“Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.”

A  Bible memory verse: I Corinthians ix, “So run, that ye may obtain.”

Wednesday: Please note that there will be no services this Wednesday Feb 3rd. Your Vicar will be meeting with the +Archbishop at St.  Thomas’ in San Francisco that day. Everyone is invited to join the folks at St. Thomas’ for Mass and Bible study starting at 5:45 p.m.

Next Sunday February 7th, Sexagesima, Morning Prayer at 9:30am; Choral Mass at 11am.

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded with your pledges.

Reflections: Welcome to Shrovetide, everyone. In I Corinthians, St. Paul uses the analogy of preparing for and competing in the Isthmian Games (very like the Olympian Games) to describe what should be our model for Lenten life. “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest edition - Christusrex-V3-N1

Wednesday: St. John Chrysostom, Evening Prayer 5:45, Low Mass 6pm, and Bible study 6:45 on the Gospel of St. John (picking up at John 3:27).

Please note that there will be no services next Wednesday after this, Wednesday Feb 3rd. Your Vicar will be meeting with the +Archbishop at St.  Thomas’ in San Francisco that day. Everyone is invited to join the folks at St. Thomas’ for Mass and Bible study starting at 5:45 p.m.

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Reflections: “Bless those who curse you; bless and do not curse”    One of the qualities St. Paul describes is this amazing ability to bless those who persecute you and curse them not! Actually the Greek says “stop cursing them.” “Be blessing them instead.” There’s always a lot of un-stopped cursing going on in many of our hearts.  Interestingly, much of it is directed at some part of the church that folks have experienced. Maybe it’s an entire denomination. Maybe it’s a pastor or priest, a bishop even. Whatever, the ill will deep in the heart continues, and spiritual lives are being distorted and reduced. I don’t think our salvation is in jeopardy when we all fall short as we all do … but we do become crippled and disabled. It’s a great compassion that the church has lots of handicapped access for us spiritual cripples. Read the rest of this entry »

“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.”

Reflections: In our rapt gazing into the light of Epiphany, into the manifold revealing of the true Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we look along our natural lines of sight which go to our horizon in our time and world. We look for how Our Lord chooses to reveal Himself to us on our scale. Read the rest of this entry »

Reflections: The world has great trouble with the earthy reality of the Incarnation. Even contemporary denominational and non-denominational Christian churches prefer the image of a “Christ consciousness” … sort of a nice bundle of good feelings and good intentions … to the inconceivably dense reality of a baby boy carrying the fullness of God and humanity. It is so much easier  to prefer the warm and fuzzy “aahh…” inside our hearts and bellies than to bow down before the Lord of Heaven. We should remember that the Wise Men didn’t come to say “awhhh”. They came to bow down and worship. They knew Whom they were kneeling and prostrate before.
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Reflections: it seems we know very little of what it was like when our Lord was born of Mary into the world. It is mostly shrouded in mystery … seemingly confined to a little stable and a few shepherds and wise men. In contrast, we know a lot more of what happened when His Spirit left from the Cross. The earth darkened as the sun went out. Graves opened and the dead walked the streets. The earth quaked … the temple veil, a massive wall of the strongest cloth, rent in two. No doubt the whole planet groaned and shuddered. The loss of God’s Grace from among us was as terrible as anything could be and still not destroy us during those dark hours before His return on Easter morning. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesdays: No services this Wednesday 23 December. Wednesday services resume next week December 30th.

Please note that our Choral Mass for the Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord will begin at 6pm on Thursday 24 December. There will be a Low Mass for the Nativity of Our Lord at 10am on Christmas Day.

Next Sunday December 27th, Feast of St. John Apostle,   Morning Prayer at 9:30am; Choral Mass at 11am.

If you are planning to bring a Poinsettia to adorn the chapel, please bring them by Sunday 20th Dec, and latest by Wednesday 23rd.

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On the Third Sunday of Advent, we anticipate heaven as we participate in the living Liturgy of the Church and  we pray for those guiding us as we dwell here in our in between time. Look again at the charge the Bishop gives the new priest on p. 340 of the Book of Common Prayer, including “the horrible punishment that will ensue” if he were to fall short of his calling.

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Our Advent II Gospel is a real mind twister if we don’t have a saving and reassuring belief based upon Holy Scripture. Our Lord spells it out in stark clarity. There is no analogy or exquisite symbolism …  He tells it like it is and will be. It is a dramatic and frightening account of the ruination of the world - the end of the world as we know it:

“Jesus said unto his disciples, There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Read the rest of this entry »