Prairie Musings

  My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior (Luke 1:46-47). This past week, David McCain (you may know him as the parishioner who plays the chapel organ at our “regular” Saturday evening worship), dropped by the church to pick up some Bible study materials, and he shared with me a YouTube video from Southwark Cathedral in London. This video was a livestream from a few weeks ago of a memorial service for their long-time cathedral pet, Doorkins Magnificat. In this service, they prayed, “We remember that every part of creation is in the sight of God, the creator, the sustainer, the sanctifier, not just of humankind but of all that God placed in the garden of God’s delight…Creator God, not a sparrow falls to the earth without you knowing. All things reflect your glory, and all life reflects your life.” They read part of 18 th century poet Christopher Smart’s poem, “Rejoice in the Lamb” For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the ...

Dr. Laura Scow and I have had great fun creating our Favorite Advent & Christmas Hymn Podcast series--you can find the first five episodes (we have three more to go) on the Music @AllSaints YouTube playlist . More than any other holiday, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without its music. But silence, too, is an important part of our preparation for the celebration of the Feast of the Incarnation...silence in Advent prayer, silence away from the bustle of the world. (Perhaps one of the unexpected things you've found, as I have, about this pandemic Christmas is that it is easier to stay disconnected from the distraction and noise of our typical consumer-focused secular holiday season?) I'm reminded of one of the letters from the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, in which he describes how much he hates both music and silence: Music and silence-how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father...