Protest and Pilgrimage for Freedom for the Conversion of Region, State, and Nation

Come and join Charlie Deist and me on the March for Eternal Life. We walk and we pray the palms in the weekend of the Octave of Pentecost. Details from Charlie at anaturalmethod.com/march.

This is a march for freedom in these times of Covid and we are asking for the Holy Spirit to give us divine wisdom and courage so that we can be soldiers for Christ in the spiritual battle.

We will sing a traditional hymn the Troparion of the Holy Cross and a Psalms eight times during the day, followin the traditional pattern of the Divine Office by which we sanctify the day. By ordering our work to the pattern of Christ (8) and the Holy Spirit (50) as baptized Christians we enter into the Mystery of the Trinity (3) and hope to draw others into the joyful path we tread.

In the Troparion, we pray to God for victory for our nation over its enemies. The measure of that victory, if it comes from God, is peace.

The path of the walk is through the beautiful countryside of Marin County, north of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. We start at Point Reyes and end in San Francisco having walked across the bridge.

Day 1 - 22.8 miles

7:30 - 8 am - Bear Valley Trailhead

12:00 - 1 pm - Palomarin Trailhead (lunch)

2:30 - 3 pm - Downtown Bolinas

5 pm - Stinson Beach (Swimming and barbecue)

Day 2 - 27.2 miles

7:30 am - 8 am - Stinson Beach

11 - 11:15 am - Muir Woods

2 - 2:15 pm - Tennessee Valley Trailhead

5:15 - 5:30pm - Golden Gate Bridge View Vista Point (North)

7:30 pm - Aquatic Park Cove (Swimming + celebration dinner)

The numerical symbolism.

Traditionally it was believed that the degree that we seek to adopt, consciously, the pattern of the Light and of Christ as best we can grasp it and live it in this world we are living the pattern of beauty which impresses its order on our hearts. If we consciously conform to a principle of beauty, then our instincts to do what is good and beautiful will develop.

We use the numbers eight, three, and 50 to govern the pattern of beauty for our March for Eternal life. 

Eight is the governing number of beauty in music. The eight-note scale, the octave, is the key to all musical harmony. 

It also has a spiritual beauty:

Christ is the “eighth day” of creation, who by his life, death and resurrection ushers in the new covenant. Seven is the number of the old covenant, and eight is the number of the new covenant. We celebrate his Resurrection on the eighth day of the week, which is simultaneously the first day of the week, that is, Sunday. Jesus is the Rising Sun, rising in the East, the orient, to whom we orient our prayer. The rising sun is the symbol of the second coming of the Light, the Son of God in majesty. 

Similarly, the seven petitions in the Lord’s prayer are really eight petitions, for the fourth “Give us this day our daily bread,” has a double meaning. It means our daily food for physical nourishment and the body of Christ in the Eucharist for our spiritual nourishment. Again, the pattern of eight draws us into an understanding of the words of the prayer.

When we lead a life that revolves around a weekly cycle of Sunday Mass it is ordered to the Eighth Day, which is a repeated Octave of Easter throughout the year. In the Church’s liturgy, an ‘octave’ is a reference to the commemoration of a feast or even eight days after the first. It is analogous to a musical scale: just as we go higher in pitch eight times until we progress from Middle C to high C, and we come to a point where the note is higher but has the same quality, that of C. So, we move from Easter to the following Sunday, marching on in time one day at a time. The second Sunday is eight days later but has the same quality, that of the Resurrection. Every Sunday is, in effect, an Octave of Easter, and the Sunday of 30th of May is simultaneously the Octave of Pentecost, and as a Sunday, an Octave of Easter.

There are seven weeks in Lent in the approach to Easter, and including Easter Sunday, eight Sundays to Pentecost after easter. Seven is the number of the old covenant, and eight is the number of the new. The number 15 is the sum of seven and eight. St Thomas Aquinas said that the Book of Psalms contains all of theology and that is why it is sung in our worship. There are 150 psalms reflecting a division of 70 and 80, proportioned to the old and new covenants, just as with the seasons of Lent and East with Pascha - Easter at the division. 

If we pray the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office) we pray the traditional pattern of prayer for that sanctifies the day, and we are participating in the daily cycle of prayer of the Church. Praying the Hours was seen traditionally as a process of tithing time – giving an appropriate proportion of the day to God. Following the ancient Jewish practice of praising God, “seven times a day” and “at midnight” Christians since the time of the Apostles have prayed eight occasions of prayer in the day. The more we can order our external lives to this pattern of prayer, as part of the Christian life, the more that we order our spirits and our hearts – where the spiritual and material are enjoined – to Christ. If we cannot manage the whole monastic Office, which is long and complicated - and most of us cannot - we might perhaps aim to mark each hour each day with a single psalm. Traditionally some psalms are said every day at particular Offices (another word for Hours), and so one might start there with a reduced version of each Office based upon this, as described below.

For our March for Eternal Life, every ‘Hour’ or occasion of prayer during the day has the following similar structure. We face East and sing the following:

1. Trisagion Prayers

2. Troparia of the Holy Cross

3. Psalm of the Hour 

4. Petitions and Closing Prayer

All can join in and it takes 10 minutes each time.

Trisagion Prayers

Glory to thee, O God, glory to thee.

O heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come, and abide in us and cleanse us from every stain and save our souls, O Good One.

+Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

+Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

+Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

+Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, cleanse us from our sins. Master, pardon our iniquities. Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

+Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

Troparia of the Holy Cross

Oh Lord save Your people and bless your inheritance. Grant victory to our country over its enemies, and preserve your community by the power of your cross.

Oh Christ our God who chose by Your free volition to be elevated upon the holy Cross, grant Your mercies to Your new people who are called by Your name; in Your power gladden the hearts of our civil authorities; strengthen them in every good deed so that Your true alliance may be for them a weapon of peace and a standard of victory. 

O dread Champion who cannot be put to confusion, despise not our petitions. O Good one, all lauded Theotokos, establish the way of those who hold the orthodox faith; save those you have called to rule over us; bestow upon them victory from heaven; for You gave birth to God, O only blessed one. 

Psalm of the Hour 

Our plan is to sing eight offices in the course of the walking, so sanctifying our day’s pilgrimage. So we will amend the timings to suit this. .

Matins (midnight interrupting sleep, or the very first prayer on awakening) Psalm 120(121); 

Prime (around 6 or 7 am) Psalm 5; 

Lauds (main prayer in the morning) Psalm 62(63); Psalm 50(51)

Terce (around 9 am) Psalm 24(25); 

Sext (around midday) Psalm 53(54); 

None (around 3 pm) Psalm 83(84) Psalm 50(51)

Vespers (evening) Psalm 103(104); 

Compline (before bed) Psalm 50(51); 

Notice that Psalm 50 is sung three times during the day. Is a psalm of repentance and God’s mercy and a prophecy of salvation through baptism. It is also a teaching about worship in sprit. It is considered a liturgical deposit of gold in the Church, expressing the most basic things that need to be said by the faithful before their God. It is best learned and understood through its use in prayer. In the context of our pilgrimage of Pentecost, it is fitting that this pivotal psalm is numbered 50, connecting it to the day and the Holy Spirit. As one of the three persons of the Trinity it is fitting that it is said three times, and the 3 X 50 = 150 the number of the psalms and of the book that contains all of theology.