Author: Admin_Mike

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

August 4 , 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
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.

In the classical Christian understanding, the spiritual life proceeds along a path of purification, to illumination, leading to “divinization” that that is, union and communion with God. In the Epistle reading for today from 1 Corinthians 12 the focus is the illumination of the mind that comes through the gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit in the Church. IN our Gospel lesson from St. Luke Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem, and condemns the people who did not recognize the time of His visitation  and for turning the Temple from a house of prayer into a den of thieves.  St. Paul and the Church Fathers saw the Temple as an image of the soul.  The lesson here his that is that if we take pride in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as if they were ours, we are robbing God of his glory, and must acquire the virtue of humility. 

THE LESSON : 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

THE LESSON : Luke 19:41-47

Continue reading “Trinity 10 August 4, 2024 Bulletin”

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

June 9, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
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.

What is the essential message which the Church proclaims in and through her liturgical worship? The essense of the message is contained in today’s Epistle lesson where St. John writes, “ And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” ( 1 John 3.23). The belief, the recognition concerning Jesus Christ as the revelation of the love of God is the starting point of the Christian life. That we should catch a glimpse of that revelation and be refreshed and elevated by it, is the first point of our liturgical celebrations, wherein we are invited to “eat the bread” of the kingdom of God. But as we hear in today’s Gospel lesson, many of those invited to the dinner banquet, couldn’t be bothered or were otherwise occupied, as a consequence of which the owner of the house instructed his servants to invite poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame to come and “taste of his dinner.”  In this season of Trinity we are invited to “taste and see how good the Lord is,” to be nourished in our faith, and to find ourselves transformed into lovers of God and our brother. This love doesn’t just happen, and is not simply a matter of feeling. It is a commandment, which is fulfilled in the laying down our lives for each other in the Church. In this way God lives in us and we in Him.

THE LESSON: 1 John 3:13-24

Continue reading “Trinity 2 June 9, 2024 Bulletin”