Volume 26, Number 17 — The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
Matt Jacobson
Saint Mary's was founded in 1868 to be the Episcopal parish church for the new residential neighborhood, then called Longacre Square, here in midtown Manhattan. Our doors have been open daily for welcome and worship since December 8, 1870. All are welcome. Our members and friends now live both near and far from Times Square. We invite you to join us.
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The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD: SECRET PRAYERS

I learned to say the Mass at the Church of the Ascension & Saint Agnes (ASA) in Washington, DC, where I was a curate. My rector, Father Lane Davenport, and I would have “Mass practice” a few times a week in the months leading up to my ordination, and I served as deacon at every Mass I could to spend time at the shoulder of Father Lane or Father Ron Conner, another one of my early mentors at that church. ASA was a “missal parish,” which meant we used the American Missal at all our Masses, rather than the Book of Common Prayer with which we’re so familiar at Saint Mary’s. I’m neither a liturgist nor the son of one, but it’s my understanding that big altar book with its red letters that so intimidated me was really just an American version of the Anglican Missal, first produced in England in the 1920s, which combines the classic Tridentine Rite of the Roman Catholic Church with the beautiful English of the Prayer Book. Father Davenport also taught me the manual acts he’d learned at the shoulder of his own mentor, which is why to this day I still gesticulate pretty wildly for the taste of some, a situation that Dom Gregory Dix claimed had once inspired his Lutheran grandmother to say, “It looks as if the priest let a crab loose upon the altar, which it was his mysterious duty to prevent from crawling sideways into the view of the congregation. (Hence the gestures of the celebrant.)”

I’m grateful for those practice sessions in the dimly lit chapel and for the sensibilities my first priests instilled in me, and I brought them with me to the evangelical parish I served in Nashville and, now, here to New York. As I often say, the Mass is the still point of the turning world to me, the source and summit of life. My friend Tom Howard wrote:

For it is here that the entire chorus is gathered and brought to a point, the point, that is, at which we (men and women, uniquely made “in the image of God”) stand before the Most High as speaking for the whole creation. It is in our explicit, conscious, intelligent, and voluntary offering of the oblation of worship that the sea, the wind, and the thrushes find the exactness adumbrated in their offerings. Catholics believe that God gave to Adam and Eve, in some deeply mysterious sense, the “vicariate,” so to speak, over the creation: that they were to “stand for” the rest of creation before God and to speak, actually, to God for all the creatures, with the godlike articulateness with which we alone are crowned.[1]

This is why, when I approach the altar, I reach for all the words I can gather to extol the praises of our great God. And, from time to time, you might hear me muttering a few of those words under my breath. Included in the Missal, those are the priest’s “secret” prayers I meticulously memorized waiting for the bus to take me home to our apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, after Mass every Saturday morning. This is Simon Cuff in an essay for the Saint Mary Magdalen School of Theology:

Within the Mass, certain prayers have developed during the course of the liturgy, which offer an antidote to the ever-present danger of the Mass becoming another “thing” to do in the Christian life. These prayers are said quietly by the priest at certain points during the celebration of the Eucharist [and] are sometimes known as the “secret” prayers or, perhaps more accurately, the “personal” prayers of the priest celebrating the Mass. These prayers are private insofar as they are said quietly and not addressed to the congregation as a whole. However, they are not intended to be secret. Wider knowledge of them can help every Christian engage more prayerfully with the Mass [and] help us keep our focus not only on worshipping rather than working, but they also sharpen our focus on the object of our worship: God himself.

The words of these prayers keep me focused, and they’ve deepened in meaning for me as I’ve used and reflected on them over the years. For instance, one of the prayers for offering the wine is:

Blessed art Thou Lord, God of all creation, through thy goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and the work of human hands. It will become for us the Blood of Christ.

When I teach soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, I use that prayer to explain that our salvation is the work of God in us, first and foremost, but it’s also our own work. Is salvation by grace? Yes. Does salvation involve works? Yes! It’s a classic both/and—a divine/human synergism, if you will, from συνεργός, a Greek word combining sun (“with”) and ergon (“work”) to mean “working together.” We offer the fruit God makes grow from the vine, but “the work of our hands” transforms grapes into wine—we work together. And every time I say those words at the Offertory, I’m drawn more deeply into the worship and re-commit myself to participating in the work of my own salvation along with Jesus.

Then later, when I make the sign over the cross before the water to be mixed with the wine:

O God, who didst wonderfully create and yet more wonderfully restore the dignity of human nature, grant that through the mystery of this water and wine, that he who was partaker of our humanity may make us joint heirs of his very Godhead . . .

These words open out upon the mystery Irenaeus marveled at in the second century, that “Our Lord Jesus Christ, through his transcendent love, became what we are, that he might bring us to be what he is in himself” (Against Heresies, Bk. 5). Or, to quote Saint Athanasius: “Christ became man that we might become God.” Call it divinization, “participation” in the divine nature, theosis—this short prayer reminds me of the truth of 2 Peter 1.4: “He hath given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature . . .”

I reach for all the words I can find. And I invite you, if you don’t already, to volunteer to serve at the altar. Get close so you can hear more of the words yourself. Mass practice changed my life, as the Mass itself continues to do every time I say it—word by word by word. — SW

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war and violence, remembering especially the people of Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, Mali, Iran, and Yemen. We pray for an end to violence and division in our neighborhood, city, and nation. We pray for justice and peace.

We pray for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, and for all those who have asked us for our prayers. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those who are traveling; for the unemployed and for those seeking work; for the incarcerated and for those recently released from prison; for all victims of violence, assault, and crime; for all migrants and those seeking asylum, especially those sheltering in our neighborhood; for those struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction; for those whom we serve in our outreach programs, for our neighbors around Times Square, for the theater community, and for those living with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for those who are sick or in any special need, especially Dorothy, Chuck, Abdush, Luis, David, Clark, Willard, Virginia, Dorothy, Vicki, Celia, Rolf, Sharon, Victor, Murray, Jan, Charles, Ruth Ann, Barbara, Cindy, Tom, Avdi, Larry, Violet, Eleanor, Eugene, Quincy, Claudia, June, Joyce, Robert, Bruce, Randy, Christopher, Carlos, Elizabeth, José, Matthew, Susan, Carmen, Brian, Antony, Manuel, Liduvina, Shalim, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, Margaret, and John Derek; for James, religious; Lind, deacon, Rob, Debbi, Robby, Allan, and Stephen, priests; and Michael, bishop.

We pray for the repose of the souls of James Patrick Grindley, and those whose year’s mind is on Sunday, March 24—Frank Whitney Sanford (1890); William Turrell (1892); Helena O’Farrell (1898); Grace Smith (1902); Whilliam Richards (1923); Kate Farrar Southmayd (1945).

Saturday Confessions at 11:00 AM . . . Confessions are normally heard each Saturday at 11:00 AM. On Holy Saturday, March 30, and on Saturday in Easter Week, April 6, confessions are heard by appointment only. The priest-on-duty can be found in one of the confessionals at the back of the church, near the 46th Street entrance, at 11:00 AM on Saturdays to hear confessions. Once nobody is left waiting, if it is after 11:15 AM, the priest will return to his office. If you arrive later, the sexton will be able to call him if it is not too close to the midday Mass.

Good Friday Confessions . . . Father Wood and Father Jacobson will sit for confessions at the conclusion of the 12:30 PM liturgy on Good Friday, March 29. They will be using the two confessionals at the back of the church, near the Forty-sixth Street entrance.

Holy Saturday Confessions . . . On Holy Saturday, March 30, confessions are heard by appointment.

Friday, March 22, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM, Stations of the Cross 6:00 PM

Saturday, March 23, Acolyte Rehearsal for Palm Sunday 10:00 AM. After the rehearsal, the acolytes—and other volunteers, all are welcome—will prepare the palms for the Masses on the following day. Work begins around 11:00 AM.

Sunday, March 24, The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Blessing of the Palms and Mass (Rite One) in the Lady Chapel at 9:00 AM; Adult Formation 9:45–10:40 AM in Saint Joseph’s Hall and on Zoom; Blessing of the Palms, Procession to Times Square and Solemn Mass (Rite Two) 11:00 AM; Coffee Hour and Palm Cross Workshop in Saint Joseph’s Hall takes place after the Solemn Mass at around 1:00 PM ; Acolyte Rehearsal at around 1:45 PM; Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

Sunday, March 24, Palm Cross Workshop . . . Father Sammy invites you to join him in Saint Joseph’s Hall after the Solemn Mass on Palm Sunday for an introduction to the intricate and satisfying practice of crafting small crosses from the palms just blessed at Mass. All are welcome to join him and to learn this skill as we begin our Holy Week journey together.

Wednesday, March 27, Weekday in Holy Week, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM; Holy Hour 11:00 AM; Mass 12:10 PM; Evening Prayer 5:30 PM; Mass 6:00 PM. The Bible Study Class and the Evening Adult Formation Class do not meet on Wednesday in Holy Week.

NEWS & NOTICES

A Message from the Bishop of New York

The Good Friday offering has traditionally supported ministries in Jerusalem. This year I am suggesting that the Good Friday offering be directed to the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, a ministry of the Diocese of Jerusalem. The offerings can be designated through the American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The hospital has been dramatically affected by the Israel-Hamas war and continues to provide care for the people of Gaza, regardless of their background. Last Friday I had the opportunity to meet the hospital director. Their experience has been both horrifying and inspirational.

Blessings as we prepare to walk together through Holy Week.

Grace & Peace,

— The Right Reverend Matthew Heyd, Bishop of New York

The Flower Guild is Looking for More Than a Few Good Volunteers

This Saturday, March 23, the servers will be rehearsing the Palm Sunday liturgy at 10:00 AM and will begin stripping palms thereafter, around 11:00 AM. We will have several more tasks as well, including more polishing and prep, as well as hauling floral supplies up from the basement. We could use a crew to help with all of these tasks.

On Monday, March 25, flowering branches will be delivered around 10:00 AM and will need to get into water. If you have a couple hours to help, your assistance would be appreciated.

On Tuesday, March 26, flowers will arrive in the morning. These will also need to be clipped, prepped, and put in water, so a couple hours here would also be great! Contact Grace Mudd for more specific timing.

On both Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27, we will begin constructing the Altar of Repose in the evenings starting around 5:00 PM. There are both skilled and less-skilled components to this, so all volunteers are useful.

On Thursday, March 28, we kick into high gear with Maundy Thursday preparations starting around 9:00 AM, after Morning Prayer. We will work until about 4:00 PM. There is a wide variety of tasks to construct the Altar of Repose and prepare for the evening's multi-faceted liturgy.

On Friday, March 29, we will work on Easter arrangements between 9:15 and 10:30 AM and again after the Good Friday Liturgy concludes around 3:00 PM. If you are skilled with flowers or willing to push a broom, we can use you, but this day is less crucial than Thursday and Saturday.

On Saturday, March 30, we will begin after the brief Holy Saturday Liturgy, sometime around 9:30AM. This will include unveiling the church, putting back everything that was taken out after the Maundy Thursday Liturgy, deconstructing the Altar of Repose, setting up the Paschal Candle stand, and arranging more flowers and candles throughout the church. We will need many hands for many tasks! We must be done setting up by 3:00 PM to allow time to clean up our workspaces before the server rehearsal at 4:00 PM.

Although the scale of the project is daunting, I am buoyed by the many cheerful volunteers who have helped us in the past and the enthusiasm of new volunteers who have joined us more recently. I look forward to spending quality time with you in the coming days and thank you in advance for your generosity in time and energy helping us bring this all together. The intensity of our observance of Holy Week is something special about Saint Mary’s and it wouldn't be possible without the support of our many volunteers. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me by e-mail. I usually answer pretty promptly. — Grace Mudd

The Saint Mary’s Shape of Lent Booklet . . . The electronic version of this year’s guide to Lent at Saint Mary’s can be downloaded here. Hardcopies are also available at the usher’s table. The booklet contains suggested prayers, readings, and devotions for the parish community during Lent. This is the final week, Holy Week, March 24–30, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” (Luke 23.46). Psalm of the Week 31. Scripture Passages for the Week: Monday Proverbs 3.1-12; Tuesday Matthew 6.25-34; Wednesday Mark 9.14-31; Maundy Thursday John 17; Good Friday John 18.1-19.30; Holy Saturday John 19.31-42; Easter Day John 20.1-18. Fast: Food or Meals. Pick a type of food (like meat or carbs or even all “solids”) and fast from it for the week or pick a meal to skip entirely on a daily basis. If you skip meals, spend the time you would have spent preparing and eating food to pray, read the Bible or some spiritual classic, or serve others. Reading: The Seventh Word. Our final readings this week are from John’s gospel, the final hours of Jesus’ life. When we see all that God has done for us, we are free to put our faith in him, to radically trust and abandon ourselves to him. As former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams wrote: “God is to be trusted as we would trust a loving parent, whose commitment to us is inexhaustible, whose purposes for us are unfailingly generous . . .”

Adult Formation on Sunday Mornings at 9:45 AM . . . This coming Sunday, March 24, Father Pete Powell will conclude his series on Isaiah 1–12. The class meets in Saint Joseph’s Hall, though if you can’t make it to the parish, click here to join the March 24 class live via Zoom. Recordings are also available to watch from prior classes on February 25, March 3, March 10, and March 17.

The Sunday Morning Adult Formation Class will not meet on Easter Day, March 31, nor on the Second Sunday of Easter (Low Sunday), April 7. The class will resume on Sunday, April 14, when Father Matt Jacobson begins his three-part series (April 14, 21, and 28) on theosis, which is to say “becoming like God,” or “participating in the divine nature.” See for example, the Second Letter of Peter 1:3–4, “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Thus, he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature.”

Wednesdays at 12:45: Brown Bag Bible Study. The class will not meet on Wednesday in Holy Week, March 27, nor on Wednesday in Easter Week, April 3.

Virtual Pilgrimage to the Holy Land . . . Last Sunday, Manuel Abu Ali, a Christian tour guide living in Jerusalem, led us on a virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land via Zoom. If you missed it, click here to watch a recording of his presentation.

The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group meets in the Atrium on most Fridays at 6:00 PM, following Evening Prayer. During Lent, they meet on Fridays at 6:30 PM, following Stations of the Cross. On Good Friday, the Group will meet at 3:00 PM, after the Good Friday Liturgy. Click here or speak to Blair Burroughs for more information about this beautiful and distinctive form of prayer.

We are again collecting non-perishable food items for those in need in our neighborhood, who have access to kitchen facilities. We are looking for canned soups, canned vegetables, tuna fish, and stews, in addition to breakfast cereals, pasta, bottled sauces, peanut butter, jams and jellies, and bottled condiments. Please place these items in the basket at the ushers’ table or take them in a bag to the parish kitchen. Please label the bag “donation” and tell us who the donor is. And we thank you!

Confirmation Preparation for Young People 13–18 . . . Father Sammy is leading a confirmation class for young people on Sundays. The class will meet on most Sunday mornings at 9:45 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study, January 14 to May 5. The class will not meet on Palm Sunday (March 24) nor on Easter Day (March 31). If you are interested in the class, please speak to Father Sammy.

Donating Flowers for Altar and Shrines . . . We are looking for donations for flowers for the many Sundays in Eastertide. In order to make a donation and reserve a date, please contact the parish office. In addition, we always welcome donations to support the ministry of the Flower Guild during Holy Week and at Easter.

Neighbors in Need . . . The April Drop-by will take place on Friday, April 19. (If you’d like to volunteer, please contact MaryJane Boland.) Warm-weather clothing is a particular need at the moment. In addition, we have been providing food support to a number of folks in our neighborhood in recent months, including many recent immigrants. We do this through a voucher system. We welcome financial donations so that we may continue this work. You may donate online or with a check—when making the donation please be sure to indicate that your gift is for “Neighbors in Need.”

AIDS WALK NEW YORK 2024 . . . This year AIDS Walk New York takes place on Sunday, May 19. The Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk Team will be walking together that weekend in order to raise funds for their fellow New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. To support the Team and make a donation, or to join the team, please click here. We are grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry.

The Palm Sunday liturgy begins with music expressing the festivity and excitement of the occasion. The antiphon Hosanna to the Son of David traditionally introduces the liturgy. This antiphon has received many splendid choral settings over the centuries. At the Solemn Mass on Sunday, as the ministers enter, it will be sung to a setting by Orlando Gibbons. Gibbons (1583–1625) was baptized on Christmas Day 1583 in Oxford, where his father, William Gibbons, was employed as a town musician. He was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, between 1596 and 1598, while his elder brother, Edward (1568–1650), was master of the choristers. King James I appointed Orlando Gibbons a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist for the last ten years of his life. He was active as a court musician and served as organist at Westminster Abbey. In his relatively short life, Gibbons composed generously for keyboard, for viols, and for voices in both sacred and secular realms. His setting of Hosanna to the Son of David effectively expresses the boisterous festivity of the crowd gathered to hail Jesus’ presence. Then, as palms are distributed throughout the church, another traditional antiphon is sung, interspersed with verses from Psalm 24.

The settings of the Mass—Sanctus and Agnus Dei—are from Missa in die Tribulationis by McNeil Robinson (1943–2015). McNeil Robinson was an internationally celebrated organist, composer, improvisateur, and teacher. He headed the organ department at the Manhattan School of Music for many years as well as serving religious institutions. In 1965, while still a student at The Juilliard School, he began his long and well-remembered associations both with the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin and with Park Avenue Synagogue. He left Saint Mary’s in 1982 and subsequently served at Park Avenue Christian Church and at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church until failing health necessitated his retirement. Robinson’s remarkable reputation as organist, improviser, and composer became established during his years at Saint Mary’s, and he composed Missa in die Tribulationis in 1980 for use here on Palm Sunday. In this setting, Robinson skillfully used chromaticism, dissonance, and contrasts in textures, dynamics, and rhythmic elements in crafting a modern Mass tailored for the singular complexity of Palm Sunday and its liturgy.

Thomas Morley (c. 1557–1602) became organist at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, in 1590. In 1592, he was sworn in as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Previously, he had held appointments at Norwich Cathedral and Saint Giles, Cripplegate. He had been a student of William Byrd (1539–1623) and, like Byrd, in addition to making considerable contributions to church music in his day, was also highly invested in composing and publishing madrigals. He artfully blended Italian influences with the Elizabethan models. The motet sung during the Communion on Palm Sunday is attributed to Morley. Its text is two verses from a twenty-three-verse macaronic poem which may have been authored by John Redford, Morley’s predecessor at Saint Paul’s. The Latin refrain derives from the Rule of Saint Benedict’s reference to Ezekiel 33:11: “As I live, says the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.” — David Hurd