April 2022
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
April 2022 from Father Tim
April has arrived with its spring weather! Once again we see new life and new beginnings emerging all around us. April also brings us to Holy Week 2022. Passion Sunday arrives on the 3rd and then Palm Sunday (10th), Maundy Thursday (14th), Good Friday (15th), Easter Eve (16th), and Easter Sunday (17th). The Feast of S. Mark, Evangelist (25th) is celebrated soon after. There is no Anglican ‘worthy’ in April so I will share a few thoughts about new beginnings. The Bible is filled with examples of new beginnings. Consider Noah and the flood. Along with the animals Noah, and his family, survived a world-wide flood brought upon mankind because of sin. When the water receded Noah, his family, and the animals all experienced a new beginning. Noah himself was a forerunner that points us to the new beginning we experience through repentance, faith, and our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Noah was saved through water and so are Christians when they receive the free grace of God. Moses and the Israelites experienced a new beginning when they emerged from Egypt. Pharaoh had second thoughts after initially releasing his slaves and rushed with his army to the Red Sea to bring them back. But it was to no avail. God parted the sea water and the Israelites escaped to the opposite shore. The Egyptians did not. By passing through the sea the Israelites could not travel back the way they just came. As a result they experienced the new beginning of freedom on that opposite shore. It is the same for Christians when we are set free from the slavery of sin and are born anew to worship Christ in Spirit and truth. When we come to Christ seeking His grace, and recognizing our need for a Savior, it is by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ that we receive the promises of God. In the death of Jesus our sins are forgiven. In His mighty resurrection we receive a new beginning, a new life, as a new creation in Christ. I hope and pray your April is full of new life! ~ Father Tim
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Is there someone you know who is in need of a new beginning? Are they in need of the ‘Day-Spring from on high’? April is a beautiful month, especially with the coming Easter, to become a ‘new creature’. Please invite someone into the Holy Church to experience Holy Week, the Kingdom of God, and His church family. ~ Father Tim
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The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be and often has been shown to be satisfactory. It is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing up a most important cause. I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence than the great sign which God hath given us, that Christ died and rose again from the dead. ~ Rev. Thomas Arnold, 19th century Anglican Priest, Educator and Historian
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Did you know?
Did you know that Saint John’s recently purchased a Ring security system? Did you know, thanks to a couple of our wonderful parishioners, we now have a new Paschal Candle Stand for Easter? Did you know the move into the Rectory has begun?
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St. John April Ordo Kalendar
Sunday, the 3rd of April at 10:30 AM, Passion Sunday
Sunday, the 10th of April at 10:30 AM, Palm Sunday
Thursday, the 14th of April at 6:00 PM, Maundy Thursday Stripping of the Altar
Friday, the 15th of April at 12:00 PM, Stations of the Cross
Friday, the 15th of April at 3:00 PM, Good Friday Liturgy
Saturday, the 16th of April at 6:00 PM, Easter Eve & Lighting of the New Fire
Sunday, the 17th of April at 10:30 AM, Easter Sunday
Sunday, the 24th of April 10:30 AM, Easter I, Vestry Meeting
The Evening Prayer Office on Wednesday at 6:30 PM is canceled until May
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The resurrection of Christ is the Amen of all His promises. ~ Rev. John Boys, 1571–1625 Dean of Canterbury
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Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. ~ Martin Luther
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April Birthdays & Anniversaries
Judy Adams – Birthday – April 19th
Max Meadows – Birthday – April 20th
Carol Petrie – Birthday – April 22nd
Mike & Julie Murray – Anniversary – April 28
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We need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and headstone of the great work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He has paid the debt which He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle which He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our Surety and our Substitute by our Father in heaven. Had He never come forth from the prison of the grave, how could we ever have been sure that our ransom had been fully paid? (1 Cor. 15:17.) Had He never risen from His conflict with the last enemy, how could we have felt confident, that He has overcome death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil? (Heb. 2:14.) But thanks be unto God, we are not left in doubt. The Lord Jesus really “rose again for our justification.” True Christians are “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They may boldly say with Paul, “Who is he that condemns – it is Christ that died, yes rather that is risen again” (Rom. 8:34. Rom. 4:25. 1 Pet. 1:3). ~ Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle
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Death and resurrection are what the story is about and had we but eyes to see it, this has been hinted on every page, met us, in some disguise, at every turn, and even been muttered in conversations between such minor characters (if they are minor characters) as the vegetables. ~ C.S. Lewis
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There is no part of the whole course of our Saviour Christ’s life or death, but it is well worthy our looking on; and from each part in it there goeth virtue to do us good. ~ Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Chichester
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The resurrection of Jesus ~ Pieter Paul Rubens, c. 1616
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Christianity begins where all the religions of the world end, at death, and it starts with resurrection. ~ Unknown Author
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The seeking of Jesus Christ, and the quest for chivalry combined, lead directly to one place only: Anglican-Catholicism. Courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help and defend the weak and the poor. Welcome to the Anglican Catholic Church. ~ Father Timothy Butler