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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.    

Continue reading “Easter 4 April 21, 2024 Bulletin”
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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.

Continue reading “Easter 2 April 7 2024 Bulletin”
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Easter March 31, 2024 Bulletin

THE SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION

March 31, 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.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! Today we celebrate the Feast of Feasts: the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, who “by His death has trampled down death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”

Our Gospel lesson for today tell us how it was that the initial reaction to the discovery of the empty tomb was not the occasion of joy and gladness for the first followers of Christ, but rather surprise and confusion, which eventually gave way to wonder and joy in the bodily encounter with the the Risen Lord, that then also eventually gave way to understanding through the Scripture. But the Resurrection of Christ is not simply something to be believed, but rather a Life and Experience to be shared and participated in,  right here and right now. How does the resurrection become for us a personal reality? St. Paul points the way in our  epistle reading from Colossians:  by “setting our minds on things above”, and by “putting sin to death, practices which define our life in the Church. 

THE LESSON:  Colossians 3:1-11

Continue reading “Easter March 31, 2024 Bulletin”