A Book of Vigils

Christopher L. Webber

Description

This useful book falls in the category of resources for structuring liturgies to fit local occasions. In addition to seven complete vigil services inspired by the ancient monastic discipline of nighttime prayer and meditation, there are new models such as "A Vigil in the Presence of God" or "A Vigil for Peace and Justice".

Ample notes throughout explain the history of vigils and offer advice for planning small private and large public vigils.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Prayer

Informations

• Publié par: Church Publishing Incorporated
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780898697414
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Book of Vigils
A Book of Vigils

Christopher L. Webber
Copyright 2002 by Christopher L. Webber All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A book of vigils / [edited by] Christopher L. Webber.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-89869-383-7 (pbk.)
1. Vigils (Liturgy) I. Webber, Christopher.
BV185 .B66 2002
264 .7-dc21
2002031337
Man s Quest for God by Abraham Heschel. Charles Scribner s Sons, New York, 1954. Used by permission.
Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church , edited by J. Robert Wright. Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, 1991. Used by permission.
They cast their nets in Galilee, words by William Alexander Percy. Copyright Edward B. Marks Music Corp. Reprinted by permission of The Continuum International Publishing Group.
Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, edited by Eberhard Bethge. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1953. Used by permission.
The Crown of the Year by Austin Farrer. Dacre Press, Westminster, 1952. Used by permission.
The Hymn of the Universe , Pierre Tielhard de Chardin. English translation copyright 1965 by William Collins Son Co., Ltd., London, and Harper Row, Inc., New York. Reprinted by permission of George Borchardt, Inc., for the Editions du Seuil.
The Sermons of John Donne , edited by George R. Potter and Evelyn M. Simpson. University of California Press. Used by permission.
The Shape of the Liturgy by Dom Gregory Dix. Dacre Press, London, 1945. Reprinted by permission of The Continuum International Publishing Group.
Readings in St. John s Gospel by William Temple. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, 1950. Used by permission.
Every effort has been made to trace the owner or holder of each copyright. If any rights have been inadvertently infringed upon, the Publishers ask that the omission be excused and agree to make the necessary corrections in subsequent editions.
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
Church Publishing Incorporated 445 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10016
www.churchpublishing.org
5 4 3 2 1
Special Thanks
Special thanks are due to the Rt. Rev. George Packard who initiated this project by asking me to produce materials for a vigil for peace and justice to be held by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and others before his consecration as Bishop of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincies. I am grateful also to the Diocese of Connecticut for providing the opportunity to develop A Vigil before the Election or Consecration of a Bishop for the consecration of the Rt. Rev. James Curry and the Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos-Orench.
Table of Contents
Introduction to A Book of Vigils
What is a vigil?
Using this book
Planning a vigil
A Vigil in the Presence of God
A Vigil for Peace and Justice
A Vigil for the Sick
A Vigil at the Time of Death
A Vigil for Maundy Thursday
A Vigil of Pentecost
A Vigil before the Election or Consecration of a Bishop
(with notes for adapting the vigil to other uses)
Introduction to A Book of Vigils
What is a vigil?
The keeping of vigils in the form of extended periods of nighttime prayer is an ancient Christian tradition; there is evidence of vigils as early as the first years of the second century. Vigils probably began as a way for Christians to follow Jesus repeated teaching about the importance of watchful waiting to the spiritual life; perhaps they were held at night because of a belief that the second coming would be at midnight. At first these vigils seem to have been kept only at Easter, but eventually vigils were kept also on the feasts of martyrs and, later, on certain major feast days-such as Pentecost-as well. In the Middle Ages, however, vigils became increasingly the province of monastic orders and were unfamiliar to other Christians except for those keeping the Easter Vigil in the Eastern Church. In modern times, the Easter Vigil gradually has regained its central place in the West, with Vatican II and various prayer book revisions-including the Episcopal Church s 1979 Book of Common Prayer-giving official sanction to the practice.
The keeping of vigils seems to satisfy a deeply felt need; modern revival of the idea of coming together for extended periods of prayer began as a popular, rather than an institutional, trend in the church and society. In addition to the strongly reestablished Easter Vigil, vigils after the evening service on Maundy Thursday also have become common occurrences. Even more striking are some of the newer applications of the ancient form of the vigil. The Christmas midnight service is largely a modern invention without precedent in the early church s life; although it is not truly a vigil, several aspects of the service, such as the nighttime setting and the watchful expectancy it conveys, draw from-and are inspired by-ancient vigil practice. Then there is the emerging practice of keeping vigils for special needs: for someone critically ill, or in times of national crisis, or before the election or consecration of a bishop (or the election of other ministers). This topicality in the keeping of vigils may be the most innovative-and most valuable-expression of the modern vigil.
Vigils can have either a very public or a very private character. The early church s vigils were events for the whole community, while those of the Middle Ages were kept largely by members of monastic communities. In modern times, we are familiar on the one hand with the congregational keeping of Easter vigils and the gathering of larger communities for special public events, and on the other hand with the keeping of vigils by a few individuals through the night, often signing up for an hour or two by turns. Such private vigils offer the individual an opportunity to spend time in the silence through which God often speaks most directly; they provide a way for those keeping the vigil to offer themselves to God on behalf of others, to become more effective means of grace; they provide the opening into human life through which grace may flow into the world.
Regardless of the size of the vigil and the nature of the occasion-whether it is a single person meditating at a candlelit altar in the middle of the night on Maundy Thursday or a throng of people crowded into a huge cathedral trying to help one another make sense of a recent local or national tragedy-all vigils have one thing in common: they somehow manage to be both very intense and very peaceful. The spirit of a vigil is well described in a novel by Ellis Peters in which a Brother Cadfael (subsequently the hero of a television series) spends the night in prayer before removing a saint s relics to a new shrine:
Brother Columbanus bowed humbly low to the altar, and took his place at the desk on the right. Brother Cadfael settled solidly at the one on the left, and with practised movements sought and found the best place for his knees. Stillness came down on them gently. He composed himself for a long watch. . . . Great darkness and constant, feeble light, the slow flowing of time from far beyond his conception and too far beyond his power to follow, the solitude about him and the troubled and peopled world within, all these settled into their perpetual pattern, a steady rhythm as perfect as sleep. He thought no more of Columbanus, he forgot that Columbanus existed. He prayed as he breathed, forming no words and making no specific requests, only holding in his heart, like broken birds in cupped hands, all those people who were in stress or grief because of their little saint, for if he suffered like this for their sake, how much more must she feel for them?
- Ellis Peters , A Morbid Taste for Bones, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 160
Using this book
The need for some vigils can arise suddenly, leaving those arranging them very little time to plan. The vigils provided in this book that fall into this topical category, such as vigils for the sick or in time of crisis, should be thought of as outlines or samples, not as liturgies to be followed verbatim. Some of the material provided here may be appropriate to the circumstances and to the people involved, but other material may not. Even the vigils provided here for events that will not come as a surprise (such as the recurring feasts of Maundy Thursday and Pentecost or the election of a bishop or other minister) may not have universal application for all worshipers in all places and times. The size of the group involved, the prevailing worship style of a given community, and many other variables may require substantial changes to the patterns supplied here.
Readings for each vigil are provided from the Bible and other sources, but more are provided than are likely to be needed for all but the longest vigils. All readings should be read slowly, as if the reader is discovering the words for the first time. The words, however, are not there simply to be instructional but to be a tool of meditation, as an opening point for God to guide the thoughts of each person wherever God will. Those who listen to the prayers and readings of a vigil should let the rhythms of the body, such as thinking and breathing, slow down from the usual pace. This is God s time, not a commodity to be consumed and discarded. Use it well. Let God use it not only for the sake of the participants but also for others.
But even more important than the words used in a vigil are the silences. Regardless of the readings used, it is always important to leave the larger part of the time for silent watching and waiting. An emphasis on silence may be more easily achieved during a vigil involving only one person, but even in a large, public vigil, silence should be an important ingredient. Participants should let God guide their words, their thoughts, and their silence. Above