When you sing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." you are singing words written in the 1700s by Bishop Thomas Ken. Learn more about him during the Noonday Prayer service for March 21 at the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszRsekNI-s
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These are the opening words of Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue: “A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the salvation of souls. She has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know better God’s goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.”
Catherine of Siena terrified me with her passionate pursuit of justice, her extroversion and willingness to confront people. Jesus called her out of her private room of contemplation, and that struck terror in my soul. I was in my second term of seminary, in that same class where I’d discovered Julian, and all I wanted was to sit in a room and watch the sun move along the white walls of my apartment. Just me and Jesus and all the textbooks, the classes, research papers and projects, the libraries. Quiet and time to think. Fearing God would not allow me to have that life, uncertain about what came next, I stretched my two-year program into three years, taking classes that didn’t fit my area of concentration but piqued my interest. I traveled to a conference in Kentucky to present a workshop that reflected my independent research on a Methodist deaconess and missionary (originally from Ohio!), Isabella Thoburn. I tried for a doctoral program that would combine my interests in church history and women, but one school had closed their program and another had 44 applicants for 4 slots and did not find my research worthy. I talked with a marvelous professor in Chicago, who suggested if I wanted to pursue a PhD in medieval women and church history, I’d need to know medieval French and German. He told me some people took a year off just to do language studies. I talked to PhD women students, welcoming and honest, one of whom was doing doctoral research on Isabella Thoburn; she told me about her trip to India to see Isabella's grave and the women's college she founded. And I grew progressively more discouraged. My mother was not well; I didn’t want to be across the country if she needed me. I’d already achieved an impressive level of debt for a degree I knew all along would not lead to a job. I was encouraged to try for the directorship at my seminary, but I didn’t want it. I interviewed for a position at a nearby college library, but I frightened them with my interest in religion. I had no job and no clarity when I did graduate. I mved back to the Miami Valley, encouraged by a library worker who told me that the spider weaving a web always went back to the center to begin again. That autumn, I stumbled into editing through the kindness of a friend. I wasn't going to be able to sit in a room and think deep thoughts. Margaret of Cortona died and thus is commemorated on February 22.
You can learn more about her in this segment of Noonday Prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeziF_HffNw&t=130s [public domain miniature of Catherine from Wikimedia Commons] Born in 1347, just a few years before Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena was an extroverted woman who also wrote (well, dictated) one book, The Dialogues, when she was thirty-one. And that’s the end of similarities, aside of course from the big one of a deep relationship with God. In contrast to Julian, confined to her anchorage, Catherine was a woman on the move. She didn’t begin that way. As a child, she wanted to be wholly dedicated to God, going so far as to cut off her hair when she was of a marriageable age, so that no man would want her. (Catherine was the 24th of 25 children; one can appreciate how marriage did not seem desirable.) She begged her father for a room of her own and finally wore him down. She spent her days alone in that room, except that Jesus came to visit daily for three years. They spoke together and he taught her to read and write. After three years, he stood outside her doorway, telling her she must come out now. At the age of sixteen she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic (First Order = friars, Second Order = nuns, Third Order = laypersons). That position would still bind her to vows of poverty, obedience, and celibacy. Although living outside the convent, Third Order members could also wear the Dominican habit. She became a nurse, caring for patients with leprosy and advanced cancer whom other nurses disliked to treat. Catherine was all about peace and reconciliation, marching across Italy getting feuding families to make peace. A group of followers gathered around her. She and her group set off for Avignon, France, where the Pope was living in exile. She convinced him to move back to Rome where he belonged. (That didn’t last, however; it was a messy time for the papacy.) She began to acquire a reputation as a person of insight and sound judgment, and many persons from all walks of life sought her spiritual advice, both in person and by letter. We have about four hundred letters from her to bishops, kings, scholars, merchants, and obscure peasants. She persuaded many priests who were living in luxury to give away their goods and to live simply. Eating, which had never been very important to her, nearly stopped altogether; according to legend, she lived on the communion wafer and a bit of water for the last nine years of her life. Pope Paul VI made her a Doctor of the Church in 1970, along with Teresa of Avila, the first two women doctors, signifying that their teaching is approved. Next post to come: my meeting with Catherine [Portrait by noted artist Raphael Peale, one of the sons of Charles Wilson Peale, from Wikipedia] Absalom Jones, who died on Feb. 13, 1818, was born into slavery but became a deacon and then a priest in the Episcopal Church. Learn more about him and his work in the service of Noonday Prayer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBAlVFzRwA [Benedict and Scholastica, talking over texts, as they did annually.] The Church honors Saint Scholastica, the (possibly twin) sister of Satin Benedict, on February 10. The service below contains more information about her, including the argument with her brother that she won. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqbGLSBBevo |
Saints Alive!
I have been privileged to offer Noonday Prayer at my church, usually on Thursdays, which doesn’t matter because it’s on Youtube forever. [It’s amazing what can be done with a smartphone and a smart, helpful parish administrator!] The service is brief, with a place for a meditation. We usually look at the Episcopal calendar of saints, who are nearly always honored on their death dates, not their birth dates. Here is a hymn by medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen to set the mood.
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