As o’er each continent and island the dawn leads on another day,
the voice of prayer is never silent, nor dies the strain of praise away.
-from The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended, by Charles P. Price
#24 in The Hymnal 1982

Dear Friends,

On Tuesday evening, I attended the weekly community Eucharist offered by monks of the Society of St. John the Evangelist at their monastery in Cambridge. I know that some of you often attend that service. This morning I had the opportunity to preside at the daily morning Eucharist of the Sisters of St. Anne at their convent in Arlington Heights.

People are sometimes surprised to hear of monastic orders in the Episcopal Church. Many know that such orders were discontinued in England by King Henry the VIII, but not everyone is aware that the nineteenth century saw a renewal of Anglican monastic communities, in England and throughout the Communion.

We are blessed to have two such communities so close to us (a third community, the Society of St. Margaret, is based in Duxbury). Their geographic proximity offers persons the chance to worship and pray with them. Each community also offers retreat experiences, accomodations for individual retreats,  along with an invitation to join with them as they observe the daily rhythms of monastic worship.

But they are close to us in more than a geographical sense. They pray for us. At their morning Mass, for example, the sisters of St. Anne pray for a different parish in the diocese each day. We know there are times when we specifically ask persons to pray for us or for the needs of others. How good it is to know that we have communities of faithful persons in our midst who are about that work every day. Prayer is central to their vocation, and we, whether we know it or not, are the beneficiaries.

I was grateful to be present with the sisters this morning. And I am grateful for their ongoing ministry, which blesses so many lives, a continual and faithful gift offered to God.

Faithfully,

Tom