O Lord, make haste to help me!

One of the appointed Psalms for today is Psalm 70 where the Psalmist prays:

 

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.

   O Lord, make haste to help me!

Let those be put to shame and confusion

   who seek my life.

Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor

   who desire to hurt me.

Let those who say, ‘Aha, Aha!’

   turn back because of their shame.

Let all who seek you

   rejoice and be glad in you.

Let those who love your salvation

   say evermore, ‘God is great!’

But I am poor and needy;

   hasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

   O Lord, do not delay!

 

Here is the latest from Iraq and the Rev. Canon Andrew White, known as the Vicar of Baghdad, who tells us that yesterday some 1500 Christians were executed by ISIS: http://www.livingchurch.org/bloodbath-iraq

 

Good Lord, make haste to help them indeed! 

 

Today, the Church also remembers St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits.  He was born in Spain in 1491 and died on this day in 1556.  After an serious injury to his leg incurred on the battlefield, Ignatius spent several months recovering.  During that time he read many spiritual works, including Life of Christ, written by a Carthusian monk.  His life was transformed. Ignatius then went on a pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar, and then spent about a year at Manresa near Montserrat first working in a hospital there, and then retiring to a cave to live as a hermit and study.  Eventually Ignatius was ordained a priest, and founded the Society of Jesus.  He is perhaps best known for his Spiritual Exercises a manual of Christian prayer and meditation. He directs the reader to begin with an event in Jesus’ life and to imagine the scene in detail, then to replay the episode in one’s mind and to try to feel as if he had himself witnessed the event, and then to use this experience as a motive for love, gratitude, and dedication to the service of God.

 

Let us pray:  O God, by whose grace your servant Ignatius, enkindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

St. Augustine’s Feast Day and the 130th Anniversary of the establishment of the parish is Sunday, 24 August.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Gladys, Pat, Patricia, Margie, Lloyd Guidry and his family and Patricia Florence and her family, and all of those suffering in Syria, Israel, the Gaza strip, Iraq and the Ukraine.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Theophilus

One of the appointed readings for today is taken from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, a sequel to the Gospel according to Luke, where we hear about the start of the early Church:

 

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

 

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ 9When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’

 

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. (Acts 1:1-14)

 

Luke writes to Theophilus, a name which means “lover of God.”  Perhaps Luke wrote it to a real person in time that Luke knew personally, and perhaps he also wrote the book to you and to me, to those who love God.  The Acts of the Apostles is the story of the early Church. After Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit came as promised.  That Holy Spirit takes on flesh in the Church, first in the Apostles and those who gathered together, and today in us.  Like our forerunners in the early Church, we are called to constantly devoting ourselves to prayer, to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and to work building the Kingdom of God.  So don’t just stand there looking up to heaven; it’s time to get to work!

 

Let us pray:  O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

St. Augustine’s Feast Day and the 130th Anniversary of the establishment of the parish is Sunday, 24 August.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Lloyd Guidry and his family and Patricia Florence and her family, and all of those suffering in Syria, Israel, the Gaza strip, Iraq and the Ukraine.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Mary & Martha

Today the Church remembers two sisters who were friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha.  What we know of them comes directly from the Gospels.  One of the most familiar stories in found in Luke’s Gospel:

 

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ (Lk. 10:38-42).

 

In John’s Gospel we read of Martha’s deep faith at a time when she was in grief mourning the death of her brother Lazarus:

 

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.* Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’ (Jn. 11:17-25).

 

Regarding Mary, in John we read:

 

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ (Jn. 12:1-8).

 

Many Christian writers have seen Mary as representing contemplation (prayer and devotion), and Martha as representing action (good works, helping others); or love of God and love of neighbor respectively.  However, I think that Martha and Mary are for us a reminder that we are to lead a balanced life with both contemplation and action.

 

Let us pray:  Generous God, whose Son Jesus Christ enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany: Open our hearts to love you, our ears to hear you, and our hands to welcome and serve you in others, through Jesus Christ our risen Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

St. Augustine’s Feast Day and the 130th Anniversary of the establishment of the parish is Sunday, 24 August.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Lloyd Guidry and his family and Patricia Florence and her family, and all of those suffering in Syria, Israel, the Gaza strip, Iraq and the Ukraine.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

“Do you indeed decree righteousn​ess, you rulers? Do you judge the peoples with equity?”

One of the Psalms appointed for today is Psalm 58 which seems very appropriate in a time when there is so much armed conflict:

 

Do you indeed decree righteousness, you rulers?

 do you judge the peoples with equity?

No; you devise evil in your hearts,

 and your hands deal out violence in the land.

The wicked are perverse from the womb;

 liars go astray from their birth.

They are as venomous as a serpent,

 they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears …

 

There is armed conflict in the Gaza and Israel, in Iraq, in the Ukraine and in other parts of the world.  The innocent of all faiths are suffering.  As of today, in the Gaza alone 1058 people have and 218 of the dead are children.  In Israel 46 people have died.

 

The BBC has reported that the fighting in the eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 1000 lives and nearly 300 innocent people died as their aircraft was shot down over the Ukraine.

 

Here is a link to what is going on in Iraq: Vicar of Baghdad: "They just go around and shoot the odd person dead."

 

The Psalmist rightly asks all of the rulers:  “Do you indeed decree righteousness, you rulers? Do you judge the peoples with equity?”  The Psalmist answers: “No.”  That answer is certainly the same on Monday, 28 July 2014, some 3000 years after the Psalmist wrote those words!

 

Our help is in God alone.  Please remember all of the people in war torn areas; lift them up in your prayers that they may have the strength to endure the days before them.

 

Let us pray: Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

 

THANK YOU TO LEE RUNION AND TO ROSE DANIELS AND TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO HELPED TO MAKE THE SUMMER ART PROGRAM, “THE ART OF LISTENING”, A SUCCESS. 

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

St. Augustine’s Feast Day and the 130^th Anniversary of the establishment of the parish is Sunday, 24 August.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Lloyd Guidry and his family and Patricia Florence and her family.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Thomas á Kempis, Priest, Monk & Spiritual Writer

Today the Church remembers the life and ministry of a German priest, monk and spiritual writer who was born in 1380 and died in 1471, Thomas á Kempis.  James Kiefer writes:

 

Thomas Hammerken (or Hammerlein -- both mean “little hammer”) was born at Kempen (hence the “A Kempis”) in the duchy of Cleves in Germany around 1380. He was educated by a religious order called the Brethren of the Common Life, and in due course joined the order, was ordained a priest, became sub-prior of his house (in the low Countries), and died 25 July 1471 (his feast is observed a day early to avoid conflict with that of James bar-Zebedee the Apostle). 

 

Thomas is known almost entirely for composing or compiling a manual of spiritual advice known as The Imitation of Christ, in which he urges the reader to seek to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to be conformed in all things to His will. An extract follows: 

 

When God bestows Spiritual comfort, receive it with a grateful heart; but remember that it comes of God’s free gift, and not of your own merit. Do not be proud, nor over joyful, nor foolishly presumptuous; rather, be the more humble for this gift, more cautious, and more prudent in all your doings, for this hour will pass, and temptation will follow it. When comfort is withdrawn, do not immediately despair, but humbly and patiently await the will of Heaven; for God is able to restore you to a consolation even richer than before. This is nothing new or strange to those who know the ways of God, for the great Saints and Prophets of old often experienced these changes. ...Indeed, the temptation that precedes is often a sign of comfort to follow. For heavenly comfort is promised to those who have been tried and tempted. To him who overcomes,” says God, “I will give to eat of the Tree of Life.”

 

Let us pray:    Holy Father, who have nourished and strengthened your Church by the writings of your servant Thomas a Kempis: Grant that we may learn from him to know what we ought to know, to love what we ought to love, to praise what highly pleases you, and always to seek to know and follow your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.   Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Idell Guidry’s funeral will be this Friday, 25 July, at 10:00 A.M. at St. Augustine of Hippo followed by internment at the cemetery and thereafter returning to St. Augustine’s for a catered reception in Sutton Hall.

 

ALBERT GREEN’S FUNERAL WILL BE SATURDAY, 11:00 A.M. At the E.R. Johnson Funeral home on 3828 Avenue O, Galveston, TeXas 77550.

 

The Art of Listening: Summer Art Program, starts today, Monday, 21 July at 10 A.M. every day of the week until 1 P.M.

 

Please sign up to make Sunday Breakfast during the summer!

 

We will celebrate the 130^th anniversary of the establishment of St. Augustine and St. Augustine’s feast day on Sunday, 24 August.

 

In view of the current happenings in the Middle East and in Africa, as part of our Adult Christian Education, we will read Focus on Islam to better understand Islam and to do a comparison and contrast with our Christian faith.  We have the books, so if you are interested, please check with Fr. Chester for a copy of the book so that you can start reading it.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

"Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to do it, especially if it causes trouble for others."

The appointed Epistle reading for today is taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans:

 

Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Rm. 14:13-23).

 

There are many in the Body of Christ, the Church.  Some have a strong faith, others not so strong.  Some of the Christians in Paul’s day had scruples about eating meat and about drinking wine.  Paul regards these scruples as unnecessary; however, he says that those who do not have these scruples should not pass judgment on those who may have them.  Rather, Paul tells the Romans, “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to do it, especially if it causes trouble for others.”  Our right to do something must take second place to our obligation not to destroy the work of God by making our brother or sister stumble.

 

Let us pray:  O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Idell Guidry’s funeral will be this Friday, 25 July, at 10:00 A.M. at St. Augustine of Hippo followed by internment at the cemetery and thereafter returning to St. Augustine’s for a catered reception in Sutton Hall.

 

ALBERT GREEN’S FUNERAL WILL BE SATURDAY, 11:00 A.M. At the E.R. Johnson Funeral home on 3828 Avenue O, Galveston, TeXas 77550.

 

The Art of Listening: Summer Art Program, starts today, Monday, 21 July at 10 A.M. every day of the week until 1 P.M.

 

Please sign up to make Sunday Breakfast during the summer!

 

In view of the current happenings in the Middle East and in Africa, as part of our Adult Christian Education, we will read Focus on Islam to better understand Islam and to do a comparison and contrast with our Christian faith.  We have the books, so if you are interested, please check with Fr. Chester for a copy of the book so that you can start reading it.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

St. Mary Magdalene

Today the Church remembers St. Mary Magdalene. She is called “Magdalene” because she was from Magdala near Tiberias, on the western shore of Galilee.

James Kiefer writes:

 

Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the Gospels as being among the women of Galilee who followed Jesus and His disciples, and who was present at His Crucifixion and Burial, and who went to the tomb on Easter Sunday to anoint His body. She was the first to see the Risen Lord, and to announce His Resurrection to the apostles. Accordingly, she is referred to in early Christian writings as “the apostle to the apostles.”

 

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus), and the unnamed penitent woman who anointed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36-48) are sometimes supposed to be the same woman. From this, plus the statement that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2), has risen the tradition that she had been a prostitute before she met Jesus.

 

Because of the assumption that Mary Magdalene had been a spectacular sinner, and also perhaps because she is described as weeping at the tomb of Jesus on the Resurrection morning, she is often portrayed in art as weeping (see References, right), or with eyes red from having wept. From this appearance we derive the English word “maudlin”, meaning “effusively or tearfully sentimental.” There is a Magdalen College at Oxford, and a Magdalene College at Cambridge (different spelling), both pronounced “Maudlin.”

 

Let us pray:  Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know you in the power of his endless life; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Idell Guidry’s funeral will be this Friday, 25 July, at 10:00 A.M. at St. Augustine of Hippo followed by internment at the cemetery and thereafter returning to St. Augustine’s for a catered reception in Sutton Hall.

 

ALBERT GREEN’S FUNERAL WILL BE SATURDAY, 11:00 A.M. At the E.R. Johnson Funeral home on 3828 Avenue O, Galveston, TeXas 77550.

 

The Art of Listening: Summer Art Program, starts today, Monday, 21 July at 10 A.M. every day of the week until 1 P.M.

 

In view of the current happenings in the Middle East and in Africa, as part of our Adult Christian Education, we will read Focus on Islam to better understand Islam and to do a comparison and contrast with our Christian faith.  We have the books, so if you are interested, please check with Fr. Chester for a copy of the book so that you can start reading it.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550