Lenten Services 2020
Our Lenten Midweek Services are under way, and we are off to a good start with using the Holden Evening Prayer Service for the first time at Gift of Grace. And now as Daylight Savings Time kicks in, you will be able to arrive and depart from our 6:30-7:30pm service in daylight.
It is always special to share a meal together. And the soup dinner at 6:30 goes over well. It affords a chance for many of you to simmer something in the crockpot during the day while going about business. Please take a look at the signup sheet and contribute to at least one of the five meals. In addition to two soups, we need bread, desserts, and beverages.
We try to start the prayer service sharp at 7pm, and the length being only 30 minutes allows families with children to arrive back home at a decent time. As I mentioned, our first run with the Holden Evening Prayer Service went well. Many thanks to the choir for rehearsing and leading it! People comment that the music is catchy and memorable, while the texts remain the traditional words of the Church’s Vespers Service.
The Theme for the selected Scripture Lesson and the brief 5 minute Meditation is “Baptized By Water And God’s Word: Our Baptismal Journey.” I am enjoying looking at incidents in the Bible surrounding water and sea that are illuminating on the meaning and significance of Baptism. And so we are looking at the Spirit hovering over the waters at Creation. We are considering death and salvation happening in the Great Flood in which Noah and his family were rescued. We are contemplating the crossing of the Red Sea for the congregation of God’s people. We are recalling Naaman’s cleansing in the Jordan River. And we are recalling Jesus and Peter walking on the Sea of Galilee.
Take advantage of Lent, and don’t miss out on this opportunity!
Since You Asked…
What is meant by the term “catholic” as when we confess, “I believe in the holy catholic Church?”
The term “catholic” means whole and refers to a church which receives the Christian faith intact without alteration or selection of matters of the faith. The opposite of catholic is heretic, one who picks and chooses which parts of the faith to accept. Thus “catholic” is more specific than “Christian” and is not a synonym for “ecumenical” or “worldwide”. (from “Manual on the Liturgy” companion to the LBW, from Augsburg Pub.)
- often when the “C” is capitalized “Catholic” is referring to the Roman Catholic Church, and when the “c” is lower case “catholic” is referring to the Church receiving the whole of the faith.