Do Good

SPRING FORWARD THIS SATURDAY! YES, IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN; WE MOVE OUR CLOCKS AHEAD 1 HOUR THIS SATURDAY NIGHT.

In this first Thursday in Lent, we hear from Psalm 37 where the Psalmist writes:

Depart from evil, and do good;
so you shall abide for ever.
For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his faithful ones.

These are good words to begin the Lenten season. The Psalmist invites us to “do good”. Goodness is not passive; it is active. Doing good is an act of love. The Old Testament prophet Micah reminds us: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8. It includes, as Bishop Munawar K. Rumalshah, Bishop Emeritus of Peshawar, Pakistan, reminds us “cleaning the wounds of those who hate us” and cleaning the wounds of those whom you and I may hate. Doing good is doing God’s justice which includes reconciliation with those whom we may, for one reason or another, despise. We are called to reconciliation during this season of Lent because as we were reminded in the Ash Wednesday collect, God hates nothing that He has made.

Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Lent in Galveston:

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/216866

Augustine is featured in the first issue of Diolog:

http://www.omagdigital.com/publication/?i=62992

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching. The first one will be on Wednesday, 16 March at 6:00 p.m. at Grace Episcopal.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Roylene Lemons and pray for the family of Juanita Mack who died this week.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

I Invite You, in the Name of the Church, to the Observance of a Holy Lent.

Today is Ash Wednesday; we begin Lent. In the liturgy for today, the Book of Common Prayer invites us to participate in this season in a meaningful way:

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer. (BCP, p. 264-5).

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world of technology. Just when I get accustomed to the idea of cell phones getting smaller and smaller, I’m introduced to the idea of bigger and bigger so I can watch TV on my cell phone. I am surrounded by more and more information with no place to put it. The world around me moves much faster than I can run to keep up with it; my world moves so rapidly that my vision becomes blurred. Then Lent comes, and the Ash Wednesday liturgy bids us to slow down and to refocus and become centered, to sort out what really matters. On Ash Wednesday, we are reminded in a very concrete way that our time on earth is limited; that we should use our time wisely to concentrate on what is important, something that lasts longer than 2G, 3G and 4G technology. It is a time to center on our relationship with the eternal, on our relationship with God. Our relationships with loved ones outlast technology. Lent is a time to concentrate on what is truly important in life, our relationships with God, our neighbors and and even ourselves.

So I invite you, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.

THANK YOU TO THE TAYLORS FOR A WONDERFUL MARDI GRAS CELEBRATION! Yesterday, we inaugurated a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration. A good time was had by all!

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Roylene Lemons and pray for the family of Juanita Mack, who was buried yesterday.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Shrove Doesn't Mean Pancake!

What in the world is “Shrove Tuesday”? It doesn't mean "pancake".

Lent, which simply means “spring,” was preceded by “shrovetide” (hence Shrove Tuesday). The English term “shrovetide” can be explained by a sentence in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric about 1000 A.D.:

“In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do in the way of penance.”

So "shrove" is the past tense of "shrive" which means "to hear someone's confession".

The celebratory aspect of the day developed long before the Protestant Reformation, and was associated with releasing high spirits before the somber season of Lent, thus the continuing carnival tradition associated with Mardi Gras.

Let us pray: Father, keep before us the wisdom and love you have revealed in your Son. Help us to be like him in word and deed, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

MARDI GRAS FUN AT ST. AUGUSTINE'S on FAT TUESDAY, 8 MARCH at 6 P.M.: Welcome a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration to be inaugurated by a famous Mardi Gras King and his Queen at St. Augustine’s!

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Roylene Lemons and Juanita Mack.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

The Word that Sustains

The Epistle reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, and the Gospel reading, from the Gospel according to John, center on how Jesus reveals to us who God is. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Heb. 1; 1-4).

John writes:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (Jn. 1: 1-5).

Common to both of the readings is the idea that Jesus reflects God perfectly. Jesus reflects God perfectly because Jesus is in fact God. Jesus is the very Son of God who by the Word, his Word, sustains everything in the universe, but he is also true man, like you and me in all things. And so the season of Epiphany draws to an end, and we Jesus is revealed to us as the sustainer of all that is.

Let us pray: Father of light, unchanging God, You reveal to people of faith the resplendent fact of the Word made flesh, Your Son, Jesus Christ. Your light is strong, Your love is near; draw us beyond the limits which this world imposes, to the life where Your Spirit makes all life complete. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

MARDI GRAS FUN AT ST. AUGUSTINE'S on FAT TUESDAY, 8 MARCH at 6 P.M.: Welcome a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration to be inaugurated by a famous Mardi Gras King and his Queen at St. Augustine’s!

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Roylene Lemons and Juanita Mack.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

The Rev. Paul Cuffee, Missionary in the United States

Today the Church remembers someone from our own country, a native son who lived and worked as a missionary in Long Island, New York, the Rev. Paul Cuffee, a member of the Shinnecock tribe. He was the second of seven sons of Peter Cuffee a native Indian of the Shinnecock tribe, and grandson, on his mothers side, of the Rev. Peter John. Paul was born in near Brookhaven, New York probably at Wading River, on 4 March 1757.

The Rev. Cuffee’s tombstone, near Riverhead, New York, tells his story: “Erected by the New York Missionary Society, in memory of the Rev. Paul Cuffee, an Indian of the Shinnecock tribe, who was employed by the Society for the last thirteen years of his life, on the Eastern part of Long Island, where he labored the fidelity and success. Humble, pious and indefatigable in testifying the gospel of the grace of God, he finished his course with joy on the 7th of March, 1812, aged 55 years and 3 days” During those years, the Rev. Cuffee travelled on foot throughout Long Island, which is some 118 miles long.

Let us pray: Almighty God, you empowered Paul Cuffee to be a powerful evangelist and preacher and so to win many souls for Christ among the Native Americans of Long Island: Help us to proclaim your Word with power, in the Name of the same Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

MARDI GRAS FUN AT ST. AUGUSTINE'S on FAT TUESDAY, 8 MARCH at 6 P.M.: Welcome a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration to be inaugurated by a famous Mardi Gras King and his Queen at St. Augustine’s!

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

Clothing is still welcome for the people of Lord of the Streets.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Karen Lehr for her continued recovery and for Juanita Mack.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

St. Chad, Bishop

Today the Church remembers and honors Chad who died on this day in 672. James Kiefer writes:

Chad was elected as Archbishop of York, but various persons raised objections, and rather than cause division in the Church he withdrew in favor of the other candidate, Wilfrid. The objection was that some of the bishops who had consecrated him--although not Chad himself--were holdouts who, even after the Synod of Whitby had supposedly settled the question in 663, insisted on preserving Celtic customs on the date of celebrating Easter and similar questions, instead of conforming to the customs of the remainder of Western Christendom.

He was soon after made Bishop of Lichfield in Mercia. There he travelled about as he had when Archbishop of York, always on foot (until the Archbishop of Canterbury gave him a horse and ordered him to ride it, at least on long journeys), preaching and teaching wherever he went. He served there for only two and a half years before his death, but he made a deep impression. In the following decades, many chapels, and many wells, were constructed in Mercia and named for him. (It was an old custom to dig a well where one was needed, and to mark it with one's own name or another's, that thirsty travellers and others might drink and remember the name with gratitude.)

Let us pray: Almighty God, whose servant Chad, for the peace of the Church, relinquished cheerfully the honors that had been thrust upon him, only to be rewarded with equal responsibility: Keep us, we pray, from thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and ready at all times to step aside for others, (in honor preferring one another,) that the cause of Christ may be advanced; in the name of him who washed his disciples' feet, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

MARDI GRAS FUN AT ST. AUGUSTINE'S on FAT TUESDAY, 8 MARCH at 6 P.M.: Welcome a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration to be inaugurated by a famous Mardi Gras King and his Queen at St. Augustine’s!

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Lenten Program: We will have a combined Lenten program with Grace Episcopal on Wednesday evenings as we have had in years past. It will begin with the Stations of the Cross, Eucharist, a light meal and then a teaching.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

Clothing is still welcome for the people of Lord of the Streets.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Karen Lehr for her continued recovery and for Juanita Mack.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Please, Bear With Me In a Little Foolishness

In today’s appointed Epistle reading, Paul asks us to put up with a little “foolishness”:

I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. I may be untrained in speech, but not in knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things we have made this evident to you.

Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for my needs were supplied by the friends who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will continue to refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

And what I do I will also continue to do, in order to deny an opportunity to those who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in what they boast about. For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.

I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool; but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying in regard to this boastful confidence, I am saying not with the Lord’s authority, but as a fool; since many boast according to human standards, I will also boast. For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves! For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But whatever anyone dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. (2 Cor. 11: 1-21).

Paul has a way of being just a little sarcastic in the opening lines of today’s passage. In some ways, he reminds me of my grandmother when she was just about to zing somebody. But Paul is trying to deal with a concrete problem. Someone has steered the Corinthians in the wrong direction, and he is trying to show them that he preached Christ to them without hope of anything material from them. In fact, his ministry among them was supported by others. Paul preached boldly, and he did because Paul knew the Risen Christ! He preached not with eloquence of a paid professional, but with heartfelt genuineness and love to those he pastored. Paul was authentic.

Are we authentic in our preaching of Jesus Christ to the world? Do you and I preach Christ boldly because we know Christ? Are you and I genuine in our Christian faith?

Let us pray: Holy Father, give us the strength in Your Holy Spirit to preach with boldness the Risen Christ. We pray to grow nearer to You each day so that we may proclaim in a laud and strong voice to the entire world that our God is real, able, good and generous. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

MARDI GRAS FUN AT ST. AUGUSTINE'S on FAT TUESDAY, 8 MARCH at 6 P.M.: Welcome a new tradition at St. Augustine's for Fat Tuesday, a true Mardi Gras celebration to be inaugurated by a famous Mardi Gras King and his Queen at St. Augustine’s!

Ash Wednesday, 9 March at 7 P.M.: The Ash Wednesday Liturgy with the imposition of ashes. The ashes this year will be taken from the Palm Sunday crosses from St. James the Fisherman and given to us by Bob Newding.

Saturday, 12 March, work day in the Community Garden.

Clothing is still welcome for the people of Lord of the Streets.

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Karen Lehr for her continued recovery and for Juanita Mack.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550