August 16, 12th Sunday after Pentecost
Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at 3:22PM Anglican Rosary: Saturday August 15: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This Saturday we will be praying the Marian Rosary. There will be loaner rosaries (different from the Anglican Rosaries), a handout of the prayers we will be reciting and Briony will lead us. Fr. Bob will also be blessing the Our Lady of Lourdes statue. It will be lovely, we hope you can make it!
The Feast of the Assumption commemorates the Christian conviction that at the end of her earthly life, the Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, that is, enters the Kingdom of God in its fullness. There are two rules of thumb to help us think about the Virgin Mary. 1. Whose Mother she is and how she is his Mother. 2. She is the one human being like us who experiences in her life everything promised us in the Christian faith. Because all that is promised by Christ is fulfilled in her, it will also be fulfilled in us.
August 15
St. Mary the Virgin
Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Nothing certain is known of the parentage or the place of birth of the Mother of Our Lord. Only her name is known Mary or Miriam (in Hebrew) and that she had an aged relative called Elizabeth. According to the Gospel of St. Luke, Mary was a young Jewish girl living in Narzareth, engaged to a man called Joseph, when a messenger from the Lord announced that she was to be the bearer of the Son of God to the world. Her response, “Let it be to me according to your word,” and her life of obedience and faithfulness have been upheld ever since as a model for all who hear and obey God’s word. In Christian Tradition Mary is often described as “the second Eve” who offsets Eve’s disobedience. Mary was present at the crucifixion of her Son, and was with the apostles and others at Pentecost. According to the Gospel of John, at the time of his death Jesus commended the care of his mother to the beloved disciple, which may explain why in Christian Tradition her final years are associated with both Jerusalem and Ephesus. The Church customarily commemorates saints on the day of their death, and although the date and place of Mary’s death are unknown, for centuries today has been celebrated as her principle feast. (The Annunciation is seen principally as a feast of Our Lord) In the East, today’s feast is entitled “The Dormition of the Virgin;” in the Roman Catholic Church, reflecting its distinctive doctrinal emphasis, it is called “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
From Celebrating the Saints Morehouse Publishing
The quote below, from Celebrating the Saints, expands on and deepens this conviction.
Mary’s Assumption brings a new and promising future for women. Excluded from Jewish initiation rites because of their anatomy, banned from full participation in worship and the synagogue by their menstrual cycles, for a long time women—even in Christianity—subtly or explicitly have been second class citizens in the world of faith because of the “inferiority” and “poverty” of their bodies.
Mary’s Assumption, however, restores and reintegrates women’s bodiliness into the very mystery of God. Starting with Mary, the dignity of women’s condition is recognized and safeguarded by the creator of that very bodiliness. In Jesus Christ and Mary the feminine is respectively resurrected and assumed into heaven definitively sharing in the glory of the Trinitarian mystery from which all proceeds and all returns.
Her Assumption is intimately connected to Jesus’ resurrection. Both events are about the same mystery: the triumph of God’s justice over human injustice, the victory of grace over sin. Just as proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus means continuing to announce his passion which continues in those who are crucified and suffer injustice in this world, by analogy believing in Mary’s Assumption means proclaiming that the woman who gave birth in a stable among animals, whose heart was pierced with a sword of sorrow, who shared in her son’s poverty, humiliation and persecution and violent death, who stood at the foot of the cross, the mother of the condemned, has been exalted. Just as the crucified one is the risen one, so the sorrowing one is the one assumed into heaven, the one in glory. She who, while a disciple herself, shared persecutions, fear and anxiety with other disciples of the early years of the Church, is the same one, who after a death that was certainly humble and anonymous, was raised to heaven. The Assumption is the glorious culmination of the mystery of God’s preference for what is poor, small, and unprotected in this world, so as to make God’s glory shine there.
Poor, small, unprotected, is all of us at various times of our lives, certainly at the beginning, and very often at the end. The Assumption is the hope and promise that all of us will share in the final victory of the Risen Christ.
Emmaus Road: Summer Movies.
Emmaus Road continues its summer movie schedule this Monday with the viewing of God Is Not Dead. This is a story of a young college student who debates the existence of God with his Philosophy professor. It is a matter of a true believer and a cultured despiser. It should be interesting.
Coffee Hour Sign Up for July and August
The sign up sheet for Coffee hour is next to the Air Pots on the Coffee table outside Church. Please sign up to take a Sunday during the summer.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Level 2
August 16, 2015
The True Vine II
John 15
Last week we looked at John 15 and the introduction of the True Vine. This and the following presentation were developed with the 7 year-old member of the Catholic Church in mind, for preparation in the sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion[1]. Remember co-founders of CGS, Sofia and Gianna, were members of the Italian Catholic community. However, their material is still very much applicable to all Christian (including Episcopal) communities in their understanding of sin, reconciliation and celebrating communion, or the Eucharist.
In CGS Level II, we discuss sin as blockage restricting the free flow of the life of the Risen Christ to all parts of the vine. And, Reconciliation frees us from those things that block the sap from flowing to and through us. For the children in Level II at Church of the Angels, the discussion of sin and reconciliation lays the groundwork for the understanding of communion, and further enrichment in their participation of receiving the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist, we are sharing a special meal of bread and wine. The word communion comes from the word union. We are united with Jesus and each other, in communion. This is a special feast that has no end. It is a way to get to know Jesus better.
As in the prior presentation, when we read John 15:1-10 we wonder about the representation of vinedresser, the vine, and the branches. We talk about how to make a plant strong by pruning off dead wood, the part that doesn’t bear fruit or flower in order so the balance of the plant remains strong and productive. How do we keep fruit/flower on the vine? By following and keeping the commandments. What does scripture text tell us? We grow stronger in Christ when we bear fruit but when we cease to follow the commandments we are pruned.
Sap is the life of the plant. If sap nourishes a plant and we are talking about Jesus as the vine, what is the sap that is running through the plant? Risen life, everlasting life. How do we get fed this life? At the Eucharist, through the bread and the wine.
We receive risen life at Baptism. Notice in the scripture text, it was written that Jesus used a word often. “Remain” at least ten times. Remain means you are already there. Jesus says, “Remain in me as I remain in you.” “Remain in my love.” What would it be like to remain in Christ’s love? If we remain in Christ, what happens? We will bear much fruit. What is the kind of fruit that we bear? Good deeds, love, following the commandments. What fruit comes from by living the commandments? Abundant life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. By keeping the commandments we remain on the vine. We share in his life. What kinds of things prune us? The Maxims (we will talk about these next week). What do they do for us? Help us to connect with others. What does Jesus say we should do after we have been pruned? “Remain in me.” What kind of life did Jesus give us? Life that is stronger than death.
We remain on the vine through prayer, receiving the Eucharist, and keeping the commandments. What a beautiful gift . . . to be so close to Jesus, the True Vine.
Ms. Georgie
[1] At Church of the Angels, the Eucharist is offered to all baptized persons, regardless of age, releasing the requirement of a separate First Communion rite. In the Book of Common Prayer (pg. 858), at the time of Baptism, we receive the inward and spiritual grace of union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family (the Church), forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit. Once a child is born into God’s family, that child is welcome to participate in the Eucharist. The General Convention of 1970 resolved that “children might be admitted to communion before confirmation.” In 1971, the House of Bishops stated, “Confirmation should not be regarded as a procedure of admission to the Holy Communion.”
Parents and Children Barbecue Sunday August 30, 4:30 p.m.
We’ll do our second of two Annual Parent and Children Barbecues at the Rectory on Sunday August 30. We usually do two, one at the end of school and the other right before school begins again. Parents and children are invited to the Rectory for fun and food. Details will follow as we get closer.
Food For Thought
On the Food For Thought Table this weekend several articles dealing with emotional well being.
From The New York Times, July 17 & 18:
1. The Anxious Americans Sociologist T.M. Lurhrmann, professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, who is best known for a recent anthropological study of American Evangelicalism, writes about how Americans are the most anxious people in 14 countries studied with more clinically significant levels of anxiety than people in Nigeria, Lebanon, and Ukraine.
2. Psychiatry’s Identity Crisis. Richard Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, argues for more attention and research into psychotherapy as opposed to psychotropic drugs. He writes: “With few exceptions, every major class of current psychotropic drugs—antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-anxiety medications—basically target the same receptors and neurotransmitters in the brain as did their precursors, which were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Sure the newer drugs are generally safer and more tolerable than the older ones, but they are no more effective. I am for neuroscience research—and lots of it. But we are more than a brain in a jar. Just ask anyone who has benefited from psychotherapy.”
From The Wall Street Journal, August 11.
3. Venting Isn’t Good For Us. The article states that research shows that it makes us angrier, and it is easier than ever to vent online and on social media. Don’t press that Send button.
4. Don’t Worry: Why Repetitive Negative Thinking is Bad For You. This article is about rumination, the repetitive dwelling on causes, meanings, and implications of negative feelings or events in the past as opposed to worry which tends to be about the future, such as what might go wrong.