Wednesday, September 30, 2015

St. Jerome: Scholar & Priest

Image result for st. jerome
Today the Church celebrates a scholar and priest, St. Jerome, who was born around 342 and who died around 420.  Jerome was known as a Biblical scholar who translated Scripture in the common language of the day, Latin, and his translation is known as The Vulgate (meaning, in the vernacular, the language of the people). 
 
Jerome was known for his temper, and he and our own St. Augustine exchanged some quite fiery correspondence.  There was the exchange of letters between Augustine (Bishop of Hippo) and Jerome,about  Jerome's new Latin translation of the Old Testament. Up to that time all Latin versions had been based upon the Greek version (called the translation of "the Seventy" or the Septuagint). But Augustine had learned that Jerome was now making a translation from the Hebrew, which differed in many places from the Septuagint.
 
Here is one such exchange:
 
Augustine to Jerome written about 394: “... I beseech you not to devote your labor to the work of translating into Latin the sacred canonical books, unless you follow the method in which you have translated Job, viz. with the addition of notes, to let it be seen plainly what differences there are between this version of yours and that of the Septuagint, whose authority is worthy of highest esteem. For my own part, I cannot sufficiently express my wonder that anything should at this date be found in the Hebrew manuscripts which escaped so many translators perfectly acquainted with the language.”
 
Jerome to Augustine in response: “You ask why a former translation which I made of some of the canonical books was carefully marked with asterisks and obelisks, whereas I afterwards published a translation without these. You must pardon my saying that you seem to me not to understand the matter: for the former translation is from the Septuagint; and wherever obelisks are placed, they are designed to indicate that the Seventy have said more than is found in the Hebrew. But the asterisks indicate what has been added by Origen from the version of Theodotion. In that version I was translating from the Greek: but in the later version, translating from the Hebrew itself, I have expressed what I understood it to mean, being careful to preserve rather the exact sense than the order of the words. I am surprised that you do not read the books of the Seventy translators in the genuine form in which they were originally given to the world, but as they have been corrected, or rather corrupted, by Origen, with his obelisks and asterisks; and that you refuse to follow the translation, however feeble, which has been given by a Christian man, especially seeing that Origen borrowed the things which he has added from the edition of a man who, after the passion of Christ, was a Jew and a blasphemer. Do you wish to be a true admirer and partisan of the Seventy translators? Then do not read what you find under the asterisks; rather erase them from the volumes, that you may approve yourself indeed a follower of the ancients. If, however, you do this, you will be compelled to find fault with all the libraries of the Churches; for you will scarcely find more than one manuscript here and there which has not these interpolations.”
 
Even the greatest saints have disagreed on things, even the translation of Scripture.  Some things among God’s people seem to never change!
 
Let us pray: O Lord, O God of truth, your Word is a lantern to our feet and a light upon our path: We give you thanks for your servant Jerome, and those who, following in his steps, have labored to render the Holy Scriptures in the language of the people; and we pray that your Holy Spirit will overshadow us as we read the written Word, and that Christ, the living Word, will transform us according to your righteous will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
 
CALENDAR REMINDERS
 
St. Francis’ Day and the Blessing of the Animals.  Bring your pets to Church on Sunday at 12 Noon to be blessed.
 
This Sunday, we will begin our new Adult Christian Education series, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
 
The 7th Annual Art Show is right around the corner!  This year our theme is “HOPE& COMPASSION” Entries are accepted 26 to 29 September from 10 am - 6 pm and judging will be on Wednesday, 30 September. The juror is artist Karen Calhoun.  The show is displayed 3 to 11 October from 10 am- 6 pm.  We have 2 receptions OPENING NIGHT AWARDS OCT. 3, 6 PM and ARTWALK NIGHT OCT. 10TH UNTIL 9 PM.
 
Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.
 
Your servant in Christ,
 
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

St. Michael & All the Angels


Image result for guardian angel

It has been a while since I have posted on the City of God, but today seems an appropriate day to get back to it after neglecting it for about two weeks. 

 

Today, the Church celebrates the feast day of entities unlike ourselves, angels, namely, St. Michael and all of the Angels.  In England, today is commonly known as Michaelmas.

 

The word “angel” comes from the Greek word ανγελώσ meaning “messenger.”  James Kiefer writes: “The Holy Scriptures often speak of created intelligences other than humans who worship God in heaven and act as His messengers and agents on earth. We are not told much about them, and it is not clear how much of what we are told is figurative. Jesus speaks of them as rejoicing over penitent sinners (Lk. 15:10).”

 

I can remember as a child a framed picture that was over my bed of an angel guiding 2 children, a boy and a girl, as they walked over a wooden slatted bridge that had one slat missing.  The angel was there to protect the children as they walked into danger.  (See the picture above.)

 

James Kiefer goes on to write:

 

By the time of Christ, Jewish popular belief included many specifics about angels, with names for many of them. There were thought to be four archangels, named Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. An alternative tradition has seven archangels (see Tobit 12:15 and 1 Enoch 20). Sometimes each archangel is associated with one of the seven planets of the Ptolemaic system (the moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). Michael is associated with Saturn and Uriel with the Sun. The other pairings I forget, but I believe that you will find a list in the long narrative poem called "The Golden Legend," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

St. Michael (“Who is Like God”) is said to be the captain of the heavenly armies. He is mentioned in the Scriptures in Daniel 10:13, 31; 12:1 (where he is said to be the prince of the people of Israel); in Jude 9 (where he is said to have disputed with the devil about the body of Moses); and in Revelation 12:7 (where he is said to have led the heavenly armies against those of the great dragon). He is generally pictured in full armor, carrying a lance, and with his foot on the neck of a dragon. (Pictures of the Martyr George are often similar, but only Michael has wings.)

 

Gabriel (the name means "God is my champion") is thought of as the special bearer of messages from God to men. He appears in Daniel 8:16; 9:21 as an explainer of some of Daniel's visions. According to the first chapter of Luke, he announced the forthcoming births of John the Baptist and of our Lord to Zachariah and the Virgin Mary respectively.

 

Raphael (the name means "God heals") is mentioned in the Apocrypha, in the book of Tobit, where, disguised as a man, he accompanies the young man Tobias on a quest, enables him to accomplish it, and gives him a remedy for the blindness of his aged father.

 

It is thought by many scholars that the seven lamps of Revelation 4:5 are an image suggested by (among many other things) the idea of seven archangels.

 

What is the value to us of remembering the Holy Angels? Well, since they appear to excel us in both knowledge and power, they remind us that, even among created things, we humans are not the top of the heap. Since it is the common belief that demons are angels who have chosen to disobey God and to be His enemies rather than His willing servants, they remind us that the higher we are the lower we can fall. The greater our natural gifts and talents, the greater the damage if we turn them to bad ends. The more we have been given, the more will be expected of us. And, in the picture of God sending His angels to help and defend us, we are reminded that apparently God, instead of doing good things directly, often prefers to do them through His willing servants, enabling those who have accepted His love to show their love for one another.

 

Let us pray: Everlasting God, who have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS:

 

St. Francis’ Day and the Blessing of the Animals.  Bring your pets to Church on Sunday at 12 Noon to be blessed.

 

This Sunday, we will begin our new Adult Christian Education series, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

 

The 7th Annual Art Show is right around the corner!  This year our theme is “HOPE & COMPASSION” Entries are accepted 26 to 29 September from 10 am - 6 pm and judging will be on Wednesday, 30 September. The juror is artist Karen Calhoun.  The show is displayed 3 to 11 October from 10 am- 6 pm.  We have 2 receptions OPENING NIGHT AWARDS OCT. 3, 6 PM and ARTWALK NIGHT OCT. 10TH UNTIL 9 PM.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Constance & Her Companions

Image result for constance and her companions memphis
Reaching out during a time of crisis and giving of one’s self is what the Church remembers today in the life and ministry of a group of women who devoted their lives in service of others, Constance and her companions. 
 
It was the summer of summer of 1878, and Memphis was in the midst of an epidemic of yellow fever.  Many fled the town; others could not leave because they were so ill.  Constance, an Episcopal nun of the Order of St. Mary, and her companions stayed behind to nurse the sick.  A group of Roman Catholic nuns stayed as well to look after the ill. 
 
Sister Constance had arrived just a few years before, in May of 1873.  She was a mere 28 years old, and sent as Mother Superior. With her came Sisters Amelia, Thecla and the Novice Sister Hughetta to set up a school.
 
Bishop Quintard had given the original bishop’s residence near St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis for a new school.
 
In August of 1878, yellow fever broke out, and panic spread. Half the population of Memphis had fled, and rigid quarantines were imposed.  Nevertheless, the death rates mounted.  The sisters stayed behind to nurse the sick, but on 25 August, Sister Frances came down with fever. On Monday night the 26th, Sister Hughetta became ill, many of them orphans.
 
Fr. Charles Parsons, the last Episcopal priest in Memphis and their chaplain, came down with the fever and died on 6 September. Now the Sisters had no priest. Epidemic deaths now exceeded 80 a day. They whole ethos of the city was insane: death wagons passed in the streets, looting and murders were commonplace.
 
Sister Constance wrote in her diary: Yesterday I found two young girls, who had spent two days in a two-room cottage, with the unburied bodies of their parents, their uncle in the utmost suffering and delirium and no one nearer them but a Black man who held the sick man in his bed. It was 24 hours before I could get those two fearful corpses buried, and then I had to send for a police officer to the Board of Health before any undertaker would enter the room. One grows perfectly hardened to these things—carts with 8 or 9 corpses in rough boxes are ordinary sights. I saw a nurse stop 1 day and ask for a certain man’s residence—the driver pointed over his shoulder with his whip at the heap of coffins behind him and answered, “I’ve got him here in his coffin.”
 
With no one else willing or able to take charge, the Sisters agreed to take over management of the city’s Canfield Asylum that had served mainly as an orphanage for Black children and was as yet free of the pestilence. But famine had arrived, and all that the Sisters had to eat were crackers and water.
 
When the news of the deaths of the local priests got out, over 30 priests from all over the country came to Memphis. Father W.T. Dickinson Dalzell came from Shreveport, La., since he had already survived the disease and was immune—he was also a trained physician. With his arrival, daily Eucharist resumed and the Sacrament was carried to the dying Sisters. The next day Father Louis Schuyler arrived from New Jersey.
 
But the deaths followed. On 9 September, Sister Constance died at the age of 33; on 11 September, Sister Ruth and Sister Clare; on 12 September Sister Thecla died and Fr. Schuyler became ill; on 17 September Fr. Schuyler died; on the 18th, Sister Ruth died. Sister Helen, Sister Hughetta and Sister Clare became ill but survived.
 
By the time fall came, over 5,000 people were dead, and the city of Memphis itself had gone bankrupt.  Excerpted from Stars in a Dark World: Stories of the Saints and Holy Days of the Liturgy by Fr. John-Julian, OJN.
 
Let us pray: We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and the dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death. Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.
 
Please remember everyone on our prayer list, especially the families of those who have recently lost loved ones, the Stevens and McCraw families.
 
Your servant in Christ,
 
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Israel's Kings

The Old Testament reading appointed for today’s Daily Prayer is taken from the first book of Kings where we read about the evil rulers of Israel:
 
In the thirty-first year of King Asa of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel; he reigned for twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
 
He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; he fortified the hill, and called the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.
 
Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did more evil than all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and in the sins that he caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols. Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and the power that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? Omri slept with his ancestors, and was buried in Samaria; his son Ahab succeeded him.
 
In the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri began to reign over Israel; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.
 
And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a sacred pole. Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua son of Nun. (1 Kings 16: 23-34).
 
C.S. Lewis wrote that the “road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Screwtape Letters.  He is right.  It is the daily decision to do what is easy rather than the difficult.  It is the choice to take the path of least resistance rather than the hard road.  It is the giving into our basest inclinations rather than the higher convictions.  The kings of Israel were no exception to this as we hear in today’s reading. 
 
Let us pray:  Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
PLEASE REMEMBER THE STEVENS FAMILY WHO IS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF RUBY STEVENS WHO DIED TODAY: Let us pray: Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Ruby. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
 
Your servant in Christ,
 
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Chasing After Empty Things


Our Old Testament reading appointed for today comes from the First Book of Kings and we hear how Solomon gradually fell away from God:

 

King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods;’ Solomon clung to these in love. Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

 

Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’  (1 Kgs. 11:1-13).

 

Even the wise, like Solomon, can easily fall away from God, when they give in little by little, just as Solomon did who forsook his God because of personal pleasure.  Solomon is a reminder to each of us.  Even though he was the wisest of people, he decided to satisfy his personal desires rather than follow the will of God.

 

Let us pray:  O God, the King eternal, who divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Tomorrow, Friday, from 11 to 4 at the Galveston Islamic Center, “In the Name of God” Blood Drive, 921 Broadway, Galveston Texas 77550. Co-sponsoring the event is the Galveston Islamic Center, Congregation B’nai Israel, and St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church. The donated blood will be for patients at Galveston’s UTMB and Shriners Children’s Hospitals.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially the family of Doug McGraw who died this week.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550