The Week Ahead…
Aug. 11 – 5:00pm – Blessing of the Backpacks
Aug. 14 – 10:00am -12pm Ecumenical Bible Study
Aug. 14 – 5:00pm – 6:30pm – Village Dinner
Aug. 16 – 6:00pm – 8pm – Spanish Bible Study
Aug. 18 – 11:00am – Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Sunday, Aug. 18 Readings and Servers
Blessings of the Backpacks, Sun. Aug 11, 5pm
This was our first separate backpack service, a chance for a more informal service in the late afternoon before school begins the next day. We had one family with 4 eager children ready to go back to school. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with mild temperatures for Aug. 11
Everyone showed off their new backpacks with all the gear. The service was a shortened communion service with a reading from Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 4-8 and Luke Chapter 2, Verses 41-52, Jesus as a student
Links:
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3. Bulletin
School Supplies for the Village Harvest Aug 21
We plan to distribute school supplies at the Village Harvests again in August (Aug 21). Caroline Schools begin Aug. 12. Please bring them and leave them on the back pew .
We have a list of requested supplies for Grade 1 to Grade 5 by grade and item. The list is here – School Supplies 2019-2020
The most prevalent items are glue sticks, crayons and gallon size ziploc bags, requested in all five grades. Four of the five grades request these items: dry erase markers, hand sanitizer, headphone or earbuds, highlighters, quart-size Ziploc bags.
Help us win a bench – donate your plastic bags!
St. Peter’s is signed up for a charity program that is offered by the Trex Corporation. Trex Company, Inc. is a leading recycled materials manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, railings and other outdoor items
As a non-profit organization we have the opportunity to collect plastics in exchange for a bench made from recycled plastics (it never requires painting and will last for many generations). The bench, if we are awarded one, will likely be placed near our memorial garden in the cemetery.
We are nearing the end of our six month time frame for collection (Oct. 30) and have reached the half way point on collecting 500 pounds. Please help save our environment and get a free bench in the process by bringing your plastics to church.
Our collection container is a large white box with a hole in the top, located in the Parish House hallway. You may also bag it and place it in the back pew at church and someone else will be sure it lands in that box.
Types of plastics to include are:
1. Plastic grocery/store type bags
2. Shrink wraps
3. Ziplock bags (if they are clean)
4. Bread bags (shake out crumbs)
5. Plastic bubble wrap (deflated)
6. Toilet paper/paper towel overwrap
> NO hard plastics (no bottles, straws cups, etc
Here is the link to the program
Virgin Mary, Aug. 15
We celebrate her saint day on August 15.
Mary lived circa 18 BCE- 41 CE. She was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, the daughter of Joachim and Anne and the wife of Joseph, the carpenter. Little is known of her life except when it relates to Jesus life. She remained faithful to him through his death (when his disciples denied, betrayed, and fled), and even after his death, continued life in ministry with the apostles.
The New Testament records many incidents from the life of the Virgin which shows her to be present at most of the chief events of her Son’s life:
- her betrothal to Joseph [Luke 1:27]
- the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel that she was to bear the Messiah [Luke 1:26-38]
- her Visitation to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist [Luke 1:39-56]
- the Nativity of our Lord [Luke 2:20]
- the visits of the shepherds [Luke 2:8-20] and the magi [Matthew 2:1-12]
- the Presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple at the age of forty days [Luke 2:22, 2:41]
- the flight into Egypt, the Passover visit to the Temple when Jesus was twelve, [Matthew 1:16,18-25; 2; Luke 1:26-56; 2];
- the wedding at Cana in Galilee [John 2:1-11]
- and the performance of her Son’s first miracle at her intercession [John 2:1-11],
- the occasions when observers said, "How can this man be special? We know his family!" [Matthew 13:54-56, Mark 6:1-3, Luke 4:22; also John 6:42],
- an occasion when she came with others to see him while he was preaching [Matthew 12:46-50,Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21],
- her presence at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus commends her to the care of the Beloved Disciple [John 19:25-27],
- her presence with the apostles in the upper room after the Ascension, waiting for the promised Spirit [Acts 1:14].
Lectionary, August 18, 2019 – Pentecost 10, Proper 15
I. Theme – The connection between speaking out for God and making enemies
National Cathedral – "Fire Window"
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
First Reading – Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm – Psalm 82
Epistle – Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Gospel – Luke 12:49-56
Today’s readings recognize the connection between speaking out for God and making enemies. In Jeremiah , God denounces those false prophets who tell lies in God’s name. The author of Hebrews urges believers to accept hardship as a divine aid to discipline. There are no guarantees that the faithful will thrive. They may be the objects of persecution and violence, but even in adverse situations, their hearts and minds are focused on God’s realm. This may minimize the emotional impact of persecution. Jesus warns that his ministry will bring a time of spiritual crisis.
When we ignore the poor, when we turn away from the cries of injustice in this world, we turn away from Jesus himself. In Jesus’ day, the religious hypocrites would claim to follow God’s ways but had no concern for the very ones God declared concern for through the prophets. To this day, we end up being concerned more about right belief and right doctrine than how we live out our faith. When we look to the prophets and to Jesus, we see God hearing the cries of the poor, the widows and the orphans. We see Jesus eating among the sinners and tax collectors and the prostitutes. We hear the rejection of Jesus by others being a rejection of God’s love for all people, but especially the marginalized and outcasts. This same rejection happens today—we fashion Jesus into being concerned about right belief, when Jesus seems clearly to be concerned with how we love one another. We continue to miss the mark, transforming a love for all, especially those on the margins, into a love for a few who are obedient to a set of rules.
In the maelstrom of conflicting positions and cultural divisions, Jesus challenges us to interpret the signs of the times. Awareness opens us to see the connection between injustice and violence and consumerism and ecological destruction. The causal network has a degree of inexorability: although we are agents who shape the world, we do reap what we sow.
Read more about the Lectionary….
Ordinary Time, Aug. 18, 2019 – “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ”
This a shift of mood in the gospel from last week’s Luke 12:32-48. That passage begins with a beautiful theme of blessing for the crowd. “Do not be afraid, little flock” to this week’s “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Now there’s a shift !
When he is with the crowd, strangers and foreigners, he proclaims the Good News of God’s unconditional acceptance and universal compassion. When Jesus is with the disciples, his teaching is far more demanding and often blunt.
Contradicting the angels’ promise of peace on earth at his birth in Luke 2, Jesus emphatically denies that he’s come to bring peace. Instead, he claims to be the bearer of discord and fragmentation. As he journeys toward Jerusalem, Jesus becomes a source of conflict and opposition when he lays claim to startling forms of authority and power. His words are marked with a sense of urgency and intensity. The road to Jerusalem, after all, leads to a violent confrontation with death.
"Fire Window" – National Cathedral, Washington
Clare of Assisi, August 11
Her day on our calendar is August 11
From Living Discipleship: Celebrating the Saints
"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimickingof Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed throughtransformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love forothers." – Clare of Assisi
- Clare Offreduccio lived circa 1194-1253 in Assisi, Italy. She was born to the wealthy, noble Offreduccio family and was well-known for her beauty.
- At the age of eighteen, Clare heard Saint Francis of Assisi preach the Lenten sermons at her parish church. Inspired by his words, she decided to leave her life of wealth and privilege to join Francis and to follow the teachings of Jesus.
- Clare knew her family would not approve, so she left her home in the middle of the night and went to the monks, laying her rich, beautiful garments on the altar and exchanging them for the simple, rough habit of a monk. Francis reportedly cut off her beautiful hair as a mark of her commitment.
- She temporarily joined a Benedictine convent, from which her father tried a number of times to abduct her and bring her back home. Her father wanted her to be married, but Clare considered herself the Bride of Christ, and her commitment was to Jesus alone.
- Clare soon moved to a small dwelling in San Damiano. There she was joined by other women, including her sister Agnes. Clare became the abbess, or superior, of the order, which was called the “Poor Ladies of Saint Damian.”
- Clare was the first woman to write a rule of life for religious women. She based her rule on that of Saint Francis
Poem for the week – "Kindness" – Naomi Shihab Nye
"Your Life Is a Poem. Growing up, the poet Naomi Shihab Nye lived in Ferguson, Missouri and on the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Her father was a refugee Palestinian journalist, and through her poetry, she carries forward his hopeful passion, his insistence, that language must be a way out of cycles of animosity." She has been a poet for most of her life, sending out poems at age 7.
Listen to her read her poem, "Kindness"
She feels this poem was given to her. Here is the background to the poem – she had just married and was with her husband in South America, in Columbia. They were to travel 3 weeks. However, they were robbed on a bus in the first week. It was serious, one person was killed and they lost all their possessions. (She did have a notebook in a back pocket). They had no passports, no money. Where would they go ?
In a plaza a man came up to them on a street and exhibited kindness. He could see their disarray and asked what happened. He listened and was sad for them – he expressed sorrow in Spanish. Her husband was ready to embark alone to go to another city to try to get their travellers checks. As she was alone, a voice came across the plaza as night was coming on and she reached in her pack pocket for the notebook and she felt like as a secretary as a female voice dictated this poem:
"Kindness" – Naomi Shihab Nye
"Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
"Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
"Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend."
Block Print by Mike Newman
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Saints of the Week, – Aug. 11 – Aug. 18
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11
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Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253 John Henry Newman, Bishop & Theologian, 1890 |
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12
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Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910 |
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13
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Jeremy Taylor, Bishop & Theologian, 1667 |
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14
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Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Seminarian and Martyr, 1965 |
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15
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Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ |
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16
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17
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18
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