Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day: April 16, 2017

Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

April 16, 2017

Eucharistic Liturgies 8:00am, 10:45 am

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Easter dawn

He blesses every love that weeps and grieves

And now he blesses hers who stood and wept

And would not be consoled, or leave her love's

Last touching place, but watched as low light crept

Up from the east. A sound behind her stirs

A scatter of bright birdsong through the air.

She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,

Or recognize the Gardener standing there.

She hardly hears his gentle question, "Why,

Why are you weeping?", or sees the play of light

That brightens as she chokes out her reply,

"They took my love away, my day and night."

And then she hears her name, she hears Love say

The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 44)

Holy Saturday: April 15, 2017

Holy Saturday

April 15, 2017

Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm

Romans 6:3-11; John 20:1-18

Jesus is laid in the tomb

Here at the centre everything is still,

Before the stir and movement of our grief

That bears its pain with rhythm, ritual,

Beautiful useless gestures of relief.

So they anoint the skin that cannot feel

And soothe his ruined flesh with tender care,

Kissing the wounds they know they cannot heal,

With incense scenting only empty air.

He blesses every love that weeps and grieves,

And makes our grief the pangs of a new birth.

The love that's poured in silence at old graves,

Renewing flowers, tending the bare earth,

Is never lost. In him all love is found

And sown with him, a seed in the rich ground.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 43)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Visit someone. Take them some hot cross buns for their Easter feast. 

Good Friday: April 14, 2017

Good Friday

April 14, 2017

(from “God’s Friday”)

Way of the Cross, 12 noon; Adoration of the Cross, 7:00 pm

Is. 52:13-53:12; Ps. 22; Heb. 10:16-25; John 18:1-19:42

Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

See, as they strip the robe from off his back

And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,

The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,

And love is firmly fastened on to loss.

But here a pure change happens. On this tree

Loss becomes gain, death opens into birth.

Here wounding heals and fastening makes free,

Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth.

And here we see the length, the breadth, the height,

Where love and hatred meet and love stays true,

Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light,

We see what love can bear and be and do.

And here our Saviour calls us to his side,

His love is free, his arms are open wide.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 42)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Bake hot cross buns to break the fast (see recipe below.) Leave the radio and TV off today.

Holy Week: Hot Cross Buns      375° oven            about 15 buns

In a small bowl, combine:

       1 pkg. dry yeast

       ¼ c. warm water

In a small saucepan, scald:

       1 c. milk (or soymilk)

Add:

       1 t. salt

       ¼ c. sugar

       ¼ c. butter

Pour milk mixture into a large bowl. Let cool to lukewarm.

Stir in:

       1 c. flour

Add:

       yeast mixture

       1 egg, beaten

       ½ t. ground cinnamon

       ½ c. raisins or currants

Mix well. Add:

       2½ - 3 c. flour

Knead 5 minutes on floured surface. Place in greased bowl. Cover with clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Punch down. Turn out onto floured surface; let rest 10 minutes. Shape into round buns (about 2 ½” diameter), and place on greased baking sheet. Cover with towel; let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove to racks. Cool.

Mix: (to make a moderately thick frosting)

       1 c. powdered sugar

       2 t. to 1 T. milk

       a few drops of vanilla

Pipe frosting through the snipped corner of a sandwich bag into the shape of a cross on each bun. Makes about 15.

Maundy Thursday: April 13, 2017

Maundy Thursday (from “Mandare” – to command)

April 13, 2017

Eucharist, 12 Noon: Eucharist with Footwashing, 7:00 pm

Ex. 12:1-14; Ps. 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Maundy Thursday

Here is the source of every sacrament,

The all-transforming presence of the Lord,

Replenishing our every element,

Remaking us in his creative Word.

For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,

The air delights to bear his Spirit's speech,

The fire dances where the candles shine,

The waters cleanse us with his gentle touch.

And here he shows the full extent of love

To us whose love is always incomplete,

In vain we search the heavens high above,

The God of love is kneeling at our feet.

Though we betray him, though it is the night,

He meets us here and loves us into light.

Malcolm Guite,  (Sounding the Seasons, p. 36)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Clean out a closet. Give away what you don’t need.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Worship: Noon

Reading: John 13:21-32

O Adonai

Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue;

Unseeable, you gave yourself away;

The Adonai, the Tetragrammaton,

Grew by a wayside in the light of day,

O you who dared to be a tribal God,

To own a language, people and a place,

Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,

If so you might be met with face to face:

Come to us here, who would not find you there,

Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,

Who heard no more than thunder in the air,

Who marked the mere events and not the myth;

Touch the bare branches of our unbelief

And blaze again like fire in every leaf.

Malcol Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 8)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Take a walk. Look for signs of spring.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Worship: Noon

Full Moon, Lakota "Moon of Fattening"

Pesach, Passover begins

Reading: John 12:20-36

Grain of Wheat

Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth

And die away from all dry separation,

Die to my sole self, and find new birth

Within that very death, a dark fruition,

Deep in this crowded underground, to learn

The earthy otherness of every other,

To know that nothing is achieved alone

But only where these other fallen gather.

If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,

Then fall upon me with your freeing flail

To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear

As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall

May be more fruitful and my autumn still

A golden evening where your barns are full.

Malcolm Guite, (Parable and Paradox, p. 68)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Buy and eat a fruit that has many seeds.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Monday, April 10, 2017

Worship: Noon

Commemoration of Michael Agricola, Bishop of Turku

Reading: John 12: 1-11

The Anointing at Bethany

Come close with Mary, Martha, Lazarus,

So close the candles flare with their soft breath,

And kindle heart and soul to flame within us,

Lit by these mysteries of life and death.

For beauty now begins the final movement,

In quietness and intimate encounter,

The alabaster jar of precious ointment

Is broken open for the world's true lover.

The whole room richly fills to feast the senses

With all the yearning such a fragrance brings,

The heart is mourning but the spirit dances,

Here at the very centre of all things,

Here at the meeting place of love and loss

We all foresee and see beyond the cross.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 35)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

·       Place the palms from the Palm Sunday liturgy on your altar.