Sunday after Ascension, June 1st, 2025

 

Sunday after Ascencion, June 1st, 2025

St. Luke ends his Gospel with the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven.  We read in Verse 51 of the Twenty-Fourth Chapter:  "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven."  I can only imagine how the Apostles felt as they were in the Presence of Our Lord at that moment.  I am sure they were in great awe of such a moment.  But we read in the following verse: "And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." (St. Luke 24:52) Without a doubt we are affected by others around us, wouldn't you agree?  Have you ever been in the presence of someone who was in a foul mood, for example, and you began getting in a bad mood?  But haven't we all been in the presence of someone who simply lifted our spirits because they were so joyful?  For the Christian we also should have "great joy" when we praise and bless God. (v. 53)   Joyful because God has created us . . . because He has given us life.  Joyful because Our Heavenly Father continues to sustain us, to nourish us, to feed us.   Joyful because Christ came to save us from ourselves.  In other words, He came to save us from our sins.  Joyful because Christ Our Saviour goes to prepare a place for us in Heaven.  Joyful because we have the Comforter, the Holy Ghost always close to us.  As Christians, we have so much to be joyful for.  The world offers us joy, yes, but the joy the world offers is at best temporary, fleeting and in many cases the world offers us "false joy."  The joy which God offers is everlasting.  Stay close to Our Blessed Saviour.  Remain close to the One Who has chosen us, redeemed us, and saved us.

  Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025

 Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025

I personally enjoy the Epistle of St. James.  For me, I find this epistle to be straight forward.  In other words, St. James gets right to the point.  "BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (St. James 1:22)  St. James gets straight to the point, doesn't he?  In other words, I am sure  know we all have friends, acquittances or coworkers who seem to "talk a good game" but they really do not back up their talk with action.  As Christian's we need to "show" who we are and not simply "talk" about what we believe.  I am sure this is why Our Lord came into the world as a human being.  He spoke about His Heavenly Father, yes, but He also showed those around Him the love of the Father.  He did this by performing miracles, yes, but He showed the Father's love through interacting with those around Him, both the poor and rich, both ordinary and influential, etc.  He showed those around Him, particularly the Apostles, that it is important to show the love of God to everyone we encounter.  He demonstrated to the disciples that they should show the love of God to all those they come in contact with.  Our Lord did not hesitate to speak with all those around Him.  He did the work of God as He was called to do.  In short, Our Blessed Saviour did not just speak about the love of God, He showed it through His words and actions.  As people of faith, we are called to do the same.  We need to speak about our faith, yes, but we also need put our faith into action.  We do that by helping others around us.  We do that by spending time with those less fortunate.  We do that by assisting those in need.  God uses us as His instruments here on earth.  We are the face of God to those around us.  We do this through by being doing His work here on earth.  While it is important to talk about our relationship with God, I think it means even more to demonstrate our relationship with God through our actions and how we treat others around us.  

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025

 Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025

When you go on a trip, do you ever notice how much time you spend in preparation for the trip by packing?  If you are like me, it seems like you pack half the house to go on a trip.  And even if you are only going to be gone a few days, it's unbelievable how much stuff we pack for those few days: clothing items and shoes . . . . jackets  . . . .  hygiene items  . . . .  The list goes on and on.    And then when the trip is done, you have to make sure you don't leave anything behind.  You've heard of people with a fear of spiders or people with a fear of flying?  I think I have a fear of leaving something behind in the motel room.   I will check and recheck to make sure I did not leave anything behind.  It's amazing how much time we spend in packing and preparing for going places.  But truth be known, we don't take anything with us when we die, do we?  I joke around and say that I'm going to take my Elvis record collection with me when I die, but of course that's ridiculous.  We don't take anything with us when we die.   The only thing that we take with us to the grave, it seems to me, is the love that we have in our heart.  When our time comes to an end here on this ol' earth that we call home, the only "thing" we will take with us is the love that we have for God . . .  love for our neighbors . . .  and love for one another.  Other than that, what do we take with us when we die?   Just the love that we have in our heart.  Why do we spend our lifetime accumulating so much stuff?  In comparison, though, how much time do we spend preparing our heart in regards to showing love towards God and our neighbor?

In the Sixteenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, we hear Our Lord speaking to the disciples about various matters.  One of the things that He tells the disciples is preparing them for when He shall leave.  He says:  "A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." (St. John 16:16)  Our Lord is preparing the disciples for His departure because He knows that they will be in sorrow and distress at His departure:  But Our Lord states that the sorrow the disciples will feel at His departure will be turned to joy.  "And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." (v. 22)  Again, many things that we have in life can be lost, taken from us, or stolen but the love and joy we have in our heart, nobody can take that from us.  Our Lord's last words in this discourse state:  "I came forth from the Father; and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." (v. 28)  We can say the same thing, it seems to me.   When we are born, our life is a gift from the Good Lord Himself.   And when we die, we leave the world and return to God.   And when we return, the only thing that we have to show for our journey is how we have lived our life while we were here . . .  how much love we have for one another . . .  and how much love we showed while we were here.  When we travel here on earth, we are careful to pack what we need for the trip.  We should also prepare for our "final trip" by loving one another and showing the love that God has shown us and sharing that love to one another.  

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025

 Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025

I remember when I was growing up . . .  I find myself saying that more and more .  . . .  . .. anyway, I remember when I was growing up, it was understood that a person started at the bottom and worked their way up from there.  To me that was how things were done.  I suppose that's why while still in high school I got a job scrubbing pots and pans in a cafeteria.  You don't get much more "bottom-rung" than that.  You start at the bottom and then work your way up the ladder, so to speak.  Now I don't want to paint everyone the same way.  I realize there are exceptions to every rule.  But it just seems that today, very often anyways, that people are not content to start out at the bottom and work their way up.  They want to start out at the top.  Even when someone is at the "bottom," so to speak, very often they seem to know things better than the boss.  Even where I work, the kids there seem to have an attitude that they know things better than any adult and they are always right no matter what.  Unfortunately, it's not just the kids that have this attitude at times.  I think we all have this perspective at times.  We so often have to come up with excuses when we are criticized.   We have to explain things instead of just accepting that we could have handled things differently or better.  We have to always be "in the right" or "have the last word."  The reason I am reflecting on these thoughts is because in the Tenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, Our Blessed Lord is speaking of Himself as being the Good Shepherd.  Our Lord says:  "I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine"  (St. John 10:11 ff)  Now, keep in mind that there are three different statements or observations in the above sentence:  Our Lords says that He is the "good shepherd."  He also says that He knows His sheep.  And then He ends up by saying basically that His sheep know Him. Regarding this last statement, do we know the Good Shepherd?  Or to put it another way, do we know that we are His sheep?  Are we content with being His sheep?  This sounds strange to ask but do you know anyone that just has to always be right?  Do you know someone that just always has the have the final word in everything . . . . no matter what.  In the spiritual life, there are people like that as well.  When they go to God in prayer, they tell God what they want to happen instead of listening to God telling them what He wants to happen.  Do we ever go to God demanding things when we pray?  Sure, we may do our "demanding" in a nice, respectful way . . . . . . but the bottom line is that we are still telling God to do it our way.  We have things all figured out and we know what's best and so we pray not so much saying "Thy will be done" as much as we do "My will be done."  Our Lord is the Good Shepherd.  As such, there is only room for one shepherd.  Let us continually fashion ourselves and remind ourselves that He is our shepherd.  God is in control.  Let all of us remember that fact and let God be God, in other words.  As human beings we do not like to be told what to do.  We very often have to have the final word.  As devout Christians, let us remember that God is in charge and that God gets to have the final word.  Let us always remember that Christ is the Good Shepherd and that we are His sheep and to follow Him.

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!