Good day,

Happening This Week:

For anyone interested, I lead a bible study at Holy Trinity, SSM, each Wednesday at 10am. (We have a worship service first – 9:30-10am if you are interested in that as well). 

Thursday Prayer Studies: 4-5pm at the Trinity Centre. There are two sessions remaining (Jan.16 and 23) for this round. Prayer is important and we’ll return regularly to learning more about prayer, different types of prayer, and to practicing this discipline together.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: begins Saturday, January 18 and runs until Saturday, January 25. This designated week of prayer always begins on the Holy Day of “The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle” and it always ends on the Holy Day of “The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle”. 

In the rest of January: 

Deanery Council Meeting, Saturday, Jan.25, 10:30am meeting start time, Emmaus Anglican Church.  

For those of you not involved with Deanery Council, that is also the day of Bishop Michael’s Zoom re: preaching Year C. Please contact Carla at the Synod Office if you’d like to join that Zoom.

Heads Up for the months to come:

The next Guild of St. Joseph breakfast is Saturday, Feb.8, 9:30am at the Trinity Centre.

Lenten Retreat: Saturday, March 1 at the Trinity Centre; 9:30am – noon. 

Lenten Zoom Bible Studies: Mondays through Lent, 7-8pm.

A Liturgical Note For You:

Feria days in ordinary time:  Well, for those of you who fill in vestry books (counters, Lay Readers…), this one’s for you:  

The column in our vestry books that says “Day of the Christian Year” is actually not simply recorded as “Sunday” or “Wednesday” or whatever day of the week you are having a worship service. Those labels stem from the names of gods of the ancient world – therefore, they are most definitely not a day in our Christian year. What do you write?  For now, during “ordinary time”, you would simply write “Feria” when there is no other calendar observance.

“Feria” is a Latin word that means “weekday”. We used to say that there were major ferias and minor ferias but, currently, “feria” is used to label the days of the week other than Sunday on which there are no other observances. So, this week, only Tuesday and Thursday would be labeled “Feria”. All of the other days have observances. For example, if you had a worship service today, you would enter “Memorial of Hilary” in your book as the Day of the Christian Year.

For Your Devotions:

Monday, January 13th is the memorial of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, who died in 367.  Hilary started life as a pagan but, through reading the Scriptures, was converted to Christianity. He was married by this point but was elected as bishop anyway. Hilary defended the Church against the heresy of Arianism – which actually was winning out over orthodoxy for a while.  Arianism is the belief that Jesus was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and therefore subordinate to him, although also a god. It was a bumpy road defending the faith…To read more:  https://catholicexchange.com/st-hilary-of-poitiers

Wednesday, January 15th is the commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, the founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. He died in 1915. Even as a young child, Richard leaned toward austerity. His governess found him sleeping on the floor and, when she put him into bed, he complained that he wouldn’t be able to learn hardness if he slept in a comfy bed. Richard was a prayerful and devout priest. He wanted to go to India with a vision of “a body of men gathered together, whose life of what the world would call self-denial and poverty should be cheered with a greater joy than the world can ever give, by the sympathy of kindred hearts and the spiritual strength of abundant means of grace.” His bishop, however, did not want to lose such a wonderful priest and told Richard to stay…the rest is history as they say. To read more:  http://anglicanhistory.org/bios/rmbenson.html

Friday, January 17th is the memorial of Antony, Abbot in Egypt, who died in 356.  Antony chose to give away all of his money, property, and possessions and live the life of a hermit in the Egyptian desert. News of such a devout Christian spread and people began to travel to see him to get his spiritual guidance. So much for being a hermit.  Many who traveled to see him decided to stay and Antony became the “Abbot” of a group of men dedicated to poverty and hard work. They supported themselves with their labour and raised money for the sole purpose of giving it to those in need. If you’d like to know more…  http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/77.html  

Saturday, January 18th is the Holy Day of The Confession of St. Peter the Apostle.  Though Peter is portrayed in the Gospels as being oftentimes rash and hasty as well as a little “slow on the uptake,” Peter was recognized by the early church as the leader of the apostles and his love for Jesus clearly runs deep. At the Britannica website it says, “It was Peter who possessed remarkable insight and displayed his depth of faith in the confession of Christ as the Son of God (Matthew 16:15–18; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20), and it was Peter who rebuked, and in turn was rebuked by, Jesus when the Master prophesied that he would suffer and die (Mark 8:32, 33).” To read more: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Peter-the-Apostle  

In the joy of Christ,

Susan