QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY
February 11, 2024
THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE;
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTIOR.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.
Quinguagesima is the last of Pre-Lenten Sundays. In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus declares to His disciples, “Behold We up to Jerusalem, and everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” ( Luke 8. 31.) Here we see that Lent is a spiritual journey with Jesus to Jerusalem. It is not an accident that this prophecy of the Passion is followed by a miracle whereby Jesus restores the sight of blind man who then follows him on the road. Lent is a time for us to be healed of our spiritual blindness in regard both to our sin, and the forgiveness of God, which is our healing. The Epistle for today, St. Paul’s famous “ hymn to love” provides us with a further illumination of the character of our Lenten journey, and the journey through life as disciples of Jesus. It is a journey into spiritual maturity, of “giving up childish things,” and the perfection of love: God’s love for us and our love for God.
THE LESSON: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
THE HOLY GOSPEL: Luke 18:31-43
Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.’ But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. ’Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God.
PARISH LIFE NOTES
WELCOME Bishop Helen who will be preaching and presiding at The Holy Communion and administering the laying on of hands with prayer to Anya, who is renewing the vows of her baptism today. Sunday Salad lunch will follow the service in the Upper Hall. Please bring a salad to share!
PRAYING FROM WITHIN THE BELLY OF A WHALE. Today the Faithquest Children begin a new unit on story in The Book of Jonah. “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here! ” (Matthew 12.40,41.)
CONDOLENCES to the family of Malcolm Tait who passed away in Calgary on February 4. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
ASH WEDNESDAY PENITENTIAL SERVICE WITH IMPOSITION OF ASHES will take place next Wednesday at 5.45 p.m.
LENT is not intended to be an annual ordeal during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. It is meant to be the church’s springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sin’s winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges.
Put another way, Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy. Our self-sacrifices serve no purpose unless, by laying aside this or that desire, we are able to focus on our heart’s deepest longing: unity with Christ. In him—in his suffering and death, his resurrection and triumph—we find our truest joy.” ( Dorothy Sayers)
RECTOR’S RETREAT. Claude Schroeder will be on spiritual retreat at Kingsfold Retreat Centre this week, returning to the parish next Tuesday.
LENTEN MISSION 2024
Blessed are You: Living the Beatitudes
Guest Speaker: Dr. John Patrick,
President and Professor of the History of Science, Medicine and Faith
Augustine College, Ottawa
February 23 – 25
Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday at 10.30 a.m.
PUBLIC LECTURE with Dr. John Patrick: “What Hyppocrates Knew and The Practice of Medicine in the Modern Age.” The loss of transcendent values and religious faith in the modern age has had a profound effect on the practice of medicine for physicians and patients alike. What role, if any, does faith play in the practice of medicine, and what does Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine” have to teach us? Saturday, February 24 10.30 a.m.
SALT OF THE EARTH AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD LENT PARISH BIBLE STUDY. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” ( Matthew 5. 13-16.) Join us for 5 week Lenten Bible study on Chapters 5 and 6 on “The Sermon on the Mount.” Sign up sheet and contact information available on the table in the Narthex.
2023 TAX RECEIPTS will be available for pick up after the service today.
NOMINATIONS FOR 2024. Our Churchwardens, Andrew and John will be seeking out nominations for people to serve as warden and vestry members for the coming year.
ANNUAL MEETING has been scheduled for Sunday, March 3rd. The business will be to review ministry reports, financial statements and to elect parish officers for the coming year.
WORSHIP THIS WEEK
| Morning Prayer | Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. |
| Ash Wednesday Penitential Service | Wednesday at 5.45 p.m. |