‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 November 13
Beloved of the Lord:
To-day is Monday, 13 November, in the year of lour Lord 2023. The scheduled services are as-follows:
- Monday (today): 10:00 AM, Mass, S. Britius, Bishop & Confessor.
- Tuesday: 5:30 PM, Deacon's Liturgy, Bestowal of the American Episcopate.
6:30 PM, Holy Rosary & Evensong. - Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Sext.
- Thursday: NO SERVICES.
- Friday: 9:00 AM, Matins.
- Saturday: NO SERVICES.
- Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Deacon's Liturgy, Trinity XXIV.
PLEASE NOTE THE SCHEDULE CHANGES! I'll be travelling to see family; thus, the changes noted above in the schedule. Should you have a pastoral emergency, please call me, on my cellular 'phone, and I'll arrange Clergy coverage for you. 'One of the few benefits of this electronic Age....
As recently-noted, Advent will soon be upon us. One of the most frequently-asked questions concerning the Kalendar of Holy Mother, the Church, is Why is Advent a Penitential (Violet) Season? The simple answer is our sorrow for our sin.
Delving-into greater depth, specifically we mourn that our sin, our fallen ~ and yet somehow haughty ~ nature necessitated the descent of our Lord from the infinite peace and grace of the heavenly places, into this blood-stained horror of a world that we've been forging from the perfection of His original design since the very Fall itself, our expulsion from the Garden; which, despite our finest efforts, still bears elements of the grace with which He imbued it.
We dragged Him here ~ down, down, down to our level. 'Not a fate that He'd have chosen, to be sure, but neither one that He would ever refuse, being innately desirous of pleasing His Father, and completing the Father's over-arching plan of ultimate redemption ~ salvation. He became in this way, as He is in all things, perfect; the ultimate martyr, who was not captured and killed by the world, but marched straight to the gallows. He never had to be found, or tracked ~ at the appointed hour, He presented Himself for torture and death.
At this level of deeper examination, we also notice that throughout the time of physical and spiritual darkness, we are to busy ourselves in preparing for the Light. Jesus, the Christ, is coming! As such, we focus upon our sins, aiming ultimately at repenting therefrom, so that we may be rightly and duly prepared for His arrival, His Advent to this world. The Light of all Lights, the Light of the World, is near ... let us make ready for Him. I remain
in His praise,
The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder
Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish