‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 May 22

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Monday, 22 May, in the year of our Lord 2023. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Tuesday (tomorrow): 6:30 PM, Mass, monthly Parish Requiem.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Of the Octave of the Ascension; commemorate S. Vincent of Lerins, Confessor.
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, Octave Day of the Ascension; Soup and Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, S. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop & Confessor, using Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, The Venerable Bede, Confessor & Doctor.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Whitsunday.

For those attending our weekly soup & study, we took some detours these past two session, but will return this week to the study of the Gospel According to S. Luke. Please read Chapter Four, verses 24 to the end of the Chapter. If you've yet to join us for this study, please do so.

Pentecost (Whitsunday) is one of the great Feasts of the Ancient Church. It was the second-most common day upon which to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, following Easter. The word Pentecost refers to the coming of the Holy Ghost, following hard upon the heels of our Lord's Ascension, His return to Heaven-above.

Whitsunday is a typical English contraction, having come from White Sunday. It was the custom to bathe (often only an annual event in English villages) on that morning, don garments of white ~ symbolic of purity ~ and parade through the Village on the way to the Church, there to be Baptised into the Body of Christ, His most holy Church. They walked through the world, this fallen, muddy, dirty in oh so many ways one, to reach that perfect, spotless, flawless one to come.

Purity ... a dead concept. When I signed-on to my computer, there was a link for the fashions at the Cannes Film Festival, which I clicked. The headline article was on a woman of whom I've never heard (perhaps an actress), who wore a hard, transparent, plastic halter, beneath which was revealed everything. Apparently, she's known for her 'daring' fashion choices. Thus, what would've gotten her arrested not that many years-ago, and well-within my lifetime, is now celebrated.

Purity ... a dead concept? In this world, under the Prince of this World, yes. However, not dead under our Prince. We not only remember Him, we know Him. We strive to live as He lead us to do. We are not pure, but strive ever for it, hoping to attain it, on His great day of coming. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish