‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2024 May 4

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Saturday, 4 May, in the year of four Lord 2024. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Sunday (tomorrow): 8:30 AM, BCP Eucharist, Easter V.
  10:00 AM, Mass, Votive of the Rogations, with Procession & Beating of the Bounds.
• Monday: SERVICES CANCELLED.
• Tuesday: 5:30 PM, Mass, S.  Stanislas, Bishop & Martyr.
  6:30 PM, Holy Rosary & Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Vigil of the Ascension.
• Thursday: 8:00 AM, men's Morning Prayer & breakfast.
  6:30 PM, Sung Mass, Ascension Day, followed by Soup & Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, Of the Octave of the Ascension, using the Gregorian Canon.
  10:00 AM, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, Of the Octave.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Sunday in the Octave of the Ascension.

PLEASE NOTE that there will be no services on Monday, 6 May, This Thursday we'll enjoy our monthly men's Morning Prayer and breakfast, at 8:00 AM. Also, a festive Cinqo de Mayo to those who celebrate that day.

As-noted above, we will have a procession tomorrow, during the Ten o'clock Mass. Processions, for well-over a thousand years, played a central and vital role in the life of Holy Mother Church. We've largely lost them in America; in other parts of the World, especially outside the "first-world" countries, they still play an integral role. Have we advanced too far, become too cynical in our cosmopolitan views, to bother with such? I'd like to say No!, but may not be able to escape that conclusion, upon honest reflection....

In the early Church, almost all customs, especially liturgical ones, were local in nature. Over time, these localities developed-into dioceses. Thus, each diocese began to have its own rites and ceremonies, with even some variations in the Mass itself. As these were formulated, they began to be written into books. Each Diocese had their own Baptismals, Sacramentaries, Ordinals, and Processionals, among others. Indeed, for the complete sacramental and liturgical life of a given diocese, it might take nearly twenty such books to contain all that was deemed necessary to completely live the life of the Church.

Processions are of two types, festival and penitential. Strictly speaking, in the West, there are processions on all Sundays and principal festivals before the High Celebration of the Eucharist. Hence, processional hymns, or the chanting of the processional verses in the minor propers, are remnants of this practice. Practically speaking, however, processions occur only on festivals. Even in the ancient English use, processions were to be held after Evensong, on feasts and on all Saturdays from Easter to Advent.

Processions are frequently held in the open air as acts of witness, e.g. on Good Friday or before a parochial mission. Rogationtide processions ~ like tomorrow's ~ are often through the fields to pray for God's blessing on the fruits of the earth. Banners are often carried in procession both to excite devotion and to typify the Church's vocation to conquer like an army the powers of evil.

Join us at Ten o'clock, as we once again take our faith into the World, singing in procession, streaming-forth from His Church. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish