A Word from the Fifth Rector

Underlying the widespread sentiment felt for "The Little Church Around the Corner" is the rock-solid theology that led to the foundation of this parish church, with its dedication to the mystery of our Lord's Transfiguration. Together, these two names for our church capture the theologically polar dimensions of immanence and transcendence that inhere paradoxically in the Christian experience of God.

Immanence is found within the nurturing walls of our parish church, in the pastoral care, in the extended family parish life, and in the very architecture of the place. On any fair and pleasant day men, women, and children can be seen in great numbers, making their way up our garden walk and through the church portals to pray before one of our altars. When you visit New York City, we hope that you will join us either for Sunday or for daily worship (We offer four daily services every day of the week.) or for prayer and meditation in the hallowed silence of this beloved haven of peace.

God's transcendent power and glory often confront us as we worship before the blazing magnificence of our Transfiguration high altar and reredos. The timeless music of the Christian Church, sung by our choir of boys and men (the oldest such choir in New York City) lifts our hearts and minds, week by week at the Solemn Eucharist on all Sundays and on major holy days of the Christian year. More than once worshipers here have uttered something similar to the astonished testimony of Jacob after his transcendent vision of the ladder of angels reaching from earth to heaven, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Few have come here in honest quest and gone away unrewarded by the experience of renewal, refreshment, and Divine love. For here in our worship, we offer "ourselves, our souls, and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice ," along with the eternal sacrifice of the eternal Son of God. We offer ourselves in order to participate in our Lord's divine mission in which he makes all created things new.

Even as Christ on Mount Tabor stood transfigured before the eyes of the Apostles Peter, James, and John, so Christ's Church lives in the world as a transfigured sign of the cosmic work of our Lord and Master. The commendatory words of God the Father at the Transfiguration of Jesus-"This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him."-summon the Church in this and every age to her highest mission. This vocation, to be the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, fulfills God's mandate to us here at the "Little Church."

May we ever be faithful to our calling to manifest the glory of the transfigured Christ amidst the intimacy and simplicity of daily charity, grounded in the lively hope of our Lord's cross and resurrection. In the words of our motto: Fides Opera, Faith and Works. The two become one, united as they are in the Mystical Body, of which Jesus Christ is head and we, and all baptized people, are members.

The Rev. Norman J. Catir
Rector Emeritus

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