December 2023
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
December 2023 from Father Tim
Advent has arrived and Christians begin a new Church Year as the rest of the world closes out their calendar year. Needless to say, December is a holy month. Along with the four Advent Sundays we begin the month with an Anglican Worthy, Bl. Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon & Confessor (1st), S. Nicholas (the real one), Bishop & Confessor (6th), Conception of the Bl. Virgin Mary (8th), S. Thomas, Apostle & Martyr (21st) who is surrounded by the winter Ember Days (20th, 22nd, & 23rd), Christmas Eve (24th), Nativity of our Lord (25th), S. Stephen, Proto-Martyr (26th), S. John, (our Patron) Apostle & Evangelist, (27th), Holy Innocents (28th), and we end with The First Sunday after Christmas on the 31st. The secular world continues Herod’s war on the Christ-child. Their troops continue to murder more and more days around the Nativity. They began with the 12 days of Christmas (the days after the Nativity leading up to the Epiphany), moved on to all the days of Advent (operation Black Friday & Cyber Monday) and, just for good measure – and profits – have now taken the life of each day all the way back to All Saints’. Multi-colored lights, elves, candy canes, snowmen, reindeer, and street lamp decor went up on All Souls’ Day before others had time to take down their ghoulish halloween decorations. And “Giving Thanks” decorations for Thanksgiving? Those have been murdered and devoured completely. We don’t even have their bodies for burial. Unless something changes for the better, the last quarter of our years will look more and more like Tim Burton’s, The Nightmare before Christmas. This has been the most twisted year for secular decorations I have ever witnessed. As Christians we must put on the armor of God and protect our holy days. All of them. We must not let them fall prey to the secular spirit of Xmas, but shelter them within the Spirit of the Christ-child. Why? Because the spirit of Xmas is annual – it dies every year (usually at the treacherous hands of the secular Valentine’s day), but the Spirit of the Christ-child is eternal. The spirit of Xmas is sentimentalism iced over with tart consumerism, and the Spirit of the Christ-child is supernatural. The spirit of Xmas is a human creation, but the Spirit of the Christ-child is a divine person – uncreated. For us, at Saint John’s, the baby Jesus will never be to us as Xmas is to the world, here today and gone tomorrow. Never. I pray your Christmas is eternally celebrated in Christ. ~ Father Tim
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Is there someone in your life who celebrates only Xmas? Do they have anxiety over the secular season of unholiness? Please invite someone to Saint John’s to experience the Holy Family and the Nativity where “Love came down.” ~ Father Tim
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God will be worshipped in spirit and in truth, in body and in soul. He will have both inward love and fear, and out reverence of body and gesture. This is the right, good old way you are in. Keep in it. ~ Blessed Nicholas Ferrar, 1592-1637, Deacon and Confessor at S. John’s, Little Gidding, feast day 1st of December (words attributed to Nicholas on his death-bed)
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Did you know?
Did you know Saint John’s made a charitable gift to the Dayton Family Resource Center in November? Did you know our Book of Life Club will begin discussing The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis in January? Did you know that the gutters on the S. John Rectory was painted and sealed in November? Did you know that Judy Adams is the new Vestry Secretary? Did you know we have two new Church Wardens (Brian Miller & Kyle Maycock)? Did you know that St. John’s was established in 1873 and 2023 is our 150th anniversary? Did you know Archbishop Mark Haverland will be at Saint John’s on the 7th of January for Confirmations and will cap our Sesquicentennial celebration?
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You are not here to verify, Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity Or carry report. You are here to kneel, Where prayer has been valid. ~ T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965, Little Gidding
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Saint John December Ordo Kalendar
Sun., the 3rd of Dec., at 10:30 AM, Advent I Mass, S. Nicholas coffee hour visit!
Wednesday, the 6th of December at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sat., the 9th of Dec., at 2:00 PM, The Usual Suspects Club, Bible Study Lineup
Sat., the 9th of Dec., at 3:15 PM, The Book of Life Club, The Anti-Mary Exposed
Sun., the 10th of December, at 10:30 AM, Advent II Mass, Vestry Meeting
Wed., the 13th of December, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 17th of Dec., at 10:30 AM, Advent III Mass, CareNet visit
Wed., the 20th of December, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer, Ember Wednesday
Sunday, the 24th of Dec., at 10:30 AM, Advent IV Mass, Recited ‘Quiet’ Mass
Sunday, the 24th of Dec., at 4:30 PM, Nine Lessons and Carols
Sunday, the 24th of December, at 5:30 PM, Christmas Eve Mass
Monday, the 25th of December, at 10:30 AM, Nativity of our Lord Mass
Wed., the 27th of Dec., at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer, S. John, AP.,EV.
Sunday, the 31st of December, at 10:30 AM, Christmas I Mass
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Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. ~ S. Francis Xavier, 1506-1552, Confessor, feast day 3rd of December
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If God rewarded the righteous immediately, we would soon be engaged in business, not godliness…we would be pursuing not piety,but profit. All our life is like a day of celebration for us; we are convinced, in fact, that God is always everywhere. We work while singing, we sail while reciting hymns, we accomplish all other occupations of life while praying. ~ S. Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 AD, Church Father & Theologian, feast day 4th of December
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December Birthdays & Anniversaries
Coraline Parker Bock – Birthday – December 3
Jim Barnett – Birthday – December 3
Fr. Timothy Butler – Birthday – December 4
Paige Bock – Birthday – December 17
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Why should we want to worship Jesus well?
… the Lord Jesus said, ‘To those who are in bonds, Come out, and to those who are in prison, Go forth’ (Isa. 49:9); so your sins are forgiven. All, then, are forgiven, nor is there any one whom He has not loosed. For thus it is written, that He has forgiven ‘all transgressions, doing away with the handwriting of the ordinance that was against us’ (Col. 2:13-14). Why, then, do we hold the bonds of others, while we enjoy our own remission? He, who forgave all, required of all that what every one remembers to have been forgiven to himself, he also should forgive others. ~ S. Ambrose, 339-397 AD, Theologian, Statesman, and Bishop of Milan, feast day 7th of December
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On the way to Bethlehem
“Why is it hard to believe that Mary gave birth in a way contrary to the law of natural birth and remained a virgin, when contrary to the law of nature the sea looked at Him and fled, and the waters of the Jordan returned to their source (Ps. 113:3). Is it past belief that a virgin gave birth when we read that a rock issued water (Ex. 17:6), and the waves of the sea were made solid as a wall (Ex. 14:22)? Is it past belief that a Man came from a virgin when a rock bubbled forth a flowing stream (Ex. 20:11), iron floated on water (4 Kings 6:6), a Man walked upon the waters (Mt. 14:26)? If the waters bore a Man, could not a virgin give birth to a man? What Man? Him of Whom we read: ‘…the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; and they shall offer sacrifices, and shall vow vows to the Lord, and pay them’ (Is. 19:20). In the Old Testament a Hebrew virgin (Miriam) led an army through the sea (Ex. 15:21); in the New testament a king’s daughter (the Virgin Mary) was chosen to be the heavenly entrance to salvation.” ~ S. Ambrose of Milan, 339-397, Bishop of Milan, Theologian & Statesman
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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