Apart & Together:
Intermittent Glimpses from Ascension
Updates for the Third Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2020
Dear People of Ascension,

This is primarily a reminder that there will be NO masses or other worship services and no programs, coffee hours or other gatherings, meetings or events tomorrow, March 15, the Third Sunday in Lent, or until further notice, due to health-related concerns that are now well-known to all.

This transition has been and continues to be not only troubling but imperfect. For instance, just moments ago (on Saturday evening) I removed 'Upcoming Events' from our Facebook page. I still have at least one regular attending member to call -- an individual with no email who may well show up without that call.

I realize that, with matters changing so rapidly, you may wish to have more frequent and specific updates, communications and connections than are provided in our weekly newsletter. I'll be calling these Apart & Together: Intermittent Glimpses from Ascension . Please let me know if you have thoughts about content. And I welcome your attention to some specific matters below, in no particular order ...

With prayers, gratitude and hope,

Patrick +

Ascension Not-Yet-Live
Video message from Rector --
a test run, awaiting improvements
I'm wondering about video options during this time, including live-streaming of a mass or other worship.



Consider worshiping on Sunday with our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael Curry ...
A meaningful option for some for the Third Sunday in Lent may be to tune into the Youtube channel on which you may share in the celebration of the Eucharist at Washington National Cathedral, the Most Rev. Michael Curry presiding and preaching. LIVE AT 9 AM CENTRAL TIME SUNDAY. View the link to the Youtube channel here.

... or with Ascension member Brother Michael-Francis Smith, OSB, who writes as follows ...
Dear Father Raymond,

I'm getting the technology together at St. Michael House to live stream Matins (the monastic Morning Prayer service)
with An Act of Spiritual Communion (from St. Augustine's Prayer Book) at 11am tomorrow.


Humbly,

Br. Michael-Francis

Pax Dei tecum - May God's Peace be with you

And what about this poem ...
P A N D E M I C
-Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

With thanks to a mentor, friend and great artist, Greg Upward for sharing this with me (Patrick +)