Spiritual disciplines

Day Fifteen – The Anointing

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 17, 2013
Posted in: "Dieu et Mon Droit", devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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We have never awakened to a Coronation Day; no one has ever spoken over us the words of majesty and consecration that Elizabeth heard that day.  No one has ever prayed for us quite the way the Archbishop prayed for the new Queen … but … the Word of the Lord is full of  proclamations like this:

“I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand– I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”  (Isaiah 51:16)

 

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (Ezekial 36:27)

 

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Thessalonians 5:23)

 

No ruler, no priest, no hero ever received more or better than this!

Now the music of Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” took the participants and guests to another place, to that time on earth when kings and priests were anointed by God to the service of His people. “And all the people rejoiced . . . rejoiced, and all the people rejoiced!”  To her people’s, this was another day like those.

The Archbishop had invoked the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now, when he had prayed over Her Majesty, Elizabeth rose from her knees and the voices of the choir rose, as from the top of a high mountain, as though filling the national valleys that remained following two World Wars and the death of two monarchs and the abdication of one, flooding the dry tributaries of despair and deprivation . . . in the eyes of her subjects, at home and around the world, God had given a Queen, and He was about to anoint her to her most high calling.

The volume was intense and the chorus began to echo into “Amens” as only Handel can do!  The trappings of Coronation bowed with the tide of those “Amens” to the austerity of anointing . . . Elizabeth removed her glittering diadem with her own hands.

The Lord Great Chamberlain did for Elizabeth that which every Lord Great Chamberlain before him had done and assisted in the removal of the Royal Robe as it was folded in perfect symmetry by the Maids of honor; the precious Collar of the Garter and all its symbolic protection was removed, and the glimmering Coronation Gown was covered by a nun-like garment, plain and white, special and superb only in its design and Elizabeth’s delicate figure.

At last Elizabeth was seated on the Chair of King Edward, not yet enthroned but sitting where monarchs had sat for a thousand years for the same purpose, the Anointing. The Garter King of Arms summoned the four knights of the order who took the silver staves of the cloth of gold canopy and bore it over her, the twenty-five year old Queen.  Suddenly, she was gone, invisible to all but a very few.  One who was able to see her face thought she looked more withdrawn from earthly things than even the canopy could make her.  The cameras were turned off.

The “Coronation” might well be called “the Anointing.”  It is the Anointing that supports the crown.  Unadorned, “uncovered,” Elizabeth was sanctified to her Majesty.

“Be thy Hands anointed with holy Oil.  Be thy Breast anointed with holy Oil. Be thy Head anointed with holy Oil., as kings, priests and prophets were anointed.  And as Solomon as anointed king by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, so be thou anointed, blessed and consecrated Queen over the Peoples whom the Lord thy God hath given thee to rule and govern.”  

         There was nothing given to Her Majesty that is not ours in Christ Jesus.  We lift up holy hands; He lives within our Breast; we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16.)  We reign in love and watchful prayer over those given to us by God.

From the beak of the tiny Ampula, drops of anointing oil fell into the Spoon.  This, the Ampula, was a tiny golden vessel, in the shape of an eagle, its Spoon believed to be one of the only relics to have survived Cromwell’s purge of all things royal.  Alone with the Archbishop, alone before the Lord, Elizabeth was anointed, blessed, and consecrated to rule and govern under God – exactly as have been our service, our love, and our wisdom in Christ Jesus.  The Anointing was the reason for it all; Elizabeth was anointed to be crowned.

If Members of Parliament forget the people in their struggles for power and position, she would not.  They might strive for position; she was anointed in it.  If the whole world collapsed in a heap, Great Britain would still have a Queen whom God had given.  This, as best an outsider can relate, was the joy and hope and exaltation in the Realm and Commonwealth that day.

The Anointing

Rotherham Web

Day Twelve – The Holy Word of God

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 14, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

 

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In the center of this tapestry of gold and silk, ermine and jewels, embroidered work and sculpted relics, a man stepped forward in a somber black Geneva gown, with a Bible in his hands.  He was Dr. James Pitt Watson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, asking her to receive the Scriptures “as the most valuable thing this world affords.”

“Here is wisdom;” he said, and his beautiful brogue intoned, “this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.”  Her God-fearing Scottish mother sat a few yards away in the Royal Balcony, seeing and hearing her countryman gift her daughter with the Scriptures by which she had lived and so carefully raised Elizabeth and her sister.  That she could behold this simple, profound presentation was momentous, for the two churches have not always agreed upon the best expression of worship and communion.  The world may never know in how many small ways Her Majesty’s reign has been, from the beginning, one of mercy and reconciliation.  So may it be with us, whether our victories be small and hidden from view, or brought by God into an arena for all to see.

Of how little benefit might such a moment have been had the Queen received the volume as a token, a mere symbol of religion and not as the foundation of her own faith and the good of her nation.  We have been given to understand that, like her mother and grandmothers before her, Elizabeth uses her Bible and Book of Common Prayer as more than decorative elements in her private suite.

“Here is wisdom,” he had said. We retreat to our own devotional closets, we make time when there is none, and we share with Her Majesty the comforts and the challenges of founding our lives upon grace and truth.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is our bedrock, as it has been hers.

She may have had a few “misses,” perhaps not too many; we, too, may have failed in our perceptions and obedience from time to time, but we, she and all of us, are alive before God, desiring His glory to be seen and His mercy to be revealed in every decision and every word, faith working through love.

The Queen is privileged to depend upon ladies-in-waiting, footmen, private secretaries, and pages to make sure her day runs smoothly, like clockwork, in fact, barring grave emergencies.  That isn’t so for most of us, but most of us do not face a schedule like hers, either.  As far as we are given to understand, her hours of prayer and Bible-reading take place before and after her workday, just as most working men and women must do.  We imagine, from what we do know, that those closest to her are acquainted with her devotional practices and perhaps can safeguard them to some degree, but she alone can determine that she will keep them.

Without ladies-in-waiting, footmen, private secretaries, and pages to help us keep our devotional hour sacrosanct, we must use our own good sense and an honest determination.  If the only free, quiet time a woman can claim as her own occurs during her children’s naptime, and if one of those children is ill and sleepless, her obligation is to her sick child, but faithfulness and honesty would suggest that, when they sleep, she would do well to read her Bible and pray before she checks her email, and determination will help her persevere.

“Here is wisdom,” said the Moderator, and wisdom and honesty are very valuable commodities.  In wisdom we can know that while our Spirit is willing to spend time alone with God, our flesh is weak, and weakened further by the excuses we make so adroitly.  There is a remedy, and it is just what Jesus said to his disciples in that passage: the Spirit is willing – the flesh is weak;  “watch and pray therefore, that you do not enter into temptation.”  There is wisdom!

How to find the time?  How to remain faithful in prayer?  Her Majesty’s life might be able to help us here, too.

More tomorrow …

The Guttenberg Bible

by permission, Mark Pellegrini

Day Eleven – Defender of the Faith

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 13, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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With the Sword of State being borne before her, the Queen made her way to the steps of the altar.  The nation was bringing her to God.

She had just sworn on oath to “maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel” to her utmost power, to maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law, and to preserve all rights and privileges which the law accorded to the Clergy and Bishops.

At one time, such a promise was of greater significance than now, but on her honor she has upheld the Church of England and made other faiths welcome and kept them safe from persecution.  She has wonderfully opened a door of peace and understanding between Irish Catholics and Protestants, forgiving even the IRA bombing that killed Phillip’s beloved uncle, Lord Mountbatten.

Now, kneeling before God, with her right hand on the Bible opened to the Gospels, she swore a final oath:

“The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep.  So help me God.”  She kissed the Book and a silver Standish was brought; she signed the oaths that had been printed out on a special vellum page.  The page would be added to the Court Roll in the record of the Court Chancery.

Would we be better oath keepers if we had to sign the page of the oaths we made?  “I will.”  “I do.”  We must sign tax return forms and insurance claims and many other things, but those matters closest to our hearts and our well-being are nearly completely free of any binding legal form.

How precious, how honoring it is to us that God takes us at our word.  He says, “Come unto me,” and we come, and we stay.  He says, “This is my beloved Son,” and we listen.  He says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and we take those words as our creed.  We say, “We have sinned,” and He says, “I have paid.”  We say, “Revive us to dwell with you forever,” and He says, “I will not leave you alone; I will come to you. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

No roll, no record, no oaths, no pen, ink, or paper.  He takes us at our Word.

In every difficulty, in every trial we would rather escape, He remembers our commitment to be conformed to the image of His Son.  He knows where our safety and security are to be made sure.  He saves to the uttermost.

It is our own faith we must defend.  Jesus asks, not will He find missionaries or preachers when the Son of Man comes, but “will he find faith in the earth?”  (Luke 18:8)  He tells us clearly that it is day and night prayer that displays our faith.

By the mercies of Christ let a Standish be brought and let us write with the ink of decision on the vellum of our souls and our consciences and our will, “We will pray!”   For our families, our churches, our nations, for the Body of Christ around the world, for the peace of Jerusalem, for workers for the harvest, for the lost, for our enemies … we will pray.

All that He has asked us to do, we will do.

Teresa of Avila,by permission

Usuario:Xaxua

Windsor Worship

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 12, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

CrathieKirk01, permission granted, DanMS 

A day of rest, so valuable to all of us, might bear special importance to one so always on display, always in demand, as is Her Majesty.  There are Sunday events, of course, but it must be sweet indeed to close in on the Lord’s Day, when she can, and just be at home with her loved ones.

May God grant that royal grace to you this day.  Amen.

Craithie Kirk, “The Queen’s Church,” near Balmoral

by permission, DanMS

Day Nine – King Edward’s Chair

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 10, 2013
Posted in: "Dieu et Mon Droit", devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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King Edward’s Chair would “Inthrone” the Queen before the ceremony was over, but by consent and recognition, she was privileged to sit upon it.  Remember that something extraordinary was about to happen?  Queen Elizabeth was about to bow, and on this occasion, not before God alone.  She awaited the Recognition and Consent of the Church and of the Peers of the land.

“Sirs, I here present unto you Queen Elizabeth, your undoubted Queen, wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service.  Are you willing to do the same?”  With a breath, the answer broke forth, “God Save Queen Elizabeth!”, and Elizabeth II bowed to the will of her peoples.

To the south, west, and north sides of the Cathedral, the same question and the same answer, and each time she bowed a small, regal acknowledgement that she was their Queen.  She would never bow before them again, nor to anyone else.

Elizabeth was Queen by the Consent of her government and thus her peoples, and by the peers, the members of the five degrees of nobility, who saluted Her Majesty with their blessing.  These were not invited to the Coronation – they were summoned!  They were required to attend to give their support and their blessing … “God Save the Queen!”  She acquiesced to a place so high that she would bow only before God from that day forward.

Much is made at times, between churches and nations, over the issues of bowing, but much more to the point for us is this: is our “majesty” recognized?  Elizabeth has humbled herself to the role her government gives her, to a love for people from all walks of life, to her royal inheritance, and to the service of the nations and lands that acknowledge her as their Monarch.  That is a template we could use in our own lives, governed as we must be by the Word and the Spirit of God.

Archbishop Fisher taught that when a believing monarch is crowned on the earth, he or she is meant to exemplify the royalty of life in Christ, within a recognized sphere of influence.  In that regard, “we” have everything in common with “them.”  Those who reign over nations in the Name of the Lord are doing what each of us must do: having dominion only as far, but fully as far, as it is given in the scope of an individual and personal vocations.  Their influence is, in fact, greatly limited and curtailed by rule of law; ours is much more sovereign, within our homes and often on the job.

We do not have a good relationship with this terminology!  Reigning!  Dominion!  Sovereignty! – what words shall we use to indicate that there are some things in life that depend upon a little healthy oversight and authority?  Let’s beware that, not using the words, we do not fail to take up the fullness of our responsibilities.

“Sovereignty” is all around us, and for the most part we want it and respect it.  We have little use for the police officer who would direct traffic in a busy intersection with placating suggestions.  When it’s our turn to move, we want to know he has all other traffic at a standstill!  At the wedding altar again, both parties want to trust that the other has “dominion” over their own decisions, to keep the vows they are making!

The truly successful man or woman, the one who reigns so well that everyone succeeds when they follow his or her lead, is valuable and rare.  What’s more, neither is apt to say to their son,

“Hey, will you sit down in the buggy, please?  I want you to sit down, now, okay?  Come on, I already told you twice!  Why won’t you sit down for Daddy/Mommy?  There you go … don’t make me mad, now … thanks, Buddy!”

 

Oh it is a wonderful thing to consent to be “bossed,” to learn to obey, to recognize God-given, God-ordained authority and to go and do as one has been told by the one who is in charge!  It is a wonderful thing, too, to take up the mantle of the authority we’ve been given, to hang up our towels, put the lid on the toothpaste, bring our trash cans in at night, to bring up happy and obedient children, and give a day’s work for a day’s pay.  It makes God look good when we use the authority we have been given to break a bad habit.  Many are the areas where we must recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and consent to be conformed to the imagine of Jesus Christ.

The Roman centurion knew what it was to have authority and to be under authority, and his understanding gained for him not only the healing of a much-loved servant, but also some of the highest praise Jesus ever spoke.

Call it what we will, our lives have an inherent majesty when we humbly accept the authority that is ours.  The neglect of sovereignty can be as devastating as its misuse, as history makes plain.  Nearly all in a group of adults around the table will be able to tell the story of a no-nonsense parent or coach or teacher or grandparent who demanded respect and bequeathed a healthy portion of self-respect, someone who “bossed” us, made sure we did as we were told, and brought out the best in us.  We gave our consent, and years later we recognize them as having had great influence for good in our lives.

May God grant that we become willing and faithful in the little things, in all the things, that belong to our own sovereignty.  May we be dedicated keepers of the faith, and of the vineyard where we are called to labor, in authority and under authority, recognized for our rule over our tongues and habits, a people to Whom God’s consent has been given that we may become the Sons of God.  (John 1:12)

St. Edward’s Chair, by permission

Day Eight – Dieu et Mon Droit (God is My Right)

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 9, 2013
Posted in: "Dieu et Mon Droit", devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

       Coat of Arms

Voices and trumpets are stilled.  All the articles of Regalia are in place.  Elizabeth rises from prayer to stand next to St. Edward’s Throne, as a groom might stand at the altar, waiting for his bride.  In this case, the Chair awaited Her Majesty.  She was soon to be “lifted up” to the seat of consecrated monarchy.  She would never sit in this chair again in her life.

Archbishop Fisher had spent the month of April preparing a book of devotional material for Her Majesty’s use, that he might highlight for her the spiritual glories and the temporal duties that her Coronation Ceremony would seal upon her future.  In the last weeks before Coronation Day, he was filling a busy schedule, speaking and preaching, calling the people of the nation not only to the joy of the event, but to the holy significance of it.  Despite grumblings from time to time, Britain is an exuberant monarchy.  In St. Paul’s Cathedral on the evening of Trinity Sunday, only three days before the Coronation, the Archbishop spoke these words:

“The Queen knows, and we too must understand, that all the music and colour and pageantry of that great solemnity is not a piece of glorious humanism, nor a display of boastful nationalism.  In the Service of her consecration, coronation, and Communion the Queen comes, and takes us with her, in to the presence, of the living God.”

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“ . . . the Queen comes, and takes us with her, in to the presence of the living God.”  This is just what we are privileged to do!  When we walk with God, when we are filled with His Spirit, others have to be with God when they are with us!  O Lord God!  Grant that our eyes may be opened to see how great this consecration is!

“Consecration . . . coronation . . . and Communion,” were the elements of the Service that the Archbishop highlighted, and all were brought into focus. Although we do but seldom give attention to the royal diadems we wear and the crowns laid up for us, much less the chair upon which we have been seated, each of those three elements of the ceremony has bearing in our lives.

Let’s return to the wedding analogy for a moment.

A bride at the altar is a woman when she comes through the door, but she is about to be made a “wife.”  She gives her consent to it.  She and the man who waits for her there both consent to the vows of marriage.  Those present will recognize them as something that they were not before they came. The minister or priest, by duly given authority, pronounces them, “husband and wife,” which before spoken, was not a true statement.

Now, “as long as they both shall live,” they are joined together in holy matrimony – their consent to be joined together in spiritual and civil union culminates in their recognition as married people.  Her Majesty’s government and noble peers had been summoned to speak their consent to her rightful place upon St. Edward’s Chair, and to recognize her as the next consecrated monarch of the realm.

By the consent of God Most High, we are made one with Him in His Son, Jesus Christ.  We are recognized in heaven to be the people of God, the sheep of His pasture, we are in Him the House not made with human hands, the place where His glory dwells, the Bride of Christ.  It won’t do for God to be Majesty and for us to be anarchists or apathetic, either one.

We are about to see something extraordinary.  Elizabeth was Queen because her peoples recognized her as Queen and Majesty.  Throughout Europe, monarchies and dynasties fell like houses of cards in the 1800’s and early 1900’s; when the people would not have a King, they did away with their “royals.”  These former monarchs fled, mostly to England.  A few have been restored, others have not; for many, they have pedigree, but no power, no peoples, no recognition and no consent to reign.

Interestingly, the children of the very brightest movie stars are not of interest to us the way royal children are.  Perhaps it is because the culture of monarchy is so ancient that it still stirs in the imagination, even when thrones are removed, or perhaps, when God ordains a royal family, by the prayers of the Church and of the nation, they stay ordained.  Perhaps politics cannot undo ordaining!

Either way, we are about to see something that happened only once in Her Majesty’s life, as was true of many of the things that happened on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey.  Something that had to happen before she could take her place on St. Edward’s ancient throne …

“Dieu et Mon Droit: – “God is My Right” …Royal Arms

Sodacan, by permission

Day Six – The Diadem

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 7, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: . Leave a comment

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With trumpets ringing, commanding attention, the fanfare of the ancient spectacle underway, Elizabeth stepped into the nave of Westminster Abbey, dressed according to the words of the Garter King of Arms.

“The QUEEN in Her Royal Robes of Crimson Velvet, hemmed with ermine and bordered with gold lace, wearing the Collar of the Garter; on her head a Diadem of Precious Stones.”

Elizabeth wore a crown on her way to be crowned!  Well, it was a diadem in fact, the George IV Diadem.  Her father had worn it before her.  She was Royal, and she was about to be Majesty in oath, anointing, and coronation.  It had been hers to choose her gown, but her position commanded the robes, the collar, and the diadem.

We, too, wear a diadem on our way to be crowned!  We may have read the words many times over:

    “He has crowned us with lovingkindness and compassion (Psalm 103:4.)”   We are royal by re-birth and, as temples of the Holy Spirit, majestic and holy, and we are crowned now, and we will be crowned.

Our heads are not bare!  We go about, in the city, in the country, alone and in a crowd, wearing the resplendent diadem of the Lord’s pleasure and of His favor.  Our God esteems loving kindness and compassion more than all the glittering treasures of earth, and with them He has crowned us.  He knows how to beautify earth and sky and sea, and you and me!

Is this diadem less glorious because it isn’t fashioned by human hands and diamond encrusted?  We know better.  The George IV Diadem bore over 1300 diamonds, totaling more than 300 karats, an enormous weight of stones!  It flashed and sparked in even the black and white film footage of the Day.  Ours is the honor, the symbol on our heads that His Majesty, our King, has chosen for us.  Kindness, honest, unpretentious kindness, is breathtakingly beautiful when one can find it.  Our God has adorned our heads with the most costly and brilliant corona of all: kindness and compassion. 

What is majesty to us is only what is expected of us.  It isn’t beyond us because, like everything else that sets us apart, it is of God.  We can love with the love with which we have been loved … and we can show kindness and compassion just as we have received them.

We are not at liberty to be beautified with spiritual splendors and then withhold them from others.  We are crowned because we are of the household of God.  Nothing is lacking.

Queen Elizabeth wore that glittering diadem into the Abbey, but it was the venerable St. Edward’s Crown that waited on the altar, and the altar sanctified it.  We will see more and more clearly that the Coronation ceremony was a “putting on” of Regalia and vestments that were freighted with royal and spiritual power because they came from the Scripture through the Church, to the State, and sometimes delivered back to the Church to bequeath them.  When Queen Elizabeth had opened her first Parliament, the Imperial Crown was present on a royal cushion, but not on her head, awaiting the Coronation Ceremony.

We are what we have been chosen to be, but it is not yet seen what we will be, neither on earth nor in heaven.  It will be of untold value to us if we will settle the issue of our majesty.  It is not inherent, but in Christ Jesus it is ours.

Diadems and tiaras, rare ones, beautiful pieces, some old and some new, were hers to wear during the year leading up to her Coronation, and she was privileged to wear them, but a crown waited in the wings (actually, in the Tower of London, under guard!)  She wore graciousness and kindness, wisdom and strength during that first year, waiting, but she never went out bare-headed.  Neither do we.

photograph taken:

Nottingham Council House, Wikipedia

Day Five – The Trumpets, Part Two

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 6, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

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The trumpets!  What must it have been like for Elizabeth to hear them and know that their proclamation was for her?  What sober joy, like a splitting of the clouds of heaven!  We are attending her Coronation many decades later, and in print, but we hear them in our imaginations, and we know that as surely as she was called to wear a crown and receive scepters and an orb, we are called to bear the grace of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:4,) and to be resplendent with His light (2 Corinthians 4:6.)  These are not small things.

Do we say, “No, that’s not for me!” and shrink back from the burden that comes with “highness?”  Spirit of the Living God, may it never be!

From the time she entered the West Door, as she made her way up the 300-foot corridor, twelve minutes ticked past. When she reached the Theatre, where the Archbishop welcomed her into the sacred premises, she received his bow and knelt in prayer.  We have a much longer aisle to traverse, from our first faith in Jesus Christ to the day when His image will be perfected in us.  We walk in majesty, for we walk with God.

When the last offense of life has been overcome in forgiveness, when the last unkind words in our mouths have gone unspoken, when we close our eyes for the last time without any bitterness of soul or pall of regret, we will die a royal death.  We will die in our diadems.  Trumpets won’t be heard, at least not on earth, but royal highness will be there.  Against that day we will need swords and scepters and the sacred garments of humility, mercy, and kindness (Colossians 3:2.)  All this and more, and the herald of majesty as well!

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.”  (Jude 24, 25 NIV)

That is a herald of things present and things to come.

The trumpets that sounded for Elizabeth on her Coronation Day arrest our attention on the earth when we hear them!  More than trumpets, we will hear angels giving acclaim to the holiness of our God and Father.  Who can know what glories surround us even now, on the earth, each day that we live?  This must be true, because we walk with God!   Unseen majesty is still majestic, and we live and walk in the Presence of the King.  We have our being in him.  (Acts 17:28)  The First King.  The last King.  The King of Kings.

If we were to awaken each day and play Purcell’s trumpet fanfare, the one that was played for Queen Elizabeth, before we washed our faces, it would be paltry in terms of the heralds to come, but it would not be false. We are not “mere mortals” (Psalm 82:7 and 1 Corinthians 3:3)  Let trumpets sound and rocks cry out – He is Lord, and we are His Bride! 

Of all that had gone before Elizabeth on that day, looking upon all those assembled, wearing an incomparably ornate gown, having just exited a golden coach, the voice of those trumpets must have been both the most humbling and the most exalting moment she had known since her accession.  They called the nation and the world to the advent of her reign as a crowned Majesty.

To have one’s arrival, one’s very presence, announced in such a way, when music and drum roll and voices and even breathing stopped and were stilled, as every head turned and every heart beat faster, all for her sake – what could compare with it?

This will compare, and we will hear it:

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”  (Rev. 11:15)

         May we give ourselves today and every day that we live to keep our steps in the aisle that leads to this moment.  Amen, in the Name of the Lord.

Gerrit Dou, public domain – Trumpeter at a Banquet

Day Four – The Trumpets, Part One

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 4, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Westminster Abbey had been filling up since very early in the morning, at the soggy, dripping, chilly break of day.  Some peers and peeresses, those who could attend with their coronets in hand, had brought sandwiches and sweeties hidden inside so that they might not miss “elevensies,” presumably.  It was a sensible use for their headgear until the moment when the Archbishop would place St. Edward’s crown on the head of Britain’s fortieth monarch. By then, their snacks would have to be consumed so they could cover their bared heads with the emblems of their own rank.

Hours later, the Royal guests began making their way up the long aisle, finding their places, along with the designated representatives of nations.  The Crown Prince of Norway came up the aisle, Prince George of Greece, General George Marshall of the United States and Georges Bidault of France, and His Royal Highness Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand.  There were sultans and ambassadors and prime ministers and queens in attendance.

In the Sanctuary, the Regalia were being delivered from the Jerusalem Chamber.  These are the Coronation articles of royal and spiritual significance, from the Armill bracelets to St. Edward’s Crown; their names were “In the Program.”  Had the guests all gone home, had the cameras and lights all failed, the Regalia had to be present.

  The Princes and Princesses of the Blood Royal began their procession, followed by the arrival of the Queen Mother.  She was beloved of the British and the Commonwealth nations.  Ever at the side of her conscientious husband, together they had led the British people during the terrible war years.  She was always brimful of courage and unfeigned compassion.  She would arrive in those days on the scene of a bombed out building, stepping over rubble and seeking out the wounded and the grieving, the danger of a Blitzkrieg attack always present, and when the Palace was bombed, her response was, “now we can look the East End in the face.”  In their sorrow and devastation, the people were relieved by their Majesties’ nearness.  King George VI and his wife had done what they had been crowned to do, and they were loved for it.

         This, now, was her daughter’s Coronation.  Brian Barker, member of the Departmental Coronation Committee and Gold Staff Commander, wrote that he saw the Queen Mother pause for a moment, as her Mistress of the Robes gathered up her long train, to glance at the empty, ruby-red Throne beside which she had sat at her husband’s crowning and her own; no one alive knew better than she the duties and the dedication to which Elizabeth would be bound.

         A long drum roll, majestic and momentous, reverberated against the marble walls, indicating that the Orders of Chivalry had begun their march, but spines had not yet been electrified as they were about to be.  The Knights of the Realm continued their advance, and then . . . the earthly manufacture of heaven’s own instrument . . . the silver trumpets of the heralds, began to cry Her Majesty’s arrival.  Everyone knew, with no mistaking, the young Queen was at the door.

St. George’s Chapel, Windsor,

the heraldic banners

Josef Renalias