Spirit of the Eagle – March 2015

Spiritual Tidbits for March from Father Tim

Recently a person told me it has been “colder than the knuckles of a Nun”. Well, I don’t know about a Nun’s knuckles, but I will agree it has certainly been cold. On the bright and warmer side, the word “Lent” means Spring. It is Anglo-Saxon in origin. It has been observed as the Church’s great season of fasting, abstinence, prayer and retirement, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Even. The forty hours of our Saviour’s Rest in the grave are here expanded into Forty Days of spiritual revival and preparation for the great Feast of the Resurrection, taking pattern from His own fasting and temptation in the wilderness, and from the forty days preparation for the Jewish Day of Atonement. The lessons it has to teach are those of sincere penitence, rigorous self-discipline and special devotion. The measure and method of individual self-treatment are nowhere prescribed; they lie with the personal conscious and under the eye of the Searcher of all hearts. I pray then, with all my heart, that each of you have a Holy Lent. ~Father Tim

March Spirituality Class

In March we will begin a journey. We will be utilizing two resources: The Ways and Teachings of the Church and The Way of a Pilgrim. Pertaining to the first resource, if a Little Learning is a dangerous thing, it is also true that dense ignorance is a calamity. No one should willingly be ignorant concerning a great institution with which he is connected, or with reference to matters by which he is surrounded. The Historic Church is without doubt the greatest institution ever established on the earth — Divine, Universal, and Permanent. Everything connected with it is important: its foundation, its history, its buildings, its customs, its precepts and laws, its ministry, its ordinances and ceremonies, its worship, its missionary work at home and abroad. No intelligent member of God’s Church should disdain — rather should he fervently desire — to be well instructed in all these things with which his life is brought in contact over and over again all through the year. The second resource was written by an unknown nineteenth-century Russian peasant and tells of his constant wrestling with the problem of “how to pray without ceasing.” Through his journeys and travels, and under the tutelage of a spiritual father, he becomes gradually more open to the promptings of God. The reader is enriched as he shares these religious experiences in a most humble, simple, and beautiful narrative. Please join me after Mass the 22nd of March on a winding, joyful path to both physical and spiritual enlightenment. Materials will be provided. ~Father Tim

The Bridge so made (to use St. Catherine of Siena’s allegory) is eternal, since it was “laid before the foundation of the world” in the “Eternal Now.” Thus the voice of the Father says to her in that vision, “I also wish thee to look at the Bridge of My only-begotten Son, and see the greatness thereof, for it reaches from Heaven to earth; that is, that the earth of your humanity is joined to the greatness of the Deity thereby. I say, then, that this Bridge reaches from Heaven to earth, and constitutes the union which I have made with man. . . .So the height of the Divinity, humbled to the earth, and joined with your humanity, made the Bridge and reformed the road. Why was this done? In order that man might come to his true happiness with the angels. And observe that it is not enough, in order that you should have life, that My Son should have made you this Bridge, unless you walk thereon.” ~Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Dialogo, cap. Xxii.

Please don’t forget that Palm Sunday falls on the 29th of March. There will be numerous services all through Holy Week including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, all culminating on Easter Day the 5th of April. Please be sure to arrange your personal calendars properly, attend with reverence all of these Holy Days, and bring loved ones and friends who need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ~Father Tim

The monthly Children’s Ministry will be launched after Mass (during the Coffee Hour – all children should attend the Mass) on the 8th of March. It will be designed for age 2 through 12 years. Please commit to bringing all related children in your family for this once a month fun and educational class. While you enjoy fellowship during the Coffee Hour, the children will participate, enjoy, and learn the foundation and building blocks of the Christian faith through bible stories and created crafts.

March Birthdays & Anniversaries

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

<<<EASTER FLOWER MEMORIALS >>>

Once again you will have an opportunity to honor a loved one by giving
a donation to our Easter Flower Fund here at St. John’s. If you are interested
in doing so, please give your money or a check to Joyce Murray
on or before Palm Sunday, March 29…….Thank you!

Make checks payable to St. John’s A.C.C. / Memo: Easter Flowers