Welcome to the month of May, and Buona Domenica, as we used to say in Rome. “Happy Sunday.” We have made it through another week, sinners that we are, and have come to the First Day again. It is the day God separated the light from the darkness, the Christian day of rest on which our Savior rose in the early dawn, scattering the darkness of death. I often go out early on Sunday to do my morning prayers in the park or by the ocean. I watch the sun rise, because, despite everything, God makes the sun to rise every day.
Here is a link to an excellent five-minute video by Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix. Over the last three generations the world, the flesh, and the devil have been progressively stealing our Sundays away from us. Now very little of the Day of Rest remains, and it seems the pandemic has put the final nail into Sunday’s coffin. We work from home now, seven days a week, and we shop from home, without rest, and we don’t gather together in houses of God, because we are afraid.
Be not afraid. The Risen Christ awaits you in your bright churches. He calls you apart to give rest to your souls. Many souls are trickling back into my parish, although some still keep apart through fear. Overcome the isolation of fear, and rediscover the First Day again, the Eighth Day, the Day of a New Dawn. It presages the eternal dawn of the life of the world to come!
Here is a link to an excellent five-minute video by Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix. Over the last three generations the world, the flesh, and the devil have been progressively stealing our Sundays away from us. Now very little of the Day of Rest remains, and it seems the pandemic has put the final nail into Sunday’s coffin. We work from home now, seven days a week, and we shop from home, without rest, and we don’t gather together in houses of God, because we are afraid.
Be not afraid. The Risen Christ awaits you in your bright churches. He calls you apart to give rest to your souls. Many souls are trickling back into my parish, although some still keep apart through fear. Overcome the isolation of fear, and rediscover the First Day again, the Eighth Day, the Day of a New Dawn. It presages the eternal dawn of the life of the world to come!
Our newly-painted church in San Francisco
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