So this is where I sit at least once every weekday. We have chapel three times a day - morning prayer, midday Eucharist, and evening prayer, which is usually "evensong," or sung. We call those pieces of paper, the "ordo"; it lists page numbers, psalms, hymnal, etc. Each day is a different feast - of a person of event in the history of the church. Monday was the feast for the "Martyrs of Japan," 38 people who were crucified in Japan in the late 16th century. Absalom Jones, the first Black person ordained an Episcopal priest, in 1818, is next week. Usually we have a feast day almost every day, but this week it's a lot of "feria," or ordinary, days.
The chapel pews face each other, so that we can chant psalms back and forth more naturally. Very monastic. We all have assigned seats so that we can keep all books in one place, it's too hard to carry them all around: one hymnal is African American, another is contemporary hymns, another a plainsong Psalter. I like the psalms the best; the words just wash over you. Sometimes we sing difficult things, like "O God, break their teeth in their mouths" (Ps. 58:6). But usually it doesn't feel so culturally distant (although that could be argued!). This morning we sang, back and forth:
"God heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars
and calls them all by their names." (Ps. 147)
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