Above:  Donatus

Image in the Public Domain

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Loving God, for whom to exist is to care,

may we refrain from being judgmental jerks in your name.

May our zeal for the truth, as we understand it,

not transform us into theologically rigid, off-putting people.

May we, without excusing the inexcusable,

not behave, write, speak, and think inexcusably and judgmentally,

thereby creating division and unpleasantness needlessly.

May we not imagine that we know more than we do.

May our imagined wisdom not feed our private forms of Donatism.

If we commit Donatism, please forgive us and help us to repent.

In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 15, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONAVENTURE, SECOND FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT ATHANASIUS I OF NAPLES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF DUNCAN MONTGOMERY GRAY, SR.; AND HIS SON, DUNCAN MONTGOMERY GRAY, JR.; EPISCOPAL BISHOPS OF MISSISSIPPI AND ADVOCATES FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF GEORGE TYRRELL, IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNIST THEOLOGIAN AND ALLEGED HERETIC

THE FEAST OF SAINT SWITHUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF WINCHESTER

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/a-prayer-regarding-donatism/

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Above:  The Golden Rule, by Norman Rockwell

Image in the Public Domain

Text Source = Albert F. Bayly (1901-1984)

Hymn Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)

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Thy love, O God, has all mankind created,

and led thy people to this present hour;

in Christ we see life’s glory consumated;

thy Spirit manifests his living power.

+++++

We bring thee, Lord, in fervent intercession

the children of thy world-wide family:

with contrite hearts we offer our confession,

for we have sinned against thy charity.

+++++

From out the darkness of our hope’s frustration,

from all the broken idols of our pride,

we turn to seek thy truth’s illumination,

and find thy mercy waiting at our side.

+++++

In pity look upon thy children’s striving

for life and freedom, peace and brotherhood,

till at the fullness of thy truth arriving,

we find in Christ the crown of every good.

+++++

Inspire thy church, mid earth’s discordant voices,

to preach the gospel of her Lord above,

until the day this warring world rejoices

to hear the mighty harmonies of love.

Above:  The Crucifixion

Image in the Public Domain

Text (published in 1867), by Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1876)

Hymn Source #1 = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church

Hymn Source #2 = Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody:  A Manual of The Methodist Hymnal, 2nd. ed. (1937)

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Never further than Thy cross,

Never higher than Thy feet;

Here earth’s precious things seem dross,

Here earth’s bitter things grow sweet.

+++++

Gazing thus our sin we see,

Learn Thy love while gazing thus;

Sin, which laid the cross on Thee,

Love, which bore the cross for us.

+++++

Here we learn to serve and give,

And, rejoicing, self deny;

Here we gather love to live,

Here we gather faith to die.

+++++

Symbols of our liberty

And our service here unite;

Captives, by Thy cross set free,

Soldiers of Thy cross, we fight.

+++++

Pressing onward as we can,

Still to this our hearts must tend;

Where our earliest hopes began,

There our last aspirings end;

+++++

Till amid the hosts of light,

We in Thee redeemed, complete,

Through Thy cross made pure and white,

Cast our crowns before Thy feet.

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Above:  Icon of the Crucifixion, by Andrei Rublev

Image in the Public Domain

Text (1871) by Alexander Clark (1834-1879)

Hymn Source = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church

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Heav’nly Father, bless me now;

At the cross of Christ I bow;

Take my guilt and grief away,

Hear and heal me now, I pray.

+++++

Now, O Lord, this very hour,

Send Thy grace and show Thy power;

While I rest upon Thy word,

Come, and bless me now, O Lord!

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Mercy now, O Lord, I plead

In this hour of utter need;

Turn me not away unblest,

Calm my anguish into rest.

+++++

O Thou loving, blessed One,

Rising o’er me like the sun,

Light and life art Thou within,

Saviour, Thou, from every sin.

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Above:  Icon of the Triumphal Entry

Image in the Public Domain

Text (1898) by William Henry Draper (1855-1933)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), United Church of Christ

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Lord, through this holy week of our salvation

Which thou hast won for us who went astray,

In all the conflict of thy sore temptation

We would continue with thee day by day.

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We would not leave thee, though our week endurance

Make us unworthy here to take our part;

Yet give us strength to trust the sweet assurance

That thou, O Lord, art greater than our heart.

+++++

Along that sacred way where thou art leading,

Which thou didst take to save our souls from loss,

Let us go also, till we see thee pleading

In all prevailing prayer upon thy cross.

+++++

Until thou see thy bitter travail’s ending,

The world redeemed, the will of God complete,

And, to thy Father’s hands thy soul commending,

Thou lay the work he gave thee at his feet.

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Above:  Throne of God

Image in the Public Domain

Text (published in 1925) by William Boyd Carpenter (1841-1918), Anglican Bishop of Ripon then Canon of Westminster

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church

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Before thy Throne, O God, we kneel;

Give us a conscience quick to feel,

A ready mind to understand

The meaning of thy chastening hand;

Whate’er the pain and shame may be,

Bring us, O Father, nearer thee.

+++++

Search out our hearts and make us true,

Wishful to give to all their due;

From love of pleasure, lust of gold,

From sins which make the heart grow cold,

Wean us and train us with thy rod;

Teach us to know our faults, O God.

+++++

For sins of heedless word and deed,

For pride ambitious to succeed,

For crafty trade and subtle snare

To catch the simple unaware,

For lives bereft of purpose high,

Forgive, forgive, O Lord, we cry.

+++++

Let the fierce fires which burn and try,

Our inmost spirits purify;

Consume the ill; purge out the shame;

O God, be with us in the flame;

A new-born people may we rise,

More pure, more true, more nobly wise.

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Above:  One of My Crucifixes

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Hymn Source = The Church Hymnary–Revised Edition (1927)

Text (1875) by Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877)

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O perfect life of love!

All, all is finished now,

All that He left His throne above

To do for us below.

+++++

No work is left undone

Of all the Father willed;

His toils and sorrows, one by one,

The Scripture have fulfilled.

+++++

No pain that we can share

But He has felt its smart;

All forms of human grief and care

Have pierced that tender heart.

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And on His thorn-crowned head,

And on His sinless soul,

Our sins in all their guild were laid,

That He might make us whole.

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In perfect love He dies;

For me He dies, for me!

I all-atoning Sacrifice,

I cling by faith to Thee.

+++++

In every time of need,

Before the judgment throne,

Thy work, O Lamb of God, I’ll plead,

Thy merits, not my own.

+++++

Yet work, O Lord, in me,

As thou for me hast wrought;

And let my love the answer be

To grace Thy love has brought.

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Above:  Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Cartersville, Georgia, November 5, 2017

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Original Greek Text by St. Joseph the Hymnographer (d. 886)

English Translation (1862) by John Mason Neale (1818-1866)

Hymn Source #1 = The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America

Hymn Source #2 = William Gustave Polack, The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, 2d ed. (1942)

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And wilt Thou pardon, Lord

A sinner such as I,

Although Thy book his crimes record

Of such a crimson dye?

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So deep are they engraved,

So terrible their fear,

The righteous scarcely shall be saved,

And where shall I appear?

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My soul, make all things known

To Him who all things sees

That so the Lamb may yet atone

For thine iniquities.

+++++

O Thou Physician blest,

Make clean my guilty soul

And me, by many a sin opprest,

Restore and keep me whole.

+++++

I know not how to praise

Thy mercy and Thy love;

But deign my soul and earth to raise

And learn from Thee above.

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Above:  A Crucifix

Photograph by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Text by Timothy Rees (1874-1939)

Hymn Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)

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O crucified Redeemer, whose lifeblood we have spilt,

to you we raise our guilty hands, and humbly own our guilt.

Today we see your passion spread open to our gaze;

the crowded town, the country road, its calvary displays.

+++++

Wherever love is outraged, wherever hope is killed,

where man still wrongs his brother man, your passion is fulfilled.

We see your tortured body, we see the wounds that bleed,

where brotherhood hands crucified, nailed to the cross of greed.

+++++

We hear your cry of anguish, we see your life outpoured,

where battlefield runs red with blood, our brothers’ blood, O Lord.

And in that bloodless battle, the fight for daily bread,

where might is right and self is king, we see your thorn-crowned head.

+++++

The groaning of creation rung out by pain and care,

the anguish of a million hearts that break in dumb despair:

O crucified Redeemer, these are your cries of pain.

O may they break our selfish hearts, and love come in to reign.

Above:  Icon of the Crucifixion, by Andrei Rublev

Image in the Public Domain

Text (1909) by Walter Russell Bowie (1882-1969)

Hymn Source = Hymns for the Living Age (1923)

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Lovely to the outward eye

Seemed Jerusalem to lie–

Yet ’twas there thou cam’st to die,

Jesus, Son of Mary.

+++++

Far-brought stones and marble rare

Made its towers and circuits fair,

Yet thy cross was waiting there,

Wearied Son of Mary.

+++++

And would all the crowded mart,

Wealth and splendid ease and art

Of our own world please thy heart,

O thou Son of Mary?

+++++

Wouldst thou call our boasting good,

If thou sawest our triumphs stood

On the wreck of brotherhood,

Loving Son of Mary?

+++++

Jesus, pardon where we fail;

Jesus, our whole life enthrall;

Let thy Spirit rule it all,

Blessed Son of Mary.