Spirit of the Eagle – August 2014

Rector’s Reflections
It’s hard to believe, but summer will be over soon. It’s been an unusually cool summer, temperature wise, but I’m sure most of you didn’t let that stop you from enjoying your vacations. However as August begins we begin thinking about our preparations for the cool weather of the fall and the bitterly cold weather, (at least in recent times) of winter. I’ve noticed that the stores started putting out ‘back to school’ products for purchase weeks ago, (it gets earlier and earlier each year). My neighbors have already started packing away their sports equipment and yard tools. I hope that all of us have had time to rest and refresh ourselves and are re-energized for the work ahead. As fall approaches, we have many tasks ahead of us, such as regularly participating in the worship of Our Lord, evangelizing our neighbors, and giving much needed service to our Church. As always we need volunteers to help with the Altar Guild, the Acolytes (altar servers, crucifers, etc.), and the Choir. This year we need to revive the role of lay reader (epistlers) as well, for the occasions that there is not a second priest present to assist the celebrant and when there is a second priest present this would allow the Deacon to read the Gospel as intended. My thanks to all of you who donate so much time and talent to our Church and to encourage all those who are considering service to make a leap of faith and join in. Yours-In-Christ, +Fr. Bryan Newman

Sunday 9 a.m. Holy Communion Returns!
The 9 a.m. service has been a modest success in terms of attendance, and will continue through August. I have found it to be very rewarding, particularly on those Sundays that I am not scheduled to perform the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Those days are always disorienting for me and I appreciate the opportunity to celebrate the Mass every Sunday. My special thanks to Roger Blackburn who has been acting as the Server at the 9 a.m. service, as he has performed remarkably well. Whether the service continues after August will depend on the response from the congregation, so if you like an early start to your Sunday, join me at 9 a.m. every Sunday in August for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. +Fr. Newman

Choir Practice and Services
In August the Choir returns (and boy have they been missed) to the 10:30 Mass! Choir practice on Wednesdays returns as well, and at this time, it is my understanding that most practices will take place at 4:30 pm. However, on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, practice will be at 7 p.m. to allow the Choir, the Organist, and the Rector to choose the hymns for the upcoming month. 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!

Wednesday Night Service: Holy Communion
Attendance for the Wednesday night service in July has been pretty sparse, so next year we will most likely take a break during July; but with the coming of August it’s time to get serious about our mid-week service! A week is a long time and waiting a whole week to continue an activity that is beneficial and rewarding for our spiritual lives can be disruptive to the peace of our souls. Quite often in this world where our lives move at a breakneck pace and our spirits are tested by daily adversity, we find ourselves in need of a boost, a ‘spiritual refreshment’ that we attain when we come into contact with Our Lord through Holy Communion. I encourage you to take the opportunity to join us to receive Our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist and to reflect on the lives of the Saints and obtain ‘spiritual food for your spiritual journey’ every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Vestry Meeting
To our dedicated Vestry members, I hope the time off was well spent and enjoyable, but now it is time to return to our labors. See all of you on Wednesday, August 20th, at 7 p.m. for this month’s Vestry meeting.

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 July. I prayed with those I visited and gave them Holy Communion and Anointed them when needed. God Bless, +Fr. Bryan Newman

7/6 visited Dom Benedict @ Rosedale Green
7/6 visited Janet Dosch @ Rosedale Green
7/6 visited Helen Foster @ Rosedale Green
7/13 visited Wilma Herklotz @ Rosedale Green
7/28 visited Don Prigge and ‘Bernie’@ Elmcroft

August Birthdays & Anniversaries
Robert Hooks – Birthday – August 1
Cathy Volter – Birthday – August 19
+Fr. William C. Neuroth – Birthday – August 22
Robby Cornish – Birthday – August 22
Rachel Cornish – Birthday – August 24
Carolynn Schmerge – Birthday – August 28
Janet Butler – Birthday – August 28
Savannah Butler – Birthday – August 29
Tim Lenz – Birthday – August 29

ACW meetings and Coffee Hours to resume in September
Beginning in September, the ACW will resume our normal activities. Their regular meetings, which are usually short, will be held after Mass on the 1st Sunday of every month (September 7) and our Coffee Hours will be held after Mass on the 2nd Sunday of the month, beginning on September 14. Please try your best to attend, as we look forward to seeing you there.
Thanks.
Judie Boughner

Spiritual Tidbits for August from Father Tim

Saint Clare, V, 1194-1253. Feast Day 12th of August.

Clare’s father was a count, her mother the countess Blessed Orsolana. Her father died when the girl was very young. After hearing Saint Francis of Assisi preach in the streets, Clare confided to him her desire to live for God, and the two became close friends. On Palm Sunday in 1212, her bishop presented Clare with a palm, which she apparently took as a sign. With her cousin Pacifica, Clare ran away from her mother‘s palace during the night to enter religious life. She eventually took the veil from Saint Francis at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Italy.

Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares) at San Damiano, and led it for 40 years. Everywhere the Franciscans established themselves throughout Europe, there also went the Poor Clares, depending solely on alms, forced to have complete faith on God to provide through people; this lack of land-based revenues was a new idea at the time. Clare’s mother and sisters later joined the order, and there are still thousands of members living lives of silence and prayer.

Clare loved music and well-composed sermons. She was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, chivalrous, and every day she meditated on the Passion of Jesus. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who’d kicked off their blankets. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco in 1221, she tried to go there to give her own life for God, but was restrained. Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrance at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left, the house was saved, and the image of her holding a monstrance became one of her emblems. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of Francis, who apparently led her soul into the light at her death.

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August has arrived and we are deep into the “dog days” of summer. The ancient Greeks and Romans associated the Dog Days with the star Sirius because it is the brightest star in Canis Major (Large Dog). Eventually the Romans began sacrificing a large red dog in April, in an attempt to appease the rage of Sirius and the hot, sultry weather they knew would be coming. During the middle ages Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time when “the Sea boiled, the Wine soured, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing numerous diseases to man such as burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies.” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813. But amidst all this hysterical thought there were individuals seeking Truth, like Saint Clare above, who are icon’s of Godliness for each of us to observe and see the image of Christ. So this August before we go off searching for today’s version of a red dog to appease the world, let’s instead like Clare be a sea of humbleness, a sweet vintage of mercy, a charming, optimistic, and chivalrous companion of serenity. And finally, every day this month, take the time to meditate on the Passion of Christ. I pray you’ll have a blessed and joyful August. ~Father Tim

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Constantine the Great wrote respectfully to St. Antony, and the religious brothers with him were greatly surprised at this. Antony sobered them up quickly by saying: “Why are you astonished that a king should write to a private citizen? You should marvel that the eternal God has written his law to mortal men, and more than that, has spoken to them by the mouth of his Son.” ~St. Athanasius, The Life of St. Antony

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August Spirituality Class
Please join me after Mass on the 24th of August to discuss Holy Dying. Death is a subject we have covered before, but still (in most cases) do our best not to discuss. The subject matter will kill a good party, thus we will broach it in our class. It is imperative that we not only educate ourselves, but help prepare our friends and loved ones as well. We will openly discuss the thought of dying, and what we should do in order to ensure we pass properly to Paradise. Materials will be provided. Please invite a friend!!!

We need our churches to become the kind of places to which we could gladly take a friend who is a complete outsider to the church, because the kind of welcome they would receive and the kind of worship they would experience would have a depth and genuineness and openness that could truly constitute a kind of homecoming. Here would be some kind of anticipation of the goal toward which humanity itself is struggling. A church rooted and grounded in prayer and in the hidden contemplation of the presence of Christ would have a powerful attraction to it. ~Brother Ramon & Simon Barrington-Ward, Praying the Jesus Prayer Together

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Loving, tender Lord! My mind has from the days of my childhood sought something with an earnest thirst of longing, Lord, and what that is have I not yet perfectly apprehended. Lord, I have now for many a year been in hot pursuit of it, and never yet have I been able to succeed, for I know not aright what it is. And yet it is something that draws my heart and my soul after it, and without which I can never attain a full repose. Lord, I was fain in the earliest days of my childhood to seek it among created things, as I saw others before me do. And the more I sought, the less I found it; and the nearer I went, the further I wandered from it. . . Now my heart rages for it, for fain would I possess it. . . Woe is me! . . . What is this, or how is it fashioned, that plays within me in such hidden wise? ~Henry Denifle, Works

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After reading the two excerpts above, do you recognize anyone in your life that is seeking God, without realizing what they are seeking, and looking in the wrong places? It is up to each of us, to you, to ensure that seeking souls see in us that “something that draws my heart and soul after it.” A sentence from our Book of Common Prayer explains it perfectly. Unless “we show forth Thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to Thy service, and by walking before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days,” Saint John’s will lack the attraction needed. Let’s make August the month of homecoming for all who are seeking. ~Father Tim