This week we celebrate the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels and we honor those who have completed their four years of training in the Education for Ministry Program. Leslie Valentine, their mentor in the program, will be our preacher. We give thanks for the many lay ministries at St. John's as together we form the Body of Christ.

Blessings,

Father Dan

As we continue to celibate Creation Season, this week we also celebrate a baptism. The renewed creation of God's hope for the world is made present each time someone is baptized and made a new child of God, claimed as Christ's own forever. So, as we prepare for this experience. I invite you to pray the Collect for Baptism form the Book of Common Prayer (p.254).

Almighty God, by our baptism into the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, you turn us from the old life of sin: Grant that we, being reborn to new life in him, may live in righteousness and holiness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Blessings,

Father Mark

"Choose life!" This is the  mandate Moses gives to the people of Israel just before they enter the promised land. These words speak to us as well. In a culture where the value of autonomy and personal freedom mask human greed and selfishness, we do well to remember God's way of life calls us to respect and honor every human being created in God's image, and during this creation season, choosing life, calls us to conserve and honor the earth and her creatures. Failure to live by divine wisdom will in fact lead to death -- violence among human beings, injustice in our relations with one another, and the death of our planet. This week, what particular ways will  you and I imagine so that we choose life?

Blessings,

Father Mark