Author: Admin_Mike

O LORD, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights: Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

This week’s Sermon

---

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen

(The Lenten Prayer of ST. Isaac the Syrian)

O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Isaiah 35:3-7; Psalm 2; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 18:31-43

The Lenten season is meant to kindle a “bright sadness” within our hearts. Its aim is precisely the remembrance of Christ, a longing for a relationship with God that has been lost. Lent offers the time and place for recovery of this relationship. The darkness of Lent allows the flame of the Holy Spirit to burn within our hearts until we are led to the brilliance of the Resurrection. (Alexander Schmemann)

BRETHREN, in the primitive Church it was the custom to observe with great devotion the days of our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, and to prepare for the same by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided also a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy Baptism. It was also a time when such persons as had, by reason of notorious sins, been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled and restored to the fellowship of the Church by penitence and forgiveness. Thereby the whole Congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution contained in the Gospel of our Saviour, and of the need which all Christians continually have, of a renewal of their repentance and faith. I therefore invite you, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial, and by reading and meditation upon God’s holy Word. (Book of Common Prayer p. 611)

This week’s sermon

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we humbly  beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-be- gotten Son was this day presented in the temple  in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented  unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same  thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Malachi 3:1-5; Psalm 24:7-10; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 5-13; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

In our reading from Isaiah today we find a promise and prophecy concerning God’s intention to restore His people to freedom and joy, and locates this activity in an unlikely place: Galilee. In today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew references this prophecy as finding its fulfillment in the public ministry of Jesus, which comprised of making disciples, preaching, teaching, and healing. Our Psalm puts language to our souls’
longing for God, and the experience of His salvation. In our Epistle reading today, Paul appeals for unity within the Church that is divided by various factions, and in reflecting on his ministry of word and sacrament among the Corinthians, stresses, after the example of Jesus, the saving power of the Gospel and the priority he gave its proclamation in his own ministry.

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42

The Old Testament lesson for today is provided by the second Servant Song from Isaiah. Its emphasis on the calling of the servant and his special vocation as a “light to the nations” makes it
especially appropriate in the season of Epiphany. The psalm is a prayer of thanksgiving which finally prompts the psalmist to tell abroad the good news of deliverance. The Epistle consists of the
opening greeting from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians in which he gives thanks for the congregation and expresses confidence in the presence and saving, sanctifying power of God at work in the
ongoing life of the Church, which itself is an “ epiphany” or manifestation of God. The Gospel lesson today from John recalls the Baptism of Jesus which we celebrated last Sunday, and provides us with further theological content and reflection of the epiphany that took place there, and shows how it
was that others came “to see and believe.”

---

O HEAVENLY Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ did take our nature upon him, and was baptized for our sakes in the river Jordan: Mercifully grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may also be partakers of thy Holy Spirit; through him whom thou didst send to be our Saviour and Redeemer, even the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17