This Week at Ascension + August 2, 2023

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." - Psalm 96

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Commemoration of

Joseph of Arimathea (tr.)

Evening Prayer

at 6:00 p.m. via ZOOM

In-person and Live-streamed

Said Mass at 6:30 p.m.

Unction available for those who wish it.

VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

Image: Christ with Joseph of Arimathea, 1525

Giovanni Savoldo, 16th C. Italian

Saturday, August 5

is Food Pantry Day

We will again gather to assemble bags of shelf-stable groceries and personal items for our neighbors in need. We begin filling bags in St. Michael Hall at 9 a.m. and start distributing them at 11 a.m. We need the most help between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., but welcome your help for however long you are able to stay.

Come be the hands, heart, and feet of Christ in our own neighborhood, following in the wake of the Cross, and enjoy some fellowship as well.

The Transfiguration

of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Sunday, August 6, 2023

7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer via ZOOM

9 a.m. Sung Mass

11 a.m. Solemn Mass -

In-person & Live-streamed

The 11 a.m. Order of Worship may be found here.

Image: Greek Orthodox Icon of The Transfiguration

Click to join us VIA YOUTUBE

or VIA FACEBOOK LIVE

From the Curate

Image: Brodbaket (Baking the Bread) by Anders Zorn. Oil on canvas, 1889.

Happy Lammastide! You may recognize the word Lammas from Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet’s nurse says, “On Lammas-Eve at night shall she be fourteen.” In other words, Juliet’s birthday was July 31. 

Though August 1 is usually recognized as Lammas Day (or, as the Irish call it, Lughnasadh, pronounced LOO-ne-se), Lammastide is those days around the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. In the Celtic tradition, this is the time of year of the first wheat harvest and the baking of the first bread of that wheat. It is the season of first fruits and the time of year when the season is clearly changing, transitioning into the next. In harvesting the abundance of summer, we are preparing for winter, when the earth will rest.

For me, this harvest of the first wheat calls to mind the prayer I say when designating the elements of bread and wine to be used during the Eucharist: 

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, 

for through your goodness we have this bread to offer, 

fruit of the earth and work of human hands. 

It will become for us the Bread of Life. 

We say the same for wine, substituting fruit of the vine for fruit of the earth. The prayer is optional and usually a private prayer offered by the celebrant, but I have insisted on using it every Mass I’ve ever said, from solemn to said, because it reminds me of what we offer in our celebration of the Eucharist. We don’t just offer back the gifts of God, we offer back to God what we do with those gifts. We toil and labor to grow good wheat, we toil and labor to bake good bread. We participate in all that God offers us, and we offer that right back to God.

This Lammastide, I invite you to spend 10 minutes in reflection on the gifts of God in your life and how you’ve received those gifts, how you’ve participated in all that God offers you. How will you offer them back to the one who gave them to you?

—Mtr. Murphy-Gill

Greetings from Poland!

We are visiting the land of our ancestors, Poland. On the left, we are standing in front of St. Mary's church in Kraków, St. John Paul's archdiocese before his papal election.

The picture above is the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, venerated as the Queen of Poland & one of Europe's great pilgrimage sites. We prayed for all at Ascension, especially our new rector.

Mary Jane and Tim Kowalski 

Prayer Requests

Do you have a need for special prayer in your life? Whether your prayer needs are because you have an upcoming surgery, an ill family member, or you’re just feeling particularly lonely lately, Fr. Heard and Mtr. Murphy-Gill would like to know.

We’ve created a way for letting us know about your requests for prayers in a way we hope makes it easy for you to reach out, though you can always call the church or reach out to one of the priests personally. 

Share your prayer requests here.

For our prayers

Leslie Smebak Gormley, Pam and Hap Hopper, Mike Vales, Jim Drury, Frances Stiles,

Ann Griffen, Russell Staufenbiel, Patricia Spencer, Rachel Smolinski, Sarah Reece Glanman,

Sgt. Manuel Arroyo, The Quevedo family, Andrew Abbott, Suzanne Dines, James Christiansen, Lee Gould, John Schram, Gertrude Isaac, Thomas Wikman, MB Hwang, Juanita Malone, Oksana, Tyler, David S. Jones, Richard Francis Tracz, Robert Browning, Natalia & Victor, Dorothy,

Victor Fernandez, Claire Green, Beth Hall, Sue Lenz, Brenda Martins 

Birthdays:

Andrew Wallace, 7/30

Jeanne Kreymer, 8/2

Br. Ronald Augustine Fox BSG, 8/5

Anniversaries:

Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm BSG, Profession of Vows, 7/30/2005

Requiescat in pace:

Andrew;

Sarah Powell, 7/29/2023;

Michael Berkshire, 7/31/1997;

Mary Lou Devens, 8/5/2020

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them;

May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.



Organ and Choral Repertoire for August 6, 2023

Between Masses, please don’t forget that The Choir of the Ascension has recorded upwards of 60 tracks that you can listen to anywhere you have an internet connection. They can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/choir-of-the-ascension

Weekly Ascension Schedule

For connections:

via Zoom (click here)

SUNDAYS

7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer via Zoom

9:00 a.m. In-person Sung Mass

11:00 a.m. In-person and Live-Streamed Solemn High Mass

VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

MONDAY-FRIDAY

8:00 a.m. Morning Prayer via FACEBOOK LIVE

6:00 p.m. Evening Prayer via Zoom

WEDNESDAYS

6:30 p.m. Said Mass

VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

Wardens and Vestry of Church of the Ascension

LaVerne Rollé Saunders, Sr. Warden;

SeniorWarden@AscensionChicago.org

David Reeves, Jr. Warden;

JuniorWarden@AscensionChicago.org

Ian Barillas-McEntee, Jim Lo Bello, Ken Cozette, Marlea Edinger, Sean Hansen,

David A. Robertson, Elizabeth Simpson, Joshua Simpson, Samuel Sommers, Clerk



Susan Schlough, Treasurer

Finance@ascensionchicago.org

Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm BSG, Parish Office

Office@ascensionchicago.org

Approved minutes of Vestry meetings are always available online to parishioners who request the link. If you would like Internet access to these Vestry Minutes, please email the Parish Office and request the link. Once you access the web page, you can read all recent Vestry meeting minutes.

The link remains live indefinitely. Any parishioner who has the link will not need to request a new link from month to month.