St John the Baptist's Day

 

It's John the Baptist's birthday today, hence the Caravaggio above, which Rachel and I saw in the Rembrandt's House museum in Amsterdam on it's 1st public outing from the private collection where it normally lives.  I went to see Mum, visited Dad's grave with her and then we went out for a Spanish meal (Tortilla (that's a tattie   omelette) for a starter, followed by Arroz Valenciana (chicken & bacon risotto, only Spanish rather than Eyetie) for me. Mum went for the patatas with garlic mayo and then the Hoose penne).  Yes, I know Cowdenbeath isn't where you'd expect any cuisine less commonplace than a chippy, a Curry House or a Chinese, but hey we are getting better.  We bumped into the big sister of one of my best mates at High School and chatted.  Kevin is (evidently) bald, married and living in Angus.I intend to avoid replicating 2 out of those 3!  Happy Baptiser's birthday!

A further note on Corpus Christi.

"The question whether soul and body are identical, therefore, is as superfluous as to ask whether wax and the shape imprinted on it are identical, or, in general whether the material of a thing is identical with the thing of which it is the material. "Is" and "one" have various meanings, but in their most legitimate meaning they connote the fully actual character of a thing."  Aristotle

Actually, this helps me to understand (or rather to clarify my own understanding of what happens at the Eucharist when the bread and wine are consecrated). Is the Sacrament the true Body of Chrisy? Answer: the bread and and wine AND the fleshly body TOGETHER are the actual body.  They are linked in the mystery that is sacrament and I go very Orthodox on that: 

"In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Eucharistic celebration is known as the Divine Liturgy and is believed to impart the actual Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful. In the act of communion, the entire Church—past, present, and even future—is united in eternity. In Orthodox Eucharistic theology, although many separate Divine Liturgies may be celebrated, there is only one Bread and one Cup throughout all the world and throughout all time.

The most perfect expression of the Eucharistic unity of the church is found in the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy (a Liturgy at which a bishop is the chief celebrant), for as St. Ignatius of Antioch stated, where the bishop is, surrounded by his clergy and faithful, there is the church in all of her fullness.

The Anaphora (Eucharistic prayer) contains an anamnesis (lit. "making present") which not only recounts the historical facts of Jesus' death and resurrection, but actually makes them present, forming an undivided link to the unique event on Calvary. The Anaphora ends with an Epiclesis ("calling down from on high") during which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit to come and "change" the Gifts (elements of bread and wine) into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. Orthodox theology does not make use of the term "transubstantiation" to systematically describe how the Gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ; rather, they state that it is a Sacred Mystery, and prefer to use only the word "change". The Orthodox do not link the moment of transformation of the Gifts to the Words of Institution, or indeed to any one particular moment. They merely affirm that the change is completed at the Epiclesis."

And also: 

""Objective reality, but pious silence about technicalities" is the view of all the ancient Churches of the East, including the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Catholic Churches) and the Assyrian Church of the East as well as perhaps most Anglicans and Lutherans. These, while agreeing with the Catholic belief that the sacrament is not merely bread and wine but truly the body and blood of Christ, and having historically employed the "substance" and "accidents" terminology to explain what is changed in the transformation, usually avoid this terminology, lest they seem to scrutinize the technicalities of the manner in which the transformation occurs."

This passage by the great Alexander Schmemann sums it up for me:

"For the Eucharist, we have said, is a passage, a procession leading the Church into "heaven," into her fulfillment as the Kingdom of God. And it is precisely the reality of this passage into the Eschaton that conditions the transformation of our offering — bread and wine — into the new food of the new creation, of our meal into the Messianic Banquet and the Koinonia of the Holy Spirit. Thus, for example, the coming together of Christians on the Lord’s Day, their visible unity "sealed" by the priest ("ecclesia in episcopo and episcopus in ecclesia") is indeed the beginning of the sacrament, the "gathering into the Church." And the entrance is not a symbolical representation of Christ going to preach but the real entrance — the beginning of the Church’s ascension to the Throne of God, made possible, inaugurated by the ascension of Christ’s Humanity. The offertory — the solemn transfer of bread and wine to the altar is again not the symbol of Christ’s burial (or of His entrance into Jerusalem) but a real sacrifice — the transfer of our lives and bodies and of the whole "matter" of the whole creation into heaven, their integration in the unique and all-embracing sacrifice of all sacrifices, that of Christ. The prosphora (offering) makes possible the anaphora — the lifting up of the Church, her eschatological fulfillment by the Eucharist. For Eucharist — "thanksgiving" — is indeed the very content of the redeemed life, the very reality of the Kingdom as "joy and peace in the Holy Spirit," the end and the fulfillment of our ascension into heaven. Therefore, the Eucharist is consecration and the Fathers called both the prayer of consecration and the consecrated gifts "Eucharist." The insistence by the Orthodox on the epiclesis is nothing else, in its ultimate meaning, but the affirmation that the consecration, i.e., the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, takes place in the "new eon" of the Holy Spirit. Our earthly food becomes the Body and Blood of Christ because it has been assumed, accepted, lifted up into the "age to come," where Christ is indeed the very life, the very food of all life and the Church is His Body, "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:23). It is there, finally, that we partake of the food of immortality, are made participants of the Messianic Banquet, of the New Paschaleitourgia" which eternally transforms the Church into what she is, makes her the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit." (from "Theology and Eucharist", St. Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1961, pp. 10-23

Corpus Christi

Yes, tonight we have one of those simple Gospel services for which St Michael's is renowned!  And to explain it a bit, here's some theology from Wikipedia with the bits that tick boxes for me highlighted:

"In Anglican theology, a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. In the Eucharist, the outward and visible sign is that of bread and wine, while the inward and spiritual grace is that of the Body and Blood of Christ. The classic Anglican aphorism with regard to the debate on the Eucharist is the poem by John Donne (1572–1631): "He was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it; I do believe and take it" (Divine Poems. On the Sacrament).

Anglicans generally believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, but the specifics of that belief range from transubstantiation, sometimes with Eucharistic adoration (mainly Anglo-Catholics or High-Church Anglicans), to something akin to a belief in a "pneumatic" presence (many Broad-Church Anglicans). A small minority reject the doctrine of the Real Presence altogether (Mainly Low-Church Anglicans). The oldest Anglican devotional society, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, was founded largely to promote and re-affirm belief in the real presence amongst Anglicans.

The 39 Articles argue that the doctrine of transubstantiation, as understood by those who drew up the text, overthrows the nature of a sacrament as an outward, visible sign that conveys an inward, spiritual grace. For some Anglicans, whose mysticism is intensely incarnational, it is vital that God has used the mundane and temporal as a means of giving people access to the transcendent and eternal. They consider the presence to belong to the realm of spirit and eternity, and it is not about corporeal-fleshiness, which is not to say that they accept only a "pneumatic" presence. Instead, they strongly argue to be content to allow the mystery to remain a mystery. They bristle at the idea that one material substance gets substituted for another. (Roman Catholic doctrine insists that the material substance, being part of what is open to the senses, is in no way altered, and that the philosophical-sense substance or inner reality is converted into that of the body and blood of Christ, not substituted by it.) As some Anglican divines have stated: "It may not be about a change of substance, but it is about a substantial change."

From some Anglican perspectives the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist does not imply that Jesus Christ is present materially or locally. This is in accord with the definition of the Roman Catholic Church, as expressed, for instance by St. Thomas Aquinas, who, while saying that the whole Christ is present in the sacrament, also said that this presence was not "as in a place". Real does not mean material: the lack of the latter does not imply the absence of the former. The Eucharist is not intrinsic to Christ as a body part is to a body, but extrinsic as His instrument to convey Divine Grace. Some Anglicans see this understanding as compatible with different theories of Christ's Presence, transubstantiation, consubstantiation or virtualism, without getting involved in the mechanics of 'change' or trying to explain a mystery of God's own doing.

Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians participating in an Anglican/Roman Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission declared that they had "reached substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist".

So rejoice today in the gift of the Blessed Sacrament:

"We are now in the presence of the infinite majesty of God, who was once pleased, for love of us, to come down from heaven and become Man on earth, and to die on a cross to save us; and is now in the Blessed Sacrament, to listen to our prayers and grant us the graces we ask of him.

I adore you, O Jesus, true God and true Man, here present in the Holy Eucharist, humbly kneeling before you and united in spirit with all the faithful on earth and all the blessed in heaven. In deepest gratitude for so great a blessing, I love you, my Jesus, with my whole heart, for you are all perfect and all worthy of love.

Give me grace nevermore in any way to offend you, and grant that, being refreshed by your Eucharistic presence here on earth, I may be found worthy to come to the enjoyment with Mary of your eternal and ever-blessed presence in heaven. Amen.

I believe that you, O Jesus, are in the Most Blessed Sacrament! I love you and desire you! Come into my heart. I embrace you. O never leave me! May the burning and most sweet power of your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, absorb my mind, that I may die through love of your love, who was pleased to die through love of my love. Amen."

St Francis of Assisi

NSM=No Stopping Moving

Yesterday was singularly peripatetic.  I was on the 8:04 from Haymarket to go and cover a service in sunny (not) Dumbarton.  Even with a change on to the low level train at Queen Street, I was there by 10am.  Mattins was said "en train", as was the Midday Office!  A thoroughly enjoyable modern Mass (despite the Graham Kendrick ditties) was had, complete with the traditional heckling of the "Edinb***ers" by the Weegies during the notices.  I said I wasn't taking offence because "Ah'm frae Fife!".  And impersonated Karl Barth singing during the sermon - don't ask!

Back to barracks and some cooking, then off to Old St Paul's for Evensong and Benediction.  The office was choral indeed - just the choir because the Curate slept in!  He's obviously getting into African time in preparation for his move to South Africa!  The evening ended with some party to raise funds for music therapy for traumatised Bosnian children.  A busy but fun day.

Well matched.

It's funny how things are with people sometimes, isn't it?  The Memsahib was up for a day or two and I was a bit grumpy on arrival (moving flat into the new "annexe" of Emmaus House had me narky) - not at her, but with the new rooms!  We did a bit of shopping (I have a new T-Shirt, she has a new necklace) watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" on DVD (Elton John songs, Shakespeare references and Ozzy Osbourne and Dolly Parton too!  A good fillum!) and toddled off to watched "Potiche" at the Cameo - I now understand why the Frenchies rate Catherine Denueve (just don't ask your mother what she did in the 50's is all I'd say!).  However, herself noted that when either of us is grumpy (and we both are from time to time), it's never with each other but about summat else.  either we are singularly compatible or we haven't lived together long enough to annoy each other!