News - April 2017 RSS Feed

More than three years ago now, I walked into this church for the first time. I was invited by my friend Fr. Mike Bayard, who served this community with lots of love and devotion before he was transferred to other work for the Jesuits in Portland.

Our Guest Artist, Soprano Joyce Matthews, wrote on behalf of her mother, Maestra Tuggles and her daughter (the lovely teenage soprano who sang with us Tuesday): 

Today’s gospel takes us to an upper room, a room of stale air and the stink of sweating bodies – the smell of fear. A man comes into this room and offers inner peace and joy. “Peace be with you” he says. The first gift of the risen Lord is peace. “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” – that’s the second gift: the joy of the risen Lord. This is God’s dream for our world: peace and joy.

Thank you all for your generous gifts of Time and Talent to Christ Our Hope in celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord.  There were so many stand out moments they need to be  subdivided into three groups and I know, I will still miss some. 

Despite what we may think… Easter isn’t just a noun. Easter is something you should think of as a verb. Just like our faith. It is active. It moves. It’s something alive, and wondrous, and constantly in motion.

Today’s gospel reading from Luke portrays the encounter between two disciples and Jesus as they walked on the road to Emmaus. We have all traveled the road to Emmaus. In one way or another at some time we have all had our hopes dashed.

This is the night! So says the Exsultet, the ancient hymn chanted at the beginning of this Easter Vigil, after we have kindled the New Fire. The Exsultet is at least 1200 years old;

This story is rife with elements that offend the sensibilities of 21st century Americans. So much is so wrong in the story of the suffering and death of Jesus.

We’re given a different picture of Jesus tonight. We see him on his knees, wiping away dirt, washing feet. This is truly what it means to be Christ. He said so himself. “I have given you a model to follow,” he tells his apostles.

Long ago, St. Tom (AKA Thomas Aquinas, c. 1225-1274) reminded us in his meditative poem on the events of Holy Week,  how much our faith is strengthened by things we see, things we touch, things we taste  and above all, things we hear.   And Holy Week is the great week of seeing and touching and tasting and, above all, hearing.

A final guest post written by our CRS Ambassador, Cate, for our CRS Rice Bowl Lentent Soup Supper series (say that 10 times fast!). For the full post, check out her blog here.

We have just heard a story of a death in the family. It was a sudden death, and devastating to the surviving family members.