You and I may become participants in the divine nature.

This Sunday, the 21^st of December, we will have a pot luck luncheon.  Please bring something to share.

The appointed Epistle reading on this Monday in the third week of Advent is taken from Peter’s second letter where he begins:

 

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:  May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. (2 Pet. 1:1-11).

 

Peter tells us that In Jesus Christ, you and I “may become participants in the divine nature.”  One of the early Church Fathers, St. Athanasius wrote: “God became man so that man might become God.” There is the Incarnation, in the person of Jesus Christ, God and humanity are perfectly joined together.  In that perfect union, our humanity is sanctified.  By the event we celebrate on 25 December, you and I are elevated because God became one with us.

 

Let us pray: Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; 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

 

The Seaside Seniors will have their Christmas Party starting at 11 AM.  The choir from St. Vincent’s House will be there. 

  

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Duane.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550