke of Common praier Noted of 1550. Merbecke (c.1510–c.1585) was known to have been a lay-clerk and organist at Saint George’s, Windsor in 1541. Apart from an obscure Latin Mass and two motets composed in his earlier years, Merbecke’s lasting musical contribution is his collected plainsong settings of the 1550 Prayer Book, most likely the earliest musical setting of the English Ordinary. Merbecke’s settings for the Mass are scrupulously syllabic and free of melodic fancy but yet melodically graceful. Although his original notation and instruction clearly indicates notes of long and short duration, nineteen and early twentieth century editions of his music made all but final syllables of phrases equally short. The Hymnal 1982 edition has restored the original rhythms to Merbecke’s chant. His Agnus Dei is found at S 157.

The cantor this Sunday is soprano, Emma Daniels. During the Communion she will sing Quia respexit from Magnificat, BWV 243, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Bach’s Magnificat is a major multi-movement work dating originally from early in his Leipzig period. The singing of elaborate settings of Magnificat in Latin on Christmas and major feasts of Saint Mary was common practice in Lutheran Leipzig at that time, so it is not surprising that Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat Major for five-voice chorus, soloists, and orchestra was likely first performed at the Saint Thomas Church, Leipzig, in 1723 shortly after his appointment there. Several versions of this piece with various interpolated movements probably were performed in succeeding years, but the version which became the best known after 1733 was a twelve-movement work in D Major drawing its Latin text entirely from Luke 1:46-55. The aria Quia respexit is the third movement of the work and features the soprano soloist in dialogue with oboe d’amore.  It sets the third verse of the Magnificat minus its last two words, omnes generationes (all generations), which Bach tone-paints by summoning the full five-voice chorus and orchestra. 

Emma Daniels is a conductor, composer, and soprano originally from Chicago. She is the Music Director of Philomusica Concert Choir and a founding member of Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, an organization made up of singers, composers, and conductors who share artistic responsibility and perform new music. Today, she sings, conducts, and composes with C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in NYC, the choir after which Triad was modeled. Emma’s compositions have been performed by Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, Westminster Chapel Choir, Tufts Chamber Singers, and other college, synagogue, and church choirs from Boston to Los Angeles. As a vocalist, she has performed both solo and ensemble work in the Midwest and on the East Coast, including with St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, CT, St. James Cathedral Choir of Chicago, Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs, and Hans Zimmer Live US Tour. Emma holds an MM in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College and a BA in Music from Tufts University. She has been a member of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since 2022. 

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Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Matt Jacobson, except as noted. Father Matt is also responsible for formatting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best. If you have an idea for an article that you would like to publish in an upcoming issue of The Angelus, Father Matt would be happy to discuss it with you.