God of Grace, I give thanks for your generous love.

From the Society of Saint John the Evangelist - "Brother Give us a Word"

Thanks

God of Grace, I give thanks for your generous love. All that I am and all that I have comes from you.

Teach me to give thanks in all circumstances, and to express my gratitude in worship and loving service, to the glory of your Name. 

Amen.

From Brother Curtis Almquist of the St. John the Evangelist Society in Cambridge, MA (our fair city)...a message of hope in the Resurrection!   I had the pleasure of spending time with Br. Curtis in a few different settings over the years, and find him to be just a wonderful presence, and natural evangelist of the Gospels! Read his Easter Sermon!!


~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Experience the Resurrection! – Br. Curtis Almquist

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Br. Curtis Almquist

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John 20:1-18

Jesus greets Mary Magdalene in the garden near his tomb.  He has come back from the dead, alive, resurrected, and yet he is very wounded.  Jesus’ body is still wounded by the scourgings that preceded his crucifixion, and the horrific piercing wounds to his side and to his hands, hanging from the cross.  None of these wounds is healed.  And Jesus’ heart is also wounded by the betrayal and abandonment of his closest friends, the disciples who literally left Jesus hanging.  The women, who were there when their Lord was crucified, witnessed it all, a horrific experience.  And this surely leaves the women wounded by the trauma. Meanwhile the disciples are hiding – hiding in their own fear, sorrow, and shame – and this, too, shows a wounding.[i]  No one can hurt us like we can hurt ourselves, when we become our own worst enemy.  On this day of resurrection, everyone in the Gospel story is not okay.  Everyone is wounded, and this is likely true for many of us here. We can simultaneously acknowledge Jesus’ resurrection and, at the same time, acknowledge that everything is not all right in our world or in our own lives.  Many of us here today may bear the wounds of life, of one sort or another.  Bishop Barbara Harris says, “We are a resurrection people living in a Good Friday world.”

This is why Saint Paul speaks of “the hope of the resurrection.” 

Read the rest HERE

Lent - Check out the Society of St. John the Evangelist's Online Lenten Resources

The SSJE, Society of St. John the Evangelist, brothers are offering some fine Lenten resources this year. Each Sunday of Lent they are posting a sermon based on the lectionary. I encourage you to log on and listen to these wise spiritual masters offer their reflections, and offer your comments as well.

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Click HERE to listen to these resources.

Lent is the season in which Christians prepare for the Resurrection of the Lord. It is a time to renew our commitment as disciples of Jesus by adopting practices that deepen our relationship to God.

We invite you to join us, either in person or virtually, for our Lenten preaching series,
Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Living. Each Tuesday in March, the 5.15 Eucharist at the Monastery Chapel will feature a sermon reflecting on a specific practice from the SSJE Rule of Life. After the service there will be a soup supper and further conversation with the evening's preacher.

• March 3—Br. Kevin Hackett, on Silence
• March 10—Br. Bruce Neal, on The Graces of Friendship
• March 17—Br. Robert L'Esperance, on Engaging Poverty
• March 24—Br. David Vryhof, on Prayer and Life
• March 31—Br. Geoffrey Tristram, on The Witness and Challenges of Community Life

If you cannot join us in person, check back here for a weekly update, featuring an audio recording of the sermon and suggestions for further reading.
We encourage you to join in the conversation by leaving your own comments here.

Free Audiobook from Br. Curtis Almquist of SSJE - Check it out!

I ran across this notice on the SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist) Facebook group, check it out! Br. Curtis is wonderful!

~ Rev. Peter M. Carey

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist is re-launching Br. Curtis' free audio book,
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Unwrapping the Gifts.

This meditation on the spiritual gifts of Christmas is a wonderful
accompaniment to the upcoming holiday season.

Tell your friends and family about this audio book,
and help to spread the word about SSJE!

The audio book will be announced this Sunday, the 30th, but you can get a sneak peak at the re-launched site here or at: www.ssje.org/12days

Peace & Blessings!
The Friends of SSJE

A Prayer during the Financial Crisis, from the SSJE

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from the St. John the Evangelist Society (SSJE)


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Knowing Our Place - sermon from Curtis Almquist, SSJE

After preaching a sermon today and after a lot of time wrestling with the lectionary for this week, I was glad to run across this wonderful and challenging sermon from Curtis Almquist, the Superior to the St. John the Evangelist Society (SSJE) up in Cambridge, MA. "Knowing Our Place," challenges me as I begin working this week at an independent, Episcopal school that largely caters to the affluent in this city. I will be eating lunch, and sometimes dinner, with the students and faculty and wonder how open our table is here ... and whether our own sense of being Christian would be challenged by Jesus' table fellowship....

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Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Monastery

Pentecost XII
September 2, 2007

Luke 14:1, 7-14

There’s more going on in this story Jesus tells than meets the eye. Jesus’ most obvious point is about distinctions between people, the invidious, sometimes tempting desire to distinguish ourselves from others to make ourselves look better, more important, higher than we might otherwise appear. I’ll come back to that. There’s also something more subtle going on here in this story about who is at the table. In Jesus’ day, given the practices of both Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, there were no controversies about what to eat and with whom to eat. The cultural mores were absolutely clear. Eating shows our common vulnerability. Eating is a very revealing necessity. Whether you are a prince or a pauper, you must eat. In Jesus’ day, you ate with your peers. Period. To do less, to lower yourself to some other class or caste of people would be a violation and a vulnerability to be avoided. In our own day, in our own culture, there are some similar norms.

Read the rest of the sermon here.