lion’s mark - squarespace · lion’s mark october 2010 2 t and reiterate the act of uniformity...

Saint Mark’s Church1625 Locust StreetPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

The Monthly Newsletter of Saint Mark’s Church, PhiladelphiaLion’s Mark

october 2010: ‘the Lion’s Mark’

Saint Mark’s is a community that gathers in faith, serves in love, and proclaims hope, through Jesus Christ.

IN THIS ISSUE

From the Rector Are We Tired of Toleration?

The Senior Associate Priest Pilgrimage, ‘Godly Play,’ ‘Chalice’

People in the Pews Lucy Ann Lonergan

The Eight Ministry Areas of Saint Mark’s All the Latest

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land A Sacred Journey for Saint Mark’s

Tell Your Story! A Saga of Unexpected Stewardship

An Update on Saint James School From the Executive Director

The Last Word The Rosary: What Do You Know? Part 2

Take Six October and early November at 1625 Locust

Saint Mark’s in motion: The Revd Dr William Franklin; Joy Tomme; Anita Clouser; and some unidentified backs.

Lion’s MarkOctober 2010

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T and reiterate the Act of Uniformity (1662) that demanded all her subjects worship by the prescriptions of the Book of Common Prayer. It is widely thought to have been at William Penn’s insti-gation that James II signed the Act of Indulgence (1687), paving the way for religious tolerance in Britain, codified a little more enthusiastically in the Act of Toleration (1689) during the reign of William and Mary.

The Church of England brought with it to the North American colonies all the baggage of the established church — including its sense of entitlement — but it was after the War of Indepen-dence that a flowering of diverse, sometimes eccentric, religious expression would occur in America. The story of nineteenth-century religion here provides ample back-up to Armstrong’s dictum: Lots of bad religion was jostling to be tolerated in the broad new American landscape (see Stephen Prothero’s American Jesus for a lively account of all that). Even here, within sight of Rittenhouse Square, toleration was hardly the watchword.

who are those people anyway?When our neighbors across the Square on Walnut Street at Holy Trinity were organized in 1855 (seven years after Saint Mark’s) it was in order to ensure that there would be a “low church” par-ish in the neighborhood. It was almost surely in reaction (or from revulsion) to the ritualistic liturgies of the Eucharist going on here on Locust Street. A decade later, the bishops of the Epis-copal Church would meet in Philadelphia to determine whether or not the northern and southern regions of the church could bear to stay together in the aftermath of the Civil War, whether or not they could tolerate one another — the answer was by no means clear to many of them.

By mid-twentieth century the devastation of two world wars, among other things, left many in the developed world question-ing not just religion, but the faith that lies behind religious sys-tems and expressions. The boom in American religious life in the 1950s obscured a much deeper crisis of faith that was about to come; a crisis fueled, in part, by the growing recognition that “religion is difficult to do well and we [were] seeing a lot of bad religion at the moment.”

Now, early in the twenty-first century, we’re deep in the midst of that crisis. And we seem to be at a point where our tolerance of other faiths — and of other Christians — is wearing thin.

he prolific historian of religion Karen Armstrong wrote not long ago that “religion is difficult to do well and we are seeing a lot of bad religion at the

moment,” an insight that I find important to keep in mind these days.

As Episcopalians we like to think that we are among the minor-ity who do religion well and that our Anglican family story is one of reasonableness, tolerance, compromise. The idea that the Church of England and all her daughter churches manage to walk a via media, or middle way, between the extremes of protestant evangelicals and popish catholics is a cherished way of expressing that story. But like most family stories, this short-handed version leaves a great deal of our past forgotten, glossed over, or ignored. We want to be in league with those who do religion well and we want to believe that we always have been. The truth is a bit more painful to recall.

skeletons in the closetOur Anglican religious story is full of political posturing, opportunism, struggles for power, intoler-

ance, violence, and bloodshed. The story of the English Reformation is very much our story, and it’s a convoluted, confus-ing and violent one. I won’t try to en-capsulate that narrative here. But let me

remember that Queen Elizabeth I’s solution to the religious con-flicts of her day was to refine

From the rector


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From the rector

there at the beginningOf course the church struggled with these questions from the very beginning. Jesus was confronted by the Canaanite woman’s plea to be allowed to at least enjoy the scraps from his table. The early church struggled with the question of whether it could tol-erate the inclusion of Gentiles amongst the Body of Christ.

We might also recall Jesus’ teaching that there were many wid-ows in Israel during the famine in the time of Elijah, but the prophet was sent to none of them “except to widow at Zarephath in Sidon” — without the fold of Israel. And it is worth recalling that in the first days of the church’s formation, at Pentecost, one of the signs of the Holy Spirit’s presence among the followers of Jesus was that “all bewildered because each one heard his own language spoken.”

The Holy Spirit brought clarity where confusion might have reigned; understanding where conflict seemed inevitable; a way to hear the voice of the other with a sympathetic ear. The mer-cies of God do not seem to be bound by our own expectations and limitations, and often are to be found where it would never occur to us to look, among those we consider beyond the pale.

All of this is to say that the current climate of intolerance to-ward Muslims and of Christians of other stripes is cause for deep

concern. Episcopalians cannot rely on our heritage to ensure an attitude of toleration, mutual respect, and love toward other Christians and other people of faith. An attitude of intolerance comes fairly easily to most of us; tolerance has to be worked at.

starting at the right placeAt Saint Mark’s when we celebrate the Mass we almost always begin it with a plea for God’s mercy (Lord, have mercy); and we always include a general confession of our sins. We do both these things in confidence that God uses the Sacrament to bind up that which has broken, failed, or disappointed, in us and in the world, and restore us to health. It would be a rejection of these gifts of reconciliation, that God has made so abundantly available at Saint Mark’s, to walk away from the altar embittered toward other Christians, or people of other faiths, or people of no faith at all. It would be as though we were preventing the tree of tol-erance from bearing any fruit.

The call of Christ’s love has never been contingent on the spe-cifics of one’s faith, as any child who can recall the particulars of the parable of the Good Samaritan could attest. The call of Christ’s love simply asks us to find our neighbors and care for them. God is perfectly capable of working out the details of sal-vation without our approval, understanding, or review. He asks only for our partnership in love. Such a partnership is most eas-ily built on a foundation of tolerance. Could Cain not have found any way at all at least to tolerate Abel? Ludicrous as this question sounds, most of human history points the way to the sad answer.

I hope that generations of Christians to come will be able to re-flect on the ministry of Saint Mark’s and our witness to the church and the world, and assess us to have been among the mi-nority who managed to do religion well. I believe that our heri-tage as a parish attests to this pattern, and I suspect that this is so precisely because we are so firmly rooted in the gifts of God’s grace that are given to us in the Holy Eucharist, the Mass.

I think our reality can match the story we want to tell about ourselves as Anglicans, but it will not happen accidentally. As we continue to live out that witness in an age of dwindling tol-erance, may we be strengthened by God’s forgiveness and love, poured out abundantly here, day by day. And may we grow in our toleration of those who differ from us.

And will we eventually grow to find that toleration is not enough, that the Gospel calls us to love?

Elizabeth I: Circa 1575 portrait attributed to Nicholas Hilliard


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At Saint Mark’s this autumn, Pilgrimage, Godly Play, and Chalice are the three themes of Christian Formation. Our Fall Forum se-ries, which begins at 10 o’clock on Sunday mornings, is Christian Pilgrimage: Where is God Taking Us? A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place undertaken for religious reasons. The rector and oth-ers will discuss spiritual practices that keep us going through the ups and downs of such a journey. Such practices are the key to our pattern of worship at Saint Mark’s: the power of repetition, why our use of the same words over and over in worship brings

spiritual stability and keep us going over a lifetime, why we come back again and again to familiar col-lects, familiar psalms, familiar hymns and rituals; why these gifts and patterns can be nurturing and sustaining across a long Christian life.

In my own lectures on Sunday mornings I’ll be looking at the institutional pilgrimage of Episcopa-lians in Philadelphia, the journey that has made us who we are today. We’ve emerged from a rich and intriguing spiritual story. I start with the rise of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia out of the ruins of the ecclesiastical disaster for Anglicans produced by the American Revolution. I speak about how a distinctive American definition of the Anglican way of being a Christian emerged in this city and on this continent, and how it was deep-ened by the Catholic revival within Anglicanism of which Saint Mark’s became quickly one of the preeminent American out-posts and landmarks.

Other lecturers, from distinguished Amer-ican universities, look at the role of Holy

Scripture, poetry, the saints, fasting and prayer, and the liturgical year in the making of this distinctive Ameri-can Anglo-Catholic identity. They will

say something about what they think the shape of things to come might be for

Episcopalians.

Philadelphia Episcopalians managed to develop both a theological and a practical model that could keep in balance two polarities: the catholic liturgy, beliefs, and authority of a historic faith, with Christian liberty. That such a synthesis happened to come about in Philadelphia is not surprising. But we need to know this story. And we need to ask this question: How do we, as an Episcopal community, continue to bring into synthesis catholicism and liberty in this specific parish into the twenty-first century? This question lies behind all of the Forum presentations.

The theme of Sunday School at Saint Mark’s during 2010 and 2011 is similar: How do we introduce our children to our unique heritage? Two educational op-portunities on Sunday mornings at 10 am in the par-

ish house make this possible for our youth. For boys and girls through age eigh,t this will be done in Godly Play, which imagi-natively uses story-telling and wondering and play to make the biblical story come alive for children. This is led by a dedicated team of our own parishioners who have been trained in the Godly Play method.

A second group of pre-teens (ages nine through twelve) gather in the Library at the same hour to study the Holy Eucharist in the Chalice Program developed by the Virginia Theological Seminary, and taught by another lively team of our own parishioners.

The full schedule and the descriptions of each of these Forums and Sunday School classes, through Advent Sunday 2010, are included in this issue of The Lion’s Mark, and are also available on the Saint Mark’s website.

Fall is an opportunity for you to join in these occasions for learn-ing and discussion. And consider inviting adults and children new to Saint Mark’s to come inside and learn something about our parish, its own distinctive journey and the spiritual practices that have made this people.

—The Reverend Dr William Franklin

From the senior associate priest

pilgrimage, godly play chalice&


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Interviews by Joy Tomme

lucyann lonergan

Visitors have their first glimpse of the commu-nity at Saint Mark’s when the ushers hand out Sunday leaflets. Lucyann Lonergan, a member of the parish since 1983, is head of the Ush-ers Guild. We asked if we could pay her a visit and pry a little into her life.

Lucyann Desbrough was born in Philadelphia, but as her father worked at Campbell Soup, the family moved to East Camden when she was four. “We lived on a tree-lined street; my father loved working in his rose gar-den. Two of my favorite doggies were bur-ied at that house.”

Lucy has another reason for remembering be-ing four: that year she was determined to be legally blind. “Even so, my mother felt strongly that I shouldn’t go to a school for the blind, wanting me to have as normal a life as possible.”

Lucy is glad now to have attended public schools, but at the time it was tough. The schoolchildren taunted her thick glasses and even some teachers were unkind. Today, with modern technology, Lucy sees relatively well using three different kinds of contact lenses.

Dearest to Lucy’s heart was her dream of at-tending nursing school. She completed two years, but had to drop out because of problems with her retina. For a time, she worked as a model and was tapped to be in a fashion show at Wanamaker’s. But she hated the runway, the cameras flashing, and all the attention.

“I had been raised in a conservative Ger-man Lutheran family. As an only child with three doting schoolteacher aunts, I quickly realized that the modeling life was not for me.”

Always interested in being in service, she vol-unteered for a year at the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus convent near Gladwyne, living on the Pew estate, then worked for nine years in the pediatric department at Graduate Hospital.

Lucyann Desbrough met Edward Lonergan at a CS Lewis seminar at Holy Trinity Church on Rittenhouse Square. She likes to remind Ed that she sat on the Christian side and he was directly across from her on the Agnostic side. Still something clicked. On September 28, they celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.

When Lucy was six, her aunt took her to see Saint Clement’s and Saint Mark’s. Lucy was awestruck by the Saint Mark’s font, as the baptismal basin at her German Lutheran church looked just like a bathroom sink. Com-ing to Saint Mark’s as an adult, she saw the font and thought, “Oh, my! I’m home!”

Since being confirmed in 1983, Lucy has been on the vestry; head of the Altar Guild; a mem-ber of Caritas, the Book Club, and the Society of Mary; on the Hospitality Committee; and head of the Ushers Guild.

Favorite aspects of st Mark’s The beauty of the church, the liturgy, and the people who volunteer are such a rich resource for the parish.

Describe the parish to a stranger It’s stunningly beautiful in-side and out, and within the church itself dwells a very committed congregation to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Greatest challenge for parish We do need to attract more young people, but we mustn’t ignore the fact that it’s the people who are in the church presently who have made the community what it is.

Last book read Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr and Spy by Eric Metaxas.

What living man or woman do you admire most? Other than my husband? Well, the three people I’d take on a road trip are Albert Schweitzer, Win-ston Churchill, and Sister Clare of Assisi.

What makes life worth living? I’m a very contented person . . . I would like to see the life I’m living go on.

The most lovable quality of the person you have the most affection for? Fidelity.

Your guiltiest pleasure? Eating too much chocolate.

What other profession would you like to attempt? Veterinarian.

when you pass through the Pearly Gates, god says Welcome home. Your eternal dwelling is here.


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Every month we’ll include news of interest and importance from the eight ministry areas you’ll see on these pages.

Outreach

Saint Mark’s Food Cupboard The food cupboard ministry is fortunate to have the advantage of volunteers who contrib-ute heartily with ideas and suggestions to more effectively serve our community.

For some time we’ve stressed in our Sun-day announcements the need for specific items that serve as the core of our grocery bags. As the economy has been slow to recover from its downturn, the number of families we serve has increased. As our resources are finite, we have been gratified by the response from our parishioners and friends who have increased their donations in goods, services, and monetary giving.

Our newest project is twofold. At pres-ent we use plastic T-handle bags (as in your grocery store) to secure the paper bags in which we pack our groceries, 80 percent of which are canned items. We order these bags in bulk and they have become increas-ingly thinner and often break. In addition, they are NOT biodegradable. Paper bags can be recycled.

Many of us personally no longer use plastic when shopping but instead obtain reusable synthetic or cloth bags to carry shopping items. Our volunteers have brought in about twenty such bags that we have dis-tributed to our clients. We all have been caught without one while shopping and purchased another, generally selling for $1 or less. Our aim is to provide each cli-ent and family who use the food cupboard with one or two of these bags for use when they pick up their food. We’ll be provid-ing a useful ecological function and saving money by not having to purchase plastic bags.

Won’t you help us in this effort? Donate your excess reusable bags or purchase a few. Our clients and volunteers will be most appreciative of your gifts.

community

The Saint Mark’s Book Club The club meets on third Saturday of each month at 11 am in the Parish Hall. Please join us for lively discussion, coffee, and doughnuts. Here are the books we’ll be talking about.

16 October The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. Published in 1915, this novel broke new ground for its time. Ford creat-ed an unreliable narrator and wrote about the complex inner workings of relation-ships, an area of darkness always immune from full enlightenment. The Good Soldier is a study in the narrator’s inability to un-derstand himself and the people in his life, and his eventual realization of his own self-deception. It’s been called “the novelist’s novel” for its elegant writing and flawless structure.

20 November. Dakota by Kathleen Norris. Poet Kathleen Norris and her husband moved from New York to the isolated town of Lemmon in northwestern South Dakota, home of her grandparents. Liv-ing there radi-cally changed her sense of time and place, forc-ing her to come to terms with her heritage, her religious beliefs and the land. Norris learned to value the prai-rie landscape and to cope with the harsh climate. She found small-town life a mass of contradictions: generous hospitali-ty mixed with suspicion of strangers, iner-tia and a sense of inferiority. One boon to her new life was a community of Benedic-tine monks; with them she recaptured her (Protestant) Christian faith and discovered inner peace.

Buildings and Properties

The restoration work being done on the Saint James Street masonry is continu-ing as scheduled. The staff from Milner + Carr are pleased with the progress and results.

Please save the date! The Buildings and Properties committee is organizing an Advent Cleanup Day for Saturday, 27 No-vember at 10:30 am. Join us to prepare the church for the holidays.

Saint Mark’s


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17 October: Eugene Augustus Hoffman and the Pilgrimage of Saint Mark’s The Reverend Dr William Franklin

24 October: The Growth and Development of the Anglo-Catholic Movement in the Episcopal Church The Reverend Dr William Franklin

Part Two Scripture and the Pilgrimage to an Encompassing Anglicanism October 31–November 21

31 October: The Journey of Scripture through Western Christianity Professor Carmela Franklin, Columbia University

7 November: How Scripture Transforms Us in Our Spiritual Pilgrimage Dr. Peter Kountz

Bible Study We continue our study of further adven-tures of the Israelites in the wilderness.

6 October • Number 22-24 Balaam’s talking donkey

13 October • Number 25-29 New census and new rules

20 October • Numbers 30-32 Conquest and division

CHristian formation

10 am Sunday Forum

Part One Saint Mark’s and Pilgrimage September 12 – October 24

3 October: Peter Campion A distinguished young American poet, Peter Campion is a professor of English Literature at Auburn University. He’ll speak on the place of pil-grimage in his poetry, and in his own Chris-tian life. (Read more about him on the re-verse side of the monthly calendar.)

10 October: Pusey and the Place of the Cath-olic Tradition in the Anglican Pilgrimage The Reverend Dr William Franklin

Eight ministry areas of the parish

ministries27 October • Numbers 33-36 Boundaries and cities Post-study dinner and yak at the Black Sheep.

Any questions? Contact Jay Blossom at 215 922-6892 or [email protected]

— Jay Blossom

Sunday School Sunday School occurs every Sunday in the Godly Play Room. Conveniently scheduled after the 9 am mass, Sunday School lasts until 10:45 am or just prior to the 11 am mass. This schedule allows families to at-tend either service and enables parents or caregivers to enjoy the Sunday Forum.

We begin our second year of Godly Play, which teaches children the art of using Christian language, play, and stories — par-ables, sacred stories, and liturgical ac-tion — to help them connect to and develop a relationship with God.

Each week enthusiastic teachers will offer a lesson that follows the church calendar (Easter, Christmas, Advent, Lent). A door person will greet parents and families and snacks and craft times are provided.

Sunday School runs weekly from 12 Sep-tember through June 2011, except for the holidays. — Amy Drum

Worship and music

Archbishop Carnley Visit, 17 October Archbishop Peter Carnley will be guest preacher on Sunday, 17 October. Arch-bishop of Perth from 1981 to 2005, he ordained the first women priests in the Anglican church of Australia.


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The Archbishop has written widely on the Resurrection and has been at the forefront of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations. From 2000 to 2005 he was Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia. From 1998 to 2002 our rector, Father Sean Mullen, served as his chaplain.

From Matthew Glandorf We commemorate the Feast of All Saints this year with Solemn Evensong and Bene-diction on 31 October at 4 pm. With the responses of William Byrd and Herbert Howells luminous setting of the Evening canticles for Gloucester Cathedral, it is always our aim to capture the sheer joy of All Saints in which we rejoice for those who have been called to God.

As is our custom, we pray for the souls of the faithful departed with a Solemn Re-quiem Mass on 2 November at 7 pm. I have chosen a setting of the Mass for the Dead by the great Salzburg composer Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) for mixed choir, solo-ists, a consort of violins and viols.

Although not as dramatic, flashy, or flam-boyant as many later settings of the Re-quiem Mass, Biber creates a rich tapestry of sound. A six-voice string ensemble, con-trasting soloists, and full chorus offer more of what would qualify as “chamber music”.

I find all Saints and All Souls so difficult to put into words. Poetry, prayer, and music can effectively guide our prayers:

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one

equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal pos-session; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end. John Donne

Concert Series at Saint Mark’s I’d also like to draw your attention to the creation of a new page on the Saint Mark’s website about special concerts and events. I am pleased to announce that Choral Arts Philadelphia, Old City Baroque, and the Philadelphia Bach Festival will all be resi-dent ensembles in the coming year.

It’s good to be able to have the option to present great artistic offerings in our beautiful church outside of the liturgi-cal events, and be a place of refreshment and hospitality to those who are visitors. Please spread the word! Details of the first concert below:

Saturday, 9 October at 8 pm

Vespers from Salzburg Choral Arts of Philadelphia, with the Bach Collegium of Philadelphia on period instruments

Matthew C. Glandorf, conductor Julianne Baird, soprano soloist

Program

Sonata da Chiesa in C Major Vespere Solennes de Confessore K339 Ave Verum K618 Regina Coeli K108

Tickets: $25 (students $12)

Eight ministry areas of the parish

Finances

Third-quarter financial statements will be in the mail shortly. Please let us know if you do not receive yours or if you believe there is an error.

Stewardship

Mark your calendars for Commitment Sunday, on 7 November 2010. And read the feature from the Stewardship Commit-tee on page 10.

Communications

Are you on Facebook? Saint Mark’s is!

You can take advantage of our Facebook page to interact with friends and other ‘fans’ of Saint Mark’s, to share photo-graphs, and to receive updates about what we’re up to on a weekly basis. Find us here:

facebook.com/pages/Philadelphia-PA/ Saint-Marks-Church-Philadelphia/ 152844341410217

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Designed for Saint Mark’s Church and led by Father Sean Mullen (who will serve as spiritual director), this pilgrimage will focus on key elements of the Gospel narrative of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the sacred landscape where the story unfolded.

The itineraryWe’ll visit major sites connected with the Gospel accounts: Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, Mount Tabor, the Judean Desert, and others.

After focusing on the Galilean ministry of Jesus, we’ll trace the Passion narratives to Jerusalem and visit Bethany, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Church of the Res-urrection (Holy Sepulchre), including a devotional Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa).

We’ll celebrate daily Mass and periodic Evening Prayer in such places as the Mount of Transfiguration, Church of the Holy Sep-ulchre, and on the road to Emmaus.

the past and the present Attention to the Bible and to the life and times of Jesus will not distract us from the urgent social and religious issues of our own time. We’ll visit the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) and the Dome of the Rock in the contexts of paying attention to inter-faith issues regarding Judaism and Islam. And importantly, we’ll take time to hear the voices of Israelis and Palestinians as they struggle for justice and peace in their land.

Pilgrims, longing for a deeper spirituality, enter the Holy Land from all over the world. They may bring a wounded heart to heal in this Holy Place. But in the end, they see, touch, smell, hear and learn more about the Holy Land.

What we’ll doTogether we will

• study the Bible in the context of its own geography and history

• visit places holy to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

• reflect and worship as a pilgrim community, and

• listen to living voices and contemporary issues

Practical detailsEstimated cost: $3,400 per person (two people per room)

Included: Transportation from Philadelphia and return, first-class hotels with private facilities and air conditioning, breakfast and dinner daily, local licensed guide throughout, private motor coach and driver for our group, entrance fees to places of inter-est, taxes and tips (except to the local guide and driver).

Not included: Passport fees, travel insurance, lunches, tips to guide and driver, other items of a personal nature.

Next steps Further details will be available in early 2011 at which time a re-fundable deposit of $300 per person will be requested.

There will be an optional extension to Jordan, including Amman (ancient Philadelphia), Jerash, Mount Nebo, Petra, and more.

For more information Contact Father Mullen at Saint Mark’s Church by email at [email protected] or by phone, 215 735-1416. Or email Richard Huneryager at [email protected] or phone him at 215 397-3802.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

19-29 October 2011


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who attends Saturday Soup Bowl. She is very polite and always prays privately before she eats. She is searching for a job. One day, she asked me: “Do you allow poor people to pray here on Sundays?” I was taken back by her sincerity. I answered, “Yes, of course! Please join us any Sunday. All are welcome.”

And she did. The next day, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, she was by the Fiske doors. I went up to her and I told her that I was glad that she had come. I asked if she would like to join me in a pew and she timidly said yes.

The relative cool of our great stone walls provided a place for her to close her eyes, though she made every effort to partici-pate in the Mass. On one such occasion, when she had fallen asleep (it couldn’t have been during Sean’s sermon), I had the idea to sneak money into her pocket book. I took $60, folded it and stealthily tucked it into the lip of her pocketbook (this story is not about my vain generosity I assure you — it’s about what happened next).

The collection was beginning. She opened her purse, discov-ering the money. She looked at me, then at the money, then at me. She gestured to me, “Did you. . .?” I gestured back in-nocently, “Did I what?” And turned to my hymnal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her thinking. The plate came to us. I put in my check and then this woman took $50 of the $60 I gave her and put the $50 in the plate.

No, no, no, I cried to myself! The plate had already moved on. I continued poker-faced, but was dismayed. She faced the altar, head held high, and said quietly, “It all belongs to Him anyway.”

And really, that is everything I have to say on the subject of Stewardship: it all belongs to Him. With Commitment Sun-day on the horizon, there is a certain truth that my friend from Soup Bowl knows and that we need to know as we discern our way toward a dollar amount for our church. Making a pledge is not about Saint Mark’s need to receive. Making a pledge is about the giver’s need to give. This is one of the great, counter intuitive mysteries of Christian life.

Here is another: Nothing feels better than being loved per-fectly, but there is no such perfect love save God’s love for us. Would you agree? Hence, to a Christian, the church is the great love of our lives — and love makes us do crazy things. Please, do something crazy this year!

I will tell you a more personal story. I was baptized at Saint Mark’s in 1991. I came to church with nothing, save a love for our Lord. Good Christians walked me through my first church calendar year and taught me the way. I learned my Catholic calisthenics: to bow to the name of our Lord and His cross, to acknowledge His mother with a nod, and to properly rever-ence His presence at the altar. It took me about ten years to become Catholic to my bones — about ten years.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, to become worthy of the title Christian, it will take me a lifetime. I come to Saint Mark’s each week, a legion of demons nipping at my heels and leave two hours later flanked by angels. You are my angels. That’s where I’m at in my journey — in one paragraph. I hope to tell you more over dinner in October.

Now it’s your turn. Be counter intuitive. Come all the way in the Fiske doors and tell us how you came to us. About a time when Saint Mark’s changed your lives.

Tell us about a place in the liturgy that brings you goose bumps. Tell us, over a glass of wine and some good food, about the people at Saint Mark’s that have inspired you. Tell us of your work in a ministry here that is meaningful to you. Tell us how you came to faith.

And tell us this: If you had all of the time and all of the money in the world, what is it you would do for your church?

Tell us your story.

—Ken Pearlstein

There is a woman in her late 50s


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It is with much excitement and honor that I write you today from Saint James School! On Wednesday, August 30, I began my ser-vice as the founding Executive Director of Saint James School.

It has been a time brimming with constant moments of excite-ment, joy, challenges and growing pains as we work to construct the foundation of Saint James School. There is much work to do and many opportunities for everyone to have a role in perma-nently unlocking the gates at Saint James School.

The short and long-term success of Saint James School will de-pend on the generosity of many volunteers who share their time, treasure and talent. Many of you have already been instrumen-tal in helping the vision of Saint James School become more and more of a reality each day. If you currently don’t already have a role in helping Saint James School, I invite you to consider get-ting involved.

Volunteers can serve for an hour, a day, for a week, month — or for a year. We’re looking for volunteers to

• tutor children in reading and math (our “second-shift after school program” begins during the week of October 11 and runs from 3:30 to 6 pm);

• lead an after-school program once a week (chess, sports, art, music, dance, etc.);

• participate in special training sessions for specialized tutoring;

• donate healthy snacks, books, and supplies for our after school program (ask for a detailed list);

• provide administrative office help (three to four peo-ple needed for various shifts between 8 am and 5 pm);

• help with landscaping and clean-up work;

• gather friends for an upcoming leaf-raking day on November 13, 20, and December 4. The day begins with coffee, bagels and a 15-minute overview of Saint James School;

• paint and rehab as the needs arise;

• help us increase our relationships with community leaders;

• help us build a strong technological base with computer technology;

• schedule a tour of the School and invite friends and col-leagues to join you;

• if you don’t already, include Saint James School in your daily prayers.

Volunteer service in the mission of Saint James School offers a great opportunity for much needed service and gives volunteers a rich experience of a motivated and committed educational com-munity dedicated to the service of children in need. Service at Saint James School touches the hearts of all who willingly involve themselves in the mission because the children touch and trans-form us as much as we help them grow and learn.

Thank you and God Bless, Dave Kasievich

Executive Director Saint James School 3217 West Clearfield Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19132

[email protected] 215 226-1276 stjamesphila.org

Dear Friends,


12

In the early thirteenth cen-tury — the century of Dante, Saint Francis, Saint Thomas Aquinas and the great cathe-drals — mendicant friars made it popular to think of the circlet of beads as a wreath or a crown woven of prayers in honor of Mary as the “Mystical Rose” and the “Queen of Heaven.”

In this intensely Marian age, the Jesus Prayer had a popular rival in an earlier and shorter version of what we now know as the Hail Mary. It consisted only of the angelic salutation quoted in Luke 1:28, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women.(The second petition of the Hail Mary was add-ed only centuries later by that fiery denounc-er of the Borgia papacy, Savonarola.) Especially among the illiterate majority of the time, the practice of reciting 150 Hail Mary’s became popular as “Our Lady’s Psalter,” with one Hail Mary taking the place of each psalm in the Bible.

Only in the seventeenth century was it common to divide up the 150 Hail Mary’s of the rosary into groups of ten (called ‘de-cades’) separated by a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, with each set dedicated to a meditation on some specific event — or mys-tery — in the life of Christ, such as the Incarnation.

Largely under the influence of Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits, this was an age fascinated by structure, in doctrine as well as in devotion. In order to hold the full attention of the mind, it was thought necessary to divide up the one great mystery of Salvation into a carefully ordered sequence of smaller and therefore more manageable mysteries.

And yet, throughout its long history and in all its forms, the rosary has always been about meditation and concentration. In

the words of Hamilton Sears, “Prayer with Jesus was not simply

verbal repetition. It was passing in-ward and upward out of the realm of

sense into the broad disclosure of eter-nal things.”

If we think of the rosary as a talisman or an incantation that will work spec-tacular magic, we’ll miss all that can

be beautiful and enriching in this prayer. We may smile at the thought of an old man fingering pebbles, but the fact is few of us find it easy to

turn off the noisy chattering of our minds to really fix our attention on the

single thought of God.

If we can stop analyzing and arguing, remem-bering and anticipating — even for a few minutes — we

can find ourselves slipping naturally into what Saint Teresa called “the prayer of simple regard,” the prayer of “ just looking into eternal things.” It may seem childish to find the fingering of beads and the repetition of a holy name or phrase helpful in the effort to quiet and focus the mind. But as the poets know, merely eloquent language and simply clever ideas can sometimes become a trap. “I am not asking you now to think about God, or to form elaborate conceptions of Him, or to make long and subtle medi-tations,” said Saint Teresa, “I am only asking you to look at Him. For what can prevent you from turning the eyes of your soul upon this, the most beautiful thing imaginable.”

What indeed? If the rosary can help us focus our thoughts on God in the present moment, in the here and now, it will work the most powerful magic of all.

Rosaries are available for purchase at Saint Mark’s. Please see Kent John Pope if you are interested.

Th

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