A Message from Grace Episcopal Church

The Fifth Sunday in Lent - March 17, 2013

Collect of the Day

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings

This Week:

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Next Week:

Palm Sunday

CLICK HERE to listen to sermons from previous weeks
CLICK HERE for Bible study resources.

Prayer List

Bob and Donna Weber, Yasso Herath, Peter Lubeck, Catherine Lubeck, Al and Carol Lalli, Teri Caserto, Janet, Thomas Humeston, Barbara Harris, Elaine MacPhee, Bob Williams, Tankert Mahler, Harte Mahler, Anne Huntington, Marie Haynie, Tim Brady, Marie, Ron & Pat Mapstone, Fran F., Henry Austin, Jack Seeman, Evelyn, Andrew W., Tasha, Phil Bunton, Barbara DelPizzo, Zell Schwartzman, Stephen Frey, Robert A.

The prayer list is refreshed monthly please call the office to add a name, or to request that a name be carried forward. There is a book in the narthex where -- before the service begins -- you may add names to be read during the Prayers of the People for the day.

Reflection

Echoes of Memory

John O'Donohue

Like spring secretly at work within the heart of winter, below the surface of our lives huge changes are in fermentation. We never suspect a thing. Then when the grip of some long-enduring winter mentality begins to loosen, we find ourselves vulnerable to a flourish of possibility and we are suddenly negotiating the challenge of a threshold.

At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds; to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.

From : To Bless the Space Between Us

For a guaranteed smile (once you get past the brief advertisement at the beginning), watch

this video by someone who left his career designing video games to travel the world getting people to dance with him. In this essay, Tom Ehrich, a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York (formerly director of church growth and development at St. Bart's) puts the joyful video into a larger context. The piece is from his Morning Walk Media, which offers a variety of free newsletter options.

This Week

Are you on the worship ministry schedule this weekend? CLICK HERE
to find out.

CALENDAR

Friday, March 15- Church Office is Closed

2:00 - 4:00pm - RPCC Toddler Group - Classrooms

Saturday, March 16

10:00am Understanding the Holy Eucharist, Part I (Patterson)

9:00pm Helping Hands (Memorial Hall)

Sunday, March 17

8:00am, 9:30, 11:00am - Holy Eucharist

10:10am - Church School Classes

10:10am - Parish Forum: Easter Fair (Memorial Hall)

12:00pm GraceMusic Board meeting

2:00pm - AGC Youth Troupe Rehearsal - Memorial Hall

6:30pm Senior Youth Group/Helping Hands

9:00pm Helping Hands (Memorial Hall)

Monday, March 18