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/
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
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