Anno Domini 2025 January 25

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Saturday, 25 January, in the year of our Lord 2025. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Sunday (tomorrow): 8:30 & 10:00  AM , Mass, Epiphany III. Parish Brunch after the 10:00 Mass, at Uno's Pizzaria, in Kiln Creek.
• Monday: 10:00  AM, Mass, S. John Chrysostom, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
• Tuesday: NO SERVICES.
• Wednesday: 12:10  PM, Sext (Noonday Prayers).
• Thursday: 6:30  PM, Mass, Blessed Charles Stuart, King & Martyr. Soup and Supper to follow.
• Friday: 9:00  AM, Mass, S. John Bosco, Confessor, with Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 10:00  AM, Holy Communion, S. Ignatius, Bishop & Martyr.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00  AM, Mass, Purification of the BVM.

Tomorrow, after the Ten o'clock Mass, there will be no coffee-hour. Instead, we will depart the Parish for our monthly Parish Brunch. It will be held at Uno's Pizzaria and Grill in the Kiln Creek Shopping Center. We've been there a number of times; join us for a good meal and good fellowship.

I will briefly be out of the Parish, this week. I make an annual trip to procure the candles that we burn throughout our liturgical year. The cost of the fuel is actually less than the freight, and we don't suffer any breakage when we pick the shipment up ourselves. There will be no services on Tuesday, but I'll be back in-time for the Mass, Meal and Study, on Thursday evening.

To my memory, since we began the daily Mass in AD 2017, we've never gone three consecutive days without services. Even when I'm on-vacation, Deacon Collins and Mr. Elsnau make certain that we never go more than a single day without a service of some-sort. I suspect that we could have met on Thursday, but some parishioners still had some doubts about driving. There were no Feasts of Obligation on the missed days, hence no need to force the issue of attendance.

Oftentimes the suggestion is made to say one's Morning- or Evening Office, on those days when we've no corporate services in the Parish. I fear that the 'Offices are largely forgotten, on the part of the laity of the Church. As Anglican Clergy, we are required to say our Daily Offices every day, without exception. At Saint Matthew's, we say one of the 'Offices at-least once-per-month, and usually more often than that, simply to give the faithful an opportunity to remember and recite these cornerstone prayers of the Anglican tradition.

It is noteworthy that these prayer services require no Clergy. Even when Clergy are present, and the prayer of Absolution is pronounced, the Clergy are to make the Sign of the Cross over themselves, and not over the people. The only prayer that requires modification in the absence of Clergy is the short form of the prayer of Absolution found in the Evening Office, which requires the substitution of 'our' for 'your' when there is neither Priest nor Bishop present.

Additionally, the 'Offices must be said, be spoken-aloud, whether in the Parish or at-home. They are never to be read silently. They must be given voice  ~ they must be living prayers, not merely rote exercises, done in-silence. Whether you are alone, as we Clergy often are, or in a group, or in the Parish, this rule ever applies.

The 'Offices, as we now know them, were compiled by Archbishop Cranmer, for eventual inclusion in the AD 1549 Book of Common Prayer. He condensed two of the Morning Offices and three of the 'Evening from the Medieval Monastic Tradition of the eight Hours of daily prayer practiced by the Brothers. Thus, from the limitless spiritual well that are the Religious Houses, we have these majestic Offices. Honour the past, and pray in the present, for the future. I remain

in His praise,

The Rt. Rev'd T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish