I am thankful as ever for your encouragement, Father. May God continue to bless the work of Shinmeizan. I would love to spend some time there one day. Would there be room for an Anglican priest and his family to visit, please?
Thanks, Fr Thomas. I was reminded of how in the Byzantine rite for Baptism we have a 'concordance prayer' -- a recollection of many mentions of water in the Bible, connecting them to the Christian baptism -- something similar happens at Coronation in Matrimony.
As an aside, I used to think the BCP very wordy and had some sympathy for the modern liturgical tendency to trim everything down. Attending Orthodox liturgies showed me the value of repetition, at length, of the stories and teachings of the Church, especially when chanted or sung.
On another point of sympathy, the BCP baptismal rite stipulates that the baptismand be dipped (i.e. immersed) in water, with water poured on the head only as a secondary resort. This rubric is seldom adhered to these days, but ecumenism with Christians of Eastern rite suggest to me that it should be.
Many moderns fear that the 1662 rite is too alien and recondite for the average, barely churched family that brings a child for Christening. Bu when I baptised my second daughter, we did use the full 1662 rite, and my friends and family who are not much used to church afterwards said that it was the most profound and beautiful baptism they had attended. So much for simplification and assuming too little of the laity!
Amen. The liturgical reforms of the Western rites are a mixed blessing.
Someone said that 'of the making of lectionaries, there is no end'. And just as we can never find the perfect lectionary, so devotional rites (at least, communal devotional rites) will always leave at least some people thinking 'we would do it better if we did it differently'.
(The exceptions are those who say (usually ignoring history) 'this is how we do it, and how we should always do it'.)
I sometimes look with envy at Western-rite churches with their endless liturgical revision, but then I think that there is also much to be said for the Eastern-rite conservatism. At any rate, I weary of debates about liturgy that disturb the life of 'ordinary Christians'.
I have come to accept that I have no answer to the question 'how should Mary Citizen act in worship' any more than I have to the question 'what should she believe' other than to say 'We have received from the past a rich heritage, and we should ask the Holy Spirit to aid us in using it for the best.'
(An English-version of the Ukrainian Catholic rite of marriage is available at 'Archeparchy of Winnipeg Crowning (Marraige)'. There are lots of references to the marriages of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and other biblical themes of marriage.)
O ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life: Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy Name; that, as Isaac and Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, (whereof this ring given and received is a token and pledge,) and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O GOD of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, bless these thy servants, and sow the seed of eternal life in their hearts; that whatsoever in thy holy Word they shall profitably learn, they may in deed fulfil the same. Look, O Lord, mercifully upon them from heaven, and bless them. And as thou didst send thy blessing upon Abraham and Sarah, to their great comfort, so vouchsafe to send thy blessing upon these thy servants; that they obeying thy will, and alway being in safety under thy protection, may abide in thy love unto their lives' end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I’d need to go back to my reference books to find the provenance of these prayers in the Anglican liturgy.
Wonderful! Father Thomas. Thank you always. I hope all these wonderful artices become a book,
and that the book may be translated in many languages! Fr. Franco Sottocornola, Shinmeizan
I am thankful as ever for your encouragement, Father. May God continue to bless the work of Shinmeizan. I would love to spend some time there one day. Would there be room for an Anglican priest and his family to visit, please?
Thanks, Fr Thomas. I was reminded of how in the Byzantine rite for Baptism we have a 'concordance prayer' -- a recollection of many mentions of water in the Bible, connecting them to the Christian baptism -- something similar happens at Coronation in Matrimony.
Thank you, Father. What are the motifs at Coronation in Matrimony?
As an aside, I used to think the BCP very wordy and had some sympathy for the modern liturgical tendency to trim everything down. Attending Orthodox liturgies showed me the value of repetition, at length, of the stories and teachings of the Church, especially when chanted or sung.
On another point of sympathy, the BCP baptismal rite stipulates that the baptismand be dipped (i.e. immersed) in water, with water poured on the head only as a secondary resort. This rubric is seldom adhered to these days, but ecumenism with Christians of Eastern rite suggest to me that it should be.
Many moderns fear that the 1662 rite is too alien and recondite for the average, barely churched family that brings a child for Christening. Bu when I baptised my second daughter, we did use the full 1662 rite, and my friends and family who are not much used to church afterwards said that it was the most profound and beautiful baptism they had attended. So much for simplification and assuming too little of the laity!
Amen. The liturgical reforms of the Western rites are a mixed blessing.
Someone said that 'of the making of lectionaries, there is no end'. And just as we can never find the perfect lectionary, so devotional rites (at least, communal devotional rites) will always leave at least some people thinking 'we would do it better if we did it differently'.
(The exceptions are those who say (usually ignoring history) 'this is how we do it, and how we should always do it'.)
I sometimes look with envy at Western-rite churches with their endless liturgical revision, but then I think that there is also much to be said for the Eastern-rite conservatism. At any rate, I weary of debates about liturgy that disturb the life of 'ordinary Christians'.
I have come to accept that I have no answer to the question 'how should Mary Citizen act in worship' any more than I have to the question 'what should she believe' other than to say 'We have received from the past a rich heritage, and we should ask the Holy Spirit to aid us in using it for the best.'
(An English-version of the Ukrainian Catholic rite of marriage is available at 'Archeparchy of Winnipeg Crowning (Marraige)'. There are lots of references to the marriages of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and other biblical themes of marriage.)
.
We have retained these prayers in our 1662 rite:
O ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life: Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy Name; that, as Isaac and Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, (whereof this ring given and received is a token and pledge,) and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O GOD of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, bless these thy servants, and sow the seed of eternal life in their hearts; that whatsoever in thy holy Word they shall profitably learn, they may in deed fulfil the same. Look, O Lord, mercifully upon them from heaven, and bless them. And as thou didst send thy blessing upon Abraham and Sarah, to their great comfort, so vouchsafe to send thy blessing upon these thy servants; that they obeying thy will, and alway being in safety under thy protection, may abide in thy love unto their lives' end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I’d need to go back to my reference books to find the provenance of these prayers in the Anglican liturgy.