St. Michael the Archangel Thank you for worshiping with us at St. Michael the Archangel Anglican A Parish of the Anglican Catholic Church Catholic Church. A sign-up sheet for altar flowers is at the back of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States church. Also the weekly prayer list is in the back of the church. Father 5843 Manor Woods Road, Frederick, MD 21703 Pothin encourages us to sign up. (240) 397-9782 (Old Historic St. Joseph Church building) URGENT: Anyone interested in teaching Sunday School to children needs to contact Father Pothin ASAP.
A Prayer Group: For unspoken needs will meet on Sundays after Mass in the oratory room (next to the tabernacle). All are encouraged to join.
Those celebrating birthdays in February are Deborah LaGarde, Gail Osburn and Jim Warner. Deborah and Lew LaGarde are celebrating their wedding anniversary this month. Please keep them in your prayers.
St. Michaels will hold its 2020 annual meeting in March on a date to be announced.
The DMAS Lenten Retreat will be held on Saturday, 29 February 2020, at the Church of the Ascension in Centreville, VA. Specifics and details will follow when available. The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary Please remember our food bank drive and bring canned goods, especially (Comm. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple ) protein, for the box in the narthex. (Comm. The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany) 02 February 2020
…then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant The Vestry depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen salvation, Which thou hat prepared Lynne Brisbane (301) 788-7035 before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” Peter Coderre (540) 822-9303 (St Luke 2:28-32) Mailing address: PO Box 315, Buckeystown, MD 21717 Website: www.stmichaelacc.org Sunday Mass at 10:30am Adoration before Mass (10:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.) every first and third Sunday Morning Prayer (10:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.) every second and fourth Sunday Cover art credit: Window: workshop of Franz Borgias Mayer (1848–1926); Photo: Wojciech Dittwald - Self- photographed Presentation at the Temple. Stained glass window in St.Michael Cathedral. Toronto. Author: Mayer Wednesday services Mass+ Bible study/Adoration (benediction) at 11:00am Co of Munich To listen to our Masses live & recorded, call 712-451-0249, code 906220#
Fr. Pothin Ngyele, Rector – (240) 707-7635 For emergencies call (301) 514-3478 Canon Arthur Woolley, Rector Emeritus The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Comm. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple) Church Building Fund Challenge update: Phase 2 of the building campaign (Comm. The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany) began on Wednesday, 15 January 2020, and runs through Easter Day 2020. The 02 February 2020 rector has again pledged $2,500 and invites the members of the congregation to match that amount. To date in Phase 2 we have received donations of $3,150.00
FATHER POTHIN’S REFLECTION in addition to Father Pothin’s pledge.
Longing for God Today’s Assigned Hymns Reminder: Each hymn plays the last line of the hymn as an introduction; we This Sunday contains one of the few descriptions of the Holy Family in all begin singing the first verse immediately after that. scripture. Their appearance here emphasizes how important family care is for children and for all human beings. Mary and Joseph seem hesitant but have Processional Hymn 477 (Tysk) exquisite care for the baby Jesus. Offertory Hymn 153 (Ratisbon)
Family life and church life are part of the same thing; in both we participate in Doxology God’s life. Both Simeon and Anna recognized this child as the Messiah; they Communion Hymn 195 (Rendez a Dieu) spotted him when Joseph and Mary brought him in. But again, it wasn’t like he Recessional Hymn 479 (Hyfrodol) was glowing or anything. The only reason they recognized baby Jesus as “the one” was because it was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. Simeon and Anna are standing in for all of Israel in seeing the fulfillment of all of the prophecies We will be celebrating Candlemas at the beginning of our Mass today. Please and all of Israel’s history coming now before their eyes. We know that Simeon see the bulletin insert. was waiting on the Messiah. This is what is meant when it says that he was waiting on the Consolation of Israel. Simeon was a holy waiter. He lived in a Father Pothin will give the Blessing of Throats prior to his Sermon today. period of spiritual drought, but he believed God and waited for the Consolation. Please see bulletin insert.
A holy longing for God helps us remains alert in the face of every attempt to Today’s Assigned Readings reduce and impoverish our life. A holy longing for God is the memory of faith that keeps hope alive in the community of believers, which from week to week The Collect BCP pg 231 continues to plead: “Come, Lord Jesus”. This same longing led the elderly The Old Testament KJV Bible / Bulletin Insert Simeon to go up each day to the Temple, certain that his life would not end (Isaiah 61) before he had held the Savior in his arms. This longing led the Prodigal Son to abandon his self-destructive lifestyle and to seek his father’s mercy. This was The Epistle BCP pg 232 the longing felt by the shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep in order to seek (Malachi 3:1-5) out the one that was lost. Mary Magdalen experienced the same longing on that The Holy Gospel BCP pgs 232-233 Sunday morning when she ran to the tomb and met her risen Master. Longing (St. Luke 2:22-40) for God draws us out of our iron-clad isolation, which makes us think that nothing can change. Longing for God shatters our dreary routines and impels us to make the changes we want and need. Longing for God has its roots in the past yet does not remain there: it reaches out to the future. Believers who feel this longing are led by faith to seek God, as the Magi did, in the most distant corners of history; for they know that there the Lord awaits them. They go to the peripheries, to the frontiers, to places not yet evangelized, to encounter their Lord.
THE WHY SERIES Old Testament reading for The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 61:1-11 WHY MARY IS THE BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER? 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me Today's Feast of Jesus' Presentation at the temple 40 days after his birth marks a to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the special moment in the life of the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph, in accordance brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to with Mosaic law, took the tiny Jesus to the temple of Jerusalem to offer him to the them that are bound; Lord (cf. Lk 2: 22). Simeon and Anna, inspired by God, recognized that Child as the long-awaited Messiah and prophesied about him. 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
The candlelight procession at the beginning of our celebration has made us imitate 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the majestic entrance, of the One who is "the King of glory", "the Lord, mighty in the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that battle". But who is the powerful God who enters the temple? It is a Child; it is the they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he Infant Jesus in the arms of his Mother, the Virgin Mary. The Holy Family was might be glorified. complying with what the Law prescribed: the purification of the mother, the offering of the firstborn child to God and his redemption through a sacrifice. 4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
While yet a Child, He sets out on the path of obedience that he followed to the very 5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be end. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and your plowmen and your vinedressers. being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him" (cf. Heb 5: 7-9). 6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast The first person to be associated with Christ on the path of obedience, proven faith yourselves. and shared suffering was his Mother, Mary. The Gospel text portrays her in the act 7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their of offering her Son: an unconditional offering that involves her in the first person. portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. Mary is the Mother of the One who is "the glory of [his] people Israel" and a "light for revelation to the Gentiles", but also "a sign that is spoken against" (cf. Lk 2: 32, 8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will 34). And in her immaculate soul, she herself was to be pierced by the sword of direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. sorrow, thus showing that her role in the history of salvation did not end in the mystery of the Incarnation but was completed in loving and sorrowful participation 9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among in the death and Resurrection of her Son. the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
Bringing her Son to Jerusalem, the Virgin Mother offered him to God as a true 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. She held him out to Simeon and Anna hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe as the proclamation of redemption; she presented him to all as a light for a safe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride journey on the path of truth and love. adorneth herself with her jewels.
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you…..Holy Mary mother of God, pray 11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things for us sinners that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.