Pax et Bonum
The online worship resource from St. James Parish
It's a dangerous business going out your front door.
JRR Tolkein
Love Much.
There is no waste in freely giving;
More blessed is it even, than to receive.
He who loves much, alone finds life worth living;
Love on, through doubt and darkness;
And believe there is no thing
Which Love may not achieve.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laid Up
This week is not going according to plan. After a long and stressful week in California on family business, I looked forward to returning to my family and to St. James. I wasn't here 24 hours, however, when I discovered the truth of Tolkein's statement: "It's a dangerous business going out your front door." I took two stairs when I only meant to take one, and am laid up with two sprained ankles.
As food for meditation this week, here is an excerpt from CS Lewis' book The Problem of Pain (appropriate, don't you think?) entitled, Amazing Love, how can it be?
In want, my plentiful supply;
In weakness, my Almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect liberty
My light in Satan's darkest hour;
In grief, my joy unspeakable;
My life in death, my heaven in hell.
Charles Wesley
It's a dangerous business going out your front door.
JRR Tolkein
Love Much.
There is no waste in freely giving;
More blessed is it even, than to receive.
He who loves much, alone finds life worth living;
Love on, through doubt and darkness;
And believe there is no thing
Which Love may not achieve.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laid Up
This week is not going according to plan. After a long and stressful week in California on family business, I looked forward to returning to my family and to St. James. I wasn't here 24 hours, however, when I discovered the truth of Tolkein's statement: "It's a dangerous business going out your front door." I took two stairs when I only meant to take one, and am laid up with two sprained ankles.
As food for meditation this week, here is an excerpt from CS Lewis' book The Problem of Pain (appropriate, don't you think?) entitled, Amazing Love, how can it be?
When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God LOVES man: not that He has some 'disinterested', because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort o fhis guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their creator's eyes.
In want, my plentiful supply;
In weakness, my Almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect liberty
My light in Satan's darkest hour;
In grief, my joy unspeakable;
My life in death, my heaven in hell.
Charles Wesley
Debra's Midweek Meditation
Christ's Healing Touch
"A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!"
Mark 1:40-41
Today we have a short story of infinite power--the healing by Jesus of a leper.
The leper recognizes Jesus' power to heal when he says, "if you choose."
Jesus acknowledges the leper's faith when he says, "I do choose."
A person could spend the rest of their waking moments meditating on those three words,
"I do choose."
This is a statement of compassion, understanding and love. It is a statement of action which is then followed by a healing touch.
We hear a lot about healing touch in modern society--medicine and alternative medicine seem to be coming back to this ancient understanding of the NEED human beings have for communication through touch.
And here is Jesus-2000 years ago employing what may seem both modern and miraculous to us today.
His willingness to touch the "untouchable" goes a long way toward understanding what kind of God we are worshipping.
Jesus the Christ, in this moment, is the God of miracles and the God of those who feel cast out.
Are there people that we need to touch today with Christ's power and compassion?
Are we people who need to be touched today?
Blessings to you,
"A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!"
Mark 1:40-41
Today we have a short story of infinite power--the healing by Jesus of a leper.
The leper recognizes Jesus' power to heal when he says, "if you choose."
Jesus acknowledges the leper's faith when he says, "I do choose."
A person could spend the rest of their waking moments meditating on those three words,
"I do choose."
This is a statement of compassion, understanding and love. It is a statement of action which is then followed by a healing touch.
We hear a lot about healing touch in modern society--medicine and alternative medicine seem to be coming back to this ancient understanding of the NEED human beings have for communication through touch.
And here is Jesus-2000 years ago employing what may seem both modern and miraculous to us today.
His willingness to touch the "untouchable" goes a long way toward understanding what kind of God we are worshipping.
Jesus the Christ, in this moment, is the God of miracles and the God of those who feel cast out.
Are there people that we need to touch today with Christ's power and compassion?
Are we people who need to be touched today?
Blessings to you,
Debra
Hunger and thirst, O Christ, for sight of Thee,
Came between me and all the feasts of earth,
Give Thou Thyself the Bread, Thyself the Wine,
Thou, sole provision for the unknown way.
(Radbod of Utrecht)
Came between me and all the feasts of earth,
Give Thou Thyself the Bread, Thyself the Wine,
Thou, sole provision for the unknown way.
(Radbod of Utrecht)
This Week at St. James:
Sunday 12th: 2:00 meeting at St. David's for those going to Honduras.
Monday 13th: Chronicles of Narnia study begins
Tuesday 14th: Vestry Meeting, 7:30 pm
Prayers, Etc.:
For those on our prayer list:
Ellie Anna Nancy Tony Joel Arabella Mark Rudoph
Tamara Dave MLI Owen Kent Jeffrey Brittany
Bill Jason David Debbie Sue Fred W.
Mac W. Leib and Carlyn Lovisah Drew Nealy
For our seminarian Laura, and her husband Lyle.
For those who are deployed and their families.
In Closing:
Sunday 12th: 2:00 meeting at St. David's for those going to Honduras.
Monday 13th: Chronicles of Narnia study begins
Tuesday 14th: Vestry Meeting, 7:30 pm
Prayers, Etc.:
For those on our prayer list:
Ellie Anna Nancy Tony Joel Arabella Mark Rudoph
Tamara Dave MLI Owen Kent Jeffrey Brittany
Bill Jason David Debbie Sue Fred W.
Mac W. Leib and Carlyn Lovisah Drew Nealy
For our seminarian Laura, and her husband Lyle.
For those who are deployed and their families.
In Closing:
A Franciscan Benediction
May God bless you with Discomfort...
at Easy Answers, Half-Truths, and Superficial Relationships,
so that you may live Deep Within Your Heart.
at Easy Answers, Half-Truths, and Superficial Relationships,
so that you may live Deep Within Your Heart.
May God bless you with Anger...at Injustice, Oppression, and Exploitation of People,
so that you may work for Justice, Freedom, and Peace.
May God bless you with Tears...
to shed for those who suffer from Pain, Rejection,
Starvation, and War,
So that You may reach out Your Hand to Comfort them
and to turn their Pain into Joy.
to shed for those who suffer from Pain, Rejection,
Starvation, and War,
So that You may reach out Your Hand to Comfort them
and to turn their Pain into Joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness...to Believe that You can Make a Difference in this World,
so that You can DO
what others claim cannot be Done.
+ Amen
Pax et Bonum,
Loree+
Loree+