To Be A Pilgrim (midweek message)

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

To Be a Pilgrim

August 29, 2018

In the Episcopal Church’s saints calendar, today is the commemoration of John Bunyan (1628-88).  A puritan soldier in the Parliamentary Army in the English Civil War, he later was a prisoner of conscience under the British monarchy restored in 1660.   He was found guilty of leading public worship not conforming to the Book of Common Prayer and following the bishops of the Church of England.    During one of his prison stays he wrote the great allegorical novel The Pilgrim’s Progress, describing the journey of Christian, an everyman character representing each believer, from his home in the “City of Destruction” through various scenes of temptation and trial, including the “Slough of Despond,” to the “Celestial City” atop Mount Zion.  In part two, Bunyan wrote a short hymn that summarized his thoughts, one that later was edited by Percy Dearmer and given the form you find in our current hymnal (numbers 564 and 565):

He who would valiant be 'gainst all disaster
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There's no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound - his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I'll fear not what men say
I'll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony