All Souls Weekly                 
Volume 2, Number 36, August 2, 2009

PRAYING THROUGH CLOUDS

On August 6 we celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  We hear again the story of how Jesus and his disciples go up a mountain to pray.  While praying, the disciples see a vision of Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah.  A cloud overshadows them and they hear the voice of God saying, “This is my Son, my chosen. Listen to him.”  We can take great comfort in the idea that God speaks to us even in the midst of thick clouds.  Through prayer we can hear God’s voice and learn how to move forward.  Prayer allows us to navigate the clouds. 

In the 14th century an anonymous monk wrote a book that has been called the Cloud of Unknowing, and it has helped spiritual seekers for centuries ever after. The author counsels that sometimes our effort to know, our need to understand everything, to get it sorted out in our head, can be the very stumbling block to a deeper knowledge of God. Instead, the author talks about prayer in simple ways, ways that are sometimes described in what modern spiritual writers call Centering Prayer. The praying is simple and easy.  It’s not complicated. It involves simply sitting with God, being available for God, trying to un-clutter the mind so that we’re not constantly thinking and talking to God, but listening, being, and breathing.

We may think that the presence of God is unattainable and so, “Why bother?” We may have tried some kind of prayer in the past and felt like we failed at it, but the author of the Cloud of Unknowing suggests that heaven is closer than we might have imagined.
The author writes “Spiritually, heaven is as near down as up, up as down, behind as before, before as behind, on this side as on that! So that whoever really wanted to be in heaven, he is there and then in heaven spiritually. For we run the high way (and the quickest) to heaven on our desires, and not on our two feet.” (Chapter 60).

Whatever it may be that makes us feel trapped in a fog or overshadowed by clouds, prayer can make a way through.  The desire for God is the beginning, and prayer gets us to that place in which the clouds begin to disperse, where we hear our name, and where we begin to know what it is that we should do.  Led by Christ’s example, may we allow our prayers to be used by God to transfigure us and to fill us with a new sense of God’s love.  John Beddingfield

Around the Parish . . . Attendance on Sunday, July 26 at the 8:30 a.m. Mass, 28; attendance at 11:00 a.m. 
Mass, 105 . . . Total pledge offerings for the week were $9,127.00. The plate offering last Sunday was $804.00.

 
Your prayers are asked for . . . Tim Dill, Nick Aherne, Mark Hoffman, Mona Bauer, Sarah Calder and her family, Mary Backus, Sandy Jenkins Dixon, Robert Konefal, Steve Collins, I. Kathryn McKewen, Lexi Ball, Helen Horne, Thais Blanchard, Bruce MacDonald, Bob Colburn, Elizabeth McKee, Freddie Cameron, Robert Long, Frank Karel, Barb Chaffee, Harriet Martin, Chris Cobb, Landis Vance, Vickie Drell, Stephanie Russell, Ruth & Fred Huber, Jim St. George, Mark Henderson, Martha Holdgate, Chip Meyers, Walter Jason, Arthur Andrew Warren, Robert Osborne, Mary Beth McCutcheon, Bryan Powell, Regina Dading, Julia Gutierrez, and Ted Field . . . Pray for members of the parish in the foreign service and others who are working overseas, especially Chuck Hunter, Steve Kerchoff, Brad Moore, and Michael Pate . . . Pray also for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Jack Severson, and Timothy Zlatich . . . If you wish to participate in our ongoing Internet Prayer Circle please contact Vicki Lowe at lowevg1@verizon.net.

The Parish Rejoices . . . with Dan Davis and Ric Haines upon their civil marriage in Massachusetts on Friday, July 24, 2009.  The marriage is also a recognition and celebration of their having been together for 25 years. 

 
Liturgical Notes . . . A reminder:  All Souls continues to offer both the 8:30 a.m. Low Mass and the 11 a.m. High Mass throughout the summer months . . . Flowers at the High Altar are given to the glory of God and thanksgiving for the All Souls family on the occasion of Andy’s marriage to Amanda on June 7, 2009, given by Andy’s parents, Tony and Martha Domenico.

Songs of Butterflies and Jesters . . . On Sunday, August 9 at 5 p.m. in the church, Keiko Bjorkman, Lorna Case, and Delia Zielinski will offer a recital of arias from Madama Butterfly and Rigolleto.  A donation of $12 per person is requested.

All Souls Eco-Shopping Bags . . . We have khaki colored, cloth, eco-friendly shopping bags for sale in the undercroft.  The bags have a new design featuring a sketch of the church with various animals around it.  The words say, “All Souls by the Zoo.”  The bags are for sale at $3 per bag, or two bags for $5.  Use them yourself, give them to family and neighbors, and help raise the profile of our parish in the neighborhood and around the city.

Biannual Financial Statements Have Been Mailed . . .  Parishioner and friends of the parish who designate their financial gifts as “pledges” should have received a Second Quarter Statement of gifts.  Though, in the past, it has been the custom at All Souls to send Third Quarter Statements, the finance committee thought that many people might appreciate having a reminder and update during the summer, at the half-way mark.  If you have questions or concerns about your statement, please contact the parish office.

An ordination in August . . . The Rev. Dewayne James Messenger, former seminarian at All Souls, will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 3 p.m., at Calvary United Church of Christ, 640 Centre Avenue, Reading, PA 19601.  He is being ordained through the Ecumenical Anglican Church, and is serving as pastor of All Souls Ecumenical Episcopal Church in Reading, PA.  More about Dewayne’s ministry can be found at http://www.allsoulsecumenical.org/. 

A place to pray your questions . . . The next Vocational Ministry Retreat sponsored by the Diocesan Commission on Ministry will take place of September 18-19, 2009 at the St. Mary’s Seminary Continuing Education Center in Baltimore, Maryland. This retreat will be led by Marjory Zoet Bankson, writer, teacher and former executive director of Faith at Work. While these retreats are required of all who are discerning a call to holy orders, the retreat is designed to explore God’s call to ALL persons through their baptism. A number of lay leaders have participated in these retreats as they have explored God’s call at critical moments of transition in their lives. I want to encourage you to send not only those who are in conversation with you about holy orders, but others seeking guidance in times of life transition. Registration for this September’s retreat is now open and you can go to www.edow.org/events to register. Retreats for 2010 have also been scheduled for next May and October.

All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church

The Reverend John Beddingfield, rector; The Reverend Christopher Worthley, adjunct clergy;

Mr. Isaac Borocz, parish administrator; Dr. Philip Cave, director of music and organist;
Mr. Oscar Prado, sexton

2300 Cathedral Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008-1505

Voice: 202-232-4244, Fax: 202-232-8593

Email: allsouls1@aol.com

www.allsoulsdc.org

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