Jordan Paul

Sound out your majesty, O God, and call us to your work; that, like thy servant Johann Sebastian Bach, we might present our lives and our works to your glory alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Dear Friends,

I know what you’re probably thinking: “Bach’s feast day isn’t today, today is John and Charles Wesley!” Or maybe, “Bach has a feast day?” Well, yes, Bach has a feast day and you’d be right in saying that his isn’t today but rather on July 28.

I’m writing, in part, about Bach today because we are currently in the midst of Lent Madness! Among all of the various Lenten devotionals or readings or books, it’s harder to find one that is sillier but also inspires so much further reading as Lent Madness. It’s a product of Forward Movement, a publishing ministry of the Episcopal Church, and operates in much the same way as March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. The bracket starts with 32 saints and on each weekday throughout Lent, a blog post is published for each matchup telling you a little bit about the two contenders before you get to vote on who should move on to the next round. The winner is crowned with the (coveted) Golden Halo.

Lent is a perfect opportunity to spend time with the saints of the Church—researching, in prayer, voting for in a competition—who devoted their lives, and sometimes gave them, for the glory of God. Highlights from this year’s Lent Madness include Bach, Florence Li Tim-Oi (whom Fr Ben wrote about here), Jonathan Myrick Daniels, and Harriet Monsell, who is competing today against Bach. While Bach needs no further introduction, Monsell might.

Harriet Monsell was a devout Anglican involved in the Oxford Movement. After the death of her husband, she entered monastic life and founded the Community of St. John Baptist, an order founded to help marginalized women but that has since expanded to include work in schools, orphanages, and soup kitchens. A quote from John the Baptist in today’s Gospel is prominent on their website: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

I’ll leave you with Monsell’s collect: “Gracious God, who led your servant Harriet Monsell through grief to a new vocation; grant that we, inspired by her example, may grow in the life of prayer and the work of service so that in sorrow or joy, your presence may increase among us and our lives reveal the mind of Jesus Christ, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.”

In Christ,

—Jordan