Friday, December 1, 2023

Older and Newer Called Ones

Continuing with the November trend at this blog of exploring feasts related to saints, I wanted to feature two Christians this week. St. Andrew, one of the Apostles, is commemorated on November 30. C. S. Lewis, at least for Anglicans and Episcopalians, is optionally commemorated on the 29th. This post will be a little shorter than normal, and will hopefully whet your appetite to learn more about these called ones as well as your own calling.




St. Andrew

Canonized very early on, Andrew the Apostle died late in the first century AD (60-70). Relative to the death/martyrdom dates of the other Apostles, he was somewhere in the middle. According to an apocryphal source, he died over 3 days while preaching the entire time.
  • Bartholomew--unknown, potentially along with Philip
  • James--unknown due to apocryphal or pseudoepigraphal traditions
  • Jude--unknown
  • Matthias--unknown due to obscurity
  • Judas Iscariot--33 AD (suicide)
  • James--44 AD
  • Matthew--60 AD
  • Simon the Zealot--61-65 AD
  • Andrew--60-70 AD
  • Peter--64 AD
  • Paul--before 68 AD
  • Thomas--72 AD
  • Philip--80 AD (confused sometime with Philip the Evangelist)
  • John--98 AD or after (old age)
Tradition holds that Andrew was the first called by Jesus. As such, the LCMS congregation I grew up in developed a St. Andrew Society for acolytes who continued to serve after confirmation. The medallion has gone missing over the years, but here's a St. Andrew icon.




Although St. Andrew did not write anything that we know of, there are texts written of him. If you use the Book of Common Prayer, here are the appointed readings:
Additionally, if your congregation has a service commemorating the red-letter feast day, there is a collect:

"Almighty God, you gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever."

C. S. Lewis


Clive Staples Lewis (b. 1898, d. on JFK's assassination date), understandably abbreviating his name to his initials in most writing, was a prolific reader and writer whose commemoration in the Episcopal tradition started in his year of death (1963), is listed in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer as a Teacher of the Faith. I have written elsewhere about some of his writing. Because he is not canonized as a saint (though he is of course a saint in the Christian sense), he does not have any Daily Office readings in the printed version of the BCP, but there are readings and a collect in the online version.
Collect:

Almighty God, you gave your servant C. S. Lewis special gifts of grace to understand and speak the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

What Did He Write?


Lots of things! I've listed a few samples from each category that I could find, some of which I've read and some I haven't.

Apologetics works:
  • The Problem of Pain
  • Miracles

Poetry:
  • The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (anthology)

Fantasy literature for children
  • Chronicles of Narnia!

Fantasy literature for adults
  • Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength
  • The Great Divorce

Articles/other scholarship
  • English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama
  • Studies in Words

Book reviews
  • Contained in: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Prefaces to older books
  • A Preface to Paradise Lost
  • Arthurian Torso
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