Spirit of the Eagle – March 2014

Rector’s Reflections
I’m sure it probably seems like this winter will never end, but for me the fact that Lent is about to arrive is a sure sign that spring is just around the corner. The name Lent, in fact comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word, lencten, which means ‘spring’. Since the early Church there has been a time of preparation prior to Easter, primarily for those about to be baptized.

However, the Council of Nicea, in 325 AD is the first mention of this period being 40 days in homage to Our Lord’s 40 days in the desert before the beginning of His public ministry. Lent is our time to lay aside all the distractions of modern life and refocus our attention on Jesus and to draw closer to Him who died for us. St. John’s Church gives our members plenty of opportunities to during Lent to pray, to study, and to experience the beauty of the Anglican liturgy. Our main Ash Wednesday service will be March 5th at 6 PM, Fr. Butler will also be providing a daytime service that same day at 12 pm, for those that can’t make the evening service. Please join us as often as you can during this season to learn the price that was paid for our salvation. God Bless.
+Fr. Bryan Newman

Wednesday Night Service: Holy Communion/Stations of the Cross
Our Wednesday night Holy Communion service during Lent expands to include Stations of the Cross to aid us in focusing on Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and eventual Resurrection. It is an ancient rite and there are few ways better to reflect on the price Jesus paid for our sins. I encourage all of you who regularly attend Wednesday services and especially all of those who don’t, to take part in this wonderful remembrance of Our Lord’s sacrifice.

Soup and Salad Dinners
Please join us every Wednesday in Lent (excluding Ash Wednesday and Holy Week) immediately following the Wednesday night Holy Communion/Stations of the Cross service, as the wonderful ladies of the A.C.W. prepare the Soup and Salad Dinners for us all to enjoy a light repast as we reflect on the services we have just participated in. These meals are always delicious and well worth your joining us for a great fellowship event.

St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Coffee Hour
Like last year, our parish will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, March 16th with a special Coffee Hour, sponsored by the ladies of the A.C.W. The ladies put on a great celebration last year and I’m sure they will again. So please bring your friends and family that Sunday (we would love to see them every Sunday) to participate in one of St. John’s biggest fellowship events of the year. Thank you A.C.W.!

ACM’s St. Joseph’s Day Soup & Salad Dinner
St. Joseph is the best example for husbands and fathers in the New Testament. In his honor the Anglican Church Men will sponsor the Soup & Salad dinner on Wednesday the 19th, (after Holy Mass/Stations) which is the day after St. Joseph’s Day. Please join us, especially all the Men of the Parish, to take part in recognizing a true model for manhood.

Choir Practice and Services
We have a small, dedicated group that works diligently to give praise to God in song. Won’t you consider singing with them? Practice is every Wednesday at 7 pm. As always we need more choir members and if you would like to help us make a joyful noise unto the Lord, we would love to have you join the Choir!

Vestry Meeting
There is big change for Lent for the monthly Vestry Meeting, during this penitential season the meetings will be on Sundays! The date for the Vestry Meeting for March is set for the third Sunday of the month, on the 16th, at about 1PM. If you are a member of the Vestry please make plans to be present. If the 3rd Sunday is inconvenient for any of you please let Fr. Newman know as soon as possible.

The Flight of the Eagle
It was Fr. Stork, (of fond memory to many in this Parish) who shared a record of his activities with the Parish on a regular basis. It is in his honor and inspiration that we include the ‘Flight of the Eagle’ which is a record of my activities as your pastor over the month just past. Below are the visits and other events, I made in the month of February. I prayed with those I visited and gave them Holy Communion and Anointed them when needed. +God Bless, Fr. Bryan Newman+

2/2 visited Bettielu Conaway @ her home
2/9 visited Jack & Joyce Murray @ their home
2/16 visited Ethel Fahlbush @ Villa Springs
2/18 visited Kathy Hougham @ St. E’s Edgewood
2/23 visited Kathy Hougham @ St. E’s Edgewood
2/28 visited Don Prigge @ Elmcroft Nursing Home

Spiritual Tidbits for March from Father Tim
“Man is a twofold being comprising soul and body, and has two orders of senses and two corresponding orders of virtues. The soul has five senses and the body five. The senses of the soul, which are also called the faculties, are intellect, reason, opinion, fantasy and sense-perception. The senses of the body are sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. The virtues which belong to these senses are twofold and so, too, are the vices. Everyone should know how many virtues there are of the soul and how many of the body, and what kind of passions belong to the soul and what kind to the body. The virtues which we ascribe to the soul are primarily the four cardinal virtues: courage, moral judgment, self-restraint and justice. These give birth to the other virtues of the soul: faith, hope, love, prayer, humility, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, kindness, freedom from anger, knowledge of God, cheerfulness, simplicity, calmness, sincerity, freedom from vanity, freedom from pride, absence of envy, honesty, freedom from avarice, compassion, mercifulness, generosity, fearlessness, freedom from dejection, deep compunction, modesty, reverence, desire for the blessings held in store, longing for the kingdom of God, and aspiration for divine sonship.” St. John of Damaskos (c. 675-c. 749) On the Virtues and the Vices, Feast Day 27th of March.

The Lenten Season has arrived. Are you prepared for Ash Wednesday? Now is the time to eliminate vices from our daily life in order to give room for virtues to grow. Now is the time to prepare, to fast, to give, and to pray. Now is the time to utilize the next 40 days and strengthen both the body and soul “senses”. Following are 40 ways to keep a Holy Lent and, like Saint John of Damaskos, “aspire for divine sonship”. ~ Father Tim

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Day 1: Pray A Pentiential Office for Ash Wednesday. Page 60 in the Prayer Book.
Day 2: Give $33.00 to a charity (one dollar for each year of Jesus Christ’s ministry).
Day 3: Take a walk to Emmaus with a friend and talk about Jesus Christ.
Day 4: Fast from the car radio or TV today. Contemplate God instead.
Sunday
Day 5: Take 40 minutes of silence at noon. Meditate on the cross.
Day 6: Give 5 items (for the 5 wounds of Christ) of your clothing to Goodwill.
Day 7: Read Joel Chapter 2 verses 12 through 17.
Day 8: Fast from complaining. Utter not a single complaint today. Be thankful only.
Day 9: Be a servant and do someone else’s work, task, or chore.
Day 10: Pray Morning and Evening Prayer at www.commonprayer.org today.
Sunday
Day 11: Call an old friend you have not talked to in years.
Day 12: Go on a caffeine fast today (yes this includes coffee).
Day 13: Read Psalm 51 and 139.
Day 14: Give 12 complements (one for each apostle) today.
Day 15: Educate yourself on Pro-Life www.40daysforlife.com and pray for the unborn.
Day 16: Forgive someone today (as Christ commanded).
Sunday
Day 17: Tell at least one person what you are grateful for today.
Day 18: Buy 3 (for the Trinity) fast food gift cards and give them to someone in need.
Day 19: Read St. Matthew Chapter 6 verses 16 through 21.
Day 20: Pray for people in the news who are in distress and need God’s help.
Day 21: Educate yourself on Christian persecution at www.barnabasfund.org today.
Day 22: Fast from any type of shopping today. Contemplate the cleansing of the temple.
Sunday
Day 23: Go on a sweet fast today. Meditate on the holy name Jesus.
Day 24: Light a candle today for someone you love and pray for them.
Day 25: Read the Gospel of John Chapter 12 verses 20 through 26.
Day 26: Bake your favorite item. Give it away to a neighbor (you can’t nibble either).
Day 27: Introduce yourself to a neighbor who you have not met (hint: see Day 26).
Day 28: Plant 4 spring bulbs (one for each Gospel) in remembrance of someone you love.
Sunday
Day 29: Write an actual letter today (yes with ink and paper). Mail it to a friend.
Day 30: Fast from clutter. De-clutter one room or cupboard in your house today.
Day 31: Read Psalm 23 and 121 today.
Day 32: Give two things of beauty away for the two natures of Christ (human & divine).
Day 33: Educate yourself on Human Trafficking www.sharedhope.org and pray.
Day 34: Pray for your enemies today (especially those you made on Day12).
Sunday
Day 35: Go on an internet fast today.
Day 36: Ask for help today with something you struggle with.
Day 37: Read “A General Confession” on page 6 of the Prayer Book
Day 38: Confess a sin today.
Day 39: Pray for those lost in the world to understand the meaning of Good Friday.
Day 40: Give a “Thank You” card to a person who helped you draw closer to God.

•••

A humble, willing, and docile mind, or desire to be instructed in the way of God; for persuasion enters like a sunbeam, gently, and without violence; and open but the window, and draw the curtain, and the Sun of Righteousness will enlighten your darkness. ~ Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, Holy Dying, Of Faith pages 165-166.

•••

March Spirituality Class
Please join me after Mass on the 23rd of March to discuss the Eight Beatitudes (a request from a very special parish member). The Beatitudes are inseparable from the Sermon on the Mount, which has been called the very core of the Christian message. Through them Jesus taught his hearers about Gospel values, which are just as applicable today as they were then. Meditating and reflecting on the Beatitudes will help us apply those values to our daily lives. Are you prepared to be a model for the Beatitudes? If so please come and bring a friend. ~ Father Tim

•••

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

~ T.S. Eliott, excerpt from his poem Ash Wednesday

•••

I will pray that your Lenten Season is holy, meaningful, and full of growth. I hope that each of us spring forth on Easter Day reinvigorated with an even higher calling to the life of Christ. God bless all of you. ~ Father Tim

Thank You Very Much
The ACW would like to thank Kathy, Fr. Al, and Robert Hooks for the delicious luncheon on Sunday, February 16, 2014 to celebrate all who are cancer survivors. Also the luncheon was a fundraiser to support the annual Spaghetti Dinner which will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2014. $85.00 was donated by the generous members of SJC. Thank you to all.
Brenda Strong, Treasurer of ACW

ACW News and Events
All members of the Paris are welcome to join the ACW. Meetings are the second Sunday of the month after Mass and coffee hour, with the exception of the summer months. Dues are $5, payable to our Treasurer, Brenda Strong.

St. Patrick’s Day Coffee Hour
Remember to wear your green and please join the ACW in celebration St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, March 16th. Traditional Irish fare will be featured.

Lenten Soup and Salad Dinners
In anticipation of Lent, beginning March 12 and continuing each Wednesday throughout, the ACW will host Soup and Salad dinners after Wednesday Mass and Stations of the Cross. Join us for prayer, food and fellowship. The following dates are in need of volunteers to prepare soups and salads, please see Judie Boughner or Kim Marshall if you are able to contribute: March 19 and 26 and April 9 and 16.

St. John’s Annual Spaghetti Dinner
Mark your calendars for the annual spaghetti dinner on Saturday, April 26th from 4:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. Invite your family, friends and neighbors and purchase tickets for $7 for adults, $3.50 for children from Brenda Strong. Dessert donations of brownies and cookies are needed. Raffles will be held throughout the dinner and donations of baskets, crafts are needed. Volunteers will be needed to contribute to all aspects of the event, including set up, cooking, serving, tear down and clean up, etc. Look for a sign-up sheet and list of duties in the parish hall and please add your name.

Thanks to the parish for the support and contributions to the ACW.

March Birthdays & Anniversaries
Paul Hamilton – Birthday – March 6
Mary Ann & Fr. Neuroth – Anniversary – March 13
Joanna Barnett – Birthday – March 16
Judy Hulsey – Birthday – March 28
Kay Matthews – Birthday – March 31

End of the Month Club
The End of the Month Club will be on hiatus until further notice.

Fr. Newman’s sermon from Louise Becker funeral
Good morning, thank you for joining me, in spite of the inclement weather, to honor the memory of Louise Becker and to bid her farewell. If you have been a member of St. John’s longer than 5 years you will remember her. Before her mental decline brought about by dementia she was an active member of this Church and the long-time head of the Altar Guild. In fact the instruction book that the Altar Guild uses was written by Louise. I knew her to be a very sweet and dignified lady who bore malice towards none and charity for everyone.

Because she was head of the Altar Guild I had many opportunities to speak with her, either before or after Mass and she loved to talk, I assume because she lived alone and had no close family. At those times she would tell me stories about her life, what she had done and where she had been and she led a pretty interesting lady. To many she may have appeared as a quiet unassuming little old lady but that description just did not do her justice.

I know almost nothing about her early life, chronologically her stories started with her being a student at U.K. After she obtained her degree she returned to Northern Kentucky and took a job with Proctor & Gamble. Either before or after that, memory fails me, she was a member of the W.A.V.E.S, during World War II. W.A.V.E.S. stands for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services and was a part of the United States Navy. Women could not be a part of the Navy in those days so the W.A.V.E.S were created because men were needed for combat roles and the women took over the jobs they weren’t around to do. Some were secretaries or chauffeurs for officers, but others worked in communications, medicine, or analysis and if I recall correctly Louise worked in the medical field.

At some point during the war, Louise became engaged to be married to a young military man. I recall that her fiancée was overseas during the war and was on his way home to marry her. Unfortunately the plane he caught to take him home crashed along the way and he was killed. Louise was devastated by his loss and for decades after that resolved that she would never marry.

Years later she was a member of a Church Choir, I don’t recall which Church, I do know she was a life-long Anglican, a gentleman, who was also in the Choir, approached her and began talking to her. He was older than she was, quite a bit as I recall, and his name was Morris. He was a widower and had been without female companionship for many years, but he finally worked up enough courage to ask her out by saying, “would you have dinner with me? I am so lonely.” What he said or the way he said it touched her heart and so she went. They eventually married and, by her account lived a happy life together until Morris’s age caught up with him and lived out his last days in a nursing home.

She told me often about her sister who lived in Danville, Ky. And her children as, at that point, they were the only family she had, but rather than move there she decided to stay here. She never told me why but I suspect it was her attachment to this Church. She was a regular fixture on Sunday mornings and always sat right about …there. I found her to be a very good natured person, with a ready smile and someone to whom laughter came easy. She laughed often in almost every conversation I ever had with her which told me she was at peace with circumstances and with God.

In these final years of her life I visited her often at Barrington Arms in Ft. Thomas where she lived. By then she couldn’t drive and could no longer come to Church so I tried to bring Church to her. Her ability to remember things moment to moment was evaporating and she repeated herself frequently but even then she didn’t seem frustrated or angry, and appeared to me, to be resigned to her circumstances. She loved the food at the Barrington and put on a little weight while she lived there. I remember her telling me, before she ever moved there, that her diet consisted of canned soup. In the last year or so her mental condition deteriorated quickly and the last time I saw her she was a resident at the Carmel Manor. She didn’t recognize me and didn’t seem to understand that I was giving her Communion until I moved the sacred host toward her mouth and she seemed to know instinctively what to do.

Most of us, when we come to the end of our days will have spouses, siblings, or children who will remember us. Even after we are gone our loved ones will tell stories about us to each other and reminisce about who we were and the things we did. I hope that, if you have been at St. John’s long enough you will have stories to tell about Louise Becker, like the ones I have shared with you, because Louise and the stories of her life deserve to be remembered. And even though in these later years she had to endure the indignity of fading mental capacity we can all take comfort that our beloved sister in Christ, Louise Becker has left us to join a choir far greater than any to be heard here, and she has gone forth with a heart ready and well prepared.

Let us pray,
Most merciful God we give you thanks for the life of Louise Becker and the wonderful memories she has left us with and we have full confidence that she now rests with you. We ask that as your infinite mercy has opened the door to Heaven for those of who have faith in you, we live in hope that we will be counted among them. We ask this in Jesus holy name. Amen.

St. John’s Garden
With another batch of snow and ice being forecast for tomorrow and Monday, only the good Lord knows when one of the harshest winters in many years will be over; but one of these days we’ll begin whipping our church garden into shape just in time for our Easter Service. Every year there is mulch to spread, weeding to do and much tidying up before the garden is ready for summer. If you would be interested in helping out, or perhaps claiming an area to maintain this year, please contact Mike Lenz 859-491-1555.