Anno Domini 2025 February 18

Beloved of the Lord:

To-day is Tuesday, 18 February, in the year of our Lord 2025. The scheduled services are as-follows ~ note the term 'scheduled'. Should the weather intervene in our usual schedule, further announcements will be forth-coming.

• Tuesday (today): 5:30 PM, Mass, S. Bernadette of Lourdes.
  Immediately following, Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Feria,
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, Feria, followed-by Supper & Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, Feria, using the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Stations of the Cross, Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 10:00 AM, Holy Communion, S. Joseph of Arimathea.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Sexagesima.

As-referenced above, the weather is threatening to once more interfere with our Service Schedule. Though the specifics vary minute-to-minute, the general circumstances have remained constant, in-that snow is expected sometime on Wednesday (tomorrow), continuing into the early-morning hours of Thursday. Based on what is currently being supposed, I see no reason to worry about- or change our Wednesday schedule (Mass at Noon plus ten minutes). An e-mail will be distributed on Thursday, concerning the services for that evening.

Healing is, perhaps, the most common miracle performed by our Lord. At some point in our lives, every one of us needs healing, either physical, or spiritual, or both. Perfect healing is only available from God.

Healing by God never comes but that prayer ~ supplication ~ precedes it. We must seek it out, whether from God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost. Even in those Scriptural instances when Our Lord is petitioned directly by someone literally in-front of him, those requests are but prayers delivered in-person, so-to-speak.

As is the case in every area of prayer, we may ask the Saints to pray on our behalf, but we do not ask them to heal us. We simply ask that they offer prayers from the might of their sanctity for the self-same healing that we seek. Over the ages, certain diseases have been assigned to specific Saints ... Saint Blasius for throats, for-example, whose Feast and blessing we recently celebrated.

Speaking of Saint Blasius, of whom we may request prayers for healing for any ailments, not simply throats, his blessing may be sought and given at any time, not only on his Feast. Indeed, we gave it twice in the week of his Feast, for those who could not attend on the very day. I've long-considered appending the usual healing service to the end of every Mass at Saint Matthew's. This blessing only takes a few minutes to distribute to an entire 'rail of supplicants, so no great interference to our usual order- or length of service.

Think and pray over this. It could be done every day, or on select days, as part of a fixed schedule. Let me know what you think, and I'll institute this service, as a regular part of our schedule, in the near-future.

As a last thought, it must be noted that, whilst at the rail, you may ask for the blessing for someone who is not in-attendance, but requires healing, nevertheless. The prayer is said over you, and the holy oil applied to you, as you act as a surrogate for the one needing the blessing. Some have argued against this practice, but far better to err in the over-extension of Christ's mercy, than in the guarding of it, or so I have believed, and preached. I remain

in His praise,

The Rt. Rev'd T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish