Monday, November 13, 2023

Remembrance Sunday

 



In the States we honor veterans on November 11 but in Commonwealth countries people mark the date as Remembrance Day, looking back to the terrible slaughter of World War I, which ended with the "passing of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month." In respect of this, churches keep the following Sunday as Remembrance Sunday and St. John the Evangelist, Calgary, was no exception.

Except perhaps it was, with a full Requiem High Mass, complete with Catafalque, Absolution at the Bier, two minutes silence, both Canadian and English national anthems and a heartfelt homily by Fr. B. I was moved and so was my youngest son. The liturgy began with an Act of Remembrance:


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them.

And the Mass continued according to the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite for the ordinariates, designed for Anglican converts. Pretty much Anglican Missal or for all you RC trads, the Extraordinary Form but in Cranmerian liturgical English as opposed to the attack language of 1970s worship experts. It was good and you knew you'd been to church.





Here's Flanders Fields, included in the Mass bulletin:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.

Lest we forget and God bless you all,

LSP

5 comments:

  1. "...attack language of 1970s worship experts."


    Quite. Thank you for this post LSP.

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  2. Nothing better than good liturgy!

    If you search for "Victory Oak Knoll" you can check out the WW1 memorial we have been caretakers for ... pretty cool.

    Thanks for the attack language comment - I have some priest buddies who will like that - and know some that will clutch their pearls. (ECUSA types)

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  3. Ain't that the truth, DOS, and you'll note I didn't use the word "liturgists."

    On point, the Anglican Use is good - a reverent, liturgical English translation of the Mass & propers, very close to what I was raised with. Too bad it's note the normative English rite, but I won't bang on.

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  4. I searched it out, Seamus, moving.

    And yes, the liturgical terrorists have a lot to answer for. Of course ECUSA/TEC lets you worship any which way, provided you don't buck the rainbow unicorn. Vicious beast for all its nylon chasaubles and Guatemalan stoles.

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  5. I like the two minutes of silence protocol, or whatever the correct term would be. Would that we all make that a part of our daily routine. "Lest we forget".

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