Good Friday, April 18, 2019 10.00 a.m.
“It is Finished”: Our Sacrifice is Complete
Good Friday 2020 – Revd. Nathaniel Deng Mayen
This particular Good Friday! Oh my God! For most of the people I have talked to and who have attended the church for most of their adult lives, this Easter season is special in many ways.
Continue reading ““It is Finished”: Our Sacrifice is Complete”THURSDAY IN HOLY WEEK (MAUNDY THURSDAY) – APRIL 9,2020 SEVEN THIRTY o’ CLOCK
THE ORDER OF SERVICE FOR EVENING PRAYER
O Lord, open thou our lips;
And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.
O God, make speed to save us;
O Lord, make haste to help us.
GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Praise ye the Lord;The Lord’s Name be praised.
Love Wash Eat Drink Remember—for Maundy Thursday 2020
Jesus knew that his time had come. John tells us that in the very first verse of our Gospel passage this evening. The hour had come for him to depart out of this world and to return to the Father. Knowing that, Jesus continued to love his own who were in the world, and to love them to the end.[1] He still does. Endlessly. It’s the John 3.16 kind of love—much more than just warm fuzzies—like the fierce love of a mother or father—“a love that needs no love in return, that is is intelligent and purposeful, always directed to the need of the other.”[2] Love that is imperative. Like the Maundy in Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin, mandatum, meaning commandment as in the gospel reading
Continue reading “Love Wash Eat Drink Remember—for Maundy Thursday 2020”Palm Sunday – April 5, 2020
LITURGY OF THE PALMS AND MORNING PRAYER
All:
Hosanna to the Son of David
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Minister:
Behold your king comes to you, O Zion,
meek and lowly, sitting upon an ass.
Ride on in the cause of truth
and for the sake of justice.
Your throne is the throne of God, it endures for ever;
and the sceptre of your kingdom is a righteous sceptre.
You have loved righteousness and hated evil.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
The Mind of the Messiah
St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church. Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020, Beth Christianson
Well, I think this may go on record as the strangest Palm Sunday I have ever passed in my life in the Church. Last year at this time, we were parading in St. Mary’s with palm branches, palm crosses, and banners. We sang, we lit candles. When I think back, my imagination conjures up sound and motion and color. Today, I am thinking of each of you in your homes, with your loved ones. I hope that you are singing together, and that you found something to stand in for palm branches!
Continue reading “The Mind of the Messiah”From the Rector: Holy Week at St Mary’s
One of the ancient spiritual writers of the Church, St. Dionysius, wrote about the three liturgies that take place. The first is the liturgy that takes place before the altar in heaven, as described for us in Chapters 4, 5. 7 and 8 of the Book of Revelation. The second is the liturgy is that which takes place on earth, which we celebrate before the altar St. Mary’s. (see photo above). And third liturgy is the one that takes place in altar of our heart.
The purpose of the liturgy that takes place on the earth is to unite the liturgy in heaven with our heart. And so it is that in the Holy Communion we pray,
Lift up your hearts!” “We lift them up unto the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord! “It is meet and right so to do!
Therefore with angels and archangels an all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name, evermore praising thee and saying,
Holy, Holy, Holy…
Our purpose in the liturgy at the altar at St. Mary’s on Sunday morning, is that that we should “at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God, Creator and Preserver of all things”( BCP p. 78) in a ceaseless offering of our lives in thanksgiving and praise to God.
But what are we to do in this time when our liturgy before the altar at St. Mary’s has been silenced?
This is where we need to undertake the difficult work of entering more deeply within our own hearts, to find and serve at the altar of our hearts, and to find the Lord there.
Now that Holy Week is upon us, “ Let us dust off the altar of our heart, place the Gospel back in the centre, take what is given to us in this life( both good and bad) and offer it to God in thanksgiving ( Eucharist). When we do so, we will find that we will receive Christ Himself in return, and every encounter with Christ is Pascha, a passing over from death to life.” ( Abbot Sergius Bowyer)
In support of this collective spiritual effort of ours at St. Mary’s this week, I am attaching a table of lessons and psalms for Holy Week from The Book of Common Prayer, which will serve as our spiritual guide.
I have also attached an Evening Service for Light and Peace for parents to celebrate with their children, in conjunction with the video of the service which was taped at St. Mary’s yesterday afternoon, and can be found here: https://youtu.be/jLIp8gK9xwA
In addition you can also expect to receive by e-mail the following Holy Week services for you to celebrate in the safety of your home, and in spiritual communion with your family at St. Mary’s:
- Palm Sunday: Liturgy of the Palms and Morning prayer with Hymns and Sermon ( Beth Christianson preaching)
- Maundy Thursday: Evening Prayer with Hymns and sermon ( Gene Packwood preaching)
- Good Friday: Celebration of the Lord’s Passion with Hymns and sermon ( Nathaniel Deng Mayen preaching)
- Easter Sunday: Morning Prayer with Hymns and Sermon (Claude Schroeder preaching)
These services will also be posted on our web-site.
Families will also receive “Stations of the Cross” Service which may be used at home, or as part of a prayer walk on Good Friday.
Finally, sanitized palm crosses are available for you to pick up at 15 th Avenue entrance of St. Mary’s today and tomorrow as you make your way home perhaps from a trip to the grocery store.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in
Who is the King of Glory? It is the Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle.
Psalm 24. 7,8
With every prayer for a rich and blessed Holy Week,
Yours faithfully,
Claude +
FROM THE RECTOR’S STUDY: ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!” 2 And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword.5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand; 6 and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not harm oil and wine!”7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6. 1-8).
Are we living in the end times?
Continue reading “FROM THE RECTOR’S STUDY: ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?”THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – MARCH 29, 2020
THE ORDER OF SERVICE FOR MORNING PRAYER
The HYMN: O Spirit of the Living God.
Continue reading “THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – MARCH 29, 2020”March 29, 2020 Lent 5
St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Canon Claude Schroeder (John 11. 1-45)
Today we have come to the Fifth and final Sunday in the season of Lent, and the story of the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is the fourth in a series of encounters from St. John’s Gospel this Lent, where Jesus has been demonstrating His power to heal, save, and deliver us from all the powers of evil which threaten and destroy human life and God’s good creation.
Continue reading “March 29, 2020 Lent 5”