‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 December 12

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Tuesday, 12 December, in the year of our Lord 2023. The scheduled service are as-follows:

• Tuesday (today): 5:30 PM, Mass, Of the Octave of the Conception of the BVM.
  6:30 PM, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, S. Lucy, Virgin & Martyr.
• Thursday: 8:00 AM, men's Morning Prayer & Breakfast.
  6:30 PM, Mass, Of the Octave, Soup & Study to follow.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, Octave Day of the Conception of the BVM, with the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Eusebius, Bishop & Martyr.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Advent III, Rose Sunday.

In our current sermon series, Back to Basics, we are discussing first things ~ the fundamental aspects and acts of the Faith, from which all else flows, or upon which all is built. If we take a few steps back, and look at Advent from a greater height, it may, at-first, seem odd that we begin our Christian year with a penitential Season. Why start in darkness?

All life commences in darkness. 'Born in ocean depths, or dim caves, or conceived in light-less wombs, or pushing-up from within the sunless soil, all new life tends towards the light. We await the celebration of the birth of our Lord, of His coming with Light into the Darkness of the World.

Despite this last, our life-in-Christ begins not with birth, His coming in Light, but rather, with death, His going into Darkness. No soul was saved in the moment of His birth. All were saved, when he offered-up His earthly life, on-behalf of our eternal ones.

Thus, a penitential Season as the beginning of our Year. The deep Violet vestments, the sorrow that we feel, and seek to have forgiven, all become sensible when viewed as expressions of our regret for having necessitated the birth, which lead inevitably to the death of our Lord. As S. Paul tells us, when we die to the World, and rise to life in Christ Jesus, only then are we saved, are we joined to Him, for ever and ever, amen! I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish