Today we celebrate the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. We hear the story of the changing of water to wine; the first miracle of our Lord at the wedding at Cana in which He is revealed⎯made manifest⎯as divine. This story is an “epiphany” celebration, a theophany ⎯ startling evidence of divine intervention. Appropriately, in today’s Psalm we sing: “Proclaim to all the nations, the marvelous deeds of the Lord!”
In the miracle of the wedding at Cana Jesus is revealed to His disciples as the Son of God; He is the proof of God’s unconditional and redeeming love for us. This love that motivates God to earth is expressed in Isaiah’s words as a love that is like the intimacy of the marital bond: no more are we forsaken and desolate, but we are espoused and delighted!
The letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that God’s gifts are made manifest in us: many diverse gifts, but of the same spirit and given for some benefit or service. In this New Year, have we made any spiritual resolutions? Perhaps your spiritual growth may include discerning your gifts and their use in the service and benefit of this Community. Maybe you would like to devote time to scripture study - there is plenty of opportunity for that here at St. Aidan! (Thanks David!)
Last time in Cycle C, for Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, I wrote a letter to God as my “Sing Praise” article - and I would like to repeat some of it now.
Holy God of Heaven and Earth,
I know that a thousand years are as a day to you, but we humans are bound up in time. As a new season is beginning, please teach me to care more about people and less about money, to enjoy my work but not let it enslave me, and to laugh more easily than I did last year. Help me to remember the things that are easy to forget: to remember that it might well be my last year—that some people are counting on me and that you have things for me to do. Help me discern what those things may be in order to be the best me I can be.
Lord, please let me shake off the monotony of life, try some new things, and mend broken fences. Father of Mercies please teach me in this new year to lighten up and let go, to enjoy children, sunsets, reading, and long walks, avoid quarrels and work at being a peacemaker in this world; to start the year with fewer regrets. May we live always for your glory!
I cannot know what this year will bring, and I am grateful for that blessing! Help me to eat less junk food, exercise, to take better care of my body (the Spirit’s temple) and to engage my intellect; to learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Above all other things, Father, I want to be your instrument for easing somebody's too-heavy load, to relieve some sad person's misery, and to introduce some lost soul to Jesus and His love and peace. Help me to be merciful and always kind. Come what may, may we all live for your revealed glory, within your will, and to your delight. We pray all in the name of Jesus. Amen!
We gather together today; and at Mass we are espoused - joined to heaven - in the great prayer of our Church. Today we sing a wonderful hymn based on a well-known hymn tune called ‘Sing a New Church’ (JS 830). The refrain is: “Let us bring the gifts that differ, And, in splendid, varied ways, Sing a new church into being, One in faith and love and praise.” What a marvelous New Year’s resolution it would be for us to manifest Christ to the world in service of others: our own epiphany of spirit and a celebration of our gifts given by a generous God. Make your New Year’s spiritual resolution now - it’s never too late!
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
In the miracle of the wedding at Cana Jesus is revealed to His disciples as the Son of God; He is the proof of God’s unconditional and redeeming love for us. This love that motivates God to earth is expressed in Isaiah’s words as a love that is like the intimacy of the marital bond: no more are we forsaken and desolate, but we are espoused and delighted!
The letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that God’s gifts are made manifest in us: many diverse gifts, but of the same spirit and given for some benefit or service. In this New Year, have we made any spiritual resolutions? Perhaps your spiritual growth may include discerning your gifts and their use in the service and benefit of this Community. Maybe you would like to devote time to scripture study - there is plenty of opportunity for that here at St. Aidan! (Thanks David!)
Last time in Cycle C, for Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, I wrote a letter to God as my “Sing Praise” article - and I would like to repeat some of it now.
Holy God of Heaven and Earth,
I know that a thousand years are as a day to you, but we humans are bound up in time. As a new season is beginning, please teach me to care more about people and less about money, to enjoy my work but not let it enslave me, and to laugh more easily than I did last year. Help me to remember the things that are easy to forget: to remember that it might well be my last year—that some people are counting on me and that you have things for me to do. Help me discern what those things may be in order to be the best me I can be.
Lord, please let me shake off the monotony of life, try some new things, and mend broken fences. Father of Mercies please teach me in this new year to lighten up and let go, to enjoy children, sunsets, reading, and long walks, avoid quarrels and work at being a peacemaker in this world; to start the year with fewer regrets. May we live always for your glory!
I cannot know what this year will bring, and I am grateful for that blessing! Help me to eat less junk food, exercise, to take better care of my body (the Spirit’s temple) and to engage my intellect; to learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Above all other things, Father, I want to be your instrument for easing somebody's too-heavy load, to relieve some sad person's misery, and to introduce some lost soul to Jesus and His love and peace. Help me to be merciful and always kind. Come what may, may we all live for your revealed glory, within your will, and to your delight. We pray all in the name of Jesus. Amen!
We gather together today; and at Mass we are espoused - joined to heaven - in the great prayer of our Church. Today we sing a wonderful hymn based on a well-known hymn tune called ‘Sing a New Church’ (JS 830). The refrain is: “Let us bring the gifts that differ, And, in splendid, varied ways, Sing a new church into being, One in faith and love and praise.” What a marvelous New Year’s resolution it would be for us to manifest Christ to the world in service of others: our own epiphany of spirit and a celebration of our gifts given by a generous God. Make your New Year’s spiritual resolution now - it’s never too late!
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
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