John Mason Neale
Daily Reading for August 7 • John Mason Neale, Priest, 1866
With particular gifts as a hymn writer, Neale was responsible for English translations of many notable hymns from both the Greek and Latin traditions, as well as writing many original compositions. . . . He had a particular interest in the Eastern Church and his writings and translations of Eastern hymns helped to make Orthodox history, theology, and devotion known to Anglicans.
The Ascension and Pentecost
Holy gift, surpassing comprehension!
Wound’rous mystery of each fiery tongue!
Christ made good His Promise in Ascension:
O’er the Twelve the cloven flames have hung! . . .
O that shame, now ended in that glory!
Pain untold, now lost in joy unknown!
Tell it out with praise, the whole glad story,
Human nature at the Father’s Throne! . . .
Eternal! After Thine own will
Thou born in time would’st be:
After the self-same counsel still
was Thine Epiphany:
Thou in our flesh didst yield Thy breath,
Immortal God, for man:
Thou by Thy death didst conquer Death,
Through Thine Almighty plan:
Thou, rising Victor to the sky,
Fill’st Heav’n and earth above:
And send’st the Promise from on high,
The Spirit of Thy love!
From “The Ascension and Pentecost” and an introduction to John Mason Neale, in Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness compiled by Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams (Oxford, 2001).
Two other wonderful thing about John Mason Neale were
1. his unwavering support for women's vocations at a time when church (and to some extent civil authority) believed a single adult women could not make a life commitment without the approval of either her father or, if her father was no longer living, her brother, Neale welcomed women taking life vows in the Community of St. Margaret where their risky work was as live-in nurses (trained with Nightingale) with England's rural poor. The Community of St. Margaret was unusual among the 19th century women's communities in Anglicanism in being headed by a woman (rather than a founding male priest),
and
2. his fierce commitment to lay people's experience and respect for ordinary workers, old pensioners, and tradesmen. He wrote 'Good King Wenceslas' from that love and for their delight. The workers who built St. Margaret's original convent also reported awe and delight that a priest would take such interest in their work.
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August 7, 2008 11:02 PM