​Today we commemorate Our Lady of Walsingham, which marks one of the earliest apparitions of the Blessed Mary.
The apparitions appeared to Richeldis de Faverches, an English noblewoman in 1061. She believed the Blessed Mother transported her soul to the Holy Land, and showed her the home of the Holy Family. And she felt called to establish a shrine to the Holy Family in England.
She did, by building the Holy House, which became a shrine. In time, it became as popular a spot for pilgrims as Glastonbury and Canterbury, who couldn’t travel to Rome or Compostela because of civil unrest. The shrine became known as England’s Nazareth. In the 1300’s, a devout abbot built a shrine called the Slipper House, where pilgrims could leave their shoes to walk the last mile to the shrine barefoot.
Despite the fact that Henry VIII was one of eight monarchs who worshiped at the shrine, it did not escape his Reformation (in which he seized all religious property in England after he declared himself the sole authority in England). The shrine was destroyed in 1538.
But faith couldn’t be destroyed or suppressed forever. Pilgrimages began again in 1897, and the chapel was restored that year.
Today, there are shrines to Our Lady in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Williamsburg, Virginia; Houston, Texas and other locations around the U.S. (including an altar to Our Lady of Walsingham at St. Paul’s K Street). Prayers at the shrine are offered for the Church, the world, the sick, all in need and the departed. At the website for the Anglican Shrine of our Lady in Walsingham – www.walsinghamanglican.org – prayer requests may be submitted on-line.

Mary McCue

Several years ago, I concluded that my spiritual life felt narrow and stuck.  While I was heeding the Holy Scriptures, I did not pay sufficient attention to God’s older book, namely Creation.  One way in which I set out to resolve this problem involved the Hubble Space Telescope.
 
I acquired a thick book of breathtaking photographs of deep space.  Most days I devoted time to reflecting on one of these Hubble photos, gradually making my way through the collection.  This was a leisurely activity and a transformative one.  Repeatedly I remembered that I was gazing at an unimaginatively vast expanse of creation far more unknown to humanity than known.  These photographs also involved looking back in time, since the light from astronomically distant objects travels for a very long time to reach earth, even though nothing travels faster than light.  Repeatedly I pictured myself as moving through these immensities on a planet rotating around a particular star in one tiny section of creation.
 
The Hubble Space Telescope helped my spiritual life by reminding me, through gorgeous photos, of the splendid infinities that surround us.

Charles Hoffacker

Today is an Ember Day.  This takes some explaining.
 
Ember Days are three days which occur four times a year.  They are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after St. Lucy’s Day (December 13), Ash Wednesday, the Day of Pentecost, and Holy Cross Day (September 14).  Their name comes from a Latin phrase meaning “four times.”  These times (originally three) were associated with sowing, harvesting, and vintage, when people prayed, fasted, and gave alms.  The four times became occasions for the ordination of deacons and priests.  They remain so today, although ordinations take place on other occasions as well.
 
Whether at Ember Day services or not, please intercede for those seeking ordination and those helping them discern their vocation as well as for all the Church’s ministers: lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.
 
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people
is governed and sanctified:
Receive our supplications and prayers,
which we offer before you
for all members of your holy Church,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may truly and devoutly serve you;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
 
Charles Hoffacker

Today we remember Alexander Crummell, priest, academic and nationalist turned abolitionist who left a lasting mark on churches in Washington, D.C.

Born in March 1819, he grew up in Upstate New York, where he felt the call to be a priest. Turned down for admittance to General Theological Seminary, he sought theological training elsewhere, and was ordained a priest in Massachusetts in 1842.

At first, he pursued nationalism – encouraging Blacks to return to Liberia to form a homeland. After 20 years of living in Liberia, he returned to the United States and focused on the fight to abolish slavery. His writings and preaching were a great influence on Marcus Garvey, Paul Laurence Dunbar and W.E. DuBois.

In 1872, he was called to Washington, D.C. to minister to St. Mary’s Mission in Foggy Bottom. He became known as a Missionary at Large to Black Episcopalians. Within a year, his congregation, and three Sunday schools, grew, and the idea of an independent Black church grew along with it. Funds were raised to create St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, the first independent Black Episcopalian church. Created in 1875, it moved to the building it still occupies, on 15th St. NW, in 1876. The building was designated a historic landmark in 1976. Both St. Marys Foggy Bottom and St. Luke’s are active churches today. 

Father Crummell served as St. Luke’s rector until his retirement in 1894. He died on September 10, 1898. One of the readings for his Feast Day is James 1: 2-5: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” Good words for us to live with and by in this day and age.

​Mary McCue

A helpful custom is to have a prayer corner in your living room, bedroom, or elsewhere in your home.  If you do not have one already, consider setting apart such a place in a visible way.
 
The focal point of the prayer corner is one or more sacred images.  These can include an icon, a picture, a crucifix, or a cross.  They may be original works or reproductions.  Often an oil lamp or candle burns in a safe location nearby.  A small plant or floral arrangement recalls God’s glorious creation.  Furniture near the prayer corner should allow for comfortable kneeling, sitting, or standing as you find appropriate.
 
A generous space should be available for books such as the Bible, Book of Common Prayer, Hymnal, and other devotional resources.
 
If you burn incense during your prayer time, provide safe space for a thurible, charcoal, matches, and the incense itself.
 
If live or recorded music is part of your personal prayer practice, include whatever instruments, recordings, or scores you need.
 
Your prayer corner will be a standing invitation to draw near to the Holy One who always welcomes us.
 
 Charles Hoffacker

Today is our national holiday,  Labor Day.   Originally intended to honor manual labor it’s now an occasion for recognition of all kinds of work.
 
The Hebrew Bible is ambivalent about work. In chapter 3 of Genesis, physical toil is considered a punishment for Adam and Eve’s sin,  as they are banished from the Garden of Eden.  Later in the Bible  the importance of  manual work is recognized:  
 
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 38:27-32
So it is with every artisan and master artisan
who labours by night as well as by day;
 
So it is with the smith, sitting by the anvil,
intent on his ironwork;
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
and he is careful to complete its decoration.
 
So it is with is the potter sitting at his work
and turning the wheel with his feet;
he is always deeply concerned over his products,
and he produces them in quantity.
 
All these rely on their hands,
and all are skilful in their own work.
Without them no city can be inhabited,
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,
 
 
Any kind of work,  well done,  has dignity and worth.  But it also holds the potential for obsessive over-emphasis—workaholism.   Healthy work and rest balance each other.   Genesis says that God rested from the work of Creation on the seventh day.   Jesus went apart from his mission of healing and teaching for restorative times of prayer and rest.   St. Benedict’s rule for his monasteries enjoins prayer and work in alternation during the day—“Ora et labora.”  
 
Sadly,  even Sirach notes that although the artisan’s craft skill supported the life of the city, manual labor’s dignity was not always recognized—artisans were “not sought out for the council of the people.”   This is still true today.  “White Collar” has more prestige than “Blue Collar.”   Salaried labor has more prestige than hourly wage labor.  To counter this a colleague of mine,  Mike Rose,  has written a wonderful book called The Mind at Work.  It illustrates narratively the intelligence and skill involved in Blue Collar labor,  showing this for waitresses and auto body shop workers,  among others.  (His mother was a waitress.) 
 
All work has value,  and also the potential to be a curse.  Benedictine balance between prayer and work seems to be the best course for all of us—ora et labora.  Let us pray today for all workers,  in the words of  the collect appointed for Labor Day in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer:
 
Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Frederick Erickson