Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength . . . Matthew 22:37
The Exhortation: Read on the first Sunday of Lent and Advent as well as Trinity Sunday.
After worshiping in a liturgical church for a season, you begin to notice subtle but significant shifts in the shape of our worship. Because the church calendar revolves around the life of Christ, it is natural that our attention moves between his powerful earthly ministry in the Spirit and his passion, suffering, and death. This rhythm means that our focus moves from seasons of feasting to seasons of fasting.
In feasting seasons, we are reminded of the resurrection and of God’s mighty works—both in overcoming evil and death, and in empowering his people by the Holy Spirit. In fasting seasons, we turn inward. We examine ourselves, join Christ in his suffering by letting go of excess, resist sin and temptation, and intentionally pursue humility as Christ modeled for us.
The two principal seasons of examination are Advent and Lent. These are seasons of preparation for great feasts. Just as you might eat lightly earlier in the day when anticipating a feast that evening, we “fast” in anticipation of the celebrations of the Incarnation at Christmas and the Resurrection at Easter.
One way we begin these seasons of examination is through the public reading of the Exhortation. As its name suggests, the Exhortation encourages us to examine our lives before coming to receive Communion. It is a thorough and searching call to self-reflection—one that can feel like a strong jolt if you are not expecting it. Below is a link to the Exhortation for you to read before the first week of Advent, as preparation for hearing it publicly.
If, after reading the Exhortation, you feel prompted to begin the Advent season with confession, that is a natural and faithful response. Please feel free to reach out to Fr. Ryan or Fr. Chris to do so. And remember: in all of this, Christ has shed his blood for you. Because of that, we can place our trust in him more fully through this process of examination and renewal.
The Lord be with you this Advent season!
All Saints Weekly Blog
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On August 24th following service, we will have a very brief training for those who would like to read a lesson from time to time in service. Those who serve in this capacity are called lectors, and these committed, baptized Christians fulfill an essential role in the life of the local church! Below is a very brief list of “Tips for Lectors.”
A Reflection on a Written Prayer
Grant, O Lord, we pray, that, as we seek direction for our parish future, we may find the search leads us to yourself. Give us courage to seek honestly, and reverence to seek humbly; and when our minds are perplexed and we see no clear direction, give us patience to go on with our daily duties and faithful worship.
Life in Christ is a series of changing seasons. Living in Placerville reminds me of the fact that seasons change. This region of California, nestled at the foot of the Sierra Mountain range, makes for a wonderful backdrop to the way God changes things so quickly. It can seem like an eternity however when you are stuck in the “dog days” of summer, paying those high air conditioning bills, or hoping a forest fire doesn’t come near your property. Nonetheless, the seasons will eventually change and inevitably we will feel fall peaking its head out and calling us back into the glory of dropping leaves, barren trees, and cooler, shorter days….
This is a photo from Bassi Falls, a local waterfall in El Dorado county that reminds us of the consistency of God’s provision of water throughout the changing seasons.
