AOC Two

  Happy Sunday after Ascension Day. The AOC Sunday Report can be viewed  RIGHT HERE !  The report also covers  Ascension Day and Memorial Day. We have wonderful sermons from Bishops Jerry and Roy, as well as Revs Jack and Bryan.  Rev Jack's sermon can also be viewed on video  RIGHT HERE . As any regular reader is aware, we always have a lot of people who would like your prayer.  Today is no exception.  Please take a little time, start with Tricia, Lourie, Mary Lou, Jim, Laurie, Shamu, Obra and work out from there. Given the Ascension is about Jesus' return to heaven so that the Holy Ghost might come to earth, as might be expected the Gospel is about Jesus sending the Holy Ghost and His purpose here on earth.  Which brings us to the suggestion that if you cannot see any good in the world and cannot see your way clear to our eventual goal, eternal life in Heaven, consider opening your heart to that Third God Guy, the Holy Ghost. There is a great week ahead.  Rev Jack, Dru and I w

  The Sunday after Ascension Day . The Collect.   O   GOD , the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us un-to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.   Amen.   King of Glory             The Collect for this day implores the mercies of God to grant the comforting and efficacious ministry of the Holy Ghost upon His people with the passing of His only Begotten Son to the Throne of Glory with the Father. It comports well with the Lectionary Readings of the day in imparting the Will of God in sending His Holy Ghost to be our Teacher, Comforter, and Companion in bringing us into ever greater Light in Christ. There is more meaning hidden between the lines of the Collect than appears overtly to our eyes at first glance.    

Sermon  –  Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action Church of the Faithful Centurion Descanso, California Rev Jack ’ s sermon can be viewed on video  RIGHT HERE !   Today ’ s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.  Once again the propers for this week come together very well, their focus is narrow, thus powerful.   Consider these words from the Collect:   …  leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before  …   In some ways, today is no different than the very First Sunday after the Ascension.  Jesus has ascended in to heaven, we are alone and physically separated from God who gives us the strength we need to do His Will.  Like Peter and the other apostles, the further we are from God, the weaker we are.  Thus, we are looking towards Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Ghost who will strengthen our connection to God.    We a

The Propers for today are found on Page 179-180, with the Collect first:   The Sunday after Ascension Day . The Collect.   O   GOD , the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us un-to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.   Amen.   The Collect for Ascension Day, found on Page 177, is also read due to the rubric:   The Collect for The Ascension Day . The Collect.   G RANT , we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.   Amen.   ¶  This Collect is to be said daily th

Bishop Jerry in an earlier life, when he was flying a CH-37B   W HEN  the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the riverside, into which as he went he said, ‘Death where is they sting?’ and as he went down deeper, he said ‘Grave, where is thy victory?’ so, he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side .   John Bunyan . Pilgrim’s Progress   The day dawned this morning in southern Alabama with a veil of fog hanging in the air lending solemnity to an otherwise humid and routine sunrise. As I have done so many times over the last few years, I drove past the residence of an old friend of more than 54 years. He and I had many experiences together in the military. Brian was a former Marine who joined the Army in order to attend flight school, but he never got over being a Marine. He had a high sense of duty and service.   There was a time when Brian and his crew went down in the Taean Peninsula of Korea. The resultant crash was not pilot-error,

  A ND  when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.  10  And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;  11  Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven .  (Acts 1:9-11)               How often have the imaginations of youth been tantalized by the cloud formations of a beautiful day! There is much to stir the imagination of the Bible scholar as well when he considers the many references to the cloud. One of the very important references occurs in the new world of Noah and the covenant God made with him and his descendants:   13  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.  14  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow sh

Happy Fifth Sunday after Easter, which is commonly called Rogation Sunday. The AOC Sunday Report is  RIGHT HERE ! What is Rogation Sunday?  So glad you asked. Rogation Sunday   The fifth Sunday after Easter is commonly called Rogation Sunday from the words in the Gospel appointed for the day: "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give to you". (The Latin is 'Rogare' - to ask.)  In the strictly biblical context, the chief thing to ask for is the spirit of God to enable us to be true children of God.     In the Western Catholic Churches, including the older Anglican traditions particularly before the Reformation and in some higher churches afterwards, processions to bless the crops and to include "beating the bounds", developed from the old Roman rites of "Robigalia" ("robigo": Latin for "rust" or "mould"), when prayers would be offered to the deity for crops to be spared from mildew.    Today the emphasis has

   The Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Easter,  commonly called Rogation Sunday .   The Collect.   O   LORD , from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ.   Amen.     V ERILY , verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go