On this first day of Lent, we will each be reflecting on what kind of “personal Lent” this will be for us. In reading today’s passages, I am especially struck by the theme of the heart. Psalm 51 describes it best in asking for God to “create in me a clean heart” and to “renew a right spirit within me.” No matter how well we think we are doing in living out our Christian faith, we are each charged with the need to ask for forgiveness daily from the God who never leaves us and to be made new.

How we “return to God with all our heart,” as Joel bids we do, opening the deepest depths of our inner selves, is where the Matthew gospel reading really takes root. It is the infamous edict not to practice piety in order to be seen by others but to pray, fast and give alms in secret. The loving, ever-present God already knows you intimately from the outside in. He knows what you do, when and how you do it! This Lenten time allows us to open ourselves up in secret to God to become the true Lord of our lives, daily being quiet and alone with God. While we have need for and desire the community worship of our church, Lent provides a time of profound self-discovery through prayer, repentance and renewal. Allow God’s steadfast love into your heart and see the joy he brings light up your life.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Organ music at the 8am and noon services:

O man, bewail thy grevious sin, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Have Mercy on me, O Lord God, Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

Selections from Orgelbüchlein, J. S. Bach

Postlude:  Jesus, my Joy, J. S. Bach

Organ music at the 6 p.m. service:

Prelude (at 5:45):  Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Have Mercy on me, O Lord God, Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

Selections from Orgelbüchlein, J. S. Bach

Postlude:   O Sacred Head, sore-wounded, J. S. Bach

Laying on of Hands, A Healing Prayer Ministry will begin training with Mother Shelley on February 23rd at 7 p.m. in the Ground Floor meeting room. If you are interested in learning more and discerning a call to this Lay Side Altar ministry, please contact Mother Shelley. Training meetings will occur on the 4th Thursday each month.

Held on the first Sunday of every month, Ascension’s Recovery Eucharist seeks to intentionally create a safe worship environment for helping those who have been either afflicted or affected by addiction to create a place for spiritual growth and development for those in search of healing and recovery.

It is in the midst of our brokenness that we encounter God’s unconditional love which is manifested in God’s grace. We invite you to come and experience Recovery Eucharist at Ascension!

Sunday, March 4, 2012, at 4:00pm

“The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting.”

— The Book of Common Prayer, 1979,
pp. 264-265).

A tradition at Ascension for nearly two decades, the “Lenten Devotional” invites parishioners, visitors, friends and family in sharing our daily prayer life together through reading and reflecting on the Scriptures of Lent. You can download the entire 2012 Lenten Devotional written by Ascension parishioners (and a few notable Christian writers from the past) as a PDF document for use in your own daily devotions through the 40 days of Lent. Hard copies are available at the Church of the Ascension. Or you can check here on the web site for that day’s meditation, Monday through Saturday. (The forty days of Lent don’t include the feasts of Sunday Eucharist, if you wondered how that math works between Ash Wednesday and Easter.)

Click to read the 2012 Ascension Lenten Devotional as a PDF. (Right-click to save the file to your hard drive.)

The Spiritual Development Committee would like to thank those who volunteered their time to write a passage for this booklet. May the reflections presented here help guide you through a prayerful and holy Lent.

Suite du Premier ton, Jean-Adam Guilain (ca. 1680 – after 1739)

Guilain was a German organist and harpsichordist who lived in Paris during the first half of the 18^th century. Even though he was born in Germany, his music is completely French in style. His only collection of organ pieces to be published appeared in 1706, and was dedicated to Louis Marchand, possibly his teacher. This collection consisted of eight suites, each on one of the eight church modes – or tons. (Church modes were like the keys of the Middle Ages.) Half of these suites were lost long ago; so today we only have four suites.

If Guilain never quite composed music of the profundity of Grigny or Couperin, that’s OK – he nevertheless gave us four wonderful suites of pieces, tightly constructed, and possessing wonderful melodic invention.

The Plein Jeu is a perfect example of this type of piece. It is composed for the most basic sound of an organ: the plein jeu or plenum, or full principal chorus. On our organ, the full principal chorus – the Grand Plein Jeu – consists of 27 sets of principal pipes (all at different pitches) for every note I press. And the complete balance of these 27 pipes for each and every note is so perfect, that one doesn’t hear different pitches sticking out individually, but one unified sonority. (You might find it interesting that this very piece was the one used as a “test piece” for the Quoirin team when they were voicing the Grand Plein Jeu or our organ.)

The Trio, which follows, is obviously for three voice parts, two in the right hand and one in the left. For this tender, sweet piece, I use a beautiful flute from the Positif division (the Bourdon) with a Tremblant (which gives an undulating quality to the wind) for the right hand, and the Bourdon and Voix humaine of the Echo (with Tremblant) for the left hand. This is quite a lovely combination!

The sprightly Duo is played on two Cornets of the instrument, one on the Positif manual, the other – at a lower pitch – on the Grand-Orgue.

The Basse de Trompette is a terrific, quintessential basse de trompette movement of the French Baroque. The tune is very catchy, and is first heard in the accompaniment (Bourdon and Prestant of the Positif division) before the Trompette stop takes it over. The tune is heard many times, but never too much, because Guilain intersperses contrasting melodic sections. Like most basse de trompette pieces, this one makes use of the particular sounds of a French Baroque trompette, including the occasional low note where the stop has a very big tone, full of character.

The Récit is like a delicate aria for a solo stop or small combination of stops. I have chosen the heavenly Bourdon, Flûte allemande, and Nasard of the Echo division (with Tremblant). The Grand-Orgue Bourdon provides the accompaniment.

The Dialogue is written for the battery of reeds and cornets, a combination known as the Grand Jeu. You have now heard this registration many times since the organ was voiced, and it is indeed an imposing sound – one of the best Grand Jeu I have ever heard. The “dialogue” refers to the dialogue between the huge Grand Jeu of the Grand-Orgue division and the one of the Positif division (which is lighter, but imposing on its own!)

The suite ends in a less intense manner with the Petit Plein Jeu. This is the principal chorus, or plein jeu of the Positif division. It has 10 pipes per note, in contrast to the Grand Plein Jeu of our organ (in the first movement) which had 27 pipes per note. Whereas the first movement was grand and majestic, this one is shorter, lighter, and livelier – befitting the timbre.

At the Postlude

Grand Jeu (from Suite du 3eme ton), Jean-Adam Guilain     

Here is another Dialogue on the Grand Jeu stops, just like the one from today’s Prelude. But here the “dialogue” is between the Grand Jeu of the Grand-Orgue division and quick sections featuring a Cornet, or Cornet and Cromorne. The piece is quite bold and starts out in a fugal manner. The piece never gets choral until the very end, where the Pédale Bombarde is added.

We have been accepted as members of an intentional, inter-faith community called Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California.  This unique retirement community was established in the early 1900s for those who have had careers as full-time religious workers from many Christian denominations and other faith traditions.  When we are offered a suitable house or apartment as our residence, we will join this exciting and active community of former pastors, teachers, seminary deans, missionaries and their spouses and partners.  Our new home will also be close to family, since our son, daughter-in-law and grandson live in nearby Irvine, California.

The decision to retire from active ministry is one of those big milestones in my life and I appreciate how it also affects the life of Ascension.  I know from my own experience that at times such as this the Lord provides special blessings to enable us to navigate successfully the challenges that face us.  I believe that in the months ahead, we will come to know the grace of one of God’s greatest blessings, the gift of gratitude, in powerful new ways.  Already, I feel as if this latter phase of my priestly ministry has become a re-enactment of the first miracle that Jesus performed at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.  It is as if the Steward of the wedding feast is saying about our time together, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.  But you have kept the good wine until now.”  This is how our Lord has blessed us here at Ascension!  These years with all of you have been like the sweetest and finest wine that anyone could ever desire.  Thank you for everything and may God bless you richly in the years to come.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Andrew W. Foster III
Eleventh Rector, The Church of the Ascension

Of course, at Ascension, we knew him in his early years, singing bass in our church choir. It’s always a thrill to welcome him home and we welcome you to join us in this festal Eucharist commemorating the great American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr.