‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2024 March 9

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Saturday, 9 March, in the year of our Lord 2024. REMEMBER that the time will change, at 2:00 AM this-coming Sunday (tomorrow), requiring us to be in Church an hour earlier than usual. Don't be late! The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Saturday: (today): 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Frances of Rome, Widow.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Mothering Sunday (Lent IV).
• Monday: 10:00 AM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
• Tuesday: 5:30 PM, Mass, S. Gregory the Great, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
  6:30 PM, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
• Thursday: 8:00 AM, monthly men's Morning Prayer.
  6:30 PM, Mass, Lenten Feria, Soup &Study to follow.
• Friday: 10:00 AM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
  Immediately following, Stations of the Cross.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
  5:00 PM, Stations of the Cross.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Passion Sunday (Lent V).

Again, TIME CHANGE before services tomorrow, so make ye ready. Most of our devices these days adjust themselves automatically, attempting to remove human error from our lives. Some might say that Daylight Savings time is a human error, but we'll leave that for another time....

We began our reflections on Lenten meditation and exploration by looking at our thoughts, as a relatively easy point of entry into our internal lives. This lead to our mind, ostensibly the source and seat of our thoughts. We began then to consider that this might not be the case, and identified the heart (figuratively speaking) as a deeper, more likely candidate for that place in which we live, and move, and have our being.

This was supported by the theological notions, both developed and revealed, held by Holy Church throughout the centuries. The heart is the heart of the very temple ~ our bodies, which do contain all of us, whatever that may be ~ of our lives. It is this temple that is cleansed by the waters of Holy Baptism. Once purified, the Holy Ghost enters-in, to begin the work of guiding us to the Father, and to His Son. We meet Him there, He speaks to us from there, the Light of the Christ beams-forth from there, once we take that next step, following Baptism, at our Holy Confirmation.

At the end of the last full 'Weekly Post, I asked a question. After making the previous arguments concerning the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the query became what else might dwell within our hearts? The answer, as I hope some or many of you guessed, is the soul ~ our very souls.

The soul is what ~ who ~ we are. From the soul; rather, as the soul, we see all of our lives. We watch the mind, we use it, we are bemused, and occasionally betrayed, by it. We watch our emotions, as do our thoughts, dash out-and-about on their merry ~ or other ~ errands. Can we control these? Of-course we can. Do we? This will form the basis for our next reflection. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish