The Chalice Whitsunday; Stump the Vicar; Mother’S Day with M a Y 2 0 2 0 Gratitude
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ST. FRANCIS’ EPISCOP A L C H U R C H IN THIS ISSUE E U R E K A , M O Page 1: Mom was a good mom Page 2: From the Arch- deacon’s Desk Page 3: Pentecost/ The Chalice Whitsunday; Stump the Vicar; Mother’s Day with M A Y 2 0 2 0 gratitude Page 4: Masks for St. Luke’s; From the Bishop’s Warden Page 5: Friends of St. Mom was a good mom! Francis; Garden Talk: Flowering Dogwoods by Father Al Jewson the second Sunday in May member most about her was Page 6: Eureka Food My oldest sister, Jean Marie mothers everywhere gathered her goodness and compas- Pantry; Masks thank you; died on September 22, 2019, at churches, brunches, and sion. She was a warm, loving Prayer requests and was buried from St. Fran- other activities to be honored person who always took to Page 7: Bible Study; Book cis’ Church. Jean was develop- for 365 days of loving service time to find the beauty in Group; Mother’s Day mentally disabled and I was and parenting. This year, 2020 Prayer each person she met. It was her guardian from 1990 until our remembrance will be very from Lillian that I inherited the Page 8: Calendar her death; she lived in a facili- different. I’ll come back to gift of greeting strangers, talk- ty that cared such individuals. this. ing with clerks by name at the When I arrived for a visit Jean check-out, greeting service would excitedly shout, “My personnel before I ask the broder, Afid (Alfred)!”, and location of an item, etc. Lillian run toward me in her awk- also taught us about Jesus, ward gate to hug and kiss me. Mary his mother and living Then she began her litany, our lives as children of God. “How Dina (Dayna)?” How Not everyone has good Cayin (Carolyn)?” On and on memories of her/his mother; her litany listed each person but I believe most mothers do by name. Then she would ask, and have done the best each “How mom?” I always re- could given the circumstances sponded “Jean you know in which they were raised and mom died and is in heaven.” any problems (baggage) they “I forgot,” she would say and carried with them. With an then always added, “Mom optimistic genre I believe The Chalice was a good mom, huh Afid.” Was our mom a good mom? most mothers are grateful for is published monthly by St. Francis’ Episcopal Of all the losses that members Yes, she was. Lillian had de- their children and truly want Church. Submissions are of our family experienced fects, some peculiar to her, to do the best job possible in due the 20th of each month prior to after our mother’s death in especially chronic depression. raising them. Sadly, the extra publication. 1992, I grieved most deeply She came from a family with baggage gets in the way Submissions may be sent by email to for Jean who continued to problems and married into a sometimes. Nonetheless, we [email protected] struggle with grief years after family with even more prob- can honor our mothers for the Publisher: our mother, Lillian, died. lems. In some ways, her love and mothering they were The Rev. Alfred Jewson The month of May, filled mothering reflected these able to provide us and be Editor: Jackie Selle with blooming flowers, conditions, but she tried by grateful for what we have re- shrubs, and warm sunshine everything within her to be a ceived. has always been a wonderful good mother. She did the Each year on Mother’s Day time to honor mothers. On best she could. What I re- in the various churches I The Chalice Page 1 www.stfranciseureka.com served we honored mothers at our From the Archdeacon’s Desk I debated a long time whether or not Sunday worship in special ways; to write an article that had anything to sometimes it was the gift of a flower by Archdeacon Rebecca Barger do with COVID-19. Some days I still as a small token of appreciation and The old saying goes “a picture paints find that I am just about worn out sometimes it was a card children a thousand words,” then this timely from the constant bombardment of made in Sunday School the week pri- graph is at the least a short story. My information (useful and otherwise) as or honoring motherhood. This has husband, Phil, sent it to me in early well as the steady assessment of how been our way of honoring the place April as the pandemic was tightening we go about “maintaining” some sem- of mothering and those who do that its grip on the US. This graph was cir- blance of normalcy. But this graph is work in the life of the Kingdom. This culated throughout the Department useful in almost all predicaments in year it will be different. In our of Medicine and Division of Cardiolo- which we find ourselves—think hurri- Zoomed service there will be no flow- gy at BJC Hospital where he works. canes, fires or other natural disasters ers or cards handed to mothers in Between us, we were discovering the or a serious illness to name a few. This church. Coronavirus pandemic has many similarities in themes and topics graph is especially pertinent following changed the way we do most things of our respective Zoom meetings. Alt- the severe storms and destructive tor- even Mother’s Day. Please remember hough our “jobs” vastly differ, we nadoes that ripped through the South your mothers in a special way this share a core principle of bringing on Easter Day. year: a song, a flower from the gar- about healing or a sense of well- I have had the advantage of looking den, a homemade card, a telephone ness—whether it is healing the physi- at this graph over a period of time as call, even thanking your mother who cal heart or the spiritual heart. And the pandemic has progressed. I have is in heaven with the saints and an- like all good stories that we read, we observed in others and myself move- gels. Happy Mother’s Day on May 10! each take away an aspect from that ment between zones, movement that story that speaks directly to us, an ebbs and flows forward and backward, aspect with which we identify progressing and regressing. But what is through either life events or our for- of greatest importance is that there is mation. movement and we are not staying stagnant in one place specifically the “Fear Zone.” Many times that is how our relationship with God goes. There is movement, some days God’s spirit is strikingly present and almost palpable and then there are those days when we can’t lift the “veil” that covers us (heart and eyes) and keeps us from seeing God in those with whom we share life. As the title of the graph suggests, “Who do I want to be during COVID- 19?” my thoughts wonder too, as to who others see that I am during this present crisis? As much as I want to remain in the “Growth Zone” I found myself whining to a friend that I was tired of adjusting to changes and so on and so forth. As much of that was a “normal” reaction, I was aware that I had drifted out of the “Growth Zone” and had to readjust my thinking in or- der to get myself back. And I thought about the progression of the zones and in what zone we pres- ently “find” ourselves, and how that The Chalice Page 2 www.stfranciseureka.com correlates to our action or response If you are fluent in a foreign lan- to this crisis. As Christians, God’s guage and interested in participating Happy Mother’s Day transforming love helps us to redirect in the reading from Acts on Pentecost with gratitude our self-absorbed inward focus to- please contact Fr. Jewson wards that of the suffering of others ([email protected]) with by Sheila McCart whose plight is far worse off than our your name and language gift. Even if As I sit here at home and watch the own. Love directs our responses. we have individuals reading who are beautiful sunrise come up over the Love helps us draw on our talents fluent in the same foreign language it 100-foot cliffside behind our house, I and spiritual gifts to discover ways to still adds to the ambiance of the read- am taken aback at the wonder, the help others. Love helps us remain ing. Please let me know as soon as tranquility, and the power of Mother grounded in that “Growth Zone” so possible so that this part of our liturgy Nature. My mind takes me to the very that our actions promote health and can be orchestrated for Pentecost word, “mother” as one definition wellness of others in the midst of so- Sunday. identified by the Merriam Webster cial distancing. We worship the God dictionary: maternal tenderness or of Love. There is a sense of peaceful- affection. As it relates to Mother Na- ness found in God’s love that is like ture in this moment of solitude, I no other. I believe God is found in the Stump the close my eyes and literally feel the “Growth Zone.” Maybe we should sun's rays caress my face and for a rename it the “God Zone.” During moment, enjoy the tenderness of an- this time of pandemic, isolation, and Vicar other sunrise too often taken for uncertainty, we can discover hope granted.