The concert will be performed by Voices of Ascension on Thursday, February 27th, 8pm at Fifth Avenue & 10th Street. Universally recognized as one of the highest achievements of Western Art, The Mass in B Minor represents the culmination of Bach’s life as a composer of sacred choral music. This one work contains such a phenomenal wealth of great music that it stands virtually
Jon Gillock will play Messiaen’s Le Banquet Célèste and La Nativité du Seigneur on Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 8pm. The Church of the Ascension continues the distinguished series of concerts featuring The Complete Organ Works of Olivier Messiaen, played by Messiaen’s friend and disciple, Jon Gillock. In the first two programs of this cycle, Jon Gillock played the final two masterpieces Messiaen composed.
Our period of transition presents us the opportunity to do some much-needed rehabilitation of our rectory. Renovation of its electrical and plumbing systems in particular is essential. The Ascension vestry, and also the Buildings and Grounds and Finance committees, have been considering the best use of our rectory, as this will dictate the direction taken with the work to be done. The vestry has
For the 3rd Sunday in Pentecost, the Day1 radio program and podcast invited the Rev. Shelley McDade, Ascension’s interim pastor, to its Atlanta, Georgia, studios. Visit the Day1 web site to hear Mother Shelley interviewed by Day1’s host and executive producer, Peter Wallace, and her sermon: “Love in Transformation,” a reflection on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 1:11-24. (In addition to an audio file of the broadcast, the transcript of her sermon is also available on the Day1 web site.)
I got me flowers to strew thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree: But thou wast up by break of day, And brought’st thy sweets along with thee. The Sunne arising in the East. Though he give light, and th’East perfume; If they should offer to contest With thy arising, they presume. Can there be any day but this, Though many
Oh, how these words grasp you and leave a chilling sensation throughout your body. Here it is, written so matter-of-factly: “Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews to bury.” It brings an odd feeling because here is our Lord, our Jesus, being treated like any other person who dies.
The brutal way in which Jesus suffered and died that we may live is the contradiction God used to prove his love for us. This day, some 2,000 years after the Crucifixion, we are flies buzzing about a cross, seeking Jesus as our host, knowing this love is our salvation.
On the Night Before… “It was as if a shadow passed across the floor in that upper room. I wanted to scream, to stop him, but my lips were fastened shut as if gripped by invisible fingers; I watched in mute silence, an inexpressible grief gripping my heart as he began washing our feet and wiping them with the towel he was wearing. Simon Peter had protested but relented; I too wanted to refuse him, to hold back my feet… “
In today’s readings, three great men are suffering: King David (who is most probably the author of the psalm), Isaiah and Jesus. They have been betrayed, scorned, spit at and shamed for the Lord’s sake. Yet they confess confidence in God’s presence and seek refuge in his love. The beauty of these Scriptures seems to tear down our childhood dream of good things happening to good people.
If Lazarus were really dead, Christ couldn’t have brought him back. He must have been in a deep coma or something. Burning bushes? Loaves and fishes? I don’t think so. These colorful stories and hundreds more like them surely were fables designed to enthrall the easily enthrallable, not me. I hoped that God existed. But he had not as yet revealed himself to me in any way that I understood. I would figure him out and find my faith on my own in my own good time.