Dear St. Stephen’s Folks,

We are getting more than plenty of rain and Spring is popping here! The church stands strong and we are ever so grateful.  COME TO CHURCH! 

Here is your Bulletin for the Sunday after the Ascension … and some Musings. Come celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord.

Remember your edits are always welcome … and sometimes necessary!!

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General news and items for your calendar:                                                                                                                                                         

Canon Dillon and family’s new address is 6120 Warehill Rd.  Santa Rosa  CA  95404. Permanent we pray!

Sundays 9:30(or so) – 10:00 we have Open Bible Study focusing on Scripture and our Liturgy. Come join us!

Wednesdays 6pm we read the Office of Evening Prayer. Please join the rector in this ancient Anglican tradition. It only lasts 20-30 minutes.

After many years of excellent service as senior Warden Chuck Covell is taking a very well deserved break … and Nathan Tierney has accepted the position of senior warden … for which we are very grateful. Thankfully Stu Gilcrest remains our Junior Warden … and Steve Hackett has joined the vestry as well. We are sustained by many strong hands!

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Continuing thanks to James Beatty, Elizabeth Sturm, Kit Evans, Ruth Price, and Stuart Gilcrest who have stepped up to help with cleaning the chapel and grounds. And thanks to everyone who labors to spiff everything up. Thank you!

Please visit our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/StStephensOakville/ and “Like” and “Share” the weekly postings there. Also visit our Website,www.ststephensoakville.org. Visit and post and suggest edits. We are working hard to improve our web presence. See the calendar link with all events and services.

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Thanks to our Junior Warden, Stuart Gilcrest, we are now able to post our sermons directly on the web. The link is there on our website and on our Facebook page. And you can tell all your friends about it. More and more folks seem to be listening … so spread it around. Look for the Sound Cloud links in the postings section.  And also visit our Webpage at www.ststephensoakville.org. Try to do this often as it raises the visibility of our webpage on the internet.

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In your daily prayers please remember Michael a priest, James a bishop, Jensena, Vincent, Blessing a child, the  Dickson family, the Baker family, the Dillon family, Joy, Ashley, Janet, Barbara, Carol, Dave, Bob and James, and Lillian.  Please let the Rector know of any names for our prayer list.  Remember to pray for your clergy … our Bishops, Priests and Deacons. They always need your prayerful encouragement and covering.

Please continue to pray for our country and all in authority, especially in this time of distress in the public square.

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Pray for the victims of terrorism everywhere. We live in such blessed circumstances and those saints are undergoing the worst of persecution. And now we pray for innocents here at home as well. Give thanks for our safety and plead for mercy for all innocents.

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Musings

 

There are great psychological insights in the “Rogares”, the petitioning or asking prayers that are our Collects. This one requires that we step outside of our normal awareness and observe and discern the flow and content of our ongoing thoughts. Are they “good” … or “bad”?  By saint’s standard, the indifferent  and idle ones usually end up in the “bad” category because they are not directed towards our relationship with Our Lord. Stepping outside of our mind’s chatter and looking in at it … can be very disheartening … because what we see is often yucky and banal. Just taking a sideward glance at ourselves usually reveals a work in very early progress.

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This was very true of the disciples when Our Lord was teaching them on the way to His Passion and Resurrection. They were following and listening to Him certainly … but as the crisis of the arrest and execution of their rabbi revealed, they were soon paralyzed by fear and completely uncomprehending of the true nature of Who He was and the weight of the glory of what was happening.

They were great men and women especially chosen by Him … and they wavered and fled, except for His mother Mary and Blessed John. So to find our thoughts lacking in “goodness” is exactly the same dilemma as they endured.

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And the remedy is the same … to pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, enter us, and change our inner natures. Our Lord’s promise is:

“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you.” And in fact, because you have loved Me, My Heavenly Father can now love you … and you will be able to pray directly to Him … as your Father in heaven. The great divorce between  heaven and lost mankind will be healed.     It will be healed for you in the heavenlies and on earth with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon you individually and in the birth of His Bride, the church.

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Ascensiontide blessing to you all,

Canon D+