My soul doth magnify the Lord, *
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded *
the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth *
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me, *
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him *
throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; *
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, *
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, *
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever. Book of Common Prayer, p. 65
Dear People of St. David’s,
One Easter afternoon over 60 years ago, a young graduate student went into an Episcopal church for Evensong (sung evening prayer) and heard the choir sing Mary’s song. Like many young men of his day, it had seemed wisest to continue as a student even after getting a degree; the war in Vietnam was escalating. He was struggling to decide what to do in life. Although once active in the Congregational church, now he wasn’t even convinced that God existed.
Yet that day, in the beautiful music, he felt the presence of God. In the prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he felt the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and before too long he entered Episcopal Theological School in Boston, and the process to become a priest of the church.
Three years later, Jonathan Myrick Daniels attended evening prayer in the seminary chapel. He heard Mary’s song again and set it against the call of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to come to Selma, Alabama to register Black voters. And so, during that spring break, he and a group of fellow students went south. He worked, prayed, and made friends. He stayed on through the end of the semester and thought he might take the next year off to continue the work.
On August 14, 1965, Jonathan and members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were arrested for picketing whites-only stores. They spent some frightening days in an un-air-conditioned jail in Hayneville, Alabama. Released on the evening of August 20, he and three others, a Roman Catholic priest and two Black women, tried to find something to eat and drink while waiting for those who were coming to pick them up. They came near a convenience store, and a white special deputy was barring the way, holding a shotgun, which he aimed at one of the women, a teenager named Ruby Sales. Jonathan stepped in front of her, took the bullet, and died immediately. The others ran away, and another shot paralyzed the priest.
In 2015, on the fiftieth anniversary of Jonathan Daniels’ martyrdom, I made a pilgrimage with some of his classmates from ETS. We walked from the jail, to the convenience store, to the courthouse where the trial was held and Daniels’ killer was acquitted. I sat on the floor of the packed courtroom, where Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry preached, and Holy Eucharist was celebrated. Later that summer, I heard Ruby Sales preach at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Keene, New Hampshire, his hometown. I stood next to his grave as it was rededicated. That fall, I visited Washington National Cathedral where a stone carving of Jonathan Daniels’s head was added to a doorway on their “Human Rights Porch.”
“Lord, teach us to pray,” beg Jesus’ disciples. He responds with what we call “the Lord’s Prayer.” Many of us pray those words (in our own translations) daily. Remembering the witness of Jonathan Daniels, I realize that Jesus knew how to pray because his mother taught him. Mary must have sung with Jesus in the same words that two millennia later would inspire Jonathan Daniels to live and die for the people of God.
The church celebrates Jonathan Daniels on August 14. This sixtieth year since his martyrdom, we remember his powerful witness to the love of Jesus and the hard and holy work to right injustice. Let us also be inspired by Mary’s prayer. Let us join her praise and let us join the work.
Faithfully,
Nancy+
The Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud
Priest Associate
Published on August 7, 2025.