The Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Join us for “at church” or “virtually” for worship this Sunday, May 29, The Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day, and Memorial Day Weekend at St. Alban’s, St. Thomas’, St. Patrick’s, and Iglesia Episcopal La Esperanza de Familias Unidas. 

Holy Eucharist, Rite Two
St. Alban’s  - 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.* 
St. Thomas' on the Bayou - 10:00 a.m.* 
St. Patrick’s – 11:00 a.m.*

* These liturgies will be Live-Streamed on Facebook for those who choose to remain at home. Download a pdf of the leaflet to print or to use on your phone or tablet with this link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wa3Ndk9v2UawvBlycX0GUPPW-dfoRe11/view?usp=sharing   

La Santa Eucaristía: Rito Dos
Iglesia Episcopal La Esperanza de Familias Unidas – Domingo - 5:00 p.m. (transmitido en Facebook) 

             
Zoom Compline - All Welcome 
Sunday -  8:00 p.m. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83861688528?pwd=WFdBcndxV3hzbUpETDNTSFFzc3Z0QT09

 
Meeting ID: 838 6168 8528
Passcode: 800
or dial in at  +1 312 626 6799 or +1 346 248 7799

We hope to “see” you all on Sunday as you are most comfortable!

Rita+, Rob+ and Whit+

Art from Clip Art, Steve Erspamer, Liturgy Training Publications – ltp.org

Reason to Believe

“People are going to come looking for Jesus. And all they’re going to get is you.” It’s up to us to give people a reason to believe. It’s up to us to love like Jesus teaches us to.

Bishop Jake Owensby, quoting one of his seminary professors. See https://jakeowensby.com/2022/05/27/reason-to-believe/

The Day After

Jesus’s first followers must have felt scared, alone, and on their own after Jesus’s ascension. They were not, and neither are we. Remember that!

Ascension Day

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day. We remember that the risen Christ is taken into heaven after appearing to his followers for forty days (Acts 1:1-11, Mk 16:19). The Ascension marks the conclusion of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances. It is the final elevation of his human nature to divine glory and the near presence of God.

Join a group of  us tonight for 
Ascension Day Zoom Evening Prayer
Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
 
Join our Ascension Day Zoom Evening Prayer at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86781577595?pwd=VjNnZTZnUFFadkJPc3VOVTh3K21Idz09

 
Meeting ID: 867 8157 7595
Passcode: 530
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 or  +1 346 248 7799

The Collect:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Bede

Today's saint is Bede, Priest and Historian, 735

Join us today, Wednesday, May 25  to learn more about the Venerable Bede at St. Alban's for Holy Eucharist today at 12:10 p.m. or join all our Monroe Episcopal churches tonight for 

Zoom Evening Prayer & Video Study - 5:30 p.m. with Father Whit+

Zoom Evening Prayer

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86781577595?pwd=VjNnZTZnUFFadkJPc3VOVTh3K21Idz09

Meeting ID: 867 8157 7595

Passcode: 530

Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 or +1 346 248 779

Bede, Priest and Historian, 735

The Collect:

Almighty God, who has enriched your Church with the learning and holiness of your servant Bede: Grant us to find in Scripture and disciplined prayer the image of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and to fashion our lives according to his likeness, to the glory of your great Name and the benefit of your holy church; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At the age of seven, Bede’s parents brought him to the nearby monastery at Jarrow (near Durham in northeast England) for his education. There, as he later wrote, “spending all the remaining time of my life . . . I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in learning, teaching, and Writing.”

Bede was ordained deacon at nineteen, and presbyter at thirty. He died on the eve of the Ascension in 735 while dictating a vernacular translation of the Gospel According to John. About 1020, his body was removed to Durham and placed in the Galilee, the Lady Chapel at the west end of the Cathedral nave.

Bede was the greatest scholar of his time in the Western Church. He wrote commentaries on the Scriptures based on patristic interpretations. His treatise on chronology was standard for a long time. He also wrote on orthography, poetic meter, and especially on history. His most famous work, the Ecclesiastical History of England, written in Latin, remains the primary source for the period 597 to 731, when Anglo-Saxon culture developed and Christianity triumphed. In this work, Bede was clearly ahead of his time. He consulted many documents, carefully evaluated their reliability, and cited his sources. His interpretations were balanced and judicious. He also wrote The Lives of the Holy Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and a notable biography of Cuthbert, both in prose and verse.

His character shines through his work—an exemplary monk, an ardent Christian, devoted scholar, and a man of pure and winsome manners. He received the unusual title of Venerable more than a century after his death.*

* A Great Cloud of Witnesses, A Calendar of Commemorations, Copyright © 2016 by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America

Kemper

Jackson Kemper, Bishop and Missionary, 1870

The Collect:

O God, who send your son Jesus Christ to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near, Grant that we, like your servant Jackson Kemper, may proclaim the Gospel in our own day, with courage, vision, and perseverance; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.

Jackson Kemper was born 24 December 1789 in Pleasant Valley, New York, attended Columbia College, and was ordained a priest in 1814. In 1835, the Episcopal Church undertook to consecrate missionary bishops to preach the Gospel west of the settled areas, and Kemper was the first to be chosen. He promptly headed west. Having found that clergy who had lived all their lives in the settled East were slow to respond to his call to join him on the frontier, he determined to recruit priests from among men who were already in the West, and established a college in St. Louis, Missouri, for that purpose. He went on to found Nashotah House and Racine College in Wisconsin. He constantly urged a more extensive outreach to the Indian peoples, and translations of the Scriptures and the services of the Church into Indian languages. From 1859 till his death in 1870, he was bishop of Wisconsin, but the effect of his labors covered a far wider area. *

* The Lectionay, James Kiefer, http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Jackson_Kemper.htm

Rogation Days

Rogation Days

According to The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), Rogation Days, traditionally observed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day. Rogation Sunday may be observed on The Sixth Sunday of Easter. 

Traditionally, the litany is sung (or recited) in procession as an act of intercession. They originated in Vienne, France, in the fifth century when Bishop Mamertus introduced days of fasting and prayer to ward off a threatened disaster. In England they were associated with the blessing of the fields at planting. The vicar “beat the bounds” of the parish, processing around the fields reciting psalms and the litany. In the United States they have been associated with rural life and with agriculture and fishing. The propers in the BCP (pp. 207-208, 258-259, 930) have widened their scope to include commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation. The BCP also permits their celebration at other times to accommodate different regional growing seasons. The BOS contains material for a Rogation procession, including petitions to be added to the Great Litany and the prayers of the people. The term is from the Latin rogatio, “asking.” *

*  From An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors, https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/ 

Photos from this year’s Rogation Sunday at Church of the Redeemer, Oak Ridge with St. Andrew’s, Mer Rouge. The Very Rev’d Dawnell Stodghill blesses crosses that were carried to other local fields and gardens.