We are a small Episcopal Church in the village of Port Royal, Va., united in our love for God, for one another and our neighbor. Check out our welcome.
Ministry during July
July 25 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist. In person in the church or on Zoom. – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
July 25 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 878 7167 9302 Passcode: 729195
July 26 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929
Bible Study on Wednesday is back in July in person, 10am-12pm!
Aug. 1 – 11:00am, , Holy Eucharist
Aug. 1 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475
Village Harvest update
In our mid summer Village Harvest on July 21, 2021 , we had 80 people show up for various vegetables and fruits (granny smith apples, peaches), breads, canned goods and grocery items as well as meat, always a popular item.
The client numbers of 80 are comparable to 77 a year ago in July though under our 7 months average of 88. We had 1,054 pounds of food on hand, lowest amount since April and under a year ago but which is still 13 pounds a person or about $79 value at $6 a pound.
Remembering St. James
St. Josemaria Institute
We celebrate James the Apostle on July 25. With his brother, John, the Gospels (Matthew 4, 21-22; Mark 1, 19-20; Luke 5, 10-11) record that they were fishermen, the sons of Zebedee, partners with Simon Peter, and called by Jesus from mending their nets beside the sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry
Jesus nicknamed them ‘the sons of thunder’ – perhaps justified by the story (Luke 9, 51-56) that they once wished to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village which had refused them hospitality.
They made it to key events in Jesus life – the Transfiguration, Gethsemene and at various healings and miracles – Peter’s mother-in-law and raising of Jairus’s daughter. Obviously, James was of Jesus closest followers.
He is known as James the Great to distinguish him from James the Less, or James the brother of the Lord.
About AD 42, shortly before Passover (Acts 12), James was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great (who tried to kill the infant Jesus–Matthew 2). James was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom, and the only one of the Twelve whose death is recorded in the New Testament.
Tradition is he was a missionary to Spain in his life and, at his death, was buried at Compostela, a site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
Relics of the saints were believed to possess great power. Spain needed it in the 8th century. Jerusalem fell to the armies of Islam in 636 A.D., and less than a century later, in 711, Spain was also invaded and conquered. Islam rapidly reached northern Spain, and sent raiding parties into France. In northwest Spain, however, a small Christian kingdom, including Asturias and present-day Galicia, emerged in the 8th century, and at this time James’ tomb was discovered near Finisterre. James was the most senior member of the intercessionary hierarchy whose relics remained undiscovered. The discovery of his tomb helped to bolster the resistance.
In the 12th Century Santiago came to rank with Rome and Jerusalem as one of the great destinations of medieval pilgrimage. The first cathedral was built over the site of James tomb, and Benedictine houses were established. The cathedral where he is buried was depicted in the film, The Way, at the end of the “Way of St. James”, a pilgrim’s path across Spain.
The relics of St James are housed in a silver casket below the high altar, above which his statue presides over the cathedral. On the feast of St James on July 25, and other high days and holy days, a giant censer, the Botafumeiro, is swung on ropes by red-coated attendants in a great arc from floor to vaults, emitting clouds of incense over delighted crowds.
Here is the scene from The Way that depicts the pilgrims reaching Santiago and venturing to the cathedral with the swinging of the censer. This has never been filmed before and the production crew had to get special permission to film it.
The "Way" is actually many paths across France and Northern Spain that has been followed by pilgrims for 800 years. In recent decades it has enjoyed a resurgence as a spiritual journey with many organized and unorganized journeys. You can the take the route across Northern Spain (800km) taking 6 weeks or break it up into shorter journeys.
Lectionary, Aug. 1, 10th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
I. Theme – Living for God includes living for the welfare of others
"The Bread of Life" – Hermel Alejandre
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Psalm – Psalm 78:23-29
Epistle –Ephesians 4:1-16
Gospel – John 6:24-35
Today’s readings portray God as our ultimate provider and sustainer of both our physical and spiritual lives. In Exodus God feeds the people of Israel with quail and manna. Paul reminds his community that they must put away their old way of life and be renewed in Christ. In anticipation of his eucharistic gift of himself, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life.
We’ve interrupted our Liturgical Year B trek through Mark’s gospel for a five-week sojourn in the gospel of John, Chapter 6, the extended teaching about Jesus as the Bread of Life.
After the Feeding of the 5,000, Jesus and His disciples cross back to the other side of Galilee. When the crowd sees that Jesus has left, they follow Him again. Jesus takes this moment to teach them a lesson. He accuses the crowd of only following Him for the “free meal.”
Jesus tells them in John 6:27, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” The real import of Jesus’ activity isn’t simply to feed those who are hungry but to reveal something vital about Jesus and, in turn, about God. In this case, Jesus is the One who can satisfy every human need. They were so enthralled with the food, they were missing out on the fact that their Messiah had come.
They want proof. So the Jews ask Jesus for a sign that He was sent from God (as if the miraculous feeding and the walking across the water weren’t enough). They tell Jesus that God gave them manna during the desert wandering. Jesus responds by telling them that they need to ask for the true bread from heaven that gives life. When they ask Jesus for this bread, Jesus startles them by saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
This is an invitation for those listening to place their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God as the one who is essential. The concept of bread is expanded from a physical substance of life into that into the spiritual realm. He is spiritual bread that brings eternal life.
A unifying theme in today’s passages is the reminder that living for God includes living for the welfare of others, and not putting our own desires first, for our own desires lead to giving into temptations and lead us away from God. And our response to those in need must be to meet the needs first, not to judge or complain. We are called to help and heal, not blame and condemn. We are called to live out the life of Christ in our own lives, to seek to be last and servant of all rather than first and right. We are called to put aside our own desire to be right to do what is right.
The scripture last week also included the story of Jesus walking on the water, Jesus is the one who transcends limits. In the process we need to allow Jesus to transform us which we more than often than not are unable to accept.
Read more about the lectionary…
Voices, Pentecost 10
The Gathering of Manna, Bernardino Luini, c 1520
"One early, cloudy morning when I was forty-six, I walked into a church, ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine. … This was my first communion. It changed everything.
"Eating Jesus, as I did that day to my great astonishment, led me against all my expectations to a faith I’d scorned and work I’d never imagined. The mysterious sacrament turned out to be not a symbolic wafer at all but actual food – indeed, the bread of life. In that shocking moment of communion, filled with a deep desire to reach for and become part of a body, I realized that what I’d been doing with my life all along was what I was meant to do: feed people."
-Sara Miles, Take This Bread
The God of Surprises
"This, you see, is the sacraments. Communion and baptism are God’s external and objective words of love and forgiveness, given in a form which we can receive, for, as we said last week, the sacraments are God’s physical, visible words for God’s physical, visible people…
"But God, you see, our God rarely does what God is supposed to do. For our God is a God of surprises, of upheavals, of reversals. And so rather than do what God is supposed to do, God does the unexpected: instead of pronouncing judgment in the face of our sin and selfishness, God offers mercy; instead of justice, love; instead of condemnation, forgiveness; instead of coming in power, God came in weakness; and instead of giving us a miracle, God gives us God’s own self. For as Martin Luther would remind us, the whole of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are summed up both succinctly and eloquently in the two words we hear when coming to the Table: “for you.” This is Christ’s body, given for you. This is Christ’s blood, shed for you."
– David Lose. President of Luther Seminary
"What is manna? Is it a Hebrew pun on mah hu, or as Everett Fox suggests, “Whaddayacallit”: What is this stuff? Is manna mountains of sweet insect excrement, as proposed by some scholars, or the stuff of legend, of a tale told over the generations about how, in some mysterious way, God gives us life? The New Testament’s version of this question is “Who is he?” – and Christians have told one another, over the generations, that in some mysterious way he is the life that God gives. Our manna is Christ."
–Gail Ramshaw, Christian Century, July 28, 2009
At the table
"Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life."
– from the Roman Eucharistic Liturgy
"Whatever gets you through the Night"…Prayers at the close of day
From the New Zealand Prayer Book:
"Holiness; make us pure in heart to see you; make us merciful to receive your kindness and to share our love with all your human family; then will your name be hallowed on earth as in heaven.
It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.
"Support us, Lord, all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done; then Lord, in your mercy, give us safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last. God our judge and our companion, we thank you for the good we did this day and for all that has given us joy. Everything we offer as our humble service. Bless those with whom we have worked, and those who are our concern. Amen"
From the Book of Common Prayer (1979)
"O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen."
Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.
Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: a Light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.
From Scripture:
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 4. Server Schedule July, 2021 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2021) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 25, 2021 11:00am), and Sermon (July 25, 2021) 10. Recent Services: Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 6, July 04, 2021 Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 7, July 11, 2021 Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 8, July 18, 2021 |
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.
Knowing that not everyone prays at the same pace, you have control over the pace of the retreat. After each screen, a Continue button will appear. Click it when you are ready to move on. If you are new to online prayer, the basic timing of the screens will guide you through the experience.
Daily meditations in words and music.
Your daily prayer online, since 1999
“We invite you to make a ‘Sacred Space’ in your day, praying here and now, as you visit our website, with the help of scripture chosen every day and on-screen guidance.”
Saints of the Week, July 25, 2021 – Aug. 1, 2021
|
25
|
Saint James the Apostle |
|
26
26 |
The Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary Charles Raymond Barnes, Priest & Martyr, 1939 |
|
27
|
William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909 |
|
28
|
[Johann Sebastian Bach], Composer, 1750, and George Frederick Handel, 1759, and Henry Purcell, 1695, Composers |
|
29
29 |
Mary and Martha of Bethany First Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in The Episcopal Church, 1974 |
|
30
|
William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833, and Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury, 1885, Prophetic Witness |
|
31
|
Ignatius of Loyola, Priest and Spiritual Writer, 1556 |
|
1
|
Joseph of Arimathaea |