"Defend us, O Lord, from all peril and dangers of this life"

Fall is beautiful. I love the transitional seasons. But you have to have winter and summer to have fall and spring. I believe this experientially communicates something about life.

I read somewhere recently that joy is the overcoming of sorrow. I think it's the best definition of joy I've ever read. For one thing it disentangles joy from that slippery and largely facile word happiness.

And so, you can't experience joy without having experienced sorrow. Many psalms bear this out. Take Psalm 22, the opening words of which are placed on the lips of Jesus as He hangs on the Cross by the inspired authors of Mark and Matthew: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Verses 1-22 of this psalm are a song of deepest lament.

In Psalm 22, things begin to turn around starting with verse 23, with the plea: "Save me from the lion’s mouth, my poor life from the horns of wild bulls."

Saint Olaf church after evening Mass Monday, 13 October 2025, by Deacon Scott Dodge

From verse 24 on, Psalm 22 goes from being a song of heartrending lament to a song of praise, even an ode of joy! Or, in words from Psalm 30:12- "You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness."

At present, there is a lot to lament. It can easily overwhelm. But hope, which, just as joy needs to be differentiated from happiness, needs to be distinguished from optimism, sustains. Hope sustains because it is a theological virtue, a supernatural grace.

Hope remains when optimism has long since left the building because hope, like true joy, comes from God. As in all things that matter, Jesus Christ shows us this through His life, passion, death, resurrection, and sending the Spirit.

It bears noting that today we observe the Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr. Hence, one can use the Common of Pastors or of One Martyr. I always prefer the latter when these are the choices. Antiphon 2 for this Common, riffing off Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans is fitting: "The sufferings of this life cannot be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us in the life to come."

Or this from the first reading for the Office of Readings from the same Common, from 2 Corinthians (see 2 Corinthians 4:7-5:8): "We are afflicted in every way possible, but we are not crushed; full of doubts, we never despair... Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed." This is hope!

Our traditio for today reveals my Anglo-Catholic heart. It is from Greg LaFollette's lovely album Songs of Common Prayer: "Lighten Our Darkness."