November 2022
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
November 2022 from Father Tim
2022 is coming to a close rather quickly with the arrival of November. Where did October go? Advent is just around the corner! This month on the Church Ordo Kalendar, in addition to the Trinity Sunday’s, we celebrate Advent I (27th), All Saints’ Day (1st), and Saint Andrew, Apostle & Martyr (30th). This year I will share a little information on the forgotten church season of Allhallowtide. For most people, Halloween (a corrupted contraction of All Hallows Eve) is just a fun (or sinister) secular holiday that stands on its own. But it actually used to be an important part of a short liturgical season of Allhallowtide focused on death. All Saints’ Day, kept in the western church on the 1st day of November, is a feast to celebrate all the Christian Saints, known and unknown. Reference to such a feast occurs in S. Ephrem Syrus (A.D. 373) and also in S. John Chrysostom (A.D. 407). In the eastern church this feast is still celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints’ Day was sometimes called Hallowmas (Hallow = holy/saint; mas = short for Mass), or All Hallows. Its origins were practical because of the large number of great martyrs and saints of the early Church – there simply weren’t enough days in the year to honor them all. All Hallows was a catch-all day. The Vigil of All Hallows’ Eve was often a day of fasting and praying in preparation for the great feast on All Hallows, which began in the evening with a Vigil Mass. There was also the popular belief (which did not originate in the Church) that the “veil” between our world and the spiritual realm of the dead was at its “thinnest” on this day. In A.D. 998 St. Odilo of Cluny popularized a feast in all the Benedictine houses for remembering and praying for all the dead, All Souls Day. While we ask the saints in heaven for their prayers, we pray for the rest of the faithful departed who still remain in the Intermediate State of both safety and penance. This completed the triduum of death: All Hallows Eve, All Hallows, and All Souls. These feasts became so important in the western church they were expanded to a full octave (8 day observance), but parts were eventually suppressed in the English Church during the Reformations (All Souls Day) and the Roman Church (the 8 day Octave was eliminated). I hope and pray that this month all of you remember a departed loved one in prayer and have a very holy Allhallowtide. ~ Father Tim
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Is there someone you know who needs hallowing prayer? November is a month of giving. Invite family or a friend to church and ask for added intercessory prayer from the Saints in Heaven to be combined with your own prayer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please invite someone to St. John’s this November, and give them the opportunity to become a saint of God! ~ Father Tim
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We must be saints before we die, if we are to be saints afterwards in glory. The favorite idea of many, that dying men need nothing except absolution and forgiveness of sins to fit them for their great change, is a profound delusion. We need the work of the Holy Spirit as well as the work of Christ; we need renewal of the heart as well as the atoning blood; we need to be sanctified as well as to be justified. ~ J.C. Ryle, 1816-1900, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool
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Did you know?
Did you know our Annual Meeting is coming up this month on the 20th? Did you know we improved the Rectory with two new flowering trees, Ivory Silk Lilac and a Coral Burst Crabapple, planted in the front yard? Did you know that Wednesday Evening Prayer (6:30 PM) and a small meal afterwards has begun once again? Did you know we will have six people enrolled in our Catechism – Inquirer’s Class this fall? Did you know our Bishop will be visiting on the 18th of December? Did you know we now have an ‘Events’ page on our website?
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St. John November Ordo Kalendar
Tuesday, the 1st of November at 6:30 PM, All Saints’ Day Mass
Wednesday, the 2nd of November at 6:30 PM, All Souls Day Evening Prayer
Thur., the 3rd of Nov., at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer, 7:00 PM, Kyle Maycock Baptism
Sunday, the 6th of November, at 10:30 AM, Trinity XXI
Wednesday, the 9th of November at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 13th of November at 10:30 AM, Trinity XXII
Wednesday, the 16th day of November at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Friday, the 18th of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer, 7:00 PM Catechism Class
Sunday, the 20th of Nov. at 10:30 AM, Sunday Next Before Advent, Annual Meeting
Wednesday, the 23rd of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 27th of November, at 10:30 AM, Advent I
Wednesday, the 30th of November, at 6:30 PM, St. Andrew, AP,M. Mass
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The mark of a saint is not perfection, but consecration. A saint is not a man without faults, but a man who has given himself without reserve to God. ~ Brooke Foss Wescott, 1825-1901, Anglican Bishop of Durham
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Annual Meeting 2022
Our Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, the 20th of November, right after Holy Mass. It is very important that everyone attends to both reach a quorum and help set the course of St. John’s for the next church year. We will need to have a meal and are looking for possible items like chili and/or BBQ along with sides and desserts. We are also looking to give our usual Thanksgiving and Christmas charitable donations ($1,000.00) to the Dayton Family Resource Center again this year. If you would like to make a personal donation to this worthy cause please reach out to Mike Murray or Father Tim.
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November Birthdays & Anniversaries
Elsie Sams – Birthday – November 10th
Brian & Sarah Miller – Anniversary – November 11th
John & Helena (Lennie) Fisher – Anniversary – November 13th
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Grace is indeed required to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts this does not know what either a man or a saint is. ~ Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer, and theologian.
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Let nothing trouble you, let nothing make you afraid. All things pass away. God never changes. Patience obtains everything. God alone is enough…For the storms, like a wave, pass quickly. And the fair weather returns, because the presence of the Lord they experience makes them soon forget everything. Though you have recourse to many saints as your intercessors, go especially to St. Joseph, for he has great power with God. Life is short; our trials last but a moment. To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that. ~ St. Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582, A Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic, religious reformer, author, theologian of the contemplative life and of mental prayer, she earned the rare distinction of being declared a Doctor of the Church.
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“A Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for Saints are not made by accident.” ~ T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, editor, and Anglo-Catholic.
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All Saints’ Day, the 1st day of November
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Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is possible that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never had much temptation to be human beings. ~ George Orwell, English novelist, essayist, journalist, critic, and a closet Anglican who thought the church (among other negative things) “out of touch” with the majority of its communicants. George Orwell was his pen name, his real name was Eric Arthur Blair.
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The seeking of Jesus Christ, and the quest for chivalry combined, lead directly to one place only: Anglican-Catholicism. Courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help and defend the weak and the poor. Welcome to the Anglican Catholic Church. ~ Father Timothy Butler