The Second Sunday after Trinity
LORD, make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy name: for thou never faillest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast love. Grant this, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.
Collect source: Sacramentary of Gelasius, Bishop of Rome [ca 494AD] . This expanded verbiage and a different arrangement appeared in the 1662 BCP version:
O LORD, who never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Deuteronomy xx. 1, Psalm 76, 1 St. John iii. 13 & St. Luke xiv. 16
Homily
Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. BULLETIN
Calendar
Commentary
Friday night I had the good fortune to be the guest of on of a member of the
Marine Barracks at 8th and I in Washington, DC... one of the oldest continuing Military forts of America (since 1801). Two of my workmates, both retired Gunnery Sergeants, had served under the command of our host. We were treated as special guests to the magnificent Parade Review that occurs every Friday night during the summer. It included performances by the Marine Band, the "President's Own; the Drum and Bugle Corps, The Commandant's Own (another of our workmates had served in as a bugler in the Commandant's Own not so many years ago and rejoiced in the camaraderie and reunions with the commander and men of the D&B Corps); and finally a Platoon executing a very impressive Silent Drill with bayonets fixed. It was awesome, and much as I had remembered it from when I first viewed it in 1969 with my platoon from Camp Upshur, Quantico.
There was one thing I did not recall. The announcer asked the audience to stand in respect for fallen American warriors while the President's Own played a familiar hymn that is on our Order's web site in the Hymnal... "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." The music, "Melita", is inspiring, and was published the same year as the verses in 1861. The tune was named for the island where St. Paul's ship wrecked, but where his faith in our Father, who was strong to save, kept Paul,
Centurion Julius of the Augustan Cohort, and the legionaries and sailors all alive. It was Centurion Julius who had treated Paul kindly on the sea voyage to Rome to face the Emperor and answer the charges made against him. It was Julius too who had kept his men from killing Paul as the storm raged. It was fitting that we should hear the melody as we contemplated those who had sacrificed their lives for freedom. This beautiful hymn is not the "official" Navy Hymn, but it is played at Naval Academy and aboard ships of the British Navy.
In closing, I invite you to take a moment this day in a small devotion to those fallen warriors while listening to
Melita. and contemplating the words of the Navy Hymn
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who biddest the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy Word,
Who walked on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our family shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect us wheresoever we go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
FINIS
May the Peace of Christ be with you this day.
--
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another"
IN HOC SIGNO VINCES - TIME DEUM ET OPERARE IUSTITIAM
No comments:
Post a Comment