Pax et Bonum
The online worship resource from St. James Parish
The online worship resource from St. James Parish
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
Einstein
is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
Einstein
Lord, you are like a wild flower.
You spring up in places where we least expect you.
The bright colour of your grace dazzles us.
When we reach down to pluck you,
Hoping to possess you for our own,
You blow away in the wind.
And if we tried to destroy you,
By stamping on you and kicking you,
You would come back to life.
Lord, may we come to expect you anywhere and everywhere.
May we rejoice in your beauty.
Far from trying to possess you,
May you possess us.
(Henry Suso, "Like a Wild Flower")
Today is the Feast day of Thomas Bray.
Bray was an Anglican priest. In 1698, he was sent by the Bishop of London to report on the condition of the church in the colony of Maryland.
In the ten weeks he spent in Maryland, he reorganized the church by providing for instruction for the children in each parish, and the systematic examination of those who were candidates for ordination. Bray was responsible, along with a group of friends at home, for the formation of SPCK, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which continues today as the third oldest publishing house in England. Bray also founded a missionary society, SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), which is also still active today.
Bray had a deep desire to see that the "gross ignorance of the principles of the Christian religion" which he saw around him was counteracted through education and the publishing of Christian Literature. Today, SPCK sends books to missionaries and seminaries in many countries that could not otherwise afford to have a theological library. Many of the books on my shelf were bought at the monthly "SPCK Book sale" at seminary, in which we could buy books donated to the society, and the society used these funds to purchase and ship books overseas. Thomas Bray's dedication to Christian formation has had a long-reaching effect, and it all began because of one man's faithful journey to Maryland.
Collect for Thomas Bray:
O God of compassion, who opened the eyes of your servant Thomas Bray to see the needs of the Church in the New World, and led him to found societies to meet those needs: Make the church in this land diligent at all times to propagate the Gospel among those who have not received it, and to promote the spread of Christian knowledge; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
Blessings of a Different Kind
This week I have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and care shown to me and to my family by the community of St. James. Thank you to the many people who have brought food, flowers, and friendship while I have been housebound. The word from the orthopedist is that my left ankle is a "normal sprain," while in the right ankle there are torn ligaments involved. So, for the next four weeks, I'll be in a "moon boot" brace, and then a smaller one after that.
Once again, I find myself remembering John Lennon's words: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."
This week I have been reading Henri Noewen's book, "The Life of the Beloved." Noewen wrote this for a Jewish friend who asked him to "speak to us about the deepest yearning of our hearts." There is much food for thought in this small book, and I share an excerpt with you:
You spring up in places where we least expect you.
The bright colour of your grace dazzles us.
When we reach down to pluck you,
Hoping to possess you for our own,
You blow away in the wind.
And if we tried to destroy you,
By stamping on you and kicking you,
You would come back to life.
Lord, may we come to expect you anywhere and everywhere.
May we rejoice in your beauty.
Far from trying to possess you,
May you possess us.
(Henry Suso, "Like a Wild Flower")
Today is the Feast day of Thomas Bray.
Bray was an Anglican priest. In 1698, he was sent by the Bishop of London to report on the condition of the church in the colony of Maryland.
In the ten weeks he spent in Maryland, he reorganized the church by providing for instruction for the children in each parish, and the systematic examination of those who were candidates for ordination. Bray was responsible, along with a group of friends at home, for the formation of SPCK, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which continues today as the third oldest publishing house in England. Bray also founded a missionary society, SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), which is also still active today.
Bray had a deep desire to see that the "gross ignorance of the principles of the Christian religion" which he saw around him was counteracted through education and the publishing of Christian Literature. Today, SPCK sends books to missionaries and seminaries in many countries that could not otherwise afford to have a theological library. Many of the books on my shelf were bought at the monthly "SPCK Book sale" at seminary, in which we could buy books donated to the society, and the society used these funds to purchase and ship books overseas. Thomas Bray's dedication to Christian formation has had a long-reaching effect, and it all began because of one man's faithful journey to Maryland.
Collect for Thomas Bray:
O God of compassion, who opened the eyes of your servant Thomas Bray to see the needs of the Church in the New World, and led him to found societies to meet those needs: Make the church in this land diligent at all times to propagate the Gospel among those who have not received it, and to promote the spread of Christian knowledge; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
Blessings of a Different Kind
This week I have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and care shown to me and to my family by the community of St. James. Thank you to the many people who have brought food, flowers, and friendship while I have been housebound. The word from the orthopedist is that my left ankle is a "normal sprain," while in the right ankle there are torn ligaments involved. So, for the next four weeks, I'll be in a "moon boot" brace, and then a smaller one after that.
Once again, I find myself remembering John Lennon's words: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."
This week I have been reading Henri Noewen's book, "The Life of the Beloved." Noewen wrote this for a Jewish friend who asked him to "speak to us about the deepest yearning of our hearts." There is much food for thought in this small book, and I share an excerpt with you:
"The unfathomable mystery of God is that God is a Lover who wants to be loved. The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being. God not only says, "you are my Beloved." God also asks: "Do you love me?" and offers us countless chances to say, "Yes." That is the spiritual life: the chance to say "Yes" to our inner truth. The spiritual life, thus understood, radically changes everything. Being born and growing up, leaving home and finding a career, being praised and being rejected, walking and resting, praying and playing, becoming ill and being healed yes, living and dying they all become expressions of that divine question: 'Do you love me?' And at every point of the journey there is the choice to say 'yes' and the choice to say 'no.'
."…Where does all this lead us? I think that it leads us back to the place we come from, the 'place' of God. We are sent into this world for a short time to say through the joys and pains of our clock time the great 'yes' to the love that has been given to us and in so doing return to the One who sent us with that "yes" engraved on our hearts
Seeking God
You want to seek God with all your life,
And love Him with all your heart…
To choose God is to realize that you are known and loved
In a way surpassing anything one can imagine, loved before anyone had thought of you or spoken your name."
Rule for a New Brother
Debra's Midweek Meditation
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven'
Mark 2:5
The healing of the paralytic is a story of many dimensions. It is a story about people who care enough to make sure their friend is seen by the One who can heal.
It is about turning a request for one kind of healing into an answer of deeper healing.
It is about turning the world of the scribes upside down as they struggle to confine the power of God to a set of specific rules.
What strikes me today in this story is the theme of carrying.
The friends carry the paralytic--they shoulder his burden for him and with him.
Jesus carries the power of healing as well as the weight of authority to heal.
There are many times when I have witnessed people carrying others--a mother or father carrying their child, pallbearers carrying a casket, nurses carrying a frail elder, grooms carrying brides.
Cast your own mind over memories and remember when you have carried someone or been carried by someone.
In our story and images the carrying is done out of love and concern. It creates a bond of closeness with the one being carried. It relieves both of us, for the moment, of too much self-orientation as we are physically connected to another.
Last week we contemplated healing touch--this week another kind of physical intimacy reminds us of how much God wants to touch us, and heal us, and love us.
Christ carried the cross.
For all of us.
His burden and our freedom.
What will you carry for another today?
Blessings,
Debra
You want to seek God with all your life,
And love Him with all your heart…
To choose God is to realize that you are known and loved
In a way surpassing anything one can imagine, loved before anyone had thought of you or spoken your name."
Rule for a New Brother
Debra's Midweek Meditation
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven'
Mark 2:5
The healing of the paralytic is a story of many dimensions. It is a story about people who care enough to make sure their friend is seen by the One who can heal.
It is about turning a request for one kind of healing into an answer of deeper healing.
It is about turning the world of the scribes upside down as they struggle to confine the power of God to a set of specific rules.
What strikes me today in this story is the theme of carrying.
The friends carry the paralytic--they shoulder his burden for him and with him.
Jesus carries the power of healing as well as the weight of authority to heal.
There are many times when I have witnessed people carrying others--a mother or father carrying their child, pallbearers carrying a casket, nurses carrying a frail elder, grooms carrying brides.
Cast your own mind over memories and remember when you have carried someone or been carried by someone.
In our story and images the carrying is done out of love and concern. It creates a bond of closeness with the one being carried. It relieves both of us, for the moment, of too much self-orientation as we are physically connected to another.
Last week we contemplated healing touch--this week another kind of physical intimacy reminds us of how much God wants to touch us, and heal us, and love us.
Christ carried the cross.
For all of us.
His burden and our freedom.
What will you carry for another today?
Blessings,
Debra
Silent Prayer
Eyes closed, we sit in silence,
Three women praying.
Seeking your voice, we go within.
Silent, we hear our breathing.
I see you on the cross,
Arms open for the world.
Your body suffering for us all.
I understand your humanity.
I believe your divinity.
As always, I pray for strength,
Strength to overcome timidity,
Strength to do what I must for family,
For friends, for you.
I am still; I listen.
I hear you say, "I am your strength"
I say to you, "You are my redeemer"
My Lord, My God.
Eyes closed, we sit in silence,
Three women praying.
Seeking your voice, we go within.
Silent, we hear our breathing.
I see you on the cross,
Arms open for the world.
Your body suffering for us all.
I understand your humanity.
I believe your divinity.
As always, I pray for strength,
Strength to overcome timidity,
Strength to do what I must for family,
For friends, for you.
I am still; I listen.
I hear you say, "I am your strength"
I say to you, "You are my redeemer"
My Lord, My God.
Mrs. Sallie Cheavens Verette, from Women's Uncommon Prayers
Daily Morning Prayer:
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/morning_prayer.htm
Daily Morning Prayer:
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/morning_prayer.htm
This Week at St. James
Sunday: David Eastman and Diana Schaekel will be married in the 9:00 liturgy
Monday: Holiday: office closed.
Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Eucharist in the Meditation Chapel
Women's Bible Study
Coming February 27: Narnia Book study begins at 10:00 a.m. We are beginning with "The Magician's Nephew. Come join us in the parish library.
Prayers, Etc.
For those on our prayer list:
Ellie Anna Nancy Tony Joel Arabella
Mark Rudolph Tamara Dave MLI Owen Kent Jeffrey Brittany Bill Jason David Debbie
Sue Fred W. Mac W. Leib and Carlyn Lovisah
Drew Nealey Lt. C. Adrian Bogart Keith
Hannah Justin Mary Fox Bernie Clayton Family
Ron Donovan K.
Our Seminarian Laura and her husband Lyle.
All those who are deployed and their families.
In Closing:
The love of Christ is not a different love from the eternal fire in the heart of God or that which flows between the three persons of the Trinity. We are loved passionatey by God. The self-sacrificing love between the three persons is the joy at the centre of God. What is the response from us to such love? To silently wonder. We enter into the ebb and flow of this divine love. The Holy Spirit enables us to know something of the reality of this live in the depths of our hearts.
Ralph Wouldham
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
Wherever he may send you,
May he guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing
At the wonders he has shown you,
May he bring you home rejoicing
Once again into our doors.
Pax et Bonum,
Loree+
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Sunday: David Eastman and Diana Schaekel will be married in the 9:00 liturgy
Monday: Holiday: office closed.
Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Eucharist in the Meditation Chapel
Women's Bible Study
Coming February 27: Narnia Book study begins at 10:00 a.m. We are beginning with "The Magician's Nephew. Come join us in the parish library.
Prayers, Etc.
For those on our prayer list:
Ellie Anna Nancy Tony Joel Arabella
Mark Rudolph Tamara Dave MLI Owen Kent Jeffrey Brittany Bill Jason David Debbie
Sue Fred W. Mac W. Leib and Carlyn Lovisah
Drew Nealey Lt. C. Adrian Bogart Keith
Hannah Justin Mary Fox Bernie Clayton Family
Ron Donovan K.
Our Seminarian Laura and her husband Lyle.
All those who are deployed and their families.
In Closing:
The love of Christ is not a different love from the eternal fire in the heart of God or that which flows between the three persons of the Trinity. We are loved passionatey by God. The self-sacrificing love between the three persons is the joy at the centre of God. What is the response from us to such love? To silently wonder. We enter into the ebb and flow of this divine love. The Holy Spirit enables us to know something of the reality of this live in the depths of our hearts.
Ralph Wouldham
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
Wherever he may send you,
May he guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing
At the wonders he has shown you,
May he bring you home rejoicing
Once again into our doors.
Pax et Bonum,
Loree+
<- Back to Parish News