This coming Sunday is the Fourth Sunday in Lent, and is almost exactly the mid way point through this season of Lent. And as such it’s a good time to take a moment and see how your Lent is going.

How are you doing? Are you keeping to your lenten disciplines? If so, great! Keep up the good work! Perhaps not so much? Well, either resolve now to keep trying, or maybe you consider changing it up a bit and doing something different?

In any case know that you are in my prayers that the remaining season of Lent is fruitful for your relationship with God, and that I am always available to talk. (And I will briefly say that a number of you have already taken me up on the invitation to make a personal confession. Again, if it’s something your interested in giving a go, please let me know!)

This coming week is the Spring Break for most of the schools in the area, and so since many people will be traveling, Sunday School will be on break this coming Sunday 3/23. Sunday School will resume on 3/30.

Meanwhile, the Adult Christian Formation series using Tom Holland’s “Dominion” wrapped up this past Sunday. We will take a few week’s break before gathering on 4/13 to discuss the fourth chapter of our Lent Study book “Jesus the Bridegroom” by Brant Pitre.

When you take a look at the Job Description (here: stdavidsglenview.org/music), you’ll notice that it is intentionally left open as to whether we hire one or two persons to fill the music ministry position. If we are able to find one person who is skilled, capable, and willing to serve as Director of Music, Organist, and Choir Director, then that is fantastic. However, in order to widen the number of applicants as much as possible, we have decided to be flexible, and entertain the possibility of hiring two separate people: one serving as Choir Director and the other as Organist with one of the two serving as the Director of Music. 

All are invited to celebrate our patronal feast on Sunday evening with a very Anglican service of Choral Evensong at 4:00 pm. There will be full reception in the Undercroft immediately following. 

I truly believe that most people should take advantage of this great gift the Church has given us. Making a private confession, may seem scary, but I assure you there is nothing to be afraid of. If you've never done so before, and are curious, please let me know and I'd be happy to talk with you about the logistics of it and some ideas of how to prepare for it. While it may not be pleasant to speak aloud the sins you've confessed to another person, there really is nothing quite like the feeling of lightness after honestly confessing your sins and receiving the absolution and forgiveness of God's love.

All are invited to celebrate our patronal feast on Sunday evening with a very Anglican service of Choral Evensong at 4:00 pm. There will be full reception in the Undercroft immediately following. 

This Saturday, March 1st is the feast of our patron, St. David of Wales. David was born sometime in the early 500s in Wales. He became a monk, a priest, and eventually a bishop and abbot. He is remembered for his holiness of life and evangelism in spreading the Gospel throughout Wales. In much a similar way as St. Patrick is celebrated as the patron saint of Ireland for his missionary work there, St. David is the patron saint of Wales for the same reason. He died on March 1st in 589. For centuries, St. David and his feast day have been associated with Daffodils which is the official flower of Wales, they also happen to flower in Wales right about his feast day. 

All are invited to celebrate our patronal feast on Sunday evening with a very Anglican service of Choral Evensong at 4:00 pm. There will be full reception in the Undercroft immediately following. 

Whether or not you give up some sort of physical food, I really want to encourage everyone to give up some sort of media from our “diet.” We live in one of the strangest times to be a human being, with the world’s full knowledge base at our fingertips. And even more unique, the fact that we are constantly on the receiving end of a never ending stream of news. I am as guilty as anyone for too closely following the events going on in the world, and frankly that’s why I’m saying it here, I need this advice too! By and large it doesn’t do any good for the world, and definitely no good for our spirits to be so caught up in the day to day news cycles. Our time and attention would much better be used in reading Scripture and other religious writings, praying, or even simply spending time in silence or listening to music.

This Sunday is Septuagesima, roughly seventy days out from Easter. It means you have two and a half weeks until Ash Wednesday, March 5th. I hope that you will prayerfully discern how God is calling you to observe the coming season of Lent. The three primary tools of Lent are Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. I’m sure I pointed this out last year, but the three are closely interrelated. When we fast, when we give something up, whether that be food, drink, or media, we then free up time for additional prayer, and funds for giving to those in need.

At this point I will simply encourage you to get the wheels turning. Think about what you might give up for Lent. Think about what forms of prayer you may take on. Think about whom you might give additional alms to.

As always I am available to discuss and suggest ideas for your Lenten observances, and I will provide a few recommendations next week, but before that, please spend some time, and see what comes to mind when you simply ask yourself what God might be inviting you to give up, take on, and give away.

During our drive down to North Carolina, I listened to a number of audio books, and one that I happened to download (for free from the public library!) was “Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told” by Brant Pitre. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bridegroom-Greatest-Love-Story/dp/0770435459

I have to say I was throughly captivated; it was a wonderful read (well listen!). As I approached the end of the book, I couldn’t shake the thought that this would work wonderfully as this year’s Lent Book Study.

Over the years, it became customary to bless candles on this day for both home and church use. It seems particularly appropriate, as this feast marks the conclusion of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Cycle that has so heavily focused on the theme of darkness and light. 

And so, we will be blessing candles on Sunday morning, and each household will be invited to take home with them a blessed candle to use for times of prayer in the coming weeks ahead.

The monthly men’s gathering of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew meets on Saturday 2/8 at 9 am in the Library. And on Super Bowl Sunday, 2/9, following the 10 am service the Annual Parish Meeting will take place.

Later on in the month there is social gathering for the Women’s Group on 2/19, and then on Sunday 2/23, following the 10 am service there is another service opportunity for all in the parish to help provide Birthday Bags to the Northfield Township Food Pantry.

It’s only natural that having gone through the month of December and the season of Advent, after having reached Christmas Day and that strange week between Christmas and New Year’s, after we finally get ourselves back to some sort of a normal schedule, it’s only natural that we experience a bit of a let down. It’s only natural to feel a bit down in the dumps, after having been surrounded by cheerful Christmas music for nearly two months, now, we enter the cold, dark month of January.

This season of Advent sure does fly by. This Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent I hope you will join us at 10 am for our Youth Christmas Pageant that will take place during the service of Holy Eucharist. In it we will get a preview of what we will celebrate at full strength come Christmas Eve. I hope you’ll also join us then, at 4 pm on Christmas Eve and 9 am on Christmas Day, as we rejoice at the birth of our Lord. 

What a wonderful past week! This past Saturday St. David’s sent packing two wonderful expressions of love and concern for our neighbors. In the morning a crew helped load 49 boxes of gifts that the parish had collected which were sent off to 19 individuals and 12 families, for a total of 71 people. Then, in the afternoon another crew helped pack 100 bags of cookies that were delivered on Tuesday to Lawrence Hall. Thank you to everyone who participated in either or both of these wonderful programs. And a special thanks to Marilyn Berdick for organizing the Giving Tree and Lindsay Adler and Melissa Rose for organizing the Lawrence Hall Cookie Donation.

So if God is free to answer or not answer our prayers, why should we bother with praying at all? When it comes down to it, prayer really isn’t for God, so much as it is for us. God is always with us, but we need reminding of that. So when we pray, we are spending intentional time with God, and most importantly, we are allowing that time of prayer to shape, and mould, and form us into the people God would have us be.

This past Sunday I encouraged everyone to consider giving up consumption of social media or the news. These things in particular have the tendency to suck up our attention and to leave us worse off than before we took in the  information from them. If you decide to fast from consuming the news or social media, not only will you likely be in a better headspace, but it will likely open up some space in your day to spend some time in prayer. And spending time in prayer, in my experience at least, always leaves me feeling better than before.

At the moment, to keep things as secure as possible, you will need to be invited to create a Realm account. If you’ve given the Church your email and are a regular member of St. David’s, you should have (or shortly be receiving) an invitation to create your logon to Realm. As I said, I am sure there will be some kinks to be worked out, and if you haven’t received an invitation to logon, we will be sure to help you get that worked out. And again, there is no requirement that you logon; if dealing with computers isn’t your cup of tea, then don’t worry about it!

Advent is one of these preparatory seasons, and so like it’s bigger sibling Lent, the best way to enter into the season is through some form of praying and fasting. In terms of praying, there are all sorts of different options out there, which I’ve written about before. If you are looking for some assistance, I’m happy to talk with you.

In terms of fasting, yes that can mean physically fasting from food and drink. Just like Lent, you could decide to give up some particular food or beverage. But it can also mean fasting from consuming other things like television, the news, and social media. When you fast, especially from things like that you then open up time and space in your day to spend some additional time in prayer.

If you were at Church this past Sunday, then you heard the exciting news that we have hired both a new Interim Director of Music, Dr. Julie Brueck, as well as an Interim Assistant Organist, Justin Brueck. For many of you those names will be familiar as they have served in this capacity a number of years ago. I am so thankful that they are willing do so, and on such short notice. They have already officially begun, and their first Sunday will be this week; welcome Julie and Justin!

In this season of “All Hallowtide” when the Church draws our attention to those who have passed on from this earthly life, it is an appropriate time to dwell on our own mortality. While it may not be the most pleasant thing to think about, as Christians, we have a hope in the Resurrection, and we know the love of God that is stronger than death.

And so, I would like to encourage you to take a look at your Will and Estate Planning. Please make sure that you’ve left explicit instructions that you’d like a Christian Burial, (hopefully here at St. David’s!) and that you’ve remembered the Church in your Estate Planning. In case you didn’t know, you are welcome to, (and indeed encouraged!) to make arrangements to be buried here in our Memorial Garden, and you can even plan out the service, so that it’s all taken care of when the time comes. If you have any questions or would like any assistance, please let me know.

This year I am pleased to say that we will be celebrating both of these great feasts, although not on their traditional days. In fact, we’ll be celebrating them both on the same day, Sunday November 3rd. In the morning (at our usual service times) we’ll celebrate All Saints and in the afternoon at 4:00 PM we’ll celebrate All Souls.

I know coming to Church twice in one day is a bit of an ask, but I hope that you’ll join us for both. With All Saints the mood is more celebratory and giving thanks to God for those bold witnesses who have gone before us, and we pray for the grace to follow after their example. At the All Souls service the mood will be tempered a bit. It will be a bit more somber and reflective, allowing room for the natural sadness and grief that come with remembering those loved ones in our lives who have died.