From the Rector: St. Mark's Day

18 April 2023

This Sunday we celebrate our patron St. Mark within the Third Sunday of Easter. Solemn Mass will begin with a Procession and end with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. As previously announced, the special offering for our patronal feast is designated for Family Promise of Hawai'i, and you have the option of giving directly to Family Promise via their website. St. Mark's has a long history of supporting Family Promise, and this past fall their Executive Director, Ryan Catalani, came and shared their work with the congregation.

St. Mark's was founded in memory of Queen Emma in 1908. The church is named for St. Mark, because the date of Emma's death is April 25, the feast day of St. Mark. Thus we have two patron saints; we celebrate St. Mark every April and Queen Emma in the autumn.

Those of you who enjoy the trivia associated with the church calendar know that St. Mark's Day is often a challenge to observe. When Easter Day falls later in April, many times St. Mark's Day falls within Easter Week, requiring the celebration to be transferred to a convenient weekday in the future. Thus, many times the feast of St. Mark is not celebrated on April 25. Also, during Eastertide, the feast days of saints are not to be transferred to Sundays. Sundays in Easter always take precedence.

So why are we celebrating St. Mark within an Eastertide Sunday? For a variety of practical reasons, including my sabbatical, it is necessary. Furthermore, we are not replacing the Third Sunday of Easter with the Feast of Saint Mark, but rather we are celebrating St. Mark WITHIN the Third Sunday of Easter. This nuance is key.

When you come to mass this Sunday, you will hear the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter. This year that Gospel is the Emmaus story - a gospel that is particularly well-suited for our church given our Anglo-Catholic heritage. We will also pray the Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter, along with the Collect for the Feast of Saint Mark. Elements from St. Mark's Day will be added to the Third Sunday of Easter.

You might be wondering, will we hear one of the Gospels for the Feast of Saint Mark? You may remember that we are given two choices when choosing the Gospel for St. Mark's Day - Mark 1:1-15 and Mark 16:15-20. The first choice is the beginning of St. Mark's Gospel, describing St. John the Baptist as a lion roaring in the wilderness, calling us to prepare the way of the Lord. Hence Mark is often depicted in art with a lion. The second choice is Mark's Easter proclamation at the end of the Gospel to go forth and share the good news. One of the benefits of having a Last Gospel at the mass is that on this Sunday the last Gospel will be one of the Gospels for the Feast of St. Mark. The last Gospel is not always the Prologue of John. (For instance, on Christmas Day when we hear the Prologue of John before the sermon, the Last Gospel becomes the story of the Magi from St. Matthew's Gospel.) In the case of this Sunday, we will hear Mark's proclamation to go forth and share the good news. It is the perfect ending for the mass on our patronal feast.

Finally, a word about the colors used for the church calendar. The Prayer Book does not stipulate what colors we use for what days. Nowhere in the BCP will you find a rubric dictating white is used during Eastertide. Generally the Episcopal Church follows an agreed upon color scheme traditional to the Western Churches. Thus, during Eastertide, when you go to most Episcopal churches, they will be arrayed in white. I say "most," because some churches of a low church persuasion may not even have vestments or altar hangings. The point to remember is that liturgical colors and liturgical vestments are not mandated by the BCP.

So what color will we use this Sunday? The traditional color for martyrs is red, and church tradition states that Mark was martyred. We will use red. Martyr day feasts are particularly meaningful during the Easter season, for like the blood of Christ on the cross, bringing forth Easter life, so the blood of the martyr has been the seed of the church, bringing forth growth and an abundance of faith.

Our Feast of Patron within Eastertide this Sunday will be particularly rich. To hear the Emmaus story, along with Mark's exhortation to proclaim the good news, could not be a better combination for the celebration of our life together. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the breaking of the bread, our eyes are opened and our hearts are burning, and this is the good news that we go forth to share with a world hungry for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Father Paul Lillie +