February 2023
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
February 2023 from Father Tim
2023 is out of the gate quickly and Lent is just around the corner! February begins with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Candlemas 2nd), Ash Wednesday (22nd), and S. Matthias, Apostle & Martyr (24th). This month also contains the ‘Gesima’ Sundays (5th, 12th, and 19th) and the First Sunday in Lent (26th). We also have an Anglican Worthy on the Ordo Kalendar this month. Blessed George Herbert, Confessor (27th). For those of you who like Herbert, and are looking for a good Lenten Study, here is the LenTree for George Herbert link with 40 days of his poems. I would highly recommend reading each day’s selection during quiet moments. Herbert was one of the greatest religious poets of all time, though not one of these poems was published during his lifetime. They were published after Herbert’s death by his dear friend, Blessed Nicholas Ferrar, another Anglican Worthy of Little Gidding. Forty-eight years after Herbert’s death, Richard Baxter, an English Theologian, said, “Herbert speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in this world is most with God. Heart-work and heaven-work make up his books.” William Cowper, an English poet, cherished Herbert’s poetry in his struggle with depression. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, nineteenth-century theologian, poet and critic, wrote to a member of the Royal Academy, “I find more substantial comfort now in pious George Herbert’s Temple . . . than in all the poetry since the poetry of Milton.” Herbert’s poetry is found in virtually every anthology of English literature. He is one of the very few great poets who is loved both by poetry experts and poetry novices alike. He is loved for his technical rigor and his spiritual depth. T. S. Eliot once said, “The exquisite variations of form in the . . . poems of The Temple show a resourcefulness of invention which seems inexhaustible, and for which I know no parallel in English poetry. He “was an exquisite craftsman.” Unlike most people in the modern world, Herbert was part of an era that prized meticulous care with language and poetry of his day. I pray that your February is full of the language and poetry of God’s love. ~ Father Tim
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Is there someone you know who needs to speak to God? February is a month for “heart-work and heaven-work.” Please invite a family member or a friend to church where they can experience the language of God, the Word made flesh. Here, in St. John’s at your side, they can then discover that “their business in this world is most with God”. ~ Father Tim
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Not that you are to read no book but the Bible. All that is true and good is worth the reading, if you have time for it. All, if properly used, will help you in your study of the Scriptures. A Christian does not shut his eyes to the natural scenes of beauty spread around him. He does not cease to admire the hills, or plains, or rivers, or forests of earth because he has learned to love the God that made them; nor does he turn away from books of science or true poetry because he has discovered one book truer, more precious, and more poetical than all the rest together. ~ Horatius Bonar, 1808-1889, Scottish Churchman, preacher, hymnodist, & poet
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Did you know?
Did you know Saint John’s made a charitable gift in January to the Brighton Center in Newport? Did you know we now have a new St. John Garden and Grounds Specialist (see Judy Evans)? Did you know we have a new Growth Committee (see Brian Miller)? Did you know that Wednesday Evening Prayer (6:30 PM) and a small meal afterwards has begun once again? Did you know our Bishops visit and Confirmations were recorded and uploaded to Youtube? Simply click on this Advent IV link. Did you know we now have an ‘Events’ page on our website?
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St. John February Ordo Kalendar
Saturday, the 4th of February, at 12:00 PM, Book of Life Club, The Great Divorce
Wed., the 1st of February, at 6:30 PM, Purification of the B.V.M., Candlemas (Observed)
Sunday, the 5th of February, at 10:30 AM, Septuagesima
Wednesday, the 8th of February at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 12th of February at 10:30 AM, Sexagesima
Wednesday, the 15th of February at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 19th of February at 10:30 AM, Quinquagesima, Vestry Meeting
Wed., the 22nd of February, at 12:00 PM, Ash Wednesday Mass & Imposition of Ashes
Wednesday, the 22nd of February, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer & Imposition of Ashes
Friday, the 24th of February, at 6:30 PM, Stations of the Cross
Sunday, the 26th of February, at 10:30 AM, Lent I
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No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He puts them in the fire. ~ George MacDonald, 1824-1905, Scottish Author, Poet, & Minister
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But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game… My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is the appointed consummation. ~ C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, British Writer & Anglican Theologian
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February Birthdays & Anniversaries
Kyle Maycock – Birthday – February 3
Helena “Lennie” Fisher – Birthday – February 11
Brian Miller – Birthday – February 13
Donna Davis – Birthday – February 21
Bob Petrie – Birthday – February 23
Sarah Miller – Birthday – February 26
Sheila Myers–Birthday–February 27
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Why should we want to worship Jesus well?
This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned vocabulary, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. ~ Philip Schaff, 1819-1893, Swiss Theologian & Ecclesiastical Historian
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There are words written by kings, by emperors, by princes, by poets, by sages, by philosophers, by fishermen, by statesmen, by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated in the schools of Babylon, and trained at the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem. It was written by men in exile, in the desert, in shepherd’s tents, in green pastures, and beside still waters. Among its authors we find a tax-gatherer, a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit. We find poor men, rich men, statesmen, preachers, captains, legislators, judges, and exiles. The Bible is a library full of history, genealogy, ethnology, law, ethics, prophecy, poetry, eloquence, medicine, sanitary science, political economy, and the perfect rules for personal and social life. And behind every word is the divine author, God Himself. ~ Author Unknown
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Candlemas 2023
It is encountering Jesus as did Ss. Simeon and Anna which enables us to develop the expectation that, as the poet George Herbert puts it, we will see ‘heaven in ordinarie’.
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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