Abide in God's love

Jesus prays to the Father in John 17:20-26, and gives us a model of how we might also pray to God.  The theme, as I see it, in this prayer is of love and oneness.  Just as Jesus and the Father are one, so also we should be one, of one mind, of one heart, not so separated and alienated from each other, but one.  And the basis of this oneness is love, just as God the Father loves God the Son, so also God's love pours out into us, and we have only to look to the deep wells within us to find the love that God has placed within our very souls.  Jesus prays to the Father, and asks that we might all be one, and be united through God's love.  So, shouldn't love be the litmus test of what we do, of what we are, and of what we desire?  Shouldn't we not "sweat the small stuff" unless it comes to the living out a life of love towards one another?  Abide in God, abide in Christ, look deep to the wells of love that have been placed within us!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

John 17:20-26 (NRSV)

20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

"Faith" is a fine invention ... April is poetry month

"Faith" is a fine invention...

"Faith" is a fine invention

When Gentleman can see—

But Microscopes are prudent

In an Emergency.

by Emily Dickinson, public domain

A wonderfully joyful "Joyful Noise" service at St. Paul's Yesterday!!

We had a wonderfully joyful "Joyful Noise" service yesterday, led by our Associate Rector Heather Warren as well as John Frazee and Betsy Daniel...assisted by our Senior Associate Rector (and photographer!), Peter Carey...

Tuesday in Easter Week

John 20:11-18

Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Easter Monday

Matthew 28:9-15

Suddenly Jesus met Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, `His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.