Where EVER YOU ARE
on your spiritual journey, we invite you to be part of our community.
12th and Massachusetts Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20005 (202) 347-8161
Photo by Brian Ball
We are a community that expresses its love for our Lord Jesus Christ in ancient worship forms. We are a community that seeks to understand what it prays. We are a community that asks the Holy Spirit to teach us to love one another and the world beyond our church walls. By God’s grace, we are growing. We would love for you to join us!
-- Painting by Edward Knippers
SCHEDULE OF ServicesSundays
Mass at Thomas House — A monthly Mass is celebrated on the second Thursday of each month at 11:00 AM for the residents of Thomas House, a retirement community located at 1330 Massachusetts Avenue. NW. This liturgy is celebrated in the Chapel located on the first floor. All are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Deacon Mary. To see our full calendar click HERE. |
Jacob Struggles With God
Genesis 32:22-31. The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
_____________________________________________________________ Levavi oculos
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen
|
Try. Try. Try Again
October 20, 2019
The most obvious theme for this Sunday seems to be that of perseverance. The collect (opening prayer) asks, “that the Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name.” St. Paul, in the second reading (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5), encourages us to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” and to “be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” And, in Luke’s gospel (18:1), Jesus offers “a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
19th century British writer, W. E. Hickson, is credited with the well-known proverb: "Tis a lesson you should heed: Try, try, try again. / If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again." British Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (+1892) says “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
A question arises: does perseverance in our relationship with God, in the Christian life, consist in trying, trying, and trying again? Well, perhaps. There are choices to be made—sometimes hard, often repeatedly. There is a deliberate effort that consists in operating from deep within the heart, undeterred by discouragement or other trying inner forces or outer circumstances: “...be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” (2 Timothy 4:2).
But, perseverance in our relationship with God, in the Christian life, does not consist in “grinning and bearing it,” in “white-knuckling” it across the finish line.
The parable [Luke 18:1-8] is “about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Friends of Jesus are not stoic. Friends of Jesus courageously find refuge in His heart. To pray always is, repeatedly, to bury oneself, in love, in Jesus.
It is in His Heart, “fountain of eternal life,” as St. Gertrude (+1302), the German Benedictine mystic, says, that we do not lose heart. Indeed, with her, we can say to Jesus, “your Heart is a glowing furnace of Love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary.”
Persevering with you in love,
Fr. Dominique
Brother-in-Christ
October 20, 2019
The most obvious theme for this Sunday seems to be that of perseverance. The collect (opening prayer) asks, “that the Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name.” St. Paul, in the second reading (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5), encourages us to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” and to “be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” And, in Luke’s gospel (18:1), Jesus offers “a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
19th century British writer, W. E. Hickson, is credited with the well-known proverb: "Tis a lesson you should heed: Try, try, try again. / If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again." British Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (+1892) says “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
A question arises: does perseverance in our relationship with God, in the Christian life, consist in trying, trying, and trying again? Well, perhaps. There are choices to be made—sometimes hard, often repeatedly. There is a deliberate effort that consists in operating from deep within the heart, undeterred by discouragement or other trying inner forces or outer circumstances: “...be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” (2 Timothy 4:2).
But, perseverance in our relationship with God, in the Christian life, does not consist in “grinning and bearing it,” in “white-knuckling” it across the finish line.
The parable [Luke 18:1-8] is “about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Friends of Jesus are not stoic. Friends of Jesus courageously find refuge in His heart. To pray always is, repeatedly, to bury oneself, in love, in Jesus.
It is in His Heart, “fountain of eternal life,” as St. Gertrude (+1302), the German Benedictine mystic, says, that we do not lose heart. Indeed, with her, we can say to Jesus, “your Heart is a glowing furnace of Love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary.”
Persevering with you in love,
Fr. Dominique
Brother-in-Christ
With the spirit I shall pray, and with the mind:
Sing psaltries with the spirit, and with the mind also.
— I Corinthians 14:15
Sing psaltries with the spirit, and with the mind also.
— I Corinthians 14:15