SPECIAL E-NEWSLETTER – Rector’s Message – March 20TH – Fr. Thomas
Dear Friends,
We pray that this finds you all well and in good health. Below you will find some interesting facts about Stations of the Cross along with the upcoming Sunday’s scriptures and commentary. Today and tomorrow we will be filming a couple of videos (Stations of the Cross, Sunday Scripture Service) that will later be posted on Facebook and onto our St. David’s website. The Lord continues to unite us through diverse opportunities for connection through this uncertain time of COVID-19. The latest message from Bishop Peter is that all services and meetings will be cancelled through April 15. We will celebrate the full liturgies of Easter on a Sunday after that date when it becomes feasible.
Stations of the Cross: During the late Middle Ages, when the Turkish occupation of the Holy Land prevented pilgrims from visiting its sacred sites, the faithful made a custom of making simple replicas of those sacred sites in Europe, where they could come to pray. Medieval Christians sought more details about the Passion of the Lord, beyond what was provided by the succinct stories of the gospels. They turned to the writings of the mystics and the apocryphal gospels for more information about the last hours of Jesus. From these sources came the meeting of Jesus and his Mother, the story of Veronica, and the various falls of Jesus, which became part of the Stations of the Cross. One of the most popular of these “pilgrimages at home” was to pray the Stations of the Cross, which were erected in imitation of the stations (or stopping places of prayer) on the street in Jerusalem that led from the judgment hall of Pilate to Calvary. By the end of the sixteenth century the present fourteen stations became the standard for this devotion
Sunday’s Readings 3-22-19 4th Sunday in Lent “The Blind See”
Collect For the Fourth Sunday in Lent Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
1 Samuel 16:1-13 The kingdom of Israel reached its greatest size, power, and influence during the reign of David. This greatness was projected into the future by thinking of the coming Messiah as the “son of David” (Mk. 12:35). The anointing of David as the future king heralds the beginning of Israel’s greatness. So the occasion is a milestone in the salvation history of Israel.
Psalm 23 The familiar shepherd psalm is identified with David but it also is stretched in our minds to include the Good Shepherd. Under this all-embracing concern, we shall lack nothing herein or hereafter. The Good Shepherd who leads us lights our way.
Ephesians 5:8-14 In the ethical section of this epistle, the believer’s attention is focused on Christ, who will throw light on the path of those who would be “imitators of God” (vss.1, 14).
John 9:1-3, 28-38 The account of Jesus healing the blind man makes light and salvation almost identical terms. “I am the light of the world,” said Jesus (v.5). “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord,” observed the writer of the Epistle (Eph. 5:8). Because a greater person than David has come, salvation is at hand.
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