THE PROCLAMATION OF THE DATE OF EASTER ON EPIPHANY

YEAR 2014

Dear brothers and sisters,
the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.
Through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us recall the year’s culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising celebrated
between the evening of the 17th of April.
and the evening of the 19th of April  (Easter Vigil - 1st Service of Easter).

Each Easter— as on each Sunday—
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.

From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the 5th of March.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the 1st of June.
Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter,
will be celebrated on the 8th of June.
And this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the 30th of November.

Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ
in the feasts of the Holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come,
Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Journey Of The Magi

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

 

© T S Eliot. All rights reserved

First Sunday after Christmas Sermon

Written by a guest preacher...

A Christmas Sermon

By St. Gregory of Nazianzus(AD 380)

Christ is born, glorify Him. Christ from heaven, go out to meet Him. Christ on earth, be exalted. Sing to the Lord all the whole earth; and that I may join both in one word, let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, for Him who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh, rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your sins, with joy because of your hope.

Again, the darkness is past; again Light is made; again Egypt is punished with darkness; again Israel is enlightened by a pillar. The people who sat in the darkness of ignorance, let them see the great Light full of knowledge. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. The letter gives way, the Spirit comes to the front. The shadows flee away, the truth comes in on them. Melchizedek is concluded. He who was without Mother becomes without Father (without mother of His former state, without father of His second). The laws of nature are upset; the world above must be filled. Christ commands it, let us not set ourselves against Him. O clap your hands together all you people, because unto us a Child is born, and a Son given unto us, whose government is upon His shoulder (for with the cross it is raised up), and His name is called The Angel of the Great Counsel of the Father. Let John cry, prepare the way of the Lord; I too will cry the power of this Day. He who is not carnal is Incarnate; the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Let the Jews be offended, let the Greeks deride; let heretics talk until their tongues ache. Then shall they believe, when they see Him ascending into heaven; and if not then, yet when they see Him coming out of heaven and sitting as Judge.

This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God - that putting off of the old man, we might put on the new; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and rising with Him. For I must undergo the beautiful conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so must the more blissful come out of the painful. For where sin abounded grace did much more abound; and if a taste condemned us, how much more does the passion of Christ justify us? Therefore let us keep the Feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own, but as belonging to Him who is ours, or rather as our master's; not as of weakness, but as of healing; not as of creation, but of re-creation.

- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!

When is enough...enough?

Written by the Rev. Ellen Huber, prior to Christmas...

Is it all done yet? The decorating? The shopping? The food? The wrapping? The cards? Is the house clean, do the children have their holiday clothes at the ready? What about the pets, are they clipped and coiffed?

And you? Have you checked those fingernails lately? Does your holiday outfit hide those pounds you have decided to keep until spring? Are you done worrying yet? Worrying about whether the gifts are enough, will they be liked? Will others think you were generous? How is the bank account? Strained? Overdrawn? Are you hiding your stress?

And what about the loved ones in your life who are ill, have you worried about them enough? Is everything getting done at work? Is it done right? Are you procrastinating to get other things done? And are you worrying about that? Holiday time can be triage time, but even if we take that approach, chances are we are still trying to get it all done, and look happy and organized to everyone around us. It’s a lot of pressure.

And yet. It will never be enough. And it will never be perfect. Why? Because imperfection is part of life. There will always be something broken, something dirty, something wrinkled or stained. There will always be traffic, the unexpected weather, the unkind or judgmental remark from a friend or loved one that upsets us. It’s part of life. It’s natural and normal and to be expected.

The problem with this part of life, is that it stresses us out. Imperfection makes us anxious, possibly angry. We want to fix it. And it affects our relationships and our joy. We forget so easily that the holidays, no matter what our tradition, are about love. Sharing. And that thing none of us seems to have enough of…time. We forget that in a month most of us won’t remember what gifts we got, or gave. We won’t remember if we got all the decorations up, or even if we got our nails done before the holidays.

What we will remember, is how we felt. What we will remember, is how we made others feel. There is a saying that “no one will remember what you said, or what you did, they will remember how you made them feel.” And that can get complicated, of course, because we all have different expectations about what others should do to let us know we are loved.

Some of us DO see love expressed in expensive gifts, others of us feel loved when someone helps us out, still others of us feel loved when we are given time and space, while others of us feel loved when we are hugged and listened to. Sometimes, we feel loved when someone says “sorry,” or “I forgive you.”

Love is complicated. Which is why all religious traditions give us something we are rarely if ever able to give ourselves, or anyone else. The gift of perfect love. Love that forgives all things. Love that heals. Love that does not judge. Love that is perfect. Love that is enough.

And so dear reader, no matter what your beliefs, this is the season where we all look for that perfect love. We look for it for ourselves. We look to give it to others. And I can tell you, that the only perfect thing in this world that truly IS enough, is that love that you seek. The good news, is that it is already inside of you, just waiting to be found. Just waiting to be shared. And it is enough. And it is perfect.

- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!

A Football Prayer for New Years Day

A Confessional Prayer
(to be said before watching football games)

Most merciful God,
Forgive us for what we are about to do;

For our blood-curdling cries,
Lord, have mercy;
For our lust for violence,
Lord, have mercy;
For our emulation of military conquest,
Lord, have mercy;
For our favor to the strong,
Lord, have mercy;
For our scorn upon the weak,
Lord, have mercy;
For the vengeance which we seek
upon enemies whom we oppose for the most arbitrary of reasons,
Lord, have mercy.

We acknowledge and bewail our mortal sins and weaknesses;
We are troubled by these dark comparisons:
the football stadium and the coliseum;
the fans and the pagan mobs;
the star athletes and the demigods;
the linebackers and the gladiators;
the cheerleaders and the furies;
the commentators and the chorus;
the corporations and the slave owners.

We can only hope that you see, as we do,
that this is only a game;
and that you haven't lost your sense of humor.
Despite appearances to the contrary, our heart remains faithful to you.
Even as we glory in the spectacle of our football enemies
being pounded into the dust, we will strive to remember you.

God, be with those who will taste dirt this day.
Heal those who will be injured;
Console the losers with gratitude for the privilege of having played;
Ennoble the victors with gentle reminders of their mortality;
And show your favor toward all contestants
Who this day will shed their blood and break their bones
for our trivial sakes, AMEN.

Written by The Rev. Matthew Lawrence

This prayer was read over Michigan Public Radio twice: on the day before, and immediately preceding their broadcast of the first game of the Wolverine's 1998-99 season.

- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!

The Holy Name of Jesus

All Jewish boys were circumcised and named on the 8th day of their life, and so, one week after Christmas, on January 1st, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus:

Eternal Father, who gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The Holy Gospel: Luke 2:15-21

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The Gate of the Year

God Knows by Minnie Louise Haskins (1908)

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!