March 22, 5th Sunday in Lent

Eldercare Gathering  Saturday, March 21 4:30 p.m.

Taking advantage of Global Warming along with the onset of Day Light Savings Time, Fr. Bob and Tracy will host a barbecue at the Rectory  for people who are at some stage in the process of caring for elderly loved ones.  This includes people in the middle of the process, those who have recently seen the process through to the death of a loved ones, and those for whom this task is on the horizon.   For information, speak to Fr. Bob

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 1

March 22, 2015

Lent 4

The Sign of the Cross

 Last week, we visited the walls of Jerusalem and surrounding significant buildings and sites that are important to the Passion narrative of Jesus.

 This week, we will introduce the Sign of the Cross.

 Co-founder of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Sofia Cavalletti, writes: “In the essential moment of each sacrament, we will always find the sign of the cross, the symbol of salvation.  Given the importance of this sign in the church’s liturgy, the following is a brief historical background of its significance.

 In early paleo-Christian tradition, “the four points of the cross represent the saving power of Christ reaching up to the heights (into the world of angels) and penetrating into the depths (to the world of the dead); it extends outward east and west, north and south.” 

 The power of the cross is so great it prompted Justin (2^nd century) to record its appearance in everyday life: the mast of a ship, the plow and other tools a laborer would use, humans standing upright with arms stretched outward.  “The mystery of the cross is hidden in every sphere of nature.”

 Today, some communities tend to think of the cross primarily as an instrument of Christ’s passion and suffering as represented by the crucifix hung above home altars or worn as jewelry.  It is usually the image of Christ dying or dead on the cross that we see.  The resurrection is often overlooked. 

 But, the image of the Christ on the cross in our younger atria is of the Risen Christ, Christus Rex. Sofia writes: “It is said that Christ rose from the cross and ascended into heaven; the cross is Christ in the mystery of his person and the symbol of his salvific strength.”  In the older atria, it is the image of a wooden cross over the earth as the sign of the Parousia. 

 This Sunday in the Level I atrium, we will introduce the Sign of the Cross as the sign of Christ, the Good Shepherd’s victory over death and of the universality of the power of Christ.  We place this gesture and prayer of the Sign of the Cross on ourselves as armor, as the sign of victory over death and as a way to make the sign of Jesus our own. 

 Ms. Georgie 

 Catechesis of the Good Shepherd:  “Level 4”

Sunday, March 15, 9:00 a.m.

Continuing our exploration of the Sunday Liturgy as a story with versions of the story within the story,  we toured the Church building as telling the story in the way the Church is built.  We looked at the ceiling over the Nave as an image of an upside down ship, the Ark of Salvation like the Ark of Noah,  the baptismal font in the back as the point of entry into the building, the way of the cross up the Nave to the summit of the Resurrection at the Altar.  We looked at lots of other things as well.  This week we’ll move to the next circle from Christianity in 10 words, to the Eucharistic prayer as a compressed story to an even larger circle:  The Church Year itself. 

Heads Up For Holy Week and Easter:  Easter Flower Sign Up

This weekend we’ll begin taking sign ups for the Easter decorations in the Church.  There will be a poster with pictures of the flower arrangements.   There will be a place to sign up to give an arrangement and to list it as a memorial or thank offering, and an envelope to receive your check.

What we’ll need:   Thanks to all who signed up for Easter Decorations on Sunday.

4 Window Arrangements at $45.00 each

Easter Lilies at $10.00 each.

You can sign up on Sunday, or if you email the Church Office.

Heads Up for Holy Week & Easter:  Easter Breakfast

This Sunday we’ll begin the sign up process for the Easter Breakfast that Follows the Great Vigil of Easter. 

Easter Breakfast 2015

Quiche and other breakfast foods

We need 20 quiches.  In place of quiches, people are welcome to prepare other breakfast type dishes that can be heated and served on Easter morning.  So please sign up for your favorite.   You are encouraged to bring these to the Parish Hall on Holy Saturday

 Kitchen Help

We need someone to take responsibility for getting things in the ovens Easter morning, and .   help with putting the food out for the breakfast.

 Fruit Czar/Czarina

We need someone to oversee the preparation of the fruit.  We’d like to have such things as grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pineapple, etc.  We need people to cut up the fruit and prepare it on Saturday to be put out with the breakfast on Easter.     

Need some people to help

 Saturday Set Up

We need people to help with the setting up of tables and chairs on Holy Saturday

 Thanks so far to April & Dwight Bond.   We need some more help here.

 Drinks

We’ll set up coffee and there will be juice and milk.  People are invited to contribute wine and champagne. 

Heads Up for Holy Week and Easter:  March 29 – April 5

Reflective Dinners in Holy Week:  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 6:00 p.m. Parish Hall

The Reflective Dinners in Holy Week are a tradition unique to Church of the Angels.  They had their beginning as an outcome of one of my annual 8 day retreats many years ago.  In that time I made my annual retreats at the Camaldolese Hermitage south of Big Sur, and my favorite part of the day was at the end of the Evening Prayer Liturgy.  We would go from the monastic choir into the Rotunda where they celebrated the Eucharist.  We would stand along the outside wall, and then one of the monks would bring out the Sacrament from the Tabernacle and place it on the Altar with a single candle.  Then we would all sit or kneel in silence for a half hour.  Inside the Rotunda it was absolutely silent.  We stayed that way until one of the monks range a Tibetan Singing Bowl, and then we would prostrate ourselves.  The bowl would be rung again and we’d stand and a monk would take the Sacrament back to the Tabernacle in an adjoining Chapel. 

 As I said, this was my favorite part of the day.  During the silence various things would emerge in my mind.  At one point many years ago an idea emerged, “What if we combined The Song of Solomon with the Gospel of John during Holy Week?  Later the idea of three evenings took shape.  I came home and asked Phil Holmes if he would take on the meditations and he did, and so the Reflective Dinners were born. 

 Standing behind all this is St. John’s account of the Last Supper.  It begins with Jesus washing the disciples feet in Chapter 13.  Then in Chapter’s 14, 15, and 16, Jesus talks with his disciples about what their life in the world will be on the other side of his Resurrection.  The Last Supper concludes with Jesus High Priestly Prayer in Chapter 17 where he prays for his disciples.  The key to understanding all this is to realize that Jesus is not speaking to those original disciples only, but that he is talking to disciples in all times and all places until the Parousia.  His description of Post Resurrection life to them, has resonance with our lives as disciples now.  He gives the clue when he says “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”  In other words the truth of Christ and what he means will unfold and deepen over the whole course of our lives and in fact the whole course of human history.  So, the Reflective Dinners in Holy Week bring us into this same place where Jesus speaks with us about our lives in him now and always.

 To make this happen, we set it up in a special way.  We set up the Parish Hall with tables and chairs forming a U and we sit around the outside.  The tables have many, many of the IKEA Tea Lights that we use at Pentecost as well as other candles.  As we gather, depending on the time of year, the light in the Parish Hall dims with the setting of the sun and the candles glow brighter.  A team prepares a simple meal, usually soup or casserole, salad, bread, wine, and a desert.  Once the meal has been served, a parishioner reads to us as we eat in silence.  Over the years many parishioners have presented Christian authors from across the centuries all talking about the Christian life, what it means, and how it is lived.  When finished, usually when we’re about done with the meal, I  read one of the Chapters from St. John’s account of the Last Supper, one chapter each evening.  At the conclusion of that, I read 1/3 of the High Priestly Prayer.  Then we do Eucharist together around the table using bread and wine from the meal.  We share the Sacrament among each other.  We finish with the Blessing. 

 After this there is desert and conversation.  Then we clean up and prepare for the next evening. 

 Our presenter this year will be Kelly Brandt who will be reading from Abiding, The Archbishop of Canterbury's LENT BOOK 2013 by Ben Quash

"This is a reflection on where to find our centre of gravity. Ben Quash diagnoses with great sensitivity the different ways in which we can misunderstand our need for continuity and security - by resorting to inflexible habits or expectations in a world where things naturally change." +Rowan Cantuar

 The Reflective Dinners are a wonderful event.  Some people come to all three, some make one or two.  It doesn’t matter, there is much to be gained either way.  Once again this year we look forward to a rich experience during the first three nights in Holy Week.  If you’ve never been to a Reflective Dinner, you might want to try it, and see for yourself.

Emmaus Road 

Monday, March 23, 7:00 p.m.

Emmaus Road continues reading  Christ Actually, by James Carroll.  It is available at Vroman’s or from Amazon.  We will read Chapter 3

 Food for Thought

We’ll put out last Sunday’s articles as we ran out

 This Sunday we have three articles that all fit nicely together for our reflections in Lent.

 1.  The Real Fault Line In The Culture War Isn’t Race or Sex.  It’s Sin   This article is contributed by Jim Stanley from a website theweek.com.     It lays out a debate that goes back over 2000 years,  do we do wrong out of ignorance, or is it a matter disobedience i.e. sin.  We enter dialogue between Plato and St. Paul.

 2.  The Cost of Relativism.  This is from New York Times columnist David Brooks and examines what life is like without standards of behavior that society as a whole adheres to.

 3.  Theories that Refute Themselves.  This is from the current issue of Philosophy Now.   What happens if I say to you, “This is the God’s honest truth: this statement is false.”   This leads to “Advice that was popular in the 1960’s, that one shouldn’t make value judgments—for instance, judgments that some behavior is morally good or bad.  Making value judgments was in some way bad.  Well, if it was bad to make value judgments, then it also must have been bad to make the value judgment that one shouldn’t make value judgments.” 

 So we have some head scratching to do.  It should be fun.