Rogation Sunday May 5 2024 Bulletin

ROGATION SUNDAY

TODAY AT ST. MARY’S

10:00 A.M. MORNING PRAYER and LITANY (Prayer book pp. 6-15. Psalm 11,12,13 Joel 2. 21-27, John 6. 22-40

10:30 A.M.   HOLY COMMUNION (Prayer Book pp. 67- 85)

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

COLLECT

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Bless, we beseech thee, the labours of thy people, and cause the earth to bring forth her fruits abundantly in their season, that we may with grateful hearts give thanks to thee for the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Easter 5 April 28 2024 Bulletin

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

April 28, 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 our Gospel lesson today Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, whose ‘ coming’ we will celebrate at Pentecost. It is the Holy Spirit working in and beyond the Church who takes the truth of Jesus Christ and applies it to our hearts, and overturns the false judgements of the world. In the face of the moral, spiritual, and theological confusion of our times, what is a Christian to do? Our Epistle lesson directs in the paths of thanksgiving for all God’s good gifts to us, being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, and with meekness receive the implanted Word, Jesus Christ, who is able to save our souls. 

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Easter 4 April 21, 2024 Bulletin

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

April 21, 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

The Gospel readings for these last three Sundays of Easter season all come from the 16th Chapter of John’s Gospel, the co-called Farewell Discourse, where Jesus is preparing His disciples for death on the Cross, and the anguish to come. But this anguish and sadness will be transformed into joy. This is the promise and the joy faith in Christ’s resurrection. It sees beyond circumstances, and what is natural and inevitable. In place of resignation   (“ it is what it is”), there is joy, and the hope and love that brings new things to birth.

In our Epistle lesson, St. Peter describes the moral and spiritual transformation Resurrection works in the lives of those who believe. They abstain from the “passions of the flesh” ( ie. gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, pride etc.) and use their freedom to serve the common good.    

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Easter 2 April 7 2024 Bulletin

THE SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

April 7, 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

The Gospel lesson for this Sunday underlines for us a key element of our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is not to be understood as the escape of a disembodied soul into a place called  “heaven,” ( free at last!) but a raising, that is to say a transformation of the soul and body of Jesus Christ, into the life of God. In the encounter between the Risen Christ and his frightened disciples we discover what Resurrection means for us in the here and now: peace, forgiveness of sins, and partaking of the Holy Spirit. In our Epistle lesson we see that through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, and through participation in the sacramental life of the Church (water= baptism, blood= Holy Communion) we become partakers and participants in the life of God, and so overcome all the negativity of the world that has fallen away from God through sin.

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