Posted by John Strobl on March 13, 2010 under General | 
Stations of the Cross Service at 12 Noon on Good Friday April 2, 2010, Fr Carl will be having Stations of the Cross followed by Bendiction of the Holy Eucharist.
The Stations of the Cross, or in Latin the Via Crucis, tell the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ in fourteen steps or stations. Walking the Stations is a tradition for Roman Catholics and also Anglicans and Lutherans. It is a common Lenten practice. Most of the stations come directly from Scripture while the others come from tradition.
The tradition to walk the path of the Stations of the Cross developed for the faithful to better contemplate the events of The Passion of Jesus Christ. The Stations were first only at the historical sites of the Passion, however European Christians on pilgrimage to the Holy Land took the idea of the Stations home with them, and made their own versions of the holy walk.
There are two traditions to the development of the Stations. The first tradition holds that the path of the Stations follows the route the Blessed Virgin Mary took after Jesus Christ’s resurrection. The other tradition is linked to St. Francis of Assisi and his followers who popularized the first Stations of the Cross when they were given custody of the holy sites in Jerusalem in the 14th century.
Posted by John Strobl on March 2, 2010 under From The Rector |
Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (BCP, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history. Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly. In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “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” (BCP, p. 265).
Posted by John Strobl on February 11, 2010 under From The Rector |
Ash Wednesday is February 17. Imposition of Ashes will be at 8:00am at the 12 Noon Service and 7:30pm.
Ash Wednesday, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent, being the seventh Wednesday before Easter. On this day ashes are placed on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them of death, of the sorrow they should feel for their sins, and of the necessity of changing their lives. The practice, which dates from the early Middle Ages, is common among Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians, and many Lutherans; it was also adopted by some Methodists and Presbyterians in the 1990s.
