Pax et Bonum
The Online worship resource for St. James Parish

My soul, there is a country far beyond the stars…
- Henry Vaughn
O God the Holy Spirit,
Come to us, and among us;
Come as the wind and cleanse us;
Come as the fire, and burn;
Come as the dew, and refresh;
Convict, convert, and consecrate
Many hearts and lives
To our great good
And thy greater glory,
And this we ask for Jesus Christ’s sake.
- Eric Milner-White

Macrina
Today is the feast day of St. Macrina. Macrina was a 4th century monastic, a woman of great wisdom, and, according to her brother, Gregory of Nyssa, a woman of great beauty as well. Macrina’s brothers Gregory, Basil the Great, and Peter, all became bishops in their time. Gregory and Basil are both well-known theologians. Macrina had been influential in getting Gregory and Peter to give up their academic lives and become monks, which led to their appointment as Bishops.


The only writings about Macrina come from St. Gregory, who wrote the Life of St. Macrina. In it he describes her as an authoritative spiritual teacher. He credits her as the spiritual and theological intelligence behind the careers of her more famous siblings. Indeed, Macrina helped keep perspective on her brothers’ rise to fame, telling Basil at one point that he had become "monstrously conceited," and reminding Gregory that is fame was due to the prayers of his parents, not his own action. In Gregory’s later treatise, The Soul and the Resurrection, he likens his sister as a Christian Socrates, dispensing wisdom even on her deathbed.

Collect for St. Macrina:
Merciful God, you called your servant Macrina to reveal in her life and her teaching the riches of your grace and truth: May we, following her example, seek after your wisdom and live according to her way; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN

Let us not seek outside of thee what we can
Only find in thee, O Lord.
Peace and rest and joy and bliss,
Which abide only in thine abiding joy.
Lift up our souls above the weary round of harassing thoughts
To thy eternal presence,
That we may breathe freely,
There repose in thy love,
There be at rest from ourselves
And from all things that weary us:
And thence return, arrayed in thy peace,
To do and to bear
Whatsoever shall best please thee,
O blessed Lord.
- E.B. Pusey

Debra’s Midweek Meditation
"Desire itself is movement"
T.S. Eliot
Burnt Norton


have been struck this week by the movement of air and water. I spent part of my week at the oceanside town of Chincoteague. Our cottage is across from Lewis Creek and we see boats and gulls and swaying grasses as we sit and drink coffee each morning.

Last week I focused on light-the new medium of our lives in Christ. What does movement have to do with our passage from Ephesians this week?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1 :3-6

In as many ways as possible the author of Ephesians is telling us that we are NEW and we are BLESSED, because of our relationship with Christ Jesus.

This relationship is ancient-before the foundation of the world- and this relationship is startlingly new-this moment.

In Christ we move from deep intimate knowing to surprising revelations.
There is nothing static or staid about being a Christian.

Like the grasses across from my cottage, we are dancing with the spirit along the edges of the ancient river we call scripture and faith.

Let the Spirit move you to the depths of knowing this week.

Blessings,
Debra

You might read Burnt Norton in its entirety-It's all about time.

O thou beloved:
Love eternal, my whole good, happiness which hath no bounds,
I desire to appropriate thee with the most vehement desire,
And the most worthy reverence.
I desire to reserve nothing unto myself.
O everlasting light, surpassing all created
Luminaries, flash forth thy lightning from above,
Piercing all the most inward parts of my heart.
Make clean, make glad, make bright and make alive
My spirit, with all the powers thereof, that I
May cleave unto thee in ecstasies of Joy.
- Thomas A Kempis

Daily Morning Prayer
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/morning_prayer.htm

This week at St. James
Friday: 7:30 p.m. Choir practice
Saturday: 9:30 a.m. Andrew Curley Memorial Service; SJA at Bel Air Book Fair Sunday: Services at 8:00 and 10:15
Wednesday: 8:30 a.m. Healing Eucharist; 9:30 a.m. Prayer Shawl ministry; 7:30 p.m. Youth Community meeting

Prayers, Etc.
Who but you, Lord could bring sweetness in the midst of bitterness,
Pleasure in the midst of torment?
How wonderful are the wounds in my soul,
Since the deeper the wound,
The greater is the joy of healing.
- St. John of the Cross

We pray for the repose of the soul of Andrew Curley.
And the repose of the soul of Margaret Swiss, mother of Dottie Kilner.

Pray for the families and friends that mourn.
We remember those who are deployed and their families.
We pray for peace in the Middle East.
We pray for Laura our seminarian, and Lyle.

For those on our prayer list:
Dot; Sue; Lori; Bill; Sarah; Joel
Toni; Anna; Philip; David; Brooke; Brian G.
Leib & Carlyn; Lovisah; Brooke H.; Brian E.; Jeffrey
Nancy B.; Walter Rasmussen; Miriam F.; Cris; Traskey family
Harold Fitch; Donovan; Pat Easter

In Closing:

The Three

In the name of Father,
In the name of Son
In the name of Spirit,
Three in One:

Father cherish me,
Son cherish me,
Spirit cherish me,
Three all-kindly.

God make me holy,
Christ make me holy,
Spirit make me holy,
Three all-holy.

Three aid my hope,
Three aid my love,
Three aid mine eye,
And my knee from stumbling,
My knee from stumbling.
- From The Celtic Vision

The Lord Jesus Christ be near to defend thee,
Within thee to refresh thee,
Around thee to preserve thee,
Before thee to guide thee,
Behind thee to justify thee,
Above thee to bless thee;
Who liveth and reigneth
With the Father and the Holy Spirit,
God for evermore.

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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