Patrick Comerford
For these Sundays before, the Lectionary readings and the provisions in the Church of Ireland Directory offer two sets or options, and these may add to the confusion of planning liturgies, sermons, intercessions and the choice of hymns fot those Sundays.
Next Sunday [3 March 2019] is the Sunday before Lent, and we are offered two options: Option A follows the theme of the Transfiguration, while Option B is ‘Proper 4.’
The readings for Option A (Transfiguration) next Sunday are: Exodus 34: 29-35; Psalm 99; II Corinthians 3: 12 to 4: 2; Luke 9: 28-36, (37-43). There is a link to the readings HERE.
The readings for Option B (‘Proper 4’) are: I Kings 8: 22-23, 41-43; Psalm 96: 1-9; Galatians 1: 1-12; Luke 7: 1-10.
Dealing with confusion about the readings, once again:
Next Sunday, the Sunday before Lent, was known traditionally in the Book of Common Prayer as Quinquagesima. This name comes from the Latin quinquagesimus, meaning fiftieth. This refers to the 50 days before Easter Day, if we count both Sundays. Since the 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays, the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday comes only three days after Quinquagesima Sunday.
In the Western Church, these Sundays before Lent were a preparation for Lent: The refrain alleluia was forbidden in services, and the Alleluia acclamation at the Eucharist was replaced by the Tract, usually verses from the Psalms.
The liturgical colour was also changed, so that purple or violet vestments were worn.
In a very visible and audible way, the three Sundays before Lent became an extension to Lent, and the longer period was often called ‘the Greater Lent.’
However, while their traditional names have a certain nostalgic beauty associated with them, they have no real logical, liturgical foundation and they make no sense numerically.
In recent years, the ‘-gesima Sundays before Lent became part of Ordinary Time, and from the late 1960s on they were no longer regarded as a pre-penitential season, and this Sunday is now counted as the Sunday before Lent.
In the Revised Common Lectionary, the Sunday before Lent is designated ‘Transfiguration Sunday,’ and the Gospel reading is the story of the Transfiguration. Some Churches with lectionaries based on the RCL, use these readings but do not designate the Sunday ‘Transfiguration Sunday.’ This designation is used in the Book of Common Prayer, but is not clearly pointed out in the Church of Ireland Directory 2019. On the other hand, the traditional naming of 6 August as the Feast of the Transfiguration.
However, much confusion is created by the naming and numbering of these Sundays and the readings if we hop and move between the Book of Common Prayer, Common Worship, the Revised Common Lectionary, the Church of Ireland Directory, the readings on the Church of Ireland website, and the correlation of Sundays, readings, hymns and dates in Sing to the Word.
This confusion is compounded if people use desk diaries or pocket books produced primarily for use in the Church of England.
For clarity, these postings today and during the weeks before Lent have been based on the readings and calendar in the Church of Ireland Directory 2019 and the Book of Common Prayer (Church of Ireland, 2004).
There are obvious recipes for confusion here by picking and choosing between the two sets of readings, or by trying to follow the dates and readings in either Sing and Praise or various diaries and desk books produced primarily for use in the Church of England.
This posting seeks to bring clarity to these choices and to provide guidance by providing preaching and liturgical resources based on only on Option A in the Church of Ireland.
Introducing the Readings:
Our Sunday readings all speak about the revelation of God, and who God is, on the mountain top.
In the Old Testament reading, God is revealed to Moses, who reflects the glory of God on his face and has to veil his face from view.
In the Psalm, God is enthroned above the people and above the clouds on the hill or the top of the mountain.
Saint Paul says, in the Epistle reading, that Christ has fulfilled the law and we no longer need a veil to screen us from the vision of God, for we see him in Christ.
In the Gospel reading, the inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, ascend the mountain with Christ, and in the clouds they see that he is the God of Moses and Elijah, and the vision is so dazzling that they dazzled and overshadowed by the cloud.
When they come back down the mountain, like Moses, there is a great crowd waiting for healing that restores them to their place in the covenant with God.
Exodus 34: 29-35:
While Moses was on Mount Sinai the first time, the people of Israel, under Aaron’s leadership, made a golden image of a calf as a symbol of God. Moses was so irate when he found out what had happened, he smashed the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 32: 19). God invites Moses to ascend the mountain again to receive a new set of tablets, they speak ‘face to face’ (verse 11).
Now Moses returns back down the mountain. His face is radiant, an expression of his privileged place as servant close to God, and he reflects God’s glory. It is interesting to note that the word karan, translated ‘shining’ in verse 30, was mistakenly transcribed in some manuscript sources as keren, meaning horn. This explains why Saint Jerome translated it as ‘horns’ in the Vulgate, and why Michelangelo later sculpted Moses with horns.
Moses dons a veil (verse 33) to avoid overwhelming the people with God’s reflected glory. Again, Moses speaks with God. Earlier, we are God and Moses speak ‘face to face’ (verse 11), but here we are told that God only allowed Moses to see his back (verses 20-33).
Psalm 99:
This is a hymn of praise to God as king. The endings of verses 3, 5 and 9 may be a refrain for the worshippers as they praise God. God, on his throne above the cherubim, is to be praised by ‘all the peoples’ (verse 2).
God has helped people in their need (verses 6, 8), given them just laws (verse 7), and has punished and forgiven people where appropriate (verse 8).
Moses, Aaron and Samuel, who are named in verse 6, were known for communicating with God and were his representatives. His holy mountain (verse 9) is Mount Zion, the hill on which Jerusalem is built.
II Corinthians 3: 12 to 4: 2:
Saint Paul contrasts his ministry with that of Moses. Earlier in this letter, he says his readers, supported and enabled by the Holy Spirit, are ‘a letter of Christ,’ prepared by him and his colleagues: a letter written on ‘tablets of human hearts,’ not on ‘tablets of stone.’ This is the ‘confidence that we have through Christ’ (II Corinthians 3: 3-4). He tells his readers that the dead letter of the Law has been replaced by the living letter of the Spirit.
Saint Paul interprets the veil Moses wears in our earlier reading as a temporary sign. In the past, when people heard the Law read, they could only see God’s plans dimly or through a veil (verses 12-14). But when we turn to the Lord, we can set aside the veil and in freedom see the ‘the glory of the Lord’ (verse 18).
In Christ, there is no need to hide any more or to feel any shame (4: 1-2).
Luke 9: 28-36 (37-43a):
Lent comes late this year. Lent begins next week with Ash Wednesday. Lent is so late this year because Easter comes quite late this year, almost at the end of next month [21 April 2019].
When I was growing up, Lent was once marked by people by giving up something: children giving up sweets, some adults giving up smoking or drinking alcohol. Lent has not gone out of fashion, completely, in the Church of Ireland … well, not just yet … and the Book of Common Prayer still talks about Lent as a season of ‘Discipline and Self-Denial.’
The pivotal day between the two seasons of Christmas and Easter is Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation, which was on 2 February 2019, a full month before the beginning of Lent.
Candlemas tells the story of two old people in the Temple, Simeon and Anna, who recognise who this small Christ Child Jesus is, not just for themselves, but for the nations of the world. It is a fitting culmination to the Epiphany stories that reveal who Christ is: the stories of the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Christ and the Wedding at Cana.
These are stories of light and they are enlightening stories.
Now, before we move into Lent, we have a story of light and a revelation of who Christ is and who he is for the world. These stories that point to the Resurrection and who Christ truly is.
The Transfiguration of Christ is the fulfilment of all of the Epiphany and Theophany stories. We could say the Transfiguration is the culmination of Christ’s public life, just as his Baptism is its starting point, and his Ascension is its end. As the late Archbishop Michael Ramsey has written, ‘The Transfiguration stands as a gateway to the saving events of the Gospel.’
Part 1: Verses 28-36:
As I travel through airports, I notice how we find ourselves stuck in three moments in time: coming from somewhere in the past, either from a holiday or getting away from work; on our way to the future, that holiday or back to work; and in that moment in chaos where we find ourselves in a present filled with angst – am I going to get away, am I going to be stuck here on the ground, is my flight going to be delayed, am I going to get back?
The Transfiguration is a moment that brings the experience of the past and the promise of the future together in the moment of the present.
I saw this recently in two icons of the Transfiguration in two different places.
I was visiting a new church built in a village in the mountains above the tourist resorts in Crete in 2017. There I was shown an icon of the Transfiguration presented to that Church in 2007, shortly after it opened.
A few weeks earlier that summer [2017], I was invited to open an exhibition in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, of icons by Adrienne Lord. The poster for the exhibition, and one of the principal exhibits, was an icon of the Transfiguration.
In both icons, we see on the left, Christ leading the three disciples, Peter, James and John, up the mountain; in the centre, we see these three disciples stumbling and falling as they witness and experience the Transfiguration; and then, to the right, Christ is depicted leading these three back down the side of the mountain.
In other words, we are invited to see the Transfiguration not as a static moment but as a dynamic event. It is a living event in which we are invited to move from all in the past that weighs us down, to experience the full life that Christ offers us today, and to bring this into how we live our lives as Disciples in the future, a future that begins here and now.
The Transfiguration is both an event and a process. The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospels is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly. In our epistle reading, Saint Paul uses this same word (μεταμόρφωσις) when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18).
This metamorphosis invites us into the event of becoming what we have been created to be. This is what Orthodox writers call deification. Transfiguration is a profound change, by God, in Christ, through the Spirit. And so, the Transfiguration reveals to us our ultimate destiny as Christians, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation – to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself.
Can we describe the Transfiguration as a miracle? If so, then it is the only Gospel miracle that happens to Christ himself. Saint Thomas Aquinas speaks of the Transfiguration as ‘the greatest miracle,’ because it complements Baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven.
The Transfiguration points to Christ’s great and glorious Second Coming and the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation shall be transfigured and filled with light.
According to Saint Gregory Palamas, the light of the Transfiguration ‘is not something that comes to be and then vanishes.’ It not only prefigures the eternal blessedness that all Christians look forward to, but also the Kingdom of God already revealed, realised and come.
The Transfiguration (Theophanes of Crete, Stavronikitas Monastery, Mount Athos) ... the Transfiguration is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the ChurchPart 2: Verses 37-43a:
The second story in this Gospel reading may not seem to be related to the first story. But it is oh so intimately connected with it.
The Transfiguration is not just an Epiphany or Theophany moment for Christ, with Peter, James and John as onlookers. The Transfiguration is a story of, a miracle that reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, sees us for who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.
And immediately, then, Christ sees the potential of the child, the only son, that a distressed father is troubled and paralysed child. Christ sees the boy’s potential as the image and likeness of God and restores him to being seen as such.
When we become adults, do we love the child we have been in our childhood?
When we become adults, many of us are messed up and mess up in life, not because of what is happening in the present, but because of what has happened to us as children in the past.
Are we going to blame your problems in the future on what happened to us in the past?
In the present and the future, can we take ownership of who we have been as a child. Do we remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God? No matter what others say about us, how others judge us, how others gossip or talk about us, God sees your potential, God sees in us God’s own image and likeness, God knows we are beautiful inside and loves us, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child.
The Transfiguration ... a Romanian copy of an icon in Stavronikita Monastery in Mount AthosReflections on the Gospel reading:
But let’s be practical about the Transfiguration.
In a lecture in Cambridge some years ago [2011], Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], the pre-eminent Orthodox theologian in England, spoke of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, to the final glory of Christ’s second coming, because through the incarnation Christ raises our human nature to a new level, opens new possibilities.
The Incarnation is a new beginning for the human race, and in the Transfiguration we see not only our human nature at the beginning, but as it can be in and through Christ at the end, he told us.
But with the Transfiguration comes the invitation to bear the cross with Christ. Peter, James and John are with Christ on Mount Tabor, and they are with him in Gethsemane. We must understand the Passion of Christ and the Transfiguration in the light of each other, not as two separate mysteries, but aspects of the one single mystery. Mount Tabor and Mount Calvary go together; and glory and suffering go together.
If we are to become part of the Transfiguration, we cannot leave our cross behind. If we are to bring the secular, fallen world into the glory of Christ, that has to be through self-emptying (κένωσις, kenosis), cross-bearing and suffering. There is no answer to secularism that does not take account of the Cross, as well as taking account of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection.
The Transfiguration provides a guideline for confronting the secular world, he said. And Metropolitan Kalistos reminded us of the story from Leo Tolstoy, Three Questions. The central figure is set a task of answering three questions:
What is the most important time?
The most important time is now, the past is gone, and the future does not exist yet.
Who is the most important person?
The person who is with you at this very instant.
What is the most important task?
‘This task is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!’
The light that shone from Christ on the mountaintop is not a physical and created light, but an eternal and uncreated light, a divine light, the light of the Godhead, the light of the Holy Trinity.
The experience on Mount Tabor confirms Saint Peter’s confession of faith which reveals Christ as the Son of the Living God. Yet Christ remains fully human as ever he was, as fully human as you or me, and his humanity is not abolished. But the Godhead shines through his body and from it.
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. But at other points in his life, the glory is hidden beneath the veil of his flesh. What we see in Christ on Mount Tabor is human nature, our human nature, taken up into God and filled with the light of God. ‘So, this should be our attitude to the secular world,’ Metropolitan Kallistos said.
Or, as the Revd Dr Kenneth Leech (1939-2015) once said: ‘Transfiguration can and does occur ‘just around the corner,’ occurs in the midst of perplexity, imperfection, and disastrous misunderstanding.’
Metropolitan Kallistos spoke that day of the Transfiguration as a disclosure not only of what God is but of what we are. The Transfiguration looks back to the beginning, but also looks forward to the end, opening new possibilities.
The Transfiguration shows us what we can be in and through Christ, he told us.
In secular life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it is now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.
The Transfiguration is not just an Epiphany or a Theophany moment for Christ, with Peter, James and John as onlookers. The Transfiguration reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.
The Transfiguration is a challenge to remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God. And, no matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness, God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child. You are his beloved child in whom he is well pleased.
The Transfiguration, an early-15th century icon, now in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, attributed to Theophanes the GreekLuke 9: 28-43:
28 Ἐγένετο δὲ μετὰ τοὺς λόγους τούτους ὡσεὶ ἡμέραι ὀκτὼ [καὶ] παραλαβὼν Πέτρον καὶ Ἰωάννην καὶ Ἰάκωβον ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος προσεύξασθαι. 29 καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ προσεύχεσθαι αὐτὸν τὸ εἶδος τοῦ προσώπουαὐτοῦ ἕτερον καὶ ὁ ἱματισμὸς αὐτοῦ λευκὸς ἐξαστράπτων. 30 καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄνδρες δύο συνελάλουν αὐτῷ, οἵτινες ἦσαν Μωϋσῆς καὶ Ἠλίας, 31 οἳ ὀφθέντες ἐν δόξῃ ἔλεγον τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἤμελλεν πληροῦν ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ. 32 ὁ δὲ Πέτρος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ ἦσαν βεβαρημένοι ὕπνῳ: διαγρηγορήσαντες δὲ εἶδον τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς δύο ἄνδρας τοὺς συνεστῶτας αὐτῷ. 33 καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ διαχωρίζεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἀπ' αὐτοῦ εἶπεν ὁ Πέτρος πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, Ἐπιστάτα, καλόν ἐστιν ἡμᾶς ὧδε εἶναι, καὶ ποιήσωμεν σκηνὰς τρεῖς, μίαν σοὶ καὶ μίαν Μωϋσεῖ καὶ μίαν Ἠλίᾳ, μὴ εἰδὼς ὃ λέγει. 34 ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ἐγένετο νεφέληκαὶ ἐπεσκίαζεν αὐτούς: ἐφοβήθησαν δὲ ἐν τῷ εἰσελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν νεφέλην. 35 καὶ φωνὴ ἐγένετο ἐκ τῆς νεφέλης λέγουσα, Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἐκλελεγμένος, αὐτοῦ ἀκούετε. 36 καὶ ἐν τῷ γενέσθαι τὴν φωνὴν εὑρέθη Ἰησοῦς μόνος. καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐσίγησαν καὶ οὐδενὶ ἀπήγγειλαν ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις οὐδὲν ὧν ἑώρακαν.
37 Ἐγένετο δὲ τῇ ἑξῆς ἡμέρᾳ κατελθόντων αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους συνήντησεν αὐτῷ ὄχλος πολύς. 38 καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου ἐβόησεν λέγων, Διδάσκαλε, δέομαί σου ἐπιβλέψαι ἐπὶ τὸν υἱόν μου, ὅτι μονογενής μοί ἐστιν, 39 καὶ ἰδοὺ πνεῦμα λαμβάνει αὐτόν, καὶ ἐξαίφνης κράζει, καὶ σπαράσσει αὐτὸν μετὰ ἀφροῦ καὶ μόγις ἀποχωρεῖ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ συντρῖβον αὐτόν: 40 καὶ ἐδεήθην τῶν μαθητῶν σου ἵνα ἐκβάλωσιν αὐτό, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν. 41 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, ω γενεὰ ἄπιστος καὶ διεστραμμένη, ἕως πότε ἔσομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀνέξομαι ὑμῶν; προσάγαγε ὧδε τὸν υἱόν σου. 42 ἔτι δὲ προσερχομένου αὐτοῦ ἔρρηξεν αὐτὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον καὶ συνεσπάραξεν: ἐπετίμησεν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ, καὶ ἰάσατο τὸν παῖδα καὶ ἀπέδωκεν αὐτὸν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ. 43 ἐξεπλήσσοντο δὲ πάντες ἐπὶ τῇ μεγαλειότητι τοῦ θεοῦ.
Luke 9: 28-43 (NRSVA):
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ – not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.’ 41 Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.’ 42 While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astounded at the greatness of God.
The Transfiguration, by Jyrki Pouta, a Finnish teacher from VaajakoskiLiturgical resources:
Liturgical colour:
Option A (Transfiguration): White
Option B (Proper 4): Green
Collect
Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
Give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
or
O God, our teacher and our judge:
Enrich our hearts with the goodness of your wisdom
and renew us from within:
that all our action, all our thoughts and all our words
may bear the fruit of your transforming grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Holy God
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
May we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know
his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
or
Lord,
in this sacrament you have nourished us
with the spiritual food of the body and blood of your dear Son.
Not only with our lips
but with our lives may we truly confess his name,
and so enter the kingdom of heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
These variations may be used on the Sunday before Lent if the Transfiguration option is taken:
Penitential Kyries:
Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
For with you is the well of life:
and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Introduction to the Peace:
Christ will transfigure our human body
and give it a form like that of his own glorious body.
We are the Body of Christ. We share his peace.
(cf Philippians 3: 21, 1 Corinthians 11: 27, Romans 5: 1)
Preface:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
whose divine glory shone forth upon the holy mountain
before chosen witnesses of his majesty;
when your own voice from heaven
proclaimed him your beloved Son:
Blessing:
The God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus,
establish, strengthen and settle you in the faith:
Suggested Hymns:
The hymns suggested for this Sunday (Option A, The Transfiguration) in Sing to the Word (2000) edited by Bishop Edward Darling include:
Exodus 34: 29-35:
325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here
Psalm 99:
686, Bless the Lord, the God of our forebears
688, Come bless the Lord, God of our forebears
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
281, Rejoice, the Lord is King!
8, The Lord is king! Lift up your voice
II Corinthians 3: 12 to 4: 2:
300, Holy Spirit, truth divine
616, In my life, Lord, be glorified
195, Lord, the light of your love is shining
634, Love divine, all loves excelling
106, O Jesus, King most wonderful
490, The Spirit lives to set us free
Luke 9: 28-36 (37-43):
325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
501, Christ is the world’s true light
205, Christ, upon the mountain peak
52, Christ, whose glory fills the skies
331, God reveals his presence
209, Here in this holy time and place
101, Jesus, the very thought of thee
195, Lord, the light of your love is shining
102, Name of all majesty
60, O Jesus, Lord of heavenly grace
449, Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour, thee
112, There is a Redeemer
374, When all thy mercies, O my God
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The Transfiguration ... a fresco in an Orthodox church in the US
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