Tuesday in Holy Week

On this Tuesday in Holy Week, the Epistle for the Eucharist is taken from Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth:

 

The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

 

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

 

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:18-31).

 

The cross was an instrument of execution.  Yet God used it to redeem us, to show us His infinite love for us.  That God would do such as thing was deemed to be foolish by the culture of Jesus’ day where the Roman Empire ruled, and where their panoply of gods used humanity as their play things to demonstrate their lust for power.  What a strange thing it was for God to be absolutely weak and vulnerable, to have submitted himself to the might Roman Empire and to be crucified.  To a world absorbed with the thirst for power and pleasure, it seemed foolish indeed. 

 

Let us pray: O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Holy Week Schedule:

 

         Wednesday at 6 PM, The Rule of Life, at Trinity, the Rev. Bob Flick.

 

         Maundy Thursday, 6 PM, foot washing, Eucharist, stripping of the altar.

 

         Good Friday, 12 noon, Good Friday Service.

 

Michael Harvey

A Galveston Island Episcopal Event

All are invited

Tuesday, April 28th

7:00 PM

at St. Augustine of Hippo

(1410 41st Street)

 

Michael Harvey will be joining us on the Island all the way from Great Britain. He is the founder of Back to Church Sunday, a day we have dubbed in the Diocese of Texas as Invitation Sunday. Michael has spoken across 17 countries and 5 continents about the power of invitation and ministry to visitors and newcomers. He has written the book, Unlocking the Growth which addresses the power of invitation and the potential for the church. He has recently been inducted into the College of Evangelists and become a Visiting Fellow of St. John’s College of Durham University. His humorous and engaging presentation style challenges the individual to simply invite others to church. He presented and was enthusiastically received at past Warden and Vestry Conferences, other churches and last year’s clergy conference. He is back by the invitation of Bishop Doyle and we are thrilled to have him with us for this Galveston Island Episcopal Event. You are invited. Invite others to come to this great event!

 

Bigmista& Friends BBQ on Saturday, 2 May.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Susan, Liz, Angela, those in the Middle East.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

 

Monday in Holy Week

On this Monday in Holy Week, we hear from the Gospel according to John for our Eucharistic readings.  Today’s Gospel takes places after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead:

 

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." When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.  (Jn. 12:1-11).

 

I have often heard certain Christian churches use this passage as support for the argument that the church should not be criticized for possessing many and wonderfully great buildings and an accumulation of priceless works of art, after all, Jesus says, “You always have the poor with you.”  I do not think this is what the passage is saying.

 

Let’s look at the whole context.  First, Mary makes it a gift to Jesus.  Second, the statement about selling the perfume so the money could be given to the poor comes from Judas, and the passage states: “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.”  Judas wanted the money for himself.  Third, Jesus’ statement is to Judas, who is reminded by Jesus that Judas is not concerned for the poor, Jesus was about to be betrayed by Judas, and Jesus was going to die. 

 

Let us pray: Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Holy Week Schedule:

 

         Wednesday at 6 PM, The Rule of Life, at Trinity, the Rev. Bob Flick.

 

         Maundy Thursday, 6 PM, foot washing, Eucharist, stripping of the altar.

 

         Good Friday, 12 noon, Good Friday Service.

 

Michael Harvey

A Galveston Island Episcopal Event

All are invited

Tuesday, April 28th

7:00 PM

at St. Augustine of Hippo

(1410 41st Street)

 

Michael Harvey will be joining us on the Island all the way from Great Britain. He is the founder of Back to Church Sunday, a day we have dubbed in the Diocese of Texas as Invitation Sunday. Michael has spoken across 17 countries and 5 continents about the power of invitation and ministry to visitors and newcomers. He has written the book, Unlocking the Growth which addresses the power of invitation and the potential for the church. He has recently been inducted into the College of Evangelists and become a Visiting Fellow of St. John’s College of Durham University. His humorous and engaging presentation style challenges the individual to simply invite others to church. He presented and was enthusiastically received at past Warden and Vestry Conferences, other churches and last year’s clergy conference. He is back by the invitation of Bishop Doyle and we are thrilled to have him with us for this Galveston Island Episcopal Event. You are invited. Invite others to come to this great event!

 

Bigmista& Friends BBQ on Saturday, 2 May.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Susan, Liz, Angela, those in the Middle East.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Charles Henry Brent, First Bishop of the Phillipines

On this Friday in the fifth week of Lent, the Church remembers the life and ministry of Charles Henry Brent who was born 9 April 1862 in Newcastle, Canada, and died on this day in 1929.

 

Brent was 1 of 10 children, and his father the rector of the Anglican Church in Newcastle.  Brent went to seminary and was ordained to the diaconate in 1886, and to the priesthood in 1887. That same year during a retreat, he had met the Rev. A.C.A Hall, at that time Superior of the Boston House of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, (The Cowley Fathers) with whom he had quickly formed what was to prove to be a life-long friendship. So, when, in 1888, Fr. Hall suggested that he move down to Boston to work at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, which was served by the Cowley Fathers, and live at their Mission House, Brent gladly accepted.

 

The 3 years he spent with the Cowley Fathers (1888-1891) were crucial to Brent's spiritual formation as a priest. Under the direction of the monks, he learned the lessons of an ordered and disciplined spiritual life, which were to serve him well for what lay in the future.

 

Brent was sent to St. Stephen’s, a recently re-opened church in the south end of Boston, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Brent remained there for 10 years, and the parish became vibrant and thriving.

 

Brent had an excellent reputation as a preach, his reputation as a preacher, pastor and organizer, that only Brent himself was surprised when in 1901 Bishop Potter of New York asked whether he would, if elected, accept the newly formed Diocese of the Philippines.  Brent did.

 

Once in his new Diocese, Brent he directed his efforts toward the non-Christians: the Igorots of the mountains of Luzon, the Muslims of the southern islands, and the Chinese settlements in Manila. Brent made considerable inroads and established thriving Christian communities.

 

Brent began a campaign against the opium traffic, and served on several international commissions devoted to stamping out international traffic in narcotics. James Kiefer writes that: “During World War I, he was the Senior Chaplain for the American Armed Forces in Europe. He declined three elections to bishoprics in the United States in order to continue his work in the Philippines, but in 1918, he accepted the position of Bishop of Western New York. His experiences in the Philippines had aroused in him a strong concern for the cause of visible Christian unity.”

 

Here is a prayer written by Brent that we are all familiar with and is appropriate during this Lenten season:

 

Lord Jesus Christ, who didst stretch out thine arms of love upon the hard wood of the Cross, that all men everywhere might come within the reach of thy saving embrace: So clothe us with thy Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know thee to the knowledge and love of thee; for the honor of thy Name.

 

He died on this day in 1929 from what can be best described as exhaustion.

 

Let us pray:  Heavenly Father, whose Son prayed that we all might be one: deliver us from arrogance and prejudice, and give us wisdom and forbearance, that, following your servant Charles Henry Brent, we may be united in one family with all who confess the Name of thy Son Jesus Christ: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Lenten Program, The Rule of Life, is at Trinity on Wednesday, 1 April starting at 6 PM.  The Rev. Bob Flick will be our speaker. 

 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.  We start at the cross outside.

 

Senior Health Lunches with hosted by the Rev. Dr. Helen Appelberg and UTMB at St. Augustine’s starting Tuesday, 14 April at 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.  Come and learn about health issues from trained medical professional speakers.  Spanish speakers are especially welcome since there will be someone from UTMB providing translations.  Please get the word out!

 

The Annual BBQ with Bigmista is right around the corner, 2 May.  Pitch in and help!

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially those recovering from surgery.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

 

Ricahrd Allen, Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

Today the Church remembers a friend of Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born into slavery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 14 February 1760, Allen bought his freedom at age 17.

 

Allen, as well as Absalom Jones, were members of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, where blacks and whites worshiped together. Allen and Jones became assistant ministers and conducted prayer meetings. Frustrated with the limitations the church placed on them and Black parishioners, in 1787 they both left the church.  Jones joined the Episcopal Church and Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (“AME”).  Using a converted blacksmith shop, Allen opened the doors of Bethel AME Church on 29 July 1794. In 1799, Allen became the first black Methodist minister, ordained by Bishop Francis Asbury, in recognition of his leadership and preaching.

 

Allen died in his home on this day in 1831.

 

Let us pray:  Loving God, your servant Richard Allen was born a slave, but in you he learned that he was your beloved child by adoption in Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit was led to proclaim liberty to his captive people: Give us strength to proclaim your freedom to the captives of our world; through Jesus Christ, Savior of all, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Lenten Program, The Rule of Life, is at Trinity on Wednesday, 1 April starting at 6 PM.  The Rev. Bob Flick will be our speaker. 

 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.  We start at the cross outside.

 

Senior Health Lunches with hosted by the Rev. Dr. Helen Appelberg and UTMB at St. Augustine’s starting Tuesday, 14 April at 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.  Come and learn about health issues from trained medical professional speakers.  Spanish speakers are especially welcome since there will be someone from UTMB providing translations.  Please get the word out!

 

The Annual BBQ with Bigmista is right around the corner, 2 May.  Pitch in and help!

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially those recovering from surgery.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

 

The Annunciation

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation, and we read about it in the Gospel according to Luke:

 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. (Lk. 1: 26-38).

 

“How can this be?” Our God is the God of the impossible; our God does great things! Like Mary, you and I are called to give a resounding “yes” to God even in the face of the impossible. 

 

Martin Luther, in his sermon on the Magnificat, preached:

 

“For He that is mighty hath done great things for me, and Holy is His Name.” (Lk. 1:49)

 

The “great things” are nothing less than that she became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed upon her as pass man's understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among whom she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in Heaven, and such a child. She herself is unable to find a name for this work, it is too exceedingly great; all she can do is break out in the fervent cry: “They are great things,” impossible to describe or define. Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God.

 

No one can say anything greater of her or to her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees, or grass in the fields, or stars in the sky, or sand by the sea. It needs to be pondered in the heart, what it means to be the Mother of God.  Luther’s Works, Vol. 21, p. 326, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, Concordia Publishing House, 1956.

 

Let us pray: Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord; that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Lenten Program, The Rule of Life, is at St. Augustine’s tonight starting at 6 PM.  Please remember to bring a soup or a salad for the meal.  The Rev. Dr. Mark Crawford will be our speaker.  Fr. Crawford was educated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Oxford University prior to his ordination.  Thereafter, he earned his Doctorate of Ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is currently serving as the interim rector at St. Mark’s in Beaumont.

 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.  We start at the cross outside.

 

Senior Health Lunches with hosted by the Rev. Dr. Helen Appelberg and UTMB at St. Augustine’s starting Tuesday, 14 April at 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.  Come and learn about health issues from trained medical professional speakers.  Spanish speakers are especially welcome since there will be someone from UTMB providing translations.  Please get the word out!

 

The Annual BBQ with Bigmista is right around the corner, 2 May.  Pitch in and help!

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially those recovering from surgery.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Oscar Romero, Archbishop & Martyr

If you want to see Jesus, you have to look into the face of the poor.  Today the Church celebrates the life and ministry of someone who was dedicated to the poor, someone who was one with the poor, Bishop Oscar Romero. 

 

Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was born on 15 August 1917 in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, and he was gunned down on this day in March of 1980 as he was celebrating the Eucharist at a small chapel located in a hospital called “La Divina Providencia.”

 

Following his ordination in 1942, Romero spent the first 25 years of his ministry as a parish priest. In 1970 he became auxiliary (sufragan) bishop of San Salvador until 1974 when he came bishop of Santiago de María, a poor, rural region which included his hometown. In 1977, Romero returned to the capital, San Salvador, to become archbishop.

 

Romero was an outspoken, but controversial, advocate for the poor in El Salvador.  In 1979, the Revolutionary Government Junta came to power amidst a wave of human rights abuses by paramilitary right-wing groups and the government in an escalation of violence that would become the Salvadoran Civil War. 

 

Archbishop Romero denounced the persecution of members of the Catholic Church who had worked on behalf of the poor:

 

In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened, calumniated. Six are already martyrs--they were murdered. Some have been tortured and others expelled [from the country]. Nuns have also been persecuted. The archdiocesan radio station and educational institutions that are Catholic or of a Christian inspiration have been attacked, threatened, intimidated, even bombed. Several parish communities have been raided. If all this has happened to persons who are the most evident representatives of the Church, you can guess what has happened to ordinary Christians, to the campesinos, catechists, lay ministers, and to the ecclesial base communities. There have been threats, arrests, tortures, murders, numbering in the hundreds and thousands....

 

But it is important to note why [the Church] has been persecuted. Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people's defense. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the church: the poor.

 

—Oscar Romero, Speech at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, 2 February 1980.

 

Oscar Romero said: “Here there is a challenge from Christ to the goodness of humankind. It is not enough to be good. It is not enough to not do evil. My Christianity is something more positive; it is not a negative. There are many who say, “But I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t do anything bad to anyone.” That’s not enough. You are still lacking a great deal. It is not enough to be good.”

 

Let us pray:  Almighty God, you called your servant Oscar Romero to be a voice for the voiceless poor, and to give his life as a seed of freedom and a sign of hope: Grant that, inspired by his sacrifice and the example of the martyrs of El Salvador, we may without fear or favor witness to your Word who abides, your Word who is Life, even Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be praise and glory now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Lenten Program, The Rule of Life, is at St. Augustine’s this Wednesday starting at 6 PM.  Please remember to bring a soup or a salad for the meal.  The Rev. Dr. Mark Crawford will be our speaker.  Fr. Crawford was educated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Oxford University prior to his ordination.  Thereafter, he earned his Doctorate of Ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is currently serving as the interim rector at St. Mark’s in Beaumont.

 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.  We start at the cross outside.

 

Senior Health Lunches with hosted by the Rev. Dr. Helen Appelberg and UTMB at St. Augustine’s starting Tuesday, 14 April at 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.  Come and learn about health issues from trained medical professional speakers.  Spanish speakers are especially welcome since there will be someone from UTMB providing translations.  Please get the word out!

 

The Annual BBQ with Bigmista is right around the corner, 2 May.  Pitch in and help!

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially those recovering from surgery.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550