November 2025
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
November 2025 from Father Tim
November 2025 has arrived and our long Trinity Season will soon be finished. This month contains the four remaining Sundays in Trinity (2nd, 9th, 16th, & 23rd) and ends with The First Sunday in Advent (30th). November also includes All Saints’ Day (1st), All Souls’ Day (3rd), All Anglican Martyrs & Saints (8th), and Thanksgiving Day (27th). The Sacrament of Holy Communion will never mean anything to us unless we are willing to admit we are sinners. This is a truth which unbelievers loathe. Martin Luther once wrote, “The final sin of man is his unwillingness to admit that he is a sinner.” Sin is pride. Sin is rebellion against God. The desire for power, for recognition, for praise, the hatred of truth, the absence of humility, are all signposts pointing toward the sin of pride. St. Augustine wrote, “Pride is the beginning of all sin.” Pride, and most especially spiritual pride, is the most terrible sin of all, and the most difficult to eradicate. Thus self-examination is required for all those who wish to make a serious preparation for Communion. We must gain the right kind of self-knowledge about ourselves in order to clear our hearts of everything that prevents Christ from entering fully into our lives. We really need to know ourselves. Self-examination that brings us face to face with the truth about ourselves is the only way in which we can become saints of God. How should we go about self-examination? There are numerous ways. We can start simple and examine ourselves using the Ten Commandments. Or we can examine ourselves in the light of the Seven Capital Sins. Of course we must not brood over our failures because that may defeat the purpose if we become so focused on our faults we forget our Lord. If we discover this happening some positive methods of self-examination will be found valuable. The Sermon on the Mount provides endless material for self-examination, especially the Beatitudes. During Lent The Seven Words from the Cross are good to contemplate applying what we have learned to ourselves.The Lord’s Prayer is another valuable method. Take each clause and consider, “Do I really believe this?” “Am I trying to live according to this standard? Remember that God forgives us, not because of what we are, but because of what He is. So long as we are trying to do the will of God, even if we know we do it imperfectly, we must never allow any uncertainty to follow our acts of confession and penitence. God forgives us not only for what we have done but for what we are. ~ Father Tim
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Do you know someone who has begun self-examination? If yes, please invite them to church this November, where they can discover “He who has travelled so far to find us, will not refuse us when we are found; and to be received by that Love is to be saved.” ~ Father Tim
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Men compare themselves with men, and readily with the worst, and flatter themselves with that comparative betterness. This is not the way to see spots, to look into the muddy streams of profane men’s lives; but look into the clear fountain of the Word, and there we may both discern and wash them; and consider the infinite holiness of God, and this will humble us to the dust. ~ Robert Leighton, 1611-1684, Scottish Prelate & Scholar, Bishop of Dunblane & Archbishop of Glasgow
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Do you know?
Do you know Saint John’s has begun the process of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places? Do you know our Book of Life Club will begin On the Priesthood, by St. John Chrysostom in November? Do you know that Saint John’s made a charitable donation to the Emergency Shelter of Northern KY in October? Do you know the restoration of the stained glass above the altar will begin soon?
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Saint John November Ordo Kalendar
Sunday, the 2nd of November, at 10:30 AM, Trinity XX Mass
Wednesday, the 5th of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 9th of November, at 10:30 AM, Trinity XXI Mass
Wednesday, the 12th of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Saturday, the 15th of November, at 8:00 AM, Rule of Faith Meeting
Sunday, the 16th of Nov., at 10:30 AM, Trinity XXII Mass, Annual Meeting
Wednesday, the 19th of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sun., the 23rd of Nov., at 10:30 AM, Sunday Next Before Advent Mass
Wednesday, the 26th of November, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Saturday, the 29th of November, at 9:00 AM, Morning Prayer
Sat., the 29th of Nov., at 9:45 AM, Book of Life Club, On the Priesthood
Sun., the 30th of November, at 10:30 AM, Advent I Mass
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Holy men have kept the sessions at home, and made their hearts the foremen of the jury, and examined themselves as we examine others. The fear of the Lord stood at the door of their souls, to examine every thought before it went in, and at the door of their lips, to examine every word before it went out, whereby they escaped a thousand sins which we commit, as though we had no other work. ~ Henry “Silver-Tongued” Smith, 1560-1591, English Priest & Popular Preacher
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November Birthdays & Anniversaries
Brian & Sarah Miller – Anniversary – Nov. 11th
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Why should we want to worship Jesus well?
The Day of Judgment will reveal strange things. The hopes of many, who were thought great Christians while they lived, will be utterly confounded. The rottenness of their religion will be exposed and put to shame before the whole world. It will then be proved that to be saved means something more than “making a profession.” We must make a “practice” of our Christianity as well as a “profession.” Let us often think of that great day. Let us often “judge ourselves, that we be not judged,” and condemned by the Lord. ~ J.C. Ryle, 1816-1900, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool
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I commend solitude to any of you who are seeking salvation, first, that you may study well your case as in the sight of God. Few men truly know themselves as they really are. Most people have seen themselves in a looking-glass, but there is another looking-glass, which gives true reflections, into which few men look. To study one’s self in the light of God’s Word, and carefully to go over one’s condition, examining both the inward and the outward sins, and using all the tests which are given us in the Scriptures, would be a very healthy exercise; but how very few care to go through it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892, English “Prince of Preachers”
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A little humor for our 2026 Annual Meeting
It has been said, “For God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee”. As well as, “The peacemaking report this year has been tossed due to a conflict”. And finally, “The church Vestry met to discuss the priest’s salary… The Sr. Warden said, ‘We are very sorry, Father, but we can’t give you a raise next year.’ Father replied, ‘But you must! I’m a poor priest!’ The Sr. Warden said, ‘I know. We hear you every Sunday'”.
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So what?
One often neglected strategy in sharing our faith is figuring out what the other person’s “hangups” really are with Christianity. I find that it’s worthwhile to ask “So what?” So what if Christianity is true? Or, so what if I can answer every question or objection someone throws at me? One question I ask students on campus is “If you thought Christianity was true, would you become a Christian?” Or, “if I could answer every objection you have, would you seriously consider Christianity?” You would be surprised at how many people actually say “No”! That is a very revealing answer. The person who says “no” will often present as a person who just wants evidence for faith, and who wants to be rational. They will bring the typical challenges such as, how can we know God exists? Or how can you prove miracles are real? Sometimes even deeper challenges to the New Testament are presented such as, “St. Matthew did not write the Gospel of Matthew because our first source on his authorship, Papias of Hierapolis, says he wrote in Hebrew, and we only have Greek copies of Matthew that show no evidence of being translations.” (Answering that one is a whole big can of worms that will most likely be interesting to all of two people, and is beyond the present scope.)
These challenges will look like they are careful, thoughtful objections, but in reality deeper issues are often at play. The person who raises these type challenges has sometimes gone looking for reasons to reject what they have already decided they cannot personally live with. So, they are not actually reasons for doubt, but are in fact excuses for not submitting to the lordship of Jesus. “God doesn’t exist because why could he allow so much evil” is what someone says who has emotionally checked out, not because of evil, but because of the evil they have experienced. People who experience spiritual or other abuses at the hands of the Church, and so abandon it, may still raise objections about miracles, and in that case, it will not matter how true and well-evidenced your answer may be, as it does not solve the actual issue of their pain. In such cases, it would be a waste of time to give an answer to the problem of evil and suffering. What is needed instead is a salve to their injury, and that salve is love. They need prayer, the hope of the Gospel, and, perhaps more importantly on your end, patience. The healing of personal suffering can be a long process, and you may never see the resolution, but the patience and care with which you treat them in the moment may reverberate in their life for a long time.
All that is to say what St. James expresses as: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” (James 1:19) It can be very tempting to immediately pounce and answer someone’s challenges to Christianity or provide evidence, but that good desire needs to be reined in by wisdom. Ask wise questions. ~ Chris Stockman
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Let your first priority be: not to deceive yourself. ~ Melito of Sardis, 100-180 AD, Bishop of Sardis & Apologist
Let’s examine our thoughts and design a rule fit for our souls. ~ St. John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD, Church Father & Archbishop of Constantinople
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In light of the sober possibility of profession without possession, the New Testament exhorts us to examine ourselves, to see if we are in the faith, to make our calling and election sure (2 Cor. 13:5). We have a moral obligation to encourage others to do likewise. ~ William Webster, 1689-1758, Anglican Priest & Theological Author
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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