St. Mary's Regina

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 22 , 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 season of Advent where we have been preparing ourselves from the Coming of the Lord is drawing to a close. What does it mean for us to welcome and receive Christ at His Coming? Paul’s Letter to the Philippians speaks about joy, patience, prayer, supplication with thanksgiving and peace beyond all understanding.  This is spiritual life, and this is what we are given to experience every time we come together for the Liturgy. All of this is grounded in our acceptance of the testimony St. John the Baptist gave concerning Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson. He is no run of the mill prophet, but rather the Lamb of God who in his death on the Cross takes away the sin of the world.

THE LESSON : PHILIPPIANS 4. 4-7

Continue reading “Advent Four December 22, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 15 , 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 this season of Advent the Church is inviting and encourgaing us to be awake, attentive, watchul for Jesus Christ who is the Comong One. “He came to us in great humility”, and He will” come again in His Glorious Majesty” to judge both the living and the dead. But Advent is also about His Coming to us in the present time, which is both Judgement and Grace. In our Epistle lesson, St. Paul directs us to entrust  “pronouncing judgement” to Christ, whose Judgement will be just. Our Gospel lesson presents us with the figure of John the Baptist, as the great exemplar of watching and waiting, and who came to prepare the way of the Lord.  But John, much like ourselves,  found himself  wondering, in the face of so much injustice, whether he had misjudged the situation in pointing people to Christ. Jesus directs John (and us) to be attentive to signs of His Coming, and the presence of His kingly reign and rule in our midst.

THE LESSON : 1 Corinthians 4. 1-5

Continue reading “Advent Three – December 15, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 8 , 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 Second Sunday in Advent has traditionally been known as “ Bible Sunday” on account  of today’s Collect and Epistle reading from Romans where St. Paul points us to the crucial role the Scriptures play in instructing us in the faith and providing us with steadfastness, encouragement, and most importantly hope, which through the Holy Spirit fills us with joy and peace. Our Gospel lesson picks up our Advent theme of the coming of Christ in glory to judge the living and the dead, and teaches us to see the collapse of the present world order, and the resulting chaos and confusion, not as on occasion for despair but signs of the coming of Him who makes all things new.

THE LESSON : Romans 15.4-13 

Continue reading “Advent Two – December 8, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 1 , 2024

GLORY BE TO JESUS CHRIST! GLORY BE FOREVER!

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.

‘He came to us in great humility, and He will come again in majesty to judge the living and the dead.’ Our conviction concerning the person of Jesus Christ  as expressed in the Advent Collect is presented to us in figural terms in today’s Gospel lesson where Jesus rides into Jerusalem in a donkey ( humility) and proceeds to clear the temple of the money changers. ( judgement). The Epistle lesson unpacks for us the meaning of Christ’s coming for spiritual life: love is the fulfilling of the commandments, which necessitates a disciplining of our sinful desires. 

THE LESSON : Romans 13:8-14

Continue reading “Advent One December 1, 2024 – Bulletin”

THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT

November 24, 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

Today is the Sunday Next Before Advent, which serves as a “bridge” between the long season of Trinity and the end of one liturgical year, and the  beginning of  a new year and the season of Advent. This day comes to us a signal for the renewal of our love, our desire for holy things, to share our faith, and the stirring up of our wills. The Epistle lesson lays out the ground for our hope for the future, and our Gospel lesson presents us with the invitation to “come and see” how this hope is being actualized in the here and now of our lives.   

THE COLLECT

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Continue reading “Sunday Next Before Advent November 24, 2024 Bulletin”