Rector's Rambling - April 25, 2010

Although we are still in the midst of our Eastertide celebration, today we have a “Feast” within the season of Easter. Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. On page 6 of this Chronicle there is a short bio of the writer of the Gospel that bears his name, believed to be a companion of St. Peter the Apostle, who recorded Peter’s teaching about Jesus for this gospel account.
Today is a “Feast Day” within the season of Easter. It is also known as a “Red Letter” day from the earlier editions of the Book of Common Prayer, when the calendar printed in red those feast days that took precedence over the Sunday of a church season.
Although no longer printed in red, our 1928 Book of Common Prayer contains a calendar for the major Feast days of our Lord, his mother, and the apostles, on pages xlvi - xlix. Other feasts not noted on that calendar fall on other days of the year, but do not have precedence over the Sunday of a church season (such as Eastertide or Epiphanytide). How to figure out what can be moved or used when you can go to the Tables and Rules for the Movable and Immovable Feasts, together with the Days of Fasting and Abstinene, through the Whole Year found on page l - li in the prayer book. OR you can just use the Ordo Calendar distributed at the beginning of the year or check out our parish website!
This can all seem very confusing, but it is a simplified version of the ‘rubrics’ (instructional notes) found in the old monastic office calendar, on which Archbishop Thomas Cranmer based the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer!
Today we are about St. Mark! Tomorrow we are back into the week of the Third Sunday after Easter with its Collect and readings appointed for the days of the week.