Over the duration of a person's life it is interesting to think about all the gifts that a person has received. I would imagine that we can not even remember every single gift that we received during our lifetime. Certainly going back to our childhood when we would receive gifts on our birthdays, such as a doll baby or a truck, and then as we got older we might receive gifts for our graduation and other events. Today it seems to be a trend just to give a gift card as a gift and that way you can pick out the gift that YOU would want. This seems to make sense although it is certainly less personal in many ways. If we think back over all the gifts we have received in our lifetime, all of them are certainly appreciated but some gifts have really stood out for us. These gifts might stand out for a number of reasons: the gift might have been give to us by a very special person . . . . maybe a parent or a spouse who is no longer with us; or perhaps we have a gift that was given to us at a very special occasion such as a graduation or a wedding, for example; or maybe the gift itself if just very special. For whatever reason, each of us, I am quite sure can come up with an example of an item that we treasure and we will not get rid of it because we treasure it so much.
Continuing on in the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle written to the Romans, which we also read last week, we hear: " . . . . but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. " (Romans 6:19 ff) Here, St. Paul is contrasting the wages of sin and the end result being death versus giving our lives over to Christ and experiencing eternal life with Our Blessed Saviour. As I mentioned earlier, we have been given many gifts in our lifetime but you know as well as I that the most valuable gifts that we own are not always the most expensive gifts. The greatest gifts that we could ever be given are the ones given straight from the heart. This is the case with the gift of eternal life that Our Lord offers to each and everyone of us: He gives us this gift freely . .. . He offers it to us from His Heart . . . His Most Sacred Heart . . . . . but it is not a gift that was lightly given. He offers this gift to you from the Cross. He offers this gift to you through His death on the Cross to atone for your sins and mine. We need to consider this aspect when we think about the gift that God offers to us. This is a gift that is given to us freely but it has great value. It was Our Saviour's life exchanged for ours on the Cross. He hung there in our place in order that we might be forgiven.
There are two opportunities for you to join us for Mass on Sunday, July 19th, 2015:
St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church gathers for Mass every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. Mass is celebrated at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.
The Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit gathers for Mass every Sunday at 1:00 PM. Mass is celebrated at the beautiful, historic First Presbyterian Church, which is located at the Corner of South and Pennsylvania Streets (116 W. South Street) in Greenfield, Indiana.
Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the beautiful King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Come worship God in a beautiful, traditional worship where not only does God feed you through His Word but He also feeds you at Communion time through His Most Precious Body and Blood. Take an hour out of your week and dedicate that hour solely to God. God, Who has given you so much, certainly deserves at least an hour out of your week, doesn't He?
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