St. Mary's Regina

Palm Sunday
April 13, 2025

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

Today is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of, and provides us with a “overture” for Holy Week. Our Gospel today will comprise a dramatic reading of the Passion of St. Matthew. In the Epistle reading for today from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians  we are given to understand what the Passion is in theological terms: the self-emptying of God, and the enthronement of Jesus Christ before whom, sooner or later, every knee will bow. All of which is to say, there is no room here for the “ego ” that is the creature that lives by needs, desires, wounds, plans, and expectations. To be a Christian is to take the selflessness of Christ, and make it our own, so that Christ lives in me, and I live in him.

THE LESSON : Philippians 2:5-11

Continue reading “Palm Sunday – April 13, 2025 – Bulletin”

The Fifth Sunday in Lent 

April 6, 2025

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

Today marks the beginning of Passiontide in our church calendar, which comprises the final two weeks of Lent leading up to Easter. Our Scripture lessons for today set the “tone” for the season, setting forth something  of what the sacrificial death of  Christ on the Cross is, and  how the Cross of Christ provides us with the model and pattern for our own lives. The Epistle lesson from Hebrews speaks to us of what Christ has done for us. He is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, we are set free from our sins, our consciences are purified by means of forgiveness, and we receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. Christ has done something for us, once and for all, which we could not do, but can only faithfully and thankfully receive. But the sacrifice of Christ is not just something that was done for us. It is something that must be done in us and through us, transforming our minds and hearts, and ultimately our lives, day by day. This is precisely the message of our Gospel lesson for today where in place of the pursuit of worldly ambition, power, and status, Christ calls his disciples to take His attitude of humble obedience, and make it their own. 

THE LESSON : Hebrews 9:11-16

Continue reading “Lent 5 – April 6, 2025 – Bulletin”

The Fourth Sunday in Lent 

March 30, 2025

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 Sunday Eucharistic lections in The Book of Common Prayer, the season of Lent is understood as a pilgrimage of the soul. It is a hazardous journey through a spiritual wilderness of demonic trials and temptations that separate us from the true and living God, and hold us in bondage and captivity.  The first three Sundays of Lent have been all about how it is that Christ liberates us from the deceptions and power of the Evil One. On this the Fourth Sunday in Lent, the Church holds before us the goal and end of our journey. IN our Epistle reading from Galatians, St. Paul refers to “Jerusalem which is above is free and is the mother of us all.”  In symbolic terms, Jerusalem is our spiritual home, a place of freedom and peace where we  enjoy union and communion with God in  a fellowship of love.   Such also is the parish Church, the earthly counterpart of the heavenly city, which brings us to birth through the waters of baptism, and like a good mother, nourishes us through Word and Sacrament and guides us in our way. The Gospel lesson relates the story of Christ’s  feeding of the 5,000 in the  wilderness with 5 loaves and two fish, which is for us an image of the Eucharist, where our “bodies and souls are preserved unto eternal life”, and where we are refreshed and given the strength we need  to continue the journey home.

THE LESSON : Galatians 4:26-31

Continue reading “Lent 4 – March 30, 2025 – Bulletin”

The Third Sunday in Lent 
March 23, 2025

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 spiritual life of a Christian has traditionally understood to consist of a process of purification and illumination leading to union and communion with God. Lent is a season given over to the work of purification and illumination. Today’s Gospel lesson continues the theme of the first two Sundays in Lent of Christ’s Divine power at work in us to cleanse and set us free from our bondage to the demonic power of sin. IN the parable which Jesus tells us we have a cautionary tale of the dangers of the spiritual life whereby the house of the soul, having been cleansed and put in order, is in a vulnerable  state, and needs to acquire and practice the virtues, lest it fall victim to a spiritually demonic “house invasion.” This is the work of illumination, and what that means and looks like is described for us by St. Paul in today’s Epistle.

THE LESSON : Ephesians 5:1-14

Continue reading “Lent 3 – March 23, 2025 – Bulletin”

The Second Sunday in Lent 

March 16, 2025

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 lessons in the first three Sundays in Lent share a common theme: the confrontation with the devil and the demonic powers, where Jesus is shown to be the One who exposes and resists the deceptions of the devil ( Lent 1) and liberates and heals all who, in their thoughts, are tormented by and enslaved to the power of demons. (Lent 2)  But as we see in today’s Gospel lesson, the healing and liberating power of Christ works synergistically, which is to say that it requires humility and trust  on our part if we are to receive it.  In our Epistle lesson St. Paul highlights the manner in which demonic torment expresses itself in the sphere of sexuality, which leads people to depart from God’s design for sexuality in the marriage between man and woman, and the instrumentalization of sex for self-gratification. 

THE LESSON : 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

Continue reading “Lent 2 – March 16, 2025 – Bulletin”