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. My favorite quote we discussed for last Sunday’s session on service likens parishioners to meteorites, drawn in to the parish regularly for renewal and formation, but then sent back out into the world to serve in whatever situation we all find ourselves:

We are called to nothing less than the renewal of the temporal order, which requires that we be present everywhere throughout it. [T]his vision of the lay vocation suggests that the parish ought to treat the laity more like meteorites, drawing them in close for a brief period to receive spiritual guidance and the sacraments, which “communicate and nourish that charity which is the soul of the entire apostolate,” before flinging them back out into the temporal sphere, loaded with grace and redolent of the fragrance of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 2:14-15). To accomplish this transformation, we need everyone, because all members of the Mystical Body have their own particular gifts and “are called to engage in the apostolate as individuals in the varying circumstances of their life,” working together toward the common end of renewing and perfecting the temporal order.

This coming Sunday, we’re rolling out examples of that dynamic, inviting different parishioners and friends to share their own stories of how they serve in their own worlds. Clark Mitchell launches our series “Service Stories” with a session called “Serving the Poor Earth,” discussing his own calling to environmental stewardship and using Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si as a springboard. Week two brings a visit from The Ven. Denise LaVetty, our diocesan Archdeacon, to enlighten us about the ministry of deacons who bring the ministrations of the Church to the world and present the needs of the world to the Church. Week three is “You Visited Me in Prison” (Matt. 25.36), led by my daughter, Elizabeth Wood, sharing her experience in a program to provide university-level courses to women in prison during her time as a student at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Reha Sterbin follows with “On Advocacy,” a glimpse into her own experience advocating for causes close to her heart here in New York City. And, lastly, Dr. Charles Morgan closes the series with “Darkness is my Only Companion” (Psalm 88.18), a look into the mental health crisis in our culture, especially his current work with Sawubona to address the mental health needs of youth and teens.

Multiple times each week I pray the following from the Morning Office:

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before thee for all members of thy holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and godly serve thee . . .

And when I pray that, I see your faces. I remember your names. I think of you, wherever you may be at that very moment—in an office, a school, on a train; working in a non-profit, at a computer monitor, in a park; serving God by working for a better city, a more just world, for the flourishing of your families and of our neighbors. All your work is sacred, it is “ministry,” and I hope you’ll join me to hear these Service Stories. Come listen to people share how God has called them to serve the least, the lost, and the left behind—prisoners, immigrants, even the Creation itself—and ask how God may be leading you to serve! — SW

PARISH PRAYERS

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

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Ian, Sharon, Andrew, Antonia, Cal, Eric, Hamida, Monique, Mary, Kathie, Patrick, Khalid, Sophia, Yue, Cassius, Jimmy, Bridget, Lorelei, Lisa, Sue, Joshua, Irma, Ruth Ann, Rosemary, Holly, Becky, Bill, Grady, Chris, Violet, Pat, Allen, Vicki, Brendon, Nadia, Carol, Giovanna, Ronald, Jose, Ben, Russell, Robert, Sandy, Lexi, Georgia, Desarae, David, Tony, Jan, Carlos, Quincy, Leroy, Margaret, and Robert; Victoria, 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 Pete and Tariq, and for those whose year’s mind is on February 22: Francis Lawrence Lundy (1879), William Henry Jones (1886), Edward Bieral (1886), Mormiter Marble (1912), Ole Olsen (1913), and James Hand (1917).

THANK YOU!

We want to thank all the ushers who served throughout the day on Ash Wednesday and warmly welcomed the many guests who visited Saint Mary’s. Attendance across the liturgies was 236 with an additional 608 people coming for ashes in the Mercy Chapel. 52 people joined us live online for Solemn Mass. Thank you, Blair Burroughs, for streaming. Thank you also to the altar servers, Dr. Hurd and the choir, and to the assisting priests, Fathers Morris and Whitmire.

AROUND THE PARISH

Welcome, Madison! — This week, we welcomed Madison McIntyre to the staff team as our new Parish Accountant and Administrator. She comes to us from Ernst & Young and is a graduate of Clemson University with a master’s in professional accountancy as well as a bachelor’s in accounting. Madison is learning the ropes by working alongside Chris Howatt in February. When you see her in the hallways, please welcome her to the family!

The Shape of Lent — At Saint Mary’s, we try to preserve the communal nature of Lenten practice as a parish family. The Shape of Lent is a booklet which provides a description and schedule of what we will do together during this holy time. There are also suggestions for additional Lenten readings. Copies are on the usher’s table and can be downloaded here.

Stations of the Cross — On Fridays in Lent, we offer Stations of the Cross at 6:00 PM, which follows Evening Prayer at 5:30 PM.

Rosary Guild this Sunday — The Rosary Guild will gather after Solemn Mass this Sunday to pray the rosary in the Lady Chapel. All are welcome.

Supper and Conversation in Lent — On four Wednesday evenings in Lent, Fr. Stephen Morris will lead a discussion series over supper entitled, “Why on This Night? The Old Testament and the Easter Vigil.” Creation. Noah. Abraham and Isaac. Exodus. Dry bones. Milk and honey. Hearts of flesh instead of stone. Why do we read these lessons from the Old Testament at the Easter Vigil? What does each lesson say about us? What do they say together as a collection? What do they say about Easter? Why bother with them at all?

February 25: Creation (Genesis 1-2)
March 4: Noah (Genesis 5-7)
March 11: Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22)
March 18: Moses (Exodus 1-15)

Why are these four passages the most important of all on this most important of all nights? How is our life different after hearing them read each year? Mass at 6:00 PM, followed by soup and bread and conversation at 6:30 PM. All are welcome! Please RSVP to Fr. Wood.

Lenten Quiet Day with Br. Thomas, SSF — On Saturday, March 7, 2026, Br. Thomas Steffensen, SSF, will lead a Quiet Day at Saint Mary’s. We begin with a light breakfast at 9:30 AM, which is followed by the first reflection at 10:00 AM. Lunch is included, and the day will finish by 3:00 PM. Please RSVP to Fr. Wood.

Flower donations — Altar flower donations are available for the Annunciation, March 25, and for many other dates in 2026. The suggested donation is $250. Please contact Brendon Hunter to reserve a date and have the dedication for your flower donation appear in the bulletin.

Baptisms — We are planning for baptisms at the Easter Vigil on April 4, 2026. If you would like to be baptized, or have your child baptized, at the Easter Vigil or on another date, please contact Fr. Matt Jacobson.

Adult Formation — Adult Formation continues this Sunday with Service Stories. Click here for more details about what we have planned for this semester at Adult Formation. We meet in Saint Joseph’s Hall at 9:45 AM, between the two Sunday Masses. All are welcome!

Thursday Bible Study — Thursday evening Bible study in 2025-2026 is based on the Sunday lectionary for the upcoming Sunday and generally will be led by the preacher for that day. We meet over Zoom at 6:00 PM. If interested, please email Fr. Wood for the link.

Neighbors in Need — With a very cold winter moving into a cold spring, warm jackets and practical shoes for men and women continue to be top needs. We are typically better supplied with women’s clothes than men’s. Our men’s priorities for February and March are warm tops; pants in size 32, 34 and 36; and shoes in all sizes. Thanks to your donations we are also able to purchase toiletries, gloves and underwear, especially thermals, which are in high demand. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Marie Rosseels for more information or send an email to neighbors@stmvnyc.org. After our February Drop-by Day on Friday, February 27, we return to the third Friday of the month on March 20.

THE DIOCESE AND WIDER CHURCH

Holy Habits: 2026 Lenten Meditations — Good friend of the parish, Sister Monica Clare, CSJB, is writing this year’s Lenten meditations for Episcopal Relief & Development. The 2026 meditations offer an invitation to rediscover—or deepen—holy habits of prayer, worship and engagement with Scripture. These “holy habits” provide a path to a life that is given shape, meaning and direction by being rooted in a deeper relationship with God. Click here to subscribe.

All Saints’ Margaret Street Drinks Party on March 20 — From our sister parish in London: You are all warmly invited by your sister parish in London, All Saints’ Margaret Street, to a drinks party to be held on Friday, March 20, 2026, at the House of the Redeemer, New York City, from 6:30 PM onwards to celebrate the American Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street. We hope this special occasion will be an opportunity for us to connect with parishioners of St. Mary the Virgin, and with American Friends of All Saints’ who live in or near New York. We look forward to being able to thank our American benefactors for their support. Both Fr. Alan and Fr. Peter will be present. It would be wonderful to see any parishioners of St Mary’s who wish to come. This drinks party will be proceeded by a Mass celebrated by Fr. Peter in the Chapel of the House of the Redeemer at 6:00 PM, giving thanks for the life of All Saints’, for any who wish to attend. You can book a free ticket for the event via Eventbrite here: https://americanfriendsdrinks.eventbrite.com.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT SOLEMN MASS ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

The organ prelude on Sunday is a setting from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The Orgelbüchlein is a collection of forty-six chorale preludes mostly composed between 1708 and 1717 when Bach was organist at the ducal court in Weimar. Although the original plan was for a collection of 164 settings of chorales for the church year, the realized collection spans the yearly liturgical cycle impressively. Seven of the forty-six chorales illuminate chorales sung in Lent and Holy Week. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein setting of O Mensch, bewein dein Sünden groß (O man, bewail thy grievous sins) is particularly distinctive and especially suited to the beginning of the Lenten season. The melody is attributed to Matthias Greitter and dates from 1525. The chorale, text by Sebald Heyden dating from 1530, has associations with both Bach’s Saint Matthew and Saint John Passions. The organ setting, BWV 622, is one of Bach’s most poetic ornamented melody chorale preludes. The final phrase, which references the crucifixion, is expressed with slower tempo and striking chromatic harmony.

The organ postlude is one of Bach’s miscellaneous chorale preludes. It is based upon the German paraphrase of Psalm 51, Erbarm dich, mein o Herre Gott (Have mercy on me, O God). This work, cataloged as BWV 721, is unusual among the organ chorales of Bach in that its unadorned melody, stated in half-notes, is accompanied throughout by a steady succession of eighth-note chords which provide homophonic harmonic support. One finds this sort of texture from time to time in other music of Bach, but not in the organ repertory. In light of its style, some scholars consider this chorale prelude an homage to Johann Kuhnau (1660–1701) whose music was known to Bach and whom Bach eventually succeeded as organist of the Church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig. The text paraphrase of Erbarm dich is attributed to Erhart Hegenwalt based upon a broadsheet from 1524. The anonymous melody, in Phrygian mode, dates from the same 1524 Whittenberg source.

The setting of the Mass this Sunday was composed in 2018 by Robert Pound (b. 1970), Professor of Music at Dickinson College and Director of the Dickinson Orchestra in Carlisle, PA. Having received degrees from the University of North Texas and New York’s Juilliard School, his career has included several residencies with orchestras, universities, and music centers across the country for which he has conducted and composed. He has received commissions from such distinguished ensembles as the Corigliano Quartet, the Timaeus Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, the Florestan Recital Project, and the Murasaki Duo. His works have also been featured by the Verge Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and at Fondation Bemberg (Toulouse, France). His Lenton Ordynary is a setting of the Rite II Kyrie (English), Credo, Sanctus & Benedictus, and Agnus Dei for unaccompanied four-voice choir. Dr. Pound has written the following of his setting:

Lenton Ordynary is the first of a series of Masses to be composed for the complete liturgical calendar of the major feasts and occasions. A pure diatonic, modal palette strictly circumscribes the Mass’s Renaissance choral style to convey a staid, undecorated affect for the great penitential season of Lent. Word sounds and musical pitches are intricately entwined through relations established in an original plainchant setting of the psalm for Ash Wednesday (51), which prefaces this Mass. This work was created to the glory of God and in honor of and gratitude to Joseph Golden, organist and choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, GA.

Lenton Ordynary, minus its Creed, received its liturgical premiere on March 8, 2020, at Saint Mary’s.

The communion motet is Hear my prayer, a setting, mostly in four parts, of a portion of Psalm 102 by Canadian composer Stephanie Martin (b.1962). Stephanie Martin is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar of music at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design. For the 2025-26 season she is composer-in-residence for the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. She directs Schola Magdalena, a women’s ensemble, is conductor emeritus of Pax Christi Chorale, and past director of music at the historic church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Toronto where Healey Willian had serviced from 1921 until 1968. Stephanie Martin’s motet Hear my prayer begins begins in neo-polyphonic style with individual voice entries and proceeds in conventional fashion in the tonal orbit of B minor. It’s final reassuring section, verse twelve of the psalm, transitions to the brighter tonality of B Major.

Click below, where you can make a one-time or recurring donation.
We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

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.