The 4th Sorrowful Mystery

The Way of the Cross

How does it feel to be walking towards certain death? Even for the bravest it has to be unsettling! It is the facing of an inexorable and possible painful end, coming face to face with mortality, with the unknown, the sundering of body and spirit, the termination of life as we have known it, a change in the very essence of our humanity. For some death is a plunge into the blackness of non existence, for us through the eyes of faith it is a passage, albeit uncomfortable, from life to life.

The fourth sorrowful mystery invites us to contemplate Jesus carrying his cross, followed by the crowds to the place of the skull, where pain and death awaited. Little is written about his inner struggles that day, though he paused to comfort the grieving women of Jerusalem. His mother and a few loved ones surely followed, in sorrow and disbelief that their beloved and with him the dream of the kingdom of God as they had thought was being destroyed.

Sometimes we forget we too are walking to an end that is certain. This is not a scenario of our own choosing; we do not know the time or the hour. In our distress, we ignore, deny, and distract ourselves from the reality that we too, carrying our cross head to the place of unknown!

May Christ, his mother, angels and saints pray for us that our journey be marked by grace, dignity and peace.

Blessings

seraph

Prayers for All Souls

Father of all, we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Almighty God, with whom still live the spirits of those who die in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful are in joy and felicity: We give you heartfelt thanks for the good examples of all your servants, who, having finished their course in faith, now find rest and refreshment. May we, with all who have died in the true faith of your holy Name, have perfect fulfillment and bliss in your eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, 1979

Woman to Lead German Protestants

The Evangelical Church in Germany, the country's main Protestant umbrella body, Wednesday elected a female bishop as its leader. Bishop Margot Kaessmann, 51 is the first woman to lead Germany's 25 million Protestants. She takes over from Wolfgang Huber, 67, who is retiring.

The charismatic Kaessmann, who has been bishop in Hanover for more than 10 years, received 132 out of 142 votes at a meeting of the church in Ulm.

She said after her election that she wanted to work for more social justice and draw more people to the faith with a contemporary church.

Kaessmann made headlines in 2007 when she filed for divorce from her husband of 26 years.

A woman and divorced....Paul is rolling over in his grave!!! Or ...we have truly come a long way in our understanding of grace, ministry and human dignity.

Blessings

Seraph

El Papa y el Padre Alberto...

My Personal Reaction to Vatican Announcement: Reaching Out to Anglicans Who Are Unhappy in Their Church...

Just 5 months ago… When I was received in the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) some members of the Catholic media (for example EWTN and ACIPRENSA) highlighted the “great differences” between Episcopalians and Roman Catholics in matters of Theology and doctrine. Others even claimed that I “changed religions” - something which I consider absurd – since we profess the same creed and share the same Apostolic roots and tradition. Now, with this latest Vatican announcement, the Roman Catholic Church is saying that Anglicans who unite to Rome can maintain their “distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony”.

Furthermore, if celibacy is such an important aspect of the Roman Catholic priesthood in the Latin Rite, why does the church accept married priests from other churches, but does not allow its own priests to be married?

I would ask the Vatican: Are we (Episcopalians/Anglicans) heretics and schismatic or are we good guys? Please make up your mind. Does not accepting gays and women in the clergy put you in communion with the Roman Catholic Church?

A lot to reflect on…
Father Albert

Hace solo 5 meses atrás... Cuando yo fui recibido en la Iglesia Episcopal (Comunión Anglicana) algunos de los mismos medios Católicos Romanos (por ejemplo ACI PRENSA y EWTN) resaltaban lo lejos que estábamos de Roma en doctrina y teología. Otros, incluso llegaron a decir que yo había “cambiado de religión” – cosa que considero absurda – ya que profesamos el mismo credo y tenemos las mismas raíces apostólicas. Ahora, con el anuncio del Vaticano, ellos mismo dicen que los Anglicanos que se unan a Roma "mantienen su gran herencia espiritual y litúrgica" y que son bienvenidos. Además, si el celibato es tan importante para los sacerdotes católicos romanos del rito latino, ¿Por qué entonces se aceptan sacerdotes y ministros de otras iglesias con sus esposas y familias, pero el mismo clero católico no tiene opción de casarse?

Yo le preguntaría al Vaticano:Los Anglicanos somos “herejes y cismáticos”… ¿O somos buena gente? Que se pongan de acuerdo. ¿El no aceptar a los homosexuales y a las mujeres en el clero lo pone a uno en comunión automática con la Iglesia Católica Romana?

Esta decisión deja mucho que pensar…

http://www.padrealberto.net/

P. Alberto

Just a few months ago, Archbishop Favalora of the Catholic Archdiocese in Miami chided bishop Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida for receiving Padre Alberto as an Episcopalian without first consulting with him. Clearly, his superiors in Rome have no qualms at all about inviting scores of Anglican clergy and laity to become Catholics. Respectfully,I wonder how much ecumenical consultation went into that decision?

It also makes me think! Being a celibate priest is not as important as believing that gays and women should be excluded from the clergy? So then what is the celibacy rule fuzz all about?...Let your own priests marry! That is an uncescapable if maybe unintended message in this announcement. Padre Alberto's insightful questions are spot on here.

Blessings

Seraph.

Benedict Opens Arms to Anglicans

The number of married Catholic priests could grow sharply as the result of the Vatican's epochal decision to welcome thousands of disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians into the Catholic church.

At press conferences in Rome and London on Tuesday, Vatican officials announced that the church would set up a special canonical structure that will ease the conversion of members of the Anglican Communion without them having to give up what the Vatican called "the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony." That means not only a body of prayers and hymns, but also a tradition of married priests and bishops.

"It's a stunning turn of events," says Lawrence Cunningham, theology professor at Notre Dame University. "This decision will allow for many more married clergy in Western churches, and that's going to raise anew the question, 'If they can do it, why can't the priests of Rome?'" says Cunningham.

But the arrangement with the Anglican Communion goes much further. Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's top doctrinal official, announced in Rome that the church would set up a personal ordinariate -- in essence a diocese defined not by geography, but by function, like the division that serves Catholics in the military -- for converted Anglicans.

The move comes after years of discord within the Anglican Communion, which unites 77 million Anglicans and Episcopalians under the loose authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The church has been racked by schisms over the ordination of women and its stance toward homosexuality. Some Anglicans believe the Vatican's move will deepen those divisions.

NO comment ...but its kind of funny!

Blessings

Seraph

St. MIchael and All The Angels

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

Church Discounts...?

South Florida synagogues entice new members with savings

AS THE HIGH HOLY DAYS BEGIN, TEMPLES ARE HELPING THEIR FINANCIALLY STRUGGLING FLOCKS BY OFFERING DISCOUNT SERVICES AND MEMBERSHIPS.
JKALEEM@MIAMIHERALD.COM

With slow business at his motorcycle store, Michael Levin was unsure if he could afford the $200 ticket to services for the High Holidays, which begin Friday after sundown with Rosh Hashana. Yet, last week, he got tickets to services at Bet Shira Congregation and a year-long membership -- worth up to $2,000 -- for free. ``Nowhere I'd rather be than with my family at the synagogue for the holidays,'' said Levin, 41, of Pinecrest. ``It's tradition . . . you reflect on the year and look forward to what we can do in the one coming up.''

As the economy has taken a toll on families, a handful of South Florida synagogues -- which, unlike churches, rely on annual memberships and fees -- are taking the unprecedented move of advertising free services and even scrapping membership dues altogether. ``We've never done this before,'' said Cantor Mark Kula of Bet Shira, the 664-member Conservative synagogue in Pinecrest where a ``membership marathon'' last week netted 119 of those members. Anybody who showed up during a four-hour window Wednesday got a free one-year membership.

``People were uncomfortable saying `I can't afford it' and may have stayed on the periphery, so we got one step ahead of them and offered the deal ourselves,'' Kula said.
Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year, and services that begin Friday night and continue through Sunday include the blowing of the shofar -- a traditional instrument made from a ram's horn -- extended prayer and a focus on repentence.

The High Holidays, which end Sept. 28 with Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, are also when annual synagogue membership -- $250 to $2,000, depending on a person's age and marital status -- begins its cycle. This year, synagogues are banking on keeping the flock by offering enticing deals.

Well that is an interesting idea...not the discounts but the fees!!! Churches typically provide services at no cost relying on the good will offerings, tithes or pledges of attendees, which often are inadecuate for the expenses.

Maybe there is a bit of wisdom in this interesting practice... If you are interested you pay the membership fees like you do in any other organization whose services and gatherings are of interest or benefit to you. It sure would make budgeting easier every year...

Now if only the vestry would catch the vision....lol! Just think of it discounted tickets to the Christmas Eve Mass and the Easter Vigil, at a mere $50-$150...a boost for the budget!

Blessings

Seraph

Fresh from Bishop Frade!

For a long time in the life of the Episcopal Church we have been dealing with the realities of human sexuality. We have wrestled with who’s in and who’s out, who can be ordained and who can’t, which relationships are to be blessed and which are not.

With the passage of Resolution C056 at the 76th General Convention in July, we opened the door a little bit to permit our clergy to respond pastorally to same-sex couples who have been legally married in jurisdictions where such civil marriages are permitted.

Accordingly, I intend to authorize the clergy of this diocese to bless the unions of same-sex couples who have been legally married in states or countries where this is possible. This authorization will not apply to civil unions, domestic partnerships or any other legally recognized status other than marriage; this is no more nor less than we do for heterosexual couples who wish to have their unions blessed by the Church—they must be married.

I would emphasize two points: First, our General Convention did not authorize Episcopal clergy to perform same-sex marriages, and consequently, I am not authorizing any clergy to perform same-sex marriage in this diocese; and second, no priest in this diocese is ever under any obligation to perform any marriage he or she feels is inappropriate.

I have appointed a representative committee of diocesan clergy, chaired by Dean Douglas McCaleb of Trinity Cathedral, to develop some liturgical guidelines for proposed same-sex blessing services. I anticipate that these guidelines will be ready in four to six weeks for any clergy who request them.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at bishopfrade@aol.com.

+Leo Frade

This just in from one of the Episcopal Church's few Cuban American Bishops. I wonder how this will play in the home front even as as his diocese's revamps outreach to South Florida's Hispanics who are in general of a conservative bent.

This application of the Episcopal Church's resolution C056 by Bishop Frade seems to be based principle rather than on demand, given the limited scope of those who would benefit and the potential for fueling controversy. Since Florida law does not recognize same sex marriages his pastoral generosity probably goes beyond the intent of C025 which spoke to contexts where same sex marriages and civil unions are a matter of law.

Bishop Frade comes to the Episcopal Church from a from a relatively conservative Methodist background yet has consistently taken progressive positions on social issues, this is no exception. Some in his diocese are sure to see this as a sign of hope and a tribute to charity and justice long denied. Others are sure to be dismayed by what they see as a departure from traditional ideas of family and marriage! It is sure to be an interesting fall season!

Señor cuidanos y guianos en tu camino y enseñanos a hacer tu voluntad! Virgen de la Caridad....pray for us!

Blessings

Seraph

Padre Alberto...What I Did For Love!

Just two months after the tabloids exposed Father Cutié and Ruhama's relationship, the couple wed in the Episcopal church, where Father Cutié is now a priest. "It's a really funny thing that you spend 15 years marrying people, and then all of a sudden you're getting married," he says.

"There's nothing worse than hiding something that's good. And if God is love and God calls us to love and the best life you can live is to live a life full of love, why hide it?"

As a married man, Father Cutié says he can now serve God in a different way. "My vocation to priesthood and the fact that I'm now married are not two different things. I think they complement each other," he says.

"God is a big boy. When we face him, when we look at him face-to-face, the question he's going to ask is, 'Did you do it out of love?' ... And I believe I did everything I've done out of love. "

Many blessings to Fr. Cutie and Rohama.

Seraph