Anno Domini 2025 May 13
Beloved of the Lord:
Today is Tuesday, 13 May, in the year of our Lord 2025. The scheduled services are as-follows:
- Tuesday (today): NO SERVICES.
- Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Mass, S. Pachomius, Abbot.
- Thursday: 6:30 PM, brief services. followed by Holy Communion, and Soup and Study.
- Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, S. Simon Stock, Confessor, with the Gregorian Canon.
10:00 AM, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. - Saturday: 10:00 AM, Holy Communion.
- Sunday: 8:30 AM, Deacon's Liturgy, Easter IV.
10:00 AM, Mass, Easter IV.
SERVICES ARE CANCELLED TONIGHT, Tuesday, 13 May. The last weather report that I saw indicated worsening conditions during the time that we would be holding services. The schedule will resume tomorrow, Wednesday, 14 May, with the usual Noon Service.
Although it is still some way off, we must bear in-mind that we will be hosting the National Synod for the CAC. The will run from Thursday, 11 September, into Saturday, 13 September, of this year ~ so about four months from now. We will need to provide several meals, meeting space, and material support for the liturgies and other services that will be held. Inasmuch as this is far from our first rodeo, no difficulties are anticipated, but we will need volunteers, especially when it comes to food 'prep and serving. Further information will soon be forthcoming.
As a quick glance at the schedule of services will tell you, we are still in the Season of Easter ~ Eastertide to Anglicans. Eastertide essentially comes to a close with the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, per the Scriptural narrative. The Octave, or eight day celebration of this Feast, is quickly followed by Whitsuntide, known by non-Anglicans as the Feast and Season of Pentecost.
Whitsuntide is a contraction of White Sunday. This was, especially in the medieval Church, the second-most common day of the year for Baptisms, following Holy Saturday, also known as Easter Even. On White Sunday, the villagers would take one of their annual or semi-annual baths, and parade through the streets dressed in white, on their way to the Church, or Cathedral, to receive their Baptism.
Whitsuntide ends just in-time for Trinitytide to begin. Just as the first half of the Christian year, which commences with Advent I, concerns itself with the life of our Lord, the second half ~ pretty-much fully consumed by Trinitytide ~, commencing on Trinity I, teaches us the life of Holy Church, and her Teachings. Thus, in a little-over a month, we will transition-into the great, green Season ~ the liturgical colour appropriate to both Trinitytide, and Epiphanytide. For your liturgi-trivia of the day, the first two Sundays of Trinitytide are actually not green, but white. Trinity I always falls within the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, whilst Trinity II falls within the Octave of the Nativity of S. John Baptist, making both of these days 'White' Sundays.
Hence, the beauty and the Glory of the Kalendar of Holy Church. It is, perhaps, the single greatest teaching tool that we have, and one of the most over-looked. Follow it, as it inexorably leads you to our Lord, His Church, and your own Salvation.
in His praise,
The Rt. Rev'd T. L. Crowder
Rector, Saint Matthew's Parish